San Francisco Classical Voice

SYMPHONY REVIEW

Up From the Pit

October 19, 2002

By Janos Gereben

In the orchestra pit of the Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, due on the CPA stage a month from now, San Jose musicians are ascending in more ways than one. Not only will they move physically from down below to front-and-center, they will also emerge from a long period of nothing but bad news. "Symphony San Jose Silicon Valley" made its debut this weekend, looking very much like the ballet orchestra it has been, and on November 23, it will give a "regular" orchestral concert.

The demise of the San Jose Symphony (in all but the official judgment of a bankruptcy court) has cast a pall over South Bay musical life. But now, notwithstanding the enormous challenges and difficulties in the way of SSJSV becoming the city's new orchestra, there are definite signs of life. During this, its first season, the ensemble performs three more programs for the ballet, four classical subscription concerts, and three Flint Center pops concerts.

When this orchestra, playing very well on Saturday, appears as the new symphony, it will have additional members and another conductor, but by and large, this is the sound of music San Jose is to get. What is it like? Under the competent, measured and cautious direction of the Ballet's long-time conductor, Dwight Oltman, the orchestra performed to its best, considering the constraints of being an "accompanist."

Before cutting loose, up to a point, in excerpts from Prince Igor and other works by Borodin for Ballet artistic director Dennis Nahat's A Polovtsian Tale, the orchestra's only other substantial performance was in the music of Glazunov (from The Seasons and Raymonda) for Nahat's simple, appealing, romantic Starlight.

Orchestra participation in the evening's third work, also by Nahat, was borderline featherbedding. Grossly derivative jazzy pops songs by Peter Wright for "In Studio D" were sung by Lainie Kazan, with Dennis Tolly's fine, if excessively amplified piano accompaniment while the orchestra pretty much sat it out until the big, splashy Melachrino finish. Not once did Kazan look at the conductor, and she was rarely allowing Tolly to catch up with her either. Wright, who borrowed extensively from Ernest Gold's soundtrack for Exodus and musicals left and right, appears to be otherwise a man of mystery. In a program note, Nahat says he commissioned the music from Wright — "a young composer/pianist and `gypsy' Broadway dancer — in 1985. He delivered, collected payment... and was never seen or heard again, in spite of Nahat's efforts over the years to find him.

In what turned out to be a concert of Russian music, the "new orchestra" appeared as a veteran, well-oiled ensemble, the strings playing Glazunov and Borodin impressively all evening long. Woodwinds performed well, the brass played much better than what I remember from old San Jose Symphony days, even though several players are from the long-ago George Cleve era. All in all, ensemble work was exceptional, especially in the Borodin excerpts: of the Polovtsian Dances proper, portions of the Second Symphony and In the Steppes of Central Asia.

Violins were smooth as silk in the Glazunov excerpts, concertmaster Randy Weiss' solos came across effectively. Some of the principals at this point are Patti Whaley (viola), Cheryl Fippen (cello), Linda Clayton (bass), Mimi Carlson (flute), Pam Hakl (oboe), Karen Sremac (clarinet), Wendell Rider (horn), Jim Dooley (trumpet), Bob Szabo (trombone), Galen Lemmon (percussion).

Expand the orchestra (from the current 54 to 75, still below the old SJ Symphony's 87), get a more lively conductor, put 'em on stage, and you'll have a symphony orchestra in San Jose, whether you can remember that whole awkward name or not. San Jose is getting a second chance: if it supports SSJSV (and if the new orchestra is managed well), the city will no longer be the country's largest metropolis without symphonic music of its own.