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SYMPHONY REVIEW
Santa Rosa Symphony Clarity, High Standards
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By Joseph Bloom
The Santa Rosa Symphony is a happy instance of a regional orchestra that
can be evaluated with the standards applied to major ensembles.
Music Director Jeffrey Kahane has built a well disciplined and
responsive orchestra. In Monday's concert, instrumental choirs were well balanced, textures were clear and resolved well into details under close aural scrutiny. Kahane's musical interpretations were always honest.
A nearly sold out house enjoyed a program of early twentieth century standards, beginning with Enesco's First Romanian Rhapsody. This
received a carefully crafted rendition that was perhaps more
Californian than eastern European. Kahane's tempos were more
deliberate than exciting or daring, a characteristic that remained
true throughout the concert. Yet there was also fresh insight into
the work and some fine playing. It began with supple work by
clarinet and oboe, and a fine viola solo (with excellent
backup by bassoon) that benefited from Kahane's placement of the
violas at the stage's edge to his right. The pyrotechnics at the
work's conclusion lacked a little fire, and in general
during the evening, those passages in which one wanted to enjoy an
accumulating orchestral momentum seemed to stall prematurely.
Before intermission, the 17 year-old 'cellist, Alisa Weilerstein,
appeared with the orchestra in Bloch's "Schelomo" (Solomon). She played with passion and often achieved a long rhapsodic line spun out
in slow time with a concentrated 'cello tone that at times lacked
depth (perhaps an effect of the hall's acoustics). Kahane proved a
good accompanist as conductor. At the climaxes the tempos resisted the powerful urgings and sweep of Bloch's score, but in general Kahane did a fine
job of revealing Bloch's multi-colored and atmospheric orchestral
fabric.
By the middle of the "Schelomo" I found myself thoroughly engaged. The second section of the work ended brilliantly, and in the ensuing quietness there was some truly poetical playing by Weilerstein. Alisa Weilerstein is the daughter of Donald Weilerstein, a Berkeley native and former leader of the Cleveland String Quartet. She plays in the Weilerstein Trio with her father and mother, the pianist Vivian.
A partial standing ovation prompted an encore, Tchaikovsky's "Pezzo Capricciso," a work which may have been too adventurous
technically for Ms. Weilerstein. Rapid arpeggios were not quite
secure either rhythmically or in terms of intonation, spiccato
sections were not clear, and passages in thumb position muddled.
After intermission came two works by Ravel. I had thought
that the "Rhapsodie Espagnole" might be too ambitious a work for the
orchestra, but other than a tempo mishap with the percussion in the
last movement, this was a satisfying performance, especially the
Habanera movement, which was sensuous and clothed in a fine lustrous
sheen. Only some disappointing intonation from the trumpets at the
movement's end marred a performance that ranked with the best.
The work benefited from fine woodwind playing ranging from the bass
clarinet and English horn to the pairs of clarinets and bassoons in
the first movement's cadenzas.
The concluding work on the program, Ravel's "La Valse," received an
honest and pellucid performance, admirable for its harmonic clarity
even at the piece's murky beginning.
This is an orchestra on the way up, and Kahane seems a fine
orchestra builder. At this stage of the group's evolution it is
understandable that the ensemble's most engaging traits are its
clarity of sound, chamber-music-like balance, and a carefulness in
execution in which there is an avoidance of risk taking in
performance. There is a tendency for ends of phrases to lose shape and lack focus and for tempos to be stiff and lack flexibility. It would be good to ee amplification of the size of the string section and the absence of walkie-talkie noises entering the hall from the lobby. A hall with better acoustics that would help bring out the growing qualities of this fine orchestra is indeed in the planning stages.
Kahane has some excellent players in his group. Among others, I
enjoyed the trombonist's fine playing, the French horn player's well-executed trills, and the principal oboist's ability, in spite of a somewhat thin sound, to make that sound grow richer and rounder when needed. Recently hired Assistant Concertmaster Dara Saffer substituted last night for
Concertmaster Joseph Edelberg. Judging from the Bloch and Ravel, she
is a fine addition to the orchestra.
(Joseph Bloom, concert pianist and teacher, member of the San Domenico School music faculty, formerly on the Rutgers University and Bennington College faculties, and former WXQR classical radio host.)
©1998 Joseph Bloom, all rights reserved
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