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SYMPHONY REVIEW
January 11, 2003
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By Thomas Goss
There are some violin concerti that are almost the exclusive province of the young, or may as well be. Such is the Korngold Violin Concerto in D, performed Saturday by young dazzler Philip Quint with Santa Rosa Symphony under the direction of Corrick Brown. An older, more seasoned chopmeister might easily have become bored or cynical under the weight of its romantic homilies, but Quint applied himself to the cascade of emotional gestures with a firm, colorful touch.
That said, it was difficult to find a greater redeeming value in the onslaught of cinematic histrionics than the opportunity it gave us to hear a truly remarkable player put through his paces on a classic Strad. Korngold seemed incapable of ending a musical episode without an upsweep on the harp, which occurred at such frequent intervals in every movement until the convention had passed all limits of cliché writing. Another predictable feature of this piece was the composer's penchant for immediately repeating every impassioned melodic idea an octave higher. When the idea was really hot under its collar, it was given the opportunity to be played yet another octave higher, and so on to the point of preposterousness.
The great folly of this exercise is most clearly illustrated by the program notes' assertion that Korngold was “...one of the last Romantics.” But, with all due respect to the Santa Rosa Symphony and its excellent program annotator Mark Osten, this statement is balderdash. The Romantics whose creative passions defined them as an artistic movement placed discipline at as high a degree as emotionalism — as well they might, for they had the spirit of Beethoven looking over their shoulders! All the way from Schubert to Strauss, there is a tempering logic and sense of proportion which not only makes the genre appealing today, but has also given it relevance through the many changes of taste and perception that have occurred since that era.
Korngold's works are decidedly not of this company, despite all recent attempts to resuscitate them and somehow find profundity in them. How much more rewarding the evening would have been had Quint chosen any of a number of lyrical masterpieces more deserving: the Samuel Barber, the first Prokofiev, the Stravinsky or the Philip Glass? Any one of those concertos would have shown greater depth and excitement in its first minute than in all twenty-five minutes of the Korngold, and would have gone a lot further in cementing Quint's reputation after his remarkable release of his Grammy-nominated William Schuman recording last year. The symphony was in its usual top form throughout, with the strings exceptionally luxurious and precise in the Egmont Overture of Beethoven and the Schumann (Robert, this time) Fourth Symphony. In well-ordered and thoughtful direction, Corrick Brown brought out the conflicts and insecurities inherent in the latter and worked them out with confidence and showmanship. The Romanza of the second movement was the heart of the symphony, and bespoke a nonverbal truth about Schumann himself and the artistic motives of the Romanticism of which he was an integral part. The symphony dug in with real soul in this remarkable love offering. It not only redeemed the falseness of the Korngold, it was one of the best moments all season, maybe for any of the symphonies that call this area home.
(Thomas Goss is resident composer for Moving Arts Dance Collective, is a member of New Release Alliance Composers and the Cabaret Composers Consortium, and sits on the steering committee of the Bay Area Chapter of the American Composers Forum.)
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Philip Quint