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SYMPHONY REVIEW
March 1, 2003
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By Gary Lemco
A rousing ovation greeted conductor Yasuo Shinozaki at the conclusion of his Sibelius Second Symphony with the Symphony San Jose Silicon Valley, the ensemble resuscitated out of the ashes of the defunct San Jose Symphony. Saturday evening's concert at the San Jose Performing Arts Center also offered works by Karen Tanaka and by Beethoven, each showcasing the crack ensemble and its flamboyant guest conductor — a master of color, the big gesture, and the grand line.
Yasuo Shinozaki is a pupil of Leopold Hagar and currently Assistant Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He pared down some of his exuberance for Tanaka's Guardian Angel (2000), scored for harp, clarinet, percussion and strings. This shimmering piece, based on a passage from Exodus, started off like "Greensleeves"; then it settled into a series of minimalist and New Age riffs, bright timbres, and suspended harmonies — no real melody, but plenty of hovering major scales up and down. Principal harpist Dan Levitan plied his trade with grace and conviction, and composer Tanaka rose afterwards to receive gracious acknowledgement from audience and orchestra.
Beethoven's unbuttoned Symphony No. 8 in F was a rhythmically dashing tonic after the relative stasis of the Tanaka piece. Besides the impetus, thrust, and wit demanded of the ensemble, Shinozaki managed to retain the warmth of orchestral tone and sonic homogeneity that had characterized the opening work. Beethoven offers each of the orchestral choirs a chance to excel or cook, as the case may be. Tympanist Robb Erlebach had both hands full, as did the woodwinds in the metronomic Allegretto. Clear articulation, rounded phrases, and incisive attacks marked the Beethoven, whose bursts of energy and sudden, sizzling sforzati Shinozaki did not permit to shatter the underlying pulse.
Sibelius' Second Symphony is a sinewy and resilient piece; it is psychologically aggressive landscape music. Shinozaki brought out its Bruckner influence, the long melodic and rhythmic periods set over a solid pedal tone. Much in the Koussevitzky tradition, Shinozaki emphasized the piece's heroic temper, the stunning (though fragmented) melodic kernels, and the suggestions of folkish hymns. The second movement had throbbing pizzicati in the strings and blazing trumpets; the scherzo, the benefit of oboist Pamela Hakl's plaintive musicianship in the Trio's solo. And conductor Shinozaki himself, shaping and molding the graded peroration of the finale with monumental gestures, beseechings to the stars, the whole invoking Himmel hoch. Really a virtuoso evening from all principals, one heralding an orchestra that deserves support from San Jose's musical and financial community.
(Dr. Gary Lemco is a former writer for Musical America and a commentator
on "First Hearing." He currently contributes to Audaud.com and teaches
English in Campbell.)
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Yasuo Shinozaki