The Strings Have It

Audiences jumped to their feet for standing ovations after performances by the Philharmonia on both Sunday and Monday at Davies Symphony Hall, presented by the San Francisco Symphony. The venerable orchestra was in town for a set of concerts under Christoph von Dohnányi, the ensemble's principal conductor. Consistently rated as one of the top 10 orchestras of Europe, the Philharmonia delivered impeccable intonation, phrasing, dynamics, and virtuosity, just as it has done on countless recordings. But therein lay the problem. The Philharmonia is, according to the orchestra's Web site, "the world's most recorded orchestra," with some 1,000 recordings to its credit. Founded in 1945 by the legendary record producer Walter Legge, the orchestra has been led by the finest conductors in the world, including Karajan, Klemperer, Muti, and Sinopoli. Dohnányi, now in his last season as principal conductor, will be succeeded in that position next season by Esa-Pekka Salonen, but will stay on with the orchestra as Honorary Conductor for Life.

Make no mistake about it: The orchestra is in terrific shape. Its hallmark string sound — warm, well-balanced, and rich — was on full display. Many critics have claimed that this sound is a legacy of the orchestra's Central European heritage (its years under Karajan and Klemperer), and Dohnányi has done well to continue this tradition. For me, the highlights of the concerts were the moments when I was able to enjoy slow and quiet passages that featured the strings, such as the second movement of Schumann's First Symphony, played on Sunday night. The movement showed off well the ensemble's ability to create beauty through careful attention to bow speed, ornamentation, accentuation, and balance between inner and outer voices. The strings also have an uncanny ability to play extremely softly and yet sound fully resonant, an ability that was on display in the Schumann and also in the first movement of Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony, performed Monday night. While the Philharmonia's string sections have always been lauded, its winds have on occasion come under critical fire. From my seat (near the front of the hall in the orchestra section) I found that the winds were consistently overbalanced. Throughout both concerts, it seemed as if special care was being taken to blend the wind sound into the string texture. While this produced wonderful results in terms of sheer sonic beauty, I found myself frustrated by the lack of individual voices coming from the winds, especially during solo sections. And during all but the most climactic of sections, the brass held back and never came to the fore of the texture. Again, this produced beautiful, rounded results, but after hours of such roundness I found myself longing to hear some sharp edges.

Little Sense of Urgency

Here lies the crux of my frustration with the concerts: While the ensemble cannot be faulted on its sound quality or its attention to detail, there was a general lack of excitement and energy, not only from the brass but from the entire ensemble. Dohnányi's tempi were consistently on the conservative side, ensuring perfect execution but excluding any sense of urgency in faster movements or spaciousness in the slower movements. Time and again this proved a problem, from the stodgy third movement of the Schumann on Sunday to the earthbound Finale of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony on Monday. Matters were made worse by the conductor's decision to summon the orchestra's full string forces for the performances of the Schubert and the Beethoven, creating an unpleasant sense of heaviness. All these problems came together in the performance of Mahler's First Symphony on Sunday night. Dohnányi consistently chose the tempo of least resistance, ignoring many tempo modifications, both traditional and written. This was a Mahler largely devoid of color, with flawless, beautiful, but drab execution throughout. Once more, the musicians proved their virtuosity time and again throughout the performance, yet without any sense of risk or passion. The highlight of the two evenings, to my ears, came not during the programmed works at all, but rather with Monday night's encore, Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 1. For a few minutes, the orchestra performed with verve and excitement, with a sense of abandon and a wild degree of flexibility in terms of tempo. This is the orchestra I had wanted to hear all night — and the night before. Clearly, this orchestra is capable of great beauty and great passion. Next time, can we have more of that, instead of more of the same?