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SYMPHONY REVIEW
Stephen Hough Herbert Blomstedt October 12, 2006
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In a Master's Hands By Heuwell Tircuit
While Herbert Blomstedt has always been considered a fine, complete conductor, Thursday's concert with the San Francisco Symphony in Davies Symphony Hall proved that he should be ranked among the best of the past century. Notwithstanding the Symphony's current high performance standards, their 79-year-old conductor laureate achieved a remarkable blend of musicality and stylish detail. Blomstedt inspired a smiling lightness, which proved ideal for a program of Austrian classics.
The concert opened with Schubert's Symphony No. 3 in D Major, D. 200. Schubert highlighted different aspects of composition in each of his early symphonies. The Second, for instance, treats dissonance, especially in its finale. The Third employs rhythmic shifting and compact forms, which results in a terse composition that is even shorter than the two-movement Eighth, his most famous unfinished symphony. (He left five other symphonies incomplete or sketched.)
Like Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, Schubert's Third is a dance symphony. An Introduction and Allegro is followed by a Gavotte in place of the customary slow movement. The third movement, although titled "Menuetto," is really a rowdy Austrian peasant dance with wildly displaced accents. (I once heard a conductor tell his orchestra, "Think hiccups.") Then, for his finale, the teenage Schubert provided a madcap Tarantella, one that even Rossini might envy.
Blomstedt, who studies musicology as well as conducting, observed a number of historical niceties. He used a reduced orchestra and seated them in the arrangement common in Schubert's Vienna: first violins to his left, seconds to the right. The new seating allowed for a much clearer interplay between the two sections, especially when they echoed one another — and there was a lot of that in the three works on Thursday's program. Unfortunately, contemporary conductors rarely observe this important detail. Throughout the concert, Blomstedt also had the timpanist use hard sticks, in place of today's more commonly used felt-covered ones, for a sharper, harsher sound that served as an effective bass for the brass section.
Blomstedt followed 18th century style by conducting without a baton or podium. Surprisingly, his hand gestures were more animated than I recall from previous concerts. Those strong offbeat accents in Schubert's Minuet, for example, elicited something akin to a violent upward lurch. I enjoyed seeing Blomstedt lay aside his traditional decorum for some youthful abandon. He looked as if he were having a whale of a good time all evening long. The orchestra obviously ate it up.
But if the performance of Schubert's Third was excellent, Blomstedt's presentation of Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 101 in D Major, "The Clock," was even better. It's hard to describe how flawlessly this interpretation was conceived and executed. The musicians played with polish, and tempos were lively and right on the button, neither too slow nor fast. Orchestral balances were precise, which is no easy trick in the double fugue that breaks out in Haydn's finale. Blomstedt expanded the string section a tad for this work, adding one double bass to the three used in Schubert symphony, as well as another desk of violins. That's perfectly in line with the orchestra size at the work's premiere, although the keyboard continuo, common in Haydn's day, was absent here. Haydn actually led the premiere from a pianoforte, but today, orchestral sound is so rich that continuo is unnecessary. This was the closest to a perfect performance of Haydn's symphony that I've encountered, either live or on a recording.
Stephen Hough Photo by Christian Steiner
In between the symphonies, the orchestra turned to Mozart's popular Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467, featuring pianist Stephen Hough. This concerto really only made the repertory A-list after it was used in the Swedish film Elvira Madigan, and for a time the film's title was attached to it as a subtitle. I never minded, for it's no sillier than most musical nicknames. But now, the piece's familiarity brings expectations, particularly when set between the outstanding performances given to Schubert and Haydn's works.
Alas, Hough's playing was all right, but no more than that. He played prettily and hit all the notes with deadly correctness. He sounded like a nervous conservatory student playing his final board exam, determined to be absolutely literal. I missed the humor of Mozart's buffo passages, especially in the finale. The same held true for the bland cadenzas Hough invented. Pianists often have to create their own cadenzas in Mozart's concertos, as the composer left us few of his own. Many pianists, such as Eugene Istomin, have risen to the challenge. Important composers have written cadenzas for these works as well — Brahms, for Nos. 17, 20, and 24; Benjamin Britten, for No. 22. But as far as I know, there isn't one of any worth for No. 21. All Hough did was run through the material he'd already played — a potpourri that I did not find at all effective or worthy of Mozart's creation. The orchestra gave Hough encouragement and played with clarity, although the outer movements struck me as a little too fast. At least I could hear humor from them, along with fine articulation and flawless intonation. Altogether the performance, while not bad, was no more than acceptable. When taking his final bows after the Haydn symphony, the beaming maestro suddenly tore off into the woodwind section like a charging cavalry officer, grabbing individual players' hands in thanks and then insisting they rise for a bow. He waved the brass players to stand and then signaled the strings to join them. Another bow, and Blomstedt turned to concertmaster Alexander Barantschik, wiggling his fingers. For a moment I thought there might be a repeat of the finale, but there was no encore. That was too bad, really; Haydn might have done it. (Heuwell Tircuit is a composer, performer, and writer who was chief writer for Gramophone Japan and for 21 years a music reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle. He wrote previously for Chicago's American and the Asahi Evening News.)
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Herbert Blomstedt
