San Francisco Classical Voice

SYMPHONY REVIEW Talented Teens Bid Neale Adieu

May 20, 2001

Alasdair Neale

By Kip Cranna

It was logical to expect the superbly talented Alasdair Neale to end his 12-year tenure with the San Francisco Symphony's Youth Orchestra by going out with a bang. His choice of Mahler's extravagant Symphony No. 2 ("Resurrection") to mark the group's 20th anniversary on Sunday was a bold gamble that paid off big time. In go-for-broke fashion, the Youth Orchestra combined for the first time with the estimable Symphony Chorus and a pair of top-notch soloists, veteran mezzo Florence Quivar and the much-admired young soprano Nicolle Foland.

The huge demands of this soul-searching musical journey through death, redemption, and resurrection are enough to daunt the most seasoned of players. But Neale's remarkable assembly of talented teens tackled the score like gangbusters and came out clear winners. The performance offered thrills of the kind professional orchestras dream about.

In an era when classical music seems threatened on all sides, it does my heart good to see youthful virtuosity and dedication on such a scale — and with "Mahler Two" we're talking grand scale indeed. The huge orchestra, with quadruple woodwind groups and as many as ten horns, sounded bright and brash but always secure and confident.

Hair-Raising Funeral

Music Director Neale has used his years with the group well, molding his young charges into a dexterous and responsive force from whom he can seemingly demand the earth and sky. He tore into the opening "Funeral Pomp" — originally written as stand-alone piece to which the other movements were gradually added — with celli and basses ferociously buzzing and snapping away at the quirky, brittle main theme. Conceived as a tribute to a dead hero, the movement under Neale's baton unfolded with hair-raising intensity, building to the fateful brass evocation of the Dies irae (Day of Wrath) melody from the Mass for the Dead. He guided his troops with clarity and economy of gesture, communicating encouragement and control but without egotism or flamboyance.

The intensities of the first movement are such that Mahler wanted a five-minute pause for listeners to catch their breath before hearing more. Five minutes in today's world would seem like an eternity, but Neale allowed more than the usual pause to approximate the composer's wishes.

The soothing Ländler of the second movement was beautifully nuanced, with halting upbeats in Viennese style and an unhurried, careful precision. Neale took a relaxed pace for the jocund grotesqueries of the Scherzo — based on Mahler's song entitled "Saint Anthony's Sermon to the Fishes" — that let its skittering violin melodies and careening clarinet riffs make a vivid impression.

From Primal Light to Last Judgment

The fourth movement, entitled "Urlicht" (Primal Light), is a gentle hymn for mezzo set to a text from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Quivar sang with surpassing conviction but with a tentative and slightly cloudy tone. Neale masterfully led his players through the peaks and valleys of the tempestuous orchestral beginning to the fifth movement, where thematic evocations of the Last Judgment are worked over amid offstage fanfares.

The Dies irae motive morphs into a brass chorale delivered with a grandiose richness that was electrifying. The chorus entrance on the word "Auferstehen" (Arise) was a moment of unearthly hush, and Foland's ethereal voice soared effortlessly from the lush mass of choral sound. Neale saved plenty of energy for Mahler's showstopper ending (on the composer's own text), a resounding affirmation of resurrection and the afterlife.

Perfection is rare, and a nitpicker might quibble about a scruffy cello passage here or an out-of-tune woodwind note there. But these are trifles in the context of such an overwhelming accomplishment. Neale is a talent who will be missed in San Francisco. (He will continue his association with Michael Tilson Thomas, becoming principal guest conductor of MTT's Miami orchestra, the New World Symphony). Neale's successor here, 30-year-old Edwin Outwater, inherits a fine orchestra bred to a truly high standard. He will have his work cut out for him to match Sunday's benchmark Mahler.

(Clifford (Kip) Cranna is Musical Administrator of the San Francisco Opera, Program Advisor for the Carmel Bach Festival, and frequent lecturer on music appreciation.)