{"id":72232,"date":"2014-05-08T10:41:58","date_gmt":"2014-05-08T08:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gbopera.it\/?p=72232"},"modified":"2016-12-13T02:41:03","modified_gmt":"2016-12-13T01:41:03","slug":"san-francisco-symphonytchaikovskys-passionate-pathetique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/san-francisco-symphonytchaikovskys-passionate-pathetique\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco Symphony:Tchaikovsky’s Passionate Path\u00e9tique"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Francisco, Davies Symphony Hall<\/em>
\nSan<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Francisco Symphony<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/span>
\nConductor <\/span>James<\/span><\/strong> Conlon<\/span><\/b><\/span> <\/span>
\nPiano Jean-Yves Thibaudet<\/span><\/b> <\/span>
\nTrumpet\u00a0Mark Inouye<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/b><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/b><\/span>\u00a0 <\/b>
\nErwin Schulhoff<\/span><\/em>: Scherzo from Symphony No. 5 <\/span>
\nDmitri Shostakovich<\/span><\/em>:Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Opus 35 <\/span>
\nPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: <\/span><\/em>Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Opus 74, Path\u00e9tique
\nSan Francisco, 26th april 2014
\n<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Guest conductor James<\/strong> Conlon<\/strong> prefaced the first work of Saturday evening\u2019s concert, the third movement of Erwin Schulhoff\u2019s Symphony No. 5,<\/strong> with a brief introduction to the Czech-German composer.\u00a0 Schulhoff is among a group of lesser-known composers who were murdered and otherwise silenced by the Nazis, and whose music Mr. Conlon has championed over the past decade.\u00a0 The movement is in traditional scherzo form, but is quintessentially modern (the piece was composed in 1938) and reminiscent, particularly in its rhythmic aspects, of Prokofiev\u2019s style\u00a0m\u00e9canique<\/em>.\u00a0 Conlon gave an exciting reading, while at the same time featuring a steady pulse and pointed articulation that maintained a sense of order and cohesion in this raucous music.
\nFollowing the Schulhoff was Shostakovich\u2019s Piano Concerto no 1<\/strong>, which was composed during one of the composer\u2019s recurrent periods of disfavor with the Soviet government.\u00a0 It is an amiable, good-humored piece that placed Shostakovich, albeit temporarily, back in the good graces of the authorities.\u00a0 The piece is technically a concerto for piano, trumpet, and orchestra, and while not a true double concerto, it features the trumpet in a prominent, but secondary role.\u00a0 The performance featured pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Mark Inouye, Principal Trumpet of the San Francisco Symphony.\u00a0<\/strong> Conlon\u2019s reading emphasized the concerto\u2019s neo-baroque elements, favoring lighter textures and a cool approach, with less emphasis on its romanticism.\u00a0 The work was presented in a modernistic light that accentuated the contrapuntal elements and rhythmic pulse of the music; at the same time, however, Thibaudet, Inouye, and the San Francisco Symphony created a voluptuous sound that effectively counterbalanced the work\u2019s pungent harmonies and dissonances.\u00a0 This combination of coolness and luxurious sound resulted in a more Gallic flavor, one that happens to suit this particular work of Shostakovich\u2019s very well.\u00a0 There were times, however, where a deeper lyricism in the haunting moments of the piece would have been welcome (the primary theme of the second movement, for example), as would a more generous rubato and greater contrast between the beautiful, the acerbic, the playful, and the sardonic.\u00a0 Thiebaud\u2019s playing married a clean, Bach-like approach to his trademark beautiful tone that shone through even in dissonant fortisimmo passages.\u00a0 The solo trumpet part requires an extraordinarily wide range of pitch and timbre – the low-pitched obbligato of the first movement, the muted melancholy of the second movement, and alternating moments of regality, humor, and poetry in the final movement \u2013 and Inouye navigated these extremes with a beguiling ease and perfect intonation.
\nThe second half of the program, Tchaikovsky\u2019s Symphony\u00a0No. 6,<\/strong> was also on the cool and restrained side, especially when compared to the heart-on-sleeve sensibility typical of performances of this piece. The restraint was effective in places, such as in the initial appearance of the first movement\u2019s celebrated theme.\u00a0 However, this holding back continued in the recapitulations, so that even with the wonderful flow of Conlon\u2019s phrasing the music lacked expansiveness and did not reach its full emotional potential.\u00a0 The second movement \u201cwaltz\u201d had ample grace, but the 5\/4 meter was apparent (whereas it usually does not call attention to itself) and this drained the music of some of its charm.\u00a0 The third movement was the highlight of the piece, with a wonderful Mendelsohnian pace and texture.\u00a0 The final movement, which was delivered with superbly-executed\u00a0dynamic shadings\u00a0and\u00a0rests, concluded the symphony with appropriate resignation, but did not fully convey the suffering at the heart of this masterpiece aptly titled\u00a0Path\u00e9tique<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

San Francisco, Davies Symphony Hall San Francisco Symphony Conductor James Conlon Piano Jean-Yves Thibaudet Trumpet\u00a0Mark Inouye\u00a0\u00a0 Erwin Schulhoff: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"featured_media":72233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14678,9875,10597,9354,6977,10596,9769,3846],"class_list":["post-72232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senza-categoria","tag-concerti","tag-dmitri-shostakovich","tag-erwin-schulhoff","tag-foreign-readers","tag-jean-yves-thibaudet","tag-mark-inouye","tag-pyotr-ilyich-tchaikovsky","tag-san-francisco-symphony"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/253"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}