Reviews of Live Musical Performances

Dr. Phillip M. Feldman

The Santa Barbara Symphony, Nir Kabaretti conducting, performed three pieces 16 Nov., 2019:

Mozart's Exsultate Jubilante, K. 165, is a light pleasant piece. From Ramon's (as always) excellent pre-concert talk, I learned that, as was common at the time, this piece of religious music was originally written to be sung by a male castrato soprano. Since these are now in short supply, a female soprano—in this case Croatian soprano Lana Kos—sings the part.

Julia Wolfe's Fuel for Strings is, according to Ramon, a fine example of the Minimalist genre. From my limited experience, Minimalism tends to eschew melody in favor of rhythm and repetition of very short motifs, and this composition was no exception. I find such music difficult to listen to, and the gentleman sitting to my right aptly described it as "relentless". The accompanying video of cranes moving containers at a harbor added little to the music, although my neighbor saw it as a welcome distraction.

Mahler's Symphony No. 4 in G Major is a delightful piece, and was a good reminder for me that there are pieces by Mahler worth listening to. My wife compared the music to a Chagall painting, in which all sorts of scenes from a small town are combined: A dog chases a cat, a group of soldiers marches by, and so on. Lana sang the vocal part in the final movement, and I felt that her voice was a better match to this music than to the Mozart.

The Santa Barbara Symphony, guest conductor Dirk Brossé conducting, performed 16 March, 2019, playing the musical score of the film Amadeus in accompaniment to the film. This was my first experience of this type of performance. There were moments when I became sufficiently caught up in the story that I forgot about the orchestra and choir, but I was aware of them most of the time. I believe that the live accompaniment definitely enhanced my enjoyment of the film. And, there's no harm in enjoying Amadeus as long as one remembers that the idea that Antonio Salieri sought the downfall of Mozart not only has no historical basis, but is completely inconsistent with everything that we know about Salieri, who was a thoroughly decent human being.

The Russian National Orchestra, Mikhail Pletnev conducting, performed 27 Feb., 2019. The following pieces were performed:

Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14: Originally written for high voice (soprano or tenor) with piano accompaniment, the Vocalise has no words. The composer's instructions indicate that it is to be sung using any one vowel of the singer's choosing. The piece has been arranged for orchestra without voice—as performed tonight—as well as for orchestra and voice, thermin and piano, and many other combinations. The voice recording by Anna Moffo and the 1987 theramin recording by Clara Rockmore stand out. I missed the voice in the orchestra-only rendition; no other instrument can replace the human voice, although the theramin can be amazingly similar.

Piano Concerto No. 2: George Li (Tchaikovsky Competition silver medalist) gave a virtuosic and powerful performance.

Mendelssohn's Gondola Song in F sharp minor, Op. 30, No. 6: Mr. Li played the Gondola song as an encore.

Symphonic Dances, Op.45: This piece, especially in its opening, feels as though it could be from the score of a western, with very little of the romanticism that one associates with Rachmaninoff.

Aram Khachaturian's Masquerade Suite, Waltz: The orchestra performed this as an encore.

The excellent pre-concert lecture by Derek Katz, Professor of Music History, UCSB Department of Music, significantly aided my understanding of Rachmaninoff's music, as well as that of the man himself. One of Katz's observations that stuck in my mind was that while most music introduces the most important thematic material at the outset, Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 introduces the most important thematic material only in the second movement. I'd never thought about this before.

I can't end this review without mentioning my favorite Rachmaninoff piece, the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. It is tempting to say that the composer introduces the most powerful and moving material in Variation 18; as the video linked earlier in this paragraph explains, the material in that variation is technically just a rehashing of the original theme, but it certainly feels like something completely new.

Santa Barbara Symphony, Nir Kabaretti conducting, performed 16 Feb., 2019. Three pieces were performed:

Joseph Schwantner's Chasing Light: In the pre-performance “Behind the Music” talk, Ramon characterized this piece as academic because of the dissonance, angularity, and the emphasis on rhythm over melody. All of this is true, but the music nevertheless has some interesting textures and is one of the more listenable compositions by a living professor of music.

Beethoven's Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C major, Op. 56, otherwise known as the Triple Concerto: This light piece is pure "ear candy". The performance was crisp, clean, and delightfully over the top. All three soloists were outstanding, with the violinist (Paul Huang) clearly enjoying himself immensely.

Robert Schumann's Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 97 "Rhenish": This was a solid performance of a piece that is at times moving, but that (at least to my ear) does not feel like a unified work.

After the previous rather disappointing performance, the S.B. Symphony has largely redeemed itself. If I allowed fractional ratings, I'd assign 4.5 stars. Since I don't allow this, I'm giving the Symphony the benefit of the doubt.

Santa Barbara Symphony, Nir Kabaretti conducting, performed 19 Jan., 2019. Three pieces were performed:

Brahms' Tragic Overture: My wife and I were not familiar with this piece, and we enjoyed the performance. It seemed more solemn than tragic.

Brahms' Double Concerto for Violin and Cello: Having heard this piece so many times, we were in a good position to judge the performance, and were definitely disappointed. The soloists (the principal violinist and principal cellist of the orchestra) were at times overpowered by the orchestra, and there was also a deficit of brio.

Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition: My wife and I love this piece, and I've played some of the technically less demanding movements on the piano. This part of the performance was a major disappointment, partly because of the (for the most part) distracting accompanying animation, and partly because the performance departed in several places from what I remembered. Most notably, in the final movement—The Great Gate of Kiev—the glockenspiel (bells struck with a hammer) could not be heard. Back at home, I put on a recording by the New York Symphony, and the sound of the bells is unmistakable.

I'd like to comment briefly on the USC-created animated film that accompanied the Mussorgsky performance. It is hard to make such things work, because any animation is bound to show us something at variance from what we would ourselves imagine if left to our own devices. But, this problem was compounded by several avoidable issues. The animation lacked coherence and a clear connection to the music and more importantly, a clear connection to the subject matter of the paintings and to the cultural milieu in which they were created. The one part that was coherent and well-connected to both the painting and the music was Ballet of the chicks in their shells, which begins with a young girl looking at a picture, with elements of the picture then becoming alive in her imagination. This was delightful, and would have been perfect if it had provided closure by returning to the young girl (and with the painting again in its original state), instead of leaving us in the realm of her imagination.

Santa Barbara Symphony, Nir Kabaretti conducting, performed four pieces—three Spanish and one French—with Pablo Sáinz Villegas as soloist on the guitar in two of the Spanish pieces, as well as in three encores, 19 Nov., 2017.

De Falla's El Amor Brujo is fun and exciting, and was well performed. A powerful, slightly over-the-top performance by Cziffra György of the piano version of the Ritual Dance of Fire can be found here.
Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez for Guitar and Orchestra: I fell in love with this piece as a teenager. It is impossible not to be moved by the incredible melancholy of the middle movement. For those who are unfamiliar with the piece, a fine performance by Pepe Romero can be found here.
The Concierto de Aranjuez did not provide much scope for Villegas to demonstrate his virtuosic ability. This was remedied in the first encore, the Gran Jota de Concierto by Tárrega. A recording of Villegas playing this piece can be found here.
Intermission
Bizet's Suite No. 2 from the Incidental Music to Alphonse Daudet's Play L'Arlesienne features a lovely harp-flute duet in the Minuet and a rousing finale. I'm not mad about this piece, perhaps because it doesn't seem to hang together as a coherent whole.
Russ, Selections from Souvenirs of Spain from Themes of Isaac Albéniz for Guitar and Orchestra, was a premier of an arrangement by Patrick Russ. This arrangement, although at times clever, submerged and altered Albéniz' wonderful melodies beyond recognition. Villegas gets as much sound out of the guitar as humanly possible without destroying the instrument, but was nevertheless at times overwhelmed by the orchestra.
The second encore was Astor Piazzolla's Libertango, arranged for guitar and orchestra, a piece pulsating with the sexuality that one would expect from an Argentinian tango. A masterful guitar performance with some video legerdemain can be found here.
The third and final encore was the unforgettable Asturias (Leyenda) by Albéniz. A recording by John Williams—the absolute master of the guitar—can be found here.

I'm no fan of the New York Times, but agree wholeheartedly with their description of Villegas' virtuosic playing characterized by irresistible exuberance. His performances nearly equal the crisp, precise renderings of John Williams, although Villegas exceeds Williams in showmanship.

Chicago Symphony, Riccardo Muti conducting, performed the Schubert Symphony No. 8 in B-minor ("Unfinished"), Mozart Clarinet Concerto in A Major, and Robert Schumann Symphony N. 2 in C Major, 21 Oct., 2017.

The program notes for the Schubert symphony begin as follows:

We don't know why Schubert never finished his B-Minor symphony. This has been one of music's great unanswered questions for more than a hundred years, and, despite some intelligent speculation, we still come up empty-handed today. At least we know that he didn't finish it. For many years, music lovers persisted in believing that the missing movements sat, forgotten, in some Viennese attic. On the other hand, scholars no longer suggest that Schubert intended to write a two-movement sympony, giving the composer credit for a bold stroke that, for all his daring, is [sic] not his.

Perhaps because I have no training in composition, this piece sounds perfectly finished, regardless of the number of movements. It is always a delight to listen to it, especially when played so well.

It is impossible not to enjoy and be touched by a fine performance of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto. Muti reigned in the orchestra just enough to prevent it from overpowering the delicate sound of the soloist, Stephen Williamson.

My wife and I should have left during the intermission, because Schumann's Symphony No. 2 is Teutonic, Wagnerian, and frankly, boring.

Overall, this was a strong performance. (When the Santa Barbara Symphony performs, I often have the feeling that they needed a few more rehearsals, but I had no such feeling tonight). But, my rating reflects not only the quality of the playing, but also the selection of pieces, hence the four stars.

Santa Barbara Symphony, Nir Kabaretti conducting, performed 14 Oct., 2017. This all-Mozart program, entitled Mozart in Dance, consisted of the "Jupiter" Symphony and the Requiem, with the Requiem including a novel dance accompaniment choreographed by William Soleau. The musical part of the program was quite solid, and I particularly enjoyed the Jupiter, despite having heard it so many times. At least for me, the dancing (by the State Street Ballet), although expertly done, detracted from the music. The dance movements were overly repetitious and lacked any obvious connection to the music and lyrics, even including a romantic interlude that contrasted sharply with the theme. I don't know whether the Requiem could be interpreted in dance in a way that would enhance the music, but this interpretation certainly did not work for me.

Note: My rating of this performance (see below) does not reflect the (as always) outstanding pre-performance “Behind the Music” talk by Saïd Ramon Araïza. Ramon knows more about the history of music than anyone whom I can think of (with the sole exception of Prof. Robert Greenberg), and at the same time manages to be wonderfully engaging and entertaining. I've been agitating for the last two years for the Santa Barbara Symphony to record these lectures, and was informed by Kevin Marvin (Executive Director of the Symphony) prior to this performance that recording of these lectures has begun, initially with audio only (which, as far as I'm concerned, is completely adequate).

Last update: 20 Mar., 2019