Fans expecting Rachmaninoff at Friday’s San Diego Symphony concert might have been disappointed that soloist Alexander Gavrylyuk would not play Rocky’s moody Piano Concerto No. 2 as previously announced. However, there was plenty of heart-on-the-sleeve Romanticism to be found in Gavrylyuk’s performance of the Piano Concerto in A minor by Robert Schumann.
Often this concerto is approached with a more matter-of-fact presentation, but not Gavrylyuk. The Ukrainian pianist really milked Schumann’s solo ages for emotional effect. Phrases were stretched out and dynamic extremes were liberally applied. Lines that were forcefully begun died down into soft murmurs.
The extroverted conducting of Rafael Payare abetted Gavrylyuk, aided by the symphony musicians, particularly clarinetist Sheryl Renk and oboist Sarah Skuster. The energetic conclusion of the first movement provoked strong applause, and following the end of the final movement, many in the audience at the Rady Shell gave a standing ovation.
Extraneous noise — a drawback of outdoor performances — intruded upon the piano cadenza in the first movement. Gavrylyuk played with utmost force, amplified by the Shell’s speaker stacks, but that was no match for a low-flying helicopter that completely covered his playing.
The program began with Wagner’s overture to “Tannhä.” The opening instrumental pilgrim’s chorus is marked “piano” (soft), but Payare started at the brink of audibility. Loudspeakers on ing boats interjected with a thump-thump-thump of bass and drums, ironically mirroring “Tannhä’s” theme of the profane polluting the sacred.
Payare and the orchestra built the pilgrim’s chorus up from distant strains to a majestic grandeur, with the contrasting Venusberg music quivering and exciting. The brass section throughout was carefully calibrated, and they loudly sounded out the final chord with a warm glow. Is it too much to hope for Payare in the pit for a San Diego Opera Wagner production?
The second half was mainly Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, but was preceded by Carlos Simon’s “Fate Now Conquers,” written last year for the Philadelphia Orchestra. In demand as a composer now, Simon is the Kennedy Center composer-in-residence.
The title alludes to an entry in Beethoven’s notebook quoting “The Iliad.” Simon’s music is derived or inspired by the harmonies of the second movement of Beethoven’s Seventh. The musical building blocks were fairly simple: repeated notes, scales and arpeggios, all in 32nd notes, with slower melodies or chords occasionally emerging in the winds or brass.
It was strange to see Payare conducting 60 beats per minute while the music flew by so frantically. It began in A minor, got a bit more harmonically complicated, and wound up on a resounding C major chord in the low strings.
Musical interest comes in part from trying to match up Beethoven’s theme with Simon’s obscuring treatment, and from the contrasting sections of repeated notes, scales and arpeggios. It was a short, fun ride.
I don’t know what Payare does to get the orchestra to play with such ion, but their performance of Beethoven’s Seventh was typical: filled with momentum, tempos on the brisk side (the last movement may have sounded fast, but Payare merely followed Beethoven’s specified tempo), the ability to turn the volume up just one final notch.
Take the ending of the first movement, a 14-bar crescendo that gradually went from very soft to very loud, somehow coaxing an even louder dynamic for the final bars.
The musicians didn’t always sound pretty — not all Beethoven should — and at times the ensemble was the tiniest bit off, but the sheer joy and thrill everyone conveyed justified their efforts.
Hertzog is a freelance writer.
