San Francisco Classical Voice

Duo pianists Mark Anderson and Tamrico Siprashvili, with Michael Morgan conducting, opened the Oakland East Bay Symphony season in the Paramount Theater last Wednesday in a highly musical performance of Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, K. 365. The pianists, Pleasant Hill residents who met at the Leeds Piano Competition in 1990 and married in 1993, embody very different styles.

Siprashvili's playing is the more energized, with a brighter tone, while Anderson's music making is somewhat darker and statelier. This made for an attractive dialogue in the shared material of this buoyant and elegant concerto, which Mozart is said to have written for himself and his sister to perform. The artistry and skill of Anderson and Siprashvili makes one hope that they will have more opportunities for local appearances both in duo and in individual repertoire. A stronger rhythmic profile from the orchestra would have made this an absolutely first-class reading.

Then the orchestra and the Oakland Symphony Chorus tackled Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. This was a special, millennium concert marking Morgan's tenth year with the orchestra. While not all aspects of this performance reached the highest standards, there were, nevertheless, many fine moments. Tyler Mack's tympani lent rhythmic fire to the Scherzo, and the clarinet and oboe solos in the third movement, played, respectively, by Diane Maltester and Andrea Plesnarski, were intense and beautifully structured. Although lacking in the necessary mystery of the opening sotto voce, the first movement got off to a good start and continued successfully. The enormous second movement Scherzo, while not always rhythmically exact, still made for pleasurable listening.

The slow movement, which begins Adagio molto e cantabile, lacked a sufficiently long tensional line, however. Mr. Morgan seemed to be over-conducting with energetic, vertical beats when the music demanded just the opposite. As a result, it was difficult to appreciate the contemplative mood of this movement. Before the Choral Finale, the recalling of the themes of the previous three movements was clear and incisive, but the transition to the choral passages, although played with great energy by the cellos and basses, lacked a clear sense of direction. The Finale itself had force and power, but the transitions between its various sections, and the contrasts between these sections, needed more careful planning to summon the full majesty of the music.

Nonetheless, this was a worthy event and one of which the Oakland community must be justly proud. One had the sense that all of the performers--orchestral musicians, conductor, chorus, and soloists--were giving their utmost. After the "coasting" of some major orchestras, this is to be remarked upon and reverenced. The earnest, though flawed effort is often preferable to one of smooth and facile polish and will certainly linger longer in the memory.

The concert, which was televised live on Bay TV, may be seen in re-broadcast on Friday, November 26 at 9:30 PM.

(Paul Hersh is a pianist and violist, and, since 1972, the James D. Robertson Professor of Piano at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.)

©1999 Paul Hersh, all rights reserved