San Francisco Classical Voice

Koh seems equally at home in chamber music, playing solo or with orchestras. Her broad repertory interests know no bounds, from Baroque through the newest modern works. Yet there's no evidence of hard-sell showbiz in her stage manner: no swooning gesture of the head or throwing the bow up in the air, etc. Her playing was all the more convincing in that it never sought to distract from the music itself. As a result we could simply listen — listen and marvel.

Koh clearly knows style to a fine degree. The smoldering, mildly morbid Schumann Sonata gave way to a more Lieder-like account of Schumann's three Fantasy pieces. Yet she could match Ravel's three unmatched movements, each with its own quality: a mildly pastoral first, the “Blues” second and the scampering perpetual-motion third movement. She, further, caught the constant references to American pops style. The Sonata stands as Ravel's second most Americanized piece. Only the two-handed Piano Concerto in G is more overtly jazzy.

Although very well played, neither of the new works was very impressive. Adams' three-movement Road Movies has nothing to do with either roads or movies. In place of tempo marking, Adams' uses “relaxed groves,” “meditation” and “40% swing.” The first movement came off sounding like a fantasy on Stravinsky's Duo Concertant; the effective meditation was the most interesting; while the finale sounded merely like a lot of meaningless scampering. The saving grace of Adams' style is that he's less tenacious about repeating motives than the average minimalist. He doesn't go on and on without variation, ad nauseam.

Salonen is, of course, the outstanding conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. My few encounters have found his compositions all on the avant-garde side, a tad à la Boulez. So it came as a major surprise that his Laughing Unlearnt (the title is derived from Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire) is relatively conservative melodically and rather staid rhythmically. Something akin to a set of variations, the piece seemed like an act of homage to violin cadenzas. Flashy, yes, but the materials fell as quite bland on my ears.

What a kick, to experience the Waxman piece again after something like 30 years. Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy is a rather commonplace event, while the more brilliant and inclusive Waxman is perhaps frightening to the average fiddler. It was written in 1947 for Waxman's neighbor Jascha Heifetz, as a maximum display of technique. This, Waxman accomplished. The Koh performance was a jaw dropper, flawless in every detail. The woman knows no fear. She tore into that thing with all the appearance of someone merely playing “Come to Jesus” in whole notes.

Koh has the blessing of excellent partnership from Reiko Uchida. I gather that they appear together fairly regularly. Their match of dynamic balances and turn-on-a-dime rubato ensemble, without even minor flaws — as fine duos can do — was beautiful to hear.

Seating a few less than 500, the new hall is handsome and comfortable, save for lighting so dim that people were having a difficult time finding their way down the black stairway from the bleacher-type seating. It's a minor danger, but a danger nevertheless.

The sonics are bright and clean — a bit too clean. With carpeting and something like cloth-textured wall covering, the acoustics tend to be a bit clinical. There's very little reverberation to warm the general effect. This will no doubt be an advantage for speakers, but it's an impediment to full musical enjoyment.