Michael Tilson Thomas

September 6, 2006

Christian Tetzlaff

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By Robert P. Commanday

The San Francisco Symphony — wonders to relate! — launched its season last Wednesday with a real program — a departure from the pops programming that has been its inaugural tradition for many years. And, in showcasing a program that demonstrated its commitment to fine music before marketing and revenue, the Symphony Association showed signs of growing up. That is more than can be said of the opening night audience the association courted, folks who will never be seen at a regular season concert, who could be heard applauding mechanically between each movement. At least — and this is a hopeful sign — they were respectfully quiet during the music.

All were jolted happily to attention by Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila Overture, an opener guaranteed to captivate even a festive postdinner crowd. Michael Tilson Thomas took it at the high pace of about 140 beats per minute, guaranteeing to raise the string-players’ cardio rates. This splendid piece was a sizzler, even if the trombones, who were feeling their oats, overachieved. They kept up their enthusiasm into the first movement, the Toccata of Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto. Tilson Thomas did not raise a cautionary hand, and for a while the soloist, Christian Tetzlaff, was rather overwhelmed.

The work is energized in Stravinsky’s neoclassical fashion by a lot of string chug-chug-a-chug-a, chattering away in asymmetrical rhythms. That didn’t help tone projection. Neither did the Davies Hall acoustics, which don’t favor the solo string instrument. Balance was an issue as the concerto counts on reciprocity between soloist and orchestra. Nonetheless, after the Toccata's awkward ending, the imbalance was corrected.

Tetzlaff is a dynamic, strong player, and he gave that kind of performance — especially handsome in the broad lyricism of the third movement. There, as with the other arias, the playing softened and modified the tongue-in-cheek style. Curiously, Tetzlaff didn’t commit this piece to memory, which would have better served it. Presumably he will have it down by the time he plays it with the San Francisco Symphony this week.

Tilson Thomas led a strong course through Dvorák’s Symphony No. 8 in G. His interpretation argued for the bigness of the piece and its range of character. This came alongside the broad style of many of the big tunes — the Bohemian-flavored theme that announces the symphony at its onset, the third movement’s gracious waltz and trio, and the finale’s sweeping Brahmsian theme played gloriously by the cellos.

There was something in this performance that brought out other associations. You could hear a Mahler quality in the Adagio, distant echoes of Wagner, and a treatment of the flutes resembling Tchaikovsky's. The flute has a major role in the piece and Tim Day, the principal flutist, played it well. The Dvorák ends with a Slavonic dance, a slam banger and just the ticket to close a festive opening. But there was more: MTT added the clap-along chorus of Johann Strauss Sr.’s Radetzky March. Good enough.