United States Lindberg, Berg, Stravinsky: Isabelle Faust (violin), San Francisco Symphony / Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor). Davies Symphony Corridor, San Francisco, 23.5.2025. (HS)
Magnus Lindberg – ‘Chorale’
Berg – Violin Concerto
Stravinsky – The Firebird
If Esa-Pekka Salonen’s intent was to remind San Francisco Symphony patrons of simply what they are going to be lacking after he leaves his place as music director subsequent month, this sensational Firebird made the purpose emphatically. In a means, it summarized what has made his five-year tenure main the orchestra so particular. Conducting Stravinsky’s full ballet rating for the 1910 sensation, not one of many shorter suites, he made it unfold with an ideal sense of tempo, every element in place, by no means fussy. Management of dynamics and general stability let each nuance come by way of, and particular person solos have been delivered with considerable freedom.
Lighter sections, particularly ‘Look of the 13 Enchanted Princesses’ and the lilting scherzo ‘Sport of the Princesses with the Golden Apples’, contrasted properly with the tough edges and unbridled vigor of the ‘Infernal Dance’ – delivered with awe-inspiring verve and punch. ‘Kashchei’s Dying’ adopted with a palpable sense of evil evaded. The cinematic stream of those sections was mesmerizing.
Salonen stationed the ‘offstage’ further trumpets (known as for within the scene introducing the princesses) above the stage to the left and proper and on the primary tier behind the viewers. It created an additional dimension to the sound, particularly when added to the complete orchestra in a single huge climax. Additionally of observe have been very good solo contributions from principal bassoon Joshua Elmore and principal oboe Eugene Izotov, and rapid-fire xylophone solos by principal percussionist Jacob Nissly.
The well-known finale was particularly scrumptious. It started with a softly plush undercurrent from the strings for a languid and expressive French horn solo from visiting Nikolette LaBonte (at present principal horn of the Calgary Symphony). The best way that Salonen held again the layers to savor the tune handed across the orchestra articulated an ideal change of temper between this closing part of the rating and the fairy-tale frights of the story.
The steadily constructing pleasure of the finale (titled ‘Basic Thanksgiving’) reached its climax with good, measured chorale taking part in by the brass. The sustained closing chord constructed its crescendo ever so slowly earlier than increasing right into a sonorous peroration on the very finish. The entire thing raised the hairs on the again of my neck, which is precisely what Stravinsky meant to perform.
The efficiency within the first half of Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto would have earned prime billing in different concert events with the expressive work by soloist Isabelle Faust, whose solely earlier efficiency with this orchestra was within the Britten concerto in 2014. She discovered all of the depth and singing sincerity, reaching gratifying magnificence in Berg’s closing accomplished work. Salonen judged good balances between soloist and orchestra, which allowed the violin to return by way of even towards the complete orchestra within the few moments the place it was essential.
For me, Berg is the one composer who persistently was in a position to create magnificence inside the 12-tone atonality of the early-twentieth century. The primary motion’s statements of the tone row, a lot of it expressed with open fifths and different melodic elements, really feel much less dissonant than most atonal works of that period.
Because the second of the 2 actions positive aspects in grittiness, the miraculous Adagio that finishes the concerto takes the surprising flip of quoting J. S. Bach’s setting of the Lutheran hymn ‘Es ist genug’, taking part in on the coincidence that the primary 4 notes of that chorale duplicate the final 4 notes of Berg’s tone row. Faust and Salonen introduced out the astonishing fantastic thing about the concerto’s sequence of variations on Bach’s melodies and harmonies, particularly within the closing measures. Faust completed on a rising model of the tone row, crusing into her instrument’s highest register because the orchestra quietly descended. It was breathtaking.
‘Es ist genug’ was additionally the cornerstone of Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg’s ‘Chorale’, a six-minute ‘opener’ written particularly as a companion piece to Berg’s Violin Concerto. Salonen carried out the premiere in 2002; the performances this weekend are the primary by the San Francisco Symphony. As subtly as Berg dealt with the connections between Bach and atonality, Lindberg charged into the fray with unharnessed dissonance – not atonal, but it surely was harsh stuff. As within the Berg, Lindberg’s music involves relaxation on an old school main chord. Solely Berg made it really feel inevitable.
This was the primary of 4 closing subscription concert events for Salonen, a kind of farewell tour in-place. Coming subsequent is an all-Beethoven program, then Sibelius’s Symphony No.7 together with a world premiere from Gabriella Smith. Salonen goes out on Mahler’s Symphony No.2 in mid-June.
Harvey Steiman
Featured Picture: Esa-Pekka Salonen blows a kiss to the viewers after Firebird © Stefan Cohen
