San Francisco Classical Voice

If anyone doubted that David Robertson deserves his reputation as the hot young conductor, Thursday's matinee opening of the San Francisco Symphony's program for this week should remove all hesitation. Robertson proved a wonder of talent mixed with superb technical attainment and a keen ear.

The mixed offering included Mozart's Symphony No. 31, K. 297, the so-called "Paris" Symphony, Stravinsky's feisty Violin Concerto, with Viktoria Mullova as soloist, the local premiere of George Benjamin's short Palimpset, and Debussy's La Mer. This seems like a strange compilation. But credit Robertson's intellect that such a succession of seeming non sequiturs could prove so satisfying.

Robertson was new to me but not to the Bay Area, having previously conducted for both the Symphony and the Opera. It could be taken for granted that Robertson would mount superb performances of 20th century music. After all, Boulez himself anointed Robertson in 1992 as his successor to head his leading-edge Ensemble Intercontemporain. And Robertson has recently been announced as director of Lyon's orchestra.

But Mozart symphonies? Those works are far more difficult than their surface appearance would indicate. Admittedly, Mozart's symphonies and concertos are rarely all that difficult in terms of finding the right notes. But getting the aesthetic on board — that odd combination of expressive elegance and momentum — can be a terror. Even fabled conductors like Klemperer and Karajan frequently have failed to do so.

All hail then to Robertson's superb Mozart. His conducting produced a performance of ambitious dreams. This was as perfect a realization as I can imagine, with every element in place. He had the concept pinned to the wall, and the orchestra projecting it in an outstanding fashion.

Mullova's Stravinsky was in nearly the same class. She is not typical of Russian string players, principally because she shuns the constant use of the 1000-volt vibrato. Her objective bravura and technical security, altogether apt for Stravinsky's folksy cubism, were perfectly placed to emphasize the ideals behind the composer's anti-Romantic stance, a wonderfully cogent realization of Stravinsky's escape from the traditional Romantic violin concertos.

Best of all, Mullova brought a restrained lyrical warmth to Stravinsky's beautiful Aria II, the third of the concerto's four movements. Superb articulation and intonation marked this performance as one of her outstanding accomplishments. The one minor flaw, if it could be considered such, appeared in her breathless hurry during the finale. Yet the architectural strengths of this virtuoso performance argued well for the music's staying power and for its rank as one of the finest violin concertos.

George Benjamin's Palimpset premiered only last year as a 75th birthday present for Pierre Boulez. The program booklet quoted the composer as considering his style as distanced from that of his teacher, Olivier Messiaen. Think again. While the 8-minute piece is not directly imitative, references to Messiaen-like textures were everywhere. We heard a basic lyrical opening and closing climaxed by a big, brassy chorale — albeit set forth with a touch of Elgar.

The instrumentation was bizarre: heavy on winds, brass, and percussion, with eight double basses spread four each to stage right and left . Those were seconded by a small coven of violin and violas minus any cellos. Then some birdlike figurations turned up in short but prominent piano and xylophone outbursts. Such things strongly hinted at maître Olivier. So while superficially avant-garde and well made, Palimpset sounded a bit old-fashioned in its 1960s vocabulary.

Which brings up a point of disorder confronting the serious contemporary composer. Mimicking styles already 40 or 50 years old is artistically futile. Running in place simple won't do. There exists no more merit in quasi-Messiaen or pseudo-Boulez than there is in faux Fauré or mock Puccini. Composers cannot hope to accomplish anything of value by dipping their pens into nostalgic inkpots.

Conductor and orchestra played the Benjamin piece very well indeed. There was finesse as well as ample brilliance in a performance that had clearly been crafted with care. (And perhaps too much rehearsal time?)

La Mer sounded a bit scrappy. It was not a "bad" performance, just not all that had been hoped for. Dynamics were sometimes askew, highlighted by small, inattentive flubs in the orchestra — a little trumpet note here, an underfed horn crescendo there. The performance generally lacked Debussy's innate feeling for sensuous timbre. It ended up a rather dry performance of a distinctly damp piece.

Meantime, it's obvious that Robertson is worthy of a major orchestral post. But that will probably have to come from Europe. America's sense of cultural insecurity is in full sway just now. "Sleepers awake!" Robertson knows how to make great music, and he's likely available. (Heuwell Tircuit, composer, performer, and writer, was chief writer for Gramophone Japan and for 21 years a music reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle, previously for the Chicago American and the Asahi Evening News.)

(Heuwell Tircuit, composer, performer and writer, was chief writer for Gramophone Japan and for 21 years a music reviewer for the SF Chronicle, previously for the Chicago American and Asahi Evening News.)

©2001 Heuwell Tircuit, all rights reserved