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SYMPHONY REVIEW
June 5, 2004
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By Scott MacClelland
A star was born last Saturday at Symphony Silicon Valley. Slender, blonde, 17-year-old Natasha Paremski stunned the near-full house with a dazzling performance of the virtually unknown Piano Concerto in D Minor by Anton Rubinstein. As her interpretation of the once-famous romantic thriller unfolded several things became clear: her technique is finished and fearless; her concept of the music is mature beyond her years; her artistic instincts are inherent and passionate. About the only thing she lacks is the brawn needed to fully release the deepest sonorities from the low end of the Symphony's Steinway. (That, at least, gives us a benchmark by which to watch her physical maturity since she'll perform with the San Francisco Symphony this summer, and with Symphony Silicon Valley—“Rach 2”—next season.)
Though less than an enduring masterpiece, the Rubinstein concerto balances charming themes with plenty of Lisztian keyboard bravura. But it was the filigree toss-offs and sensitive lyricism, especially in the slow movement, which showed off the youngster's remarkable talent. Her body bobbing and rocking to the muse, she came to a perfect reconciliation of the composer's expressive intent and her own on-the-fly response to it. Her phrasing and dynamic control made an unforgettable impression. Not since the late Raymond Lewenthal took up the neglected work in the 1970s has such a memorable revival been put forth.
As the audience loved Paremski she loved them back, lighting up her curtain calls with a beaming smile, confidence and poise, and finally Rachmaninoff's blustering Prelude in B flat, an execution bold, lyrical and individual.
As the last conductor of the Symphony before its relocation next season to the California Theater (with less than half the seating capacity of the Center for the Performing Arts but with plans to play two performances there of each program,) Sebrina Maria Alfonso made a boisterous but fairly unimpacting impression from the podium. Her big gestures seemed superficial and sounded so in the effect. But then, she was working under tough conditions. The music director of the Key West Symphony had a less-than-first rate San Jose orchestra at her disposal. After two seasons without a music director, Symphony Silicon Valley is running more on gut than discipline, and it is becoming obvious. The estimable strings are doing the heavy lifting. In Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, the winds came through most of the time in good shape, but the brass (horns and trumpets) cracked too many notes to go unnoticed. To be taken seriously artistically, this band needs to clean up its act. Moreover, Alfonso gave little finesse to the dynamics, favoring loud and louder, encouraging the brass and percussion to the point of overriding the violins. (She was not the first guest conductor this season to indulge in the same poor judgment.) Alfonso's program opened with Kodaly's early Summer Evening (1906,) a sort-of mood piece that develops two themes, a pastorale on cor anglais, and a Hungarian folk-influenced melody. Wisely, the young and at the time Debussy-influenced composer followed classical sonata form, but the impressionistic performance smoothed over that detail. If Kodály is generally “Bartόk light,” this was also “Kodály safe.”
(Scott MacClelland, since 1978, has written music criticism and journalism for all the major newspapers on the Monterey Peninsula, and for the Metro papers in Santa Cruz and San Jose. During the same period, he has taught music history for Monterey Peninsula College.)
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Natasha Paremski
Sebrina Maria Alfonso