San Francisco Classical Voice

CHAMBER ORCHESTRA REVIEW Piazzolla Conquers All

January 11, 2002

Benjamin Simon

By Daniel Leeson

In a concert given just one week ago, the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra bid farewell to its founder and conductor of 49 years, Edgar Braun. Saturday night's concert at First Unitarian Church in Palo Alto, part of the opening salvo from the new music director, Benjamin Simon, was a knockout. A lot of the power of the punch came from a rarely-heard work by the South American composer Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992). Metaphorically, Piazzolla was pitted against three almost unconquerable opponents: Mozart, Haydn, and Stravinsky. Yet, despite the strengths and reputations of Piazzolla's rivals, he stole the show, and then some.

Moving from the brothels of Argentina to the dance floors of South America, then becoming a sociological phenomenon that encompasses the Saturday night social behavior of entire nations (Finland, for example), the tango is now making a formal and serious bid for the concert stage. I refer to Piazzolla's double concerto for guitar and bandoneon.

For those with bumper stickers reading, "Play the accordion, go to jail — it's the law!," get ready for a surprise, because the beauty and mesmerizing character of the bandoneon — a squat, South American squeezebox with buttons instead of keys — is remarkable. It is this stranger to the concert stage that played the key role in Piazzolla's eye-opening double concerto. Performed with exceptional finesse by soloist Jorge Trevisonno, its dynamic and emotional range glued everyone's attention to this singular music. And to have David Tanenbaum, a world-class guitarist by any standard, as a solo partner did nothing but raise the level of musicianship. Tanenbaum's contribution was wonderful, but the shimmering music emanating from the bandoneon was like a magnet that drew all attention to itself.

Mozart upstaged?

The concert opened with the 16-year-old Mozart's marvelous early Divertimento in F major, K. 138, one of his finest early works and one that generally domnates any program it appears on. It was played with unusual sensitivity and musicianship by the orchestra; and, refusing to be rushed, conductor Simon even included the requested repeats, bless his soul. But then Piazzolla's tangos took center stage and all I could think of was Rudolph Valentino, every strand of his patent leather hair in place, dancing seductively with Vilma Banky.

The cheek-to-cheek music began with a brilliant string orchestral arrangement (by San Francisco's Jeremy Cohen) of Piazzolla "Libertango," and it stopped the audience dead in its tracks. This terrific piece, furiously and impulsively sensual, was followed by the three-movement double concerto that absolutely and deservedly brought the house down. You'll be able to hear this very performance on CD soon, because the concert was recorded live for that purpose. The range of emotions that Trevisonno got from his bandoneon was breathtaking, and the applause was so strong that he was given a solo encore in which he mesmerized the audience by playing another of Piazzolla's works, "The Dream." Romantic? You wouldn't believe that much heavy breathing.

The Haydn quartet for guitar and strings was a pretty work transcribed from a string quartet. Its purpose was to give soloist Tanenbaum, now chairman of the guitar department, San Francisco Conservatory, center stage. His performance was elegant, musicianly, and refined.

The neoclassical Stravinsky

The final work on the program, Stravinsky's Concerto in D, gave cause for reflection. This is neoclassical Stravinsky, music from the period just after the three great Russian ballets; and in listening to it, I realized how much less of this period of Stravinsky's music continues to be performed today. It's only 31 years since the 20th century's most important and influential composer died, and yet his neoclassic compositions are being heard less frequently. In reacting to this kind of music, with which I grew up, I find that it now fails to capture and hold my attention as it once did. Or was it simply that the surprise and remarkable nature of the Piazzolla double concerto knocked it out of the ring?

Simon is new to the scene as a conductor (though his fine viola playing is a known quantity), and if this concert is an example of what we are to expect, hold on tight. This was imaginative programming, well-performed, intelligent, and thoroughly musical. Simon even picked up his viola in the Haydn, handling the part very well. As a conductor, he is a work in progress, with time to get some bad habits out of his system. He's got good instincts, particularly in building a thematically cohesive program, if this one was an example of what we might expect in the future.

The orchestra plays very well, and it appears to me that they enjoyed this musical experience. It's so pleasant to watch instrumental musicians who relish the pleasures of performance and whose attitude shows it.

(Musicologist/author Dan Leeson is a former member of the San Jose Symphony Orchestra, a retired businessman, and an editor of the 220-volume complete Mozart edition published by Bärenreiter.)