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SYMPHONY REVIEW
Marin Band Shows New Spirit November 18, 2001
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By Kip Cranna
The Marin Symphony has turned an important page under its new Music Director Alasdair Neale, who faces the challenge of achieving consistency of sound among the orchestra's disparate sections. Considerable improvement was already evident Sunday as guest conductor Christopher Wilkins led a creditable performance of Beethoven's Third Symphony ("Eroica") and some engaging Spanish-style works by Ravel and Rodrigo. As this was only the second of the orchestra's six main-season concerts, it's too early to tell how much of the change is due to Neale, who has so far led only the opening set (he returns for two more in the spring). But Marin's music lovers can take heart at some clear signs of a hopeful future for the 50-year old organization.
The charismatic Wilkins, a boyish-looking maestro who has led the San Antonio Symphony for the last ten years, opened the program with Ravel's Alborada del gracioso (Morning Song of the Jester), the composer's own orchestration of one of the shorter piano pieces from the 1905 collection titled Miroirs (Reflections). It's a kind of "Bolero Lite" — a colorful evocation of Spain, full of pulsing string pizzicati and harp glissandos interspersed with rapid-fire barrages from the winds and brass, including some fiendish tonguing tricks for solo trumpet, nicely executed by Carole Klein. The slow central section features a languorous bassoon melody, played with aplomb by Carla Wilson. Wilkins's deft, concise but slightly mechanical reading emphasized the brash and brassy nature of the piece, missing some of the steamy atmosphere of Hispanic allure.
The Ravel was simply a warm-up act for guitar virtuoso Sharon Isbin's impressive performance of the ever-popular Concierto de Aranjuez by the blind Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo. He died in 1999 at the age of 98 — that information as well as his first name not to be found anywhere in the program book. (Marin audiences are presumably too sophisticated to need such crutches.) Although slightly less well known than his ubiquitous Fantasia para un gentilhombre (Fantasy for a Gentleman), Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez rates entry on any list of "Sure-Fire Easy Listening Classics."
Isbin's guitar came alive in a ear-opening display of technical ease, marred only slightly by the too-beefy amplification. That sound from large black speakers upstage center gave her lower strings a harsh ring, especially in vigorously strummed chords. In the opening movement, conductor Wilkins drew neatly-crisp spiccati from the strings and brilliantly-bright splashes of tone from the brass, with Jan Volkert contributing a mellifluous cello solo. The lovingly-played Adagio was engaging and touching in its easy pathos; it's the kind of music that snobs love to disdain but there was no arguing with the effect of Isbin's burnished and elegant guitar sound. After her overamplified cadenza, however, the return of the orchestral tutti couldn't help but seem underpowered. The third movement, a jaunty exploration of a simple three-bar dance tune, showed off Isbin's fingering technique to a fare-thee-well. She then offered the delighted audience a solo encore in the form of a selection from Francisco Tárrega's Recuerdos de la Alhambra (Memories of the Alhambra), whose complex fingering patterns created a delicate lacework of accompaniment under a simple, melancholy tune. Having wowed the crowd with her skills, she hastened to the lobby to sign her CDs during intermission.
In the Beethoven main event, Wilkins led the orchestra in an Eroica that was gratifyingly free of the ensemble and intonation woes that have detracted from some recent Marin Symphony concerts. Using split seating for the violins (with the seconds to his right), Wilkins elicited a thoroughly integrated string sound in the crisp exposition, but encouraged the brass to overpower the celli and basses in the development, where the counterpoint was in need of greater dynamic contrast. In the long coda, too, a bit more suspenseful pianissimo could have added to the excitement. The Funeral March got off to an uncertain start, with unsteady downbeats, but the strings were in fine form. The central section was more bombastic than majestic, but the fugal passages were deftly articulated. The Scherzo gave the horn section a chance to shine, with flourishes of richly-polished tone, though less-polished ensemble. The final movement, with its famous theme and variations, seemed a bit matter-of-fact, with the brass in particular wanting a nobler legato. Still, this was Beethoven worthy of the name, played by an orchestra that seemed infused with a new elan. With the San Jose Symphony's recent (hopefully temporary) demise, and the Oakland East Bay Symphony in perpetual search of a clear identity, the Marin Symphony seems poised to become the ensemble in Northern California with the most interesting future. It should be fun to watch it unfold. (Clifford (Kip) Cranna is the Musical Administrator of the San Francisco Opera, Program Advisor for the Carmel Bach Festival, and a frequent lecturer on music appreciation.) ©2001 Kip Cranna, all rights reserved |
