San Francisco Classical Voice

Fifty years is a long life for any orchestra, and in that time the Peninsula Symphony has reached an enviable level of artistic maturity. It's a mystery why the names and logos of Silicon Valley's major high tech firms are absent from the donor list of an orchestra that is such an important cultural institution in the region. This was evident Saturday in its season-opening program conducted by Mitchell Sardou Klein at Flint Center in Cupertino. Three conservative yet very contrasting 20th century works were performed: Benjamin Lees' "Celebration" (west coast premiere), Ralph Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 2 "London," and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, op. 30, featuring Cuban-born pianist, Horacio Gutierrez.

The brief and colorful "Celebration" began with a substantial percussion section solo of dancing Afro-Cuban textures. As the lower brass, winds, and strings joined in, the work's harmonic language reminded one of Leonard Bernstein's Latin-inflected dance music for "West-side Story." Yet as "Celebration" built to its close, one could also hear the powerful accents, repeating figures, and shifting pulse whose stylistic heritage is the celebratory Sacrificial Dance from Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring."

The Lees piece will be followed this season by others representing the orchestra's commitment to new works by young composers of the region--Brian Holmes, a Peninsula Symphony French hornist and physics professor at San Jose State University, and Stanford music professor Melissa Hui.

Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 2, "London," (1914, rev. 1936) resulted from a quest for fresh compositional resources carried out by Vaughan Williams, George Butterworth and others before World War I. Seeking a new British musical language based in folk music, they took their search to the field, notating performances of uncatalogued English folks songs. This folk music seems to have structured Vaughn Williams' harmonic and melodic language at the "DNA" level. Bits and pieces of it combine and recombine to form his basic musical material.

There are other recognizably London sounds--in the somber introduction, a quotation of Big Ben's "Westminster Chimes," a sound English audiences associate with the River Thames in the early morning as the great city awakens. Klein and the Peninsula Symphony captured the misty dark quality of this scene, with fine solo work from the French horns and English horn (Lianne Araki). The winds and strings worked to very good effect throughout, with excellent intonation and attention to balance.

The blended style of wind and string scoring in the Vaughan Williams became a hallmark of Hollywood and British film orchestration by mid-century. Its echos can be heard in Robert Russell Bennett's orchestration of Richard Rodger's "Victory At Sea." The muted strings with the brass in the second movement were gorgeous. A high point was the plaintive viola solo, rendered with touching artistry by principal violist Melinda Rayne.

The slowly descending chromatic pizzicato of the third movement gives way to a positively imperial British pomp with Vaughan Williams' signature broad legato folk-like melody in the upper register, recalling the descants associated with English choir music. In the tragic mood of the fourth movement with its thick, full orchestral textures, the lush string passages were really impressive. Later, the music develops to a harrowing climax, which then dies down to the somber River Thames music, and again Big Ben. From the vantage point of the late 20th Century, Vaughan Williams' musical vision of London feels convincing.

After intermission, Maestro Klein and the Peninsula Symphony were joined by Horacio Gutierrez as soloist for the Rachmaninoff 3d Piano Concerto. Its technical demands allow a masterful artist like Gutierrez to make a powerful impression. That Gutierrez can deliver pyrotechnics was less surprising than his subtle rhythmic shaping of what might otherwise just be flashy passage work. He was even able to lend fresh expressive color to the three appearances of the "big tune" of the first movement, not content to let it be mere prelude or filler. The tricky challenge of keeping the orchestra and the soloist together was expertly met by Maestro Klein.

That this once-bold work is now familiar and no longer sounds fresh matters little to those who love it. The Peninsula Symphony's audience responded to the performance by leaping to their feet and giving Gutierrez, Klein and the orchestra a well-deserved ovation.

(Dr. James Harold Carr is a composer who teaches at Stanford University.)

©1998 James H. Carr, all rights reserved