Over the last 35 years, the San Diego Symphony has faced bankruptcies, sudden conductor departures and managerial troubles. Nevertheless, it’s always managed to hang on, and over the last decade, it’s become a first-rate orchestra.
In 2019, things were very promising. The orchestra had an exciting new music director, Rafael Payare, and the ensemble played at a locally unsured level. Then in a jinx of cosmic proportion, COVID-19 closed it all down before Payare had the chance to finish his first season.
The symphony’s return to normalcy over the past 22 months has been tantalizingly slow. From videos of solo musicians and chamber music configurations, it progressed to orchestra concerts broadcast from an empty Copley Symphony Hall.
Performances at the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park significantly improved the experience, but despite state-of-the-art acoustics, it wasn’t the same as an indoor concert.
The turning point came Friday evening when Payare and the symphony played at the Civic Theatre.
The orchestra opened with an unusual work: William Grant Still’s “Darker America.” Listeners expecting music with blues-tinged traditional tonality like Still’s “Afro-American Symphony” might have been puzzled by the more dissonant chords and disted textures of “Darker America.”
It was written while Stills studied with the “ultra-modern” composer Edgard Varèse. Stills had initially embraced musical modernism, but in “Darker America,” you can hear him moving toward his mature style. There are bluesy themes but played over dissonant harmonies. Themes do not develop so much as clash and contrast with each other. In a program note, Stills described “Darker America” as a depiction of African Americans triumphing “over their sorrows through fervent prayer,” but the ending oddly falls apart, so much that many patrons weren’t sure that the work had concluded.
Pianist George Li soloed in Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.” His playing was bold and incisive. His formidable technique was fully displayed in the last two variations, with clean and rapid double-octave runs and finger-stretching keyboard leaps. “Rhapsody” traverses a wide range of moods — from humorous to frightening, from heroically dramatic to tender and lyrical. Li captured them all in clear, direct playing.
Payare and the orchestra partnered well with Li. Payare relished bringing out details such as brass and woodwind punctuations. I’d never heard such forceful wind crescendos during the 18th variation (the well-known slow melody).
Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique” was a revelation. Payare scraped off all the performance niceties that have accumulated on this revolutionary work and made it seem brash and shocking, particularly in the last two movements. It’s unusual to hear the cornet part that Berlioz added to the second movement after its premiere. Christopher Smith, temporarily seated by the harps, made a persuasive case for retaining that part.
The “March to the Scaffold” was so electrifying it provoked applause. The final movement often comes across as mockingly humorous, but this “Witches’ Sabbath” was downright scary, one highlight being the wood on the bows clattering against the strings, a age rarely played with so much force.
Vital contributions were made by flutist Rose Lombardo, Chicago Symphony tubist Gene Pokorny, the entire percussion section on timpani, the call and response between oboist Sarah Skuster and English horn player Andrea Overturf in the third movement, and Jay Shankar’s raunchy E-flat clarinet.
This performance was an emphatic reminder of just how visceral music can be indoors. Let’s hope that the rest of the season can proceed as planned.
Hertzog is a freelance writer.
