Symphony
SADAVA CONDUCTS ELEGANT SO CO PHIL INAUGURAL CONCERT
by Terry McNeill
Sunday, September 17, 2023
Chamber
POTENT SCRIABIN INTERPRETATIONS AT SPRING LAKE VILLAGE RECITAL
by Terry McNeill
Wednesday, August 16, 2023
Symphony
ODYSSEY IN THE SEARCH FOR YUNCHAN AT HOLLYWOOD BOWL
by Abby Wasserman
Tuesday, August 1, 2023
Chamber
VOM FESTIVAL'S CLOSING CONCERT A CELEBRATION FOR STRINGS
by Terry McNeill
Sunday, July 30, 2023
Chamber
RITE OF SPRING FOR 88 KEYS AT VOM FESTIVAL
by Pamela Hick Gailey
Saturday, July 29, 2023
Choral and Vocal
A POET'S LOVE SONG CYCLE AT VOM FESTIVAL JULY 27
by Elly Lichenstein
Thursday, July 27, 2023
Other
CHARMING "BARBER" A MENDO FESTIVAL TRIUMPH
by Pamela Hicks Gailey
Friday, July 21, 2023
Recital
RARE RAVEL IN MENDO FESTIVAL'S PRESTON HALL
by Terry McNeill
Thursday, July 20, 2023
SCHUMANN QUINTET PERFORMANCE RESCUES VOM FESTIVAL'S SECOND CONCERT
by Terry McNeill
Sunday, July 16, 2023
Chamber
VOM PLAYERS STRIP DOWN A SYMPHONY
by Abby Wasserman
Saturday, July 15, 2023
|
 |
 Pianist Olga Kern |
RAVISHING RUSSIAN MUSIC AND SOLOIST BURNISH SRS CONCERT IN WEILL
by Terry McNeill
Saturday, March 21, 2015
It’s rare in a symphony concert, even one with many surprises, that a soloist takes on two disparate concertos with mostly identical results. But it was exactly the outcome of pianist Olga Kern’s appearance March 21 with the Santa Rosa Symphony in Weill Hall.
Surprises? The first came with her poetic but subdued performance in Rachmaninoff’s Op. 1 F-Sharp Minor Concerto. Choosing an approach removed from the standard heroism (recordings by the composer and compatriot Mikhail Pletnev) she adopted subtle inner rubatos and voices at the expense of big sonority, even in the first movement sections that clearly reflect the Grieg Concerto written 23 years before Rachmaninoff’s First. The well-played cadenza was assured but lacked the intense ecstasy that is needed throughout cadenzas in the composer’s concertos.
The Andante Cantabile was perfection, a lyric rumination where conductor Bruno Ferrandis crafted phrasing that melded with Ms. Kern’s deft dynamic control. The final arpeggio in the piano was lovely, as was the horn playing of Meredith Brown. The finale had the requisite excitement that easily overcame short sections where orchestra and soloist were not in sync and where the former’s sound covered the latter. There was a standing ovation and obviously the audience of 1,100 appreciated hearing Rachmaninoff other than the vastly more popular Second and Third Concertos and the Paganini Rhapsody.
Following intermission the pianist attacked Prokofiev’s D-Flat Major Concerto, the first of his five, and her dry and properly acerbic sound could be heard more clearly than the Rachmaninoff through Prokofiev’s lean orchestral texture. Another surprise was when Ms. Kern unexpectedly inserted small tempo changes and accented bass notes that were artistic and delightfully un-Prokofiev, so different from the composer’s directions for an energetic “mechanical” meter. Her skips and long left-hand crossed notes were always accurate in a work that demands just the right amount of percussive accents and fetching momentum. The applause was loud and long
It’s difficult to upstage a glamorous soloist as Ms. Kern, but I believe it was done in the reading of the 1945 Suite from Stravinsky’s 1910 ballet “The Firebird.” Mr. Ferrandis drew from the ensemble a 23-minute performance of shimmering orchestral virtuosity. The conductor, like Michael Tilson Thomas in San Francisco, has an affinity for this music and the playing in the Suite’s 11 sections was exhilarating. Among the sterling playing was a duo from Ms. Brown and oboist Laura Reynolds; harpist Dan Levitan; flutist Kathleen Lane Reynolds and Stacey Pelinka (doubling on piccolo); the trombone section; bassoonist Carla Wilson; and clarinetists Roy Zajac and Mark Wardlaw.
Stravinsky’s consummate orchestration was so vivid in Weill’s acoustics (sitting in the balcony) that the involved piano part, often submerged in similar music by Copland and Shostakovich, was distinctly heard. Kymry Esainko was the pianist.
Responding to the ovation the effervescent Mr. Ferrandis was called back several times, and took palpable pleasure in pointing to orchestra members to stand and acknowledge the acclaim for the exemplary
achievement in Stravinsky’s iridescent Suite.
Ed. Note: this review is the second of two for this concert
|