The San Diego Symphony’s season-closer on Saturday night was a spectacular synthesis of all the strengths of this indefatigable company.
Music Director Rafael Payare ionately conducted the eagerly responsive and technically superb orchestra in a program of French and Venezuelan music.
It was enhanced by videos on a very wide screen (an aspect of roughly 4:1) suspended from that architectural and acoustical marvel, the Rady Shell.
CEO Martha Gilmer and the Symphony’s creative consultant, Gerard McBurney, have done fine things in the past with projections, but they hit their highest note yet with the videos that accompanied the music that evening.
Video artist Amelia Kosminsky created slowly changing images derived from still photos that wonderfully complemented the music. In Fauré’s Suite from “Pelléas et Mélisande,” a forest shimmered above the “Prélude” and church-like ruins accompanied “The Death of Melisande.”
The Suite was given an elegantly sensual reading by Payare and the musicians, with noteworthy contributions from oboist Sarah Skuster, flutist Rose Lombardo and harpist Julie Smith Phillips.
Evencio Castellanos was a very influential mid-20th-century musician and teacher in Venezuela, but remains unknown here. His “Santa Cruz de Pacairigua” is a tone poem inspired by a Catholic feast day in a Venezuelan village, a heady mix of folk music and Gregorian chant spiced up with polytonality and polyrhythms. It brought to mind the rowdy, exuberant nationalistic music of Silvestre Revueltas.
From the opening arresting trumpet solo by Christopher Smith to the happy buzz and whir from the brass and percussion sections in the finale, Payare and company took the audience on a thrilling ride that prompted wild applause when all was done. Alberto Arvelo’s verdant video complemented the festive atmosphere without stealing any focus from this brilliant score.
The most impressive video contribution from Kosminsky occurred for “La Péri” by Paul Dukas. It was composed for a ballet about a legendary ruler who finds a lotus that could grant him eternal life. He steals it from the titular mythical being, which in turn regains it and destroys it.
Kosminsky’s video featured ancient ruins (from Iran or Greece?) and a lotus blossom that changed colors. The projection of the libretto on the screen was a great help in following this unfamiliar tale.
Dukas’ harmonies partake of his contemporary, Debussy, but with structures that seem more inspired by the classicism of their senior, Fauré. Payare oversaw a detailed but sensuous reading from the orchestra.
Programming Fauré and Dukas for the first half may have been too subtle for the Venezuelan musical fireworks that overshadowed them on the second half. The evening exuberantly concluded with a multidimensional performance of Antonio Estévez’s “Cantata Criolla.”
Director Albert Arvelo created the stunning black-and-white film that obliquely depicted the score’s action. A troubadour, sung by tenor Aquiles Machado, rides his horse on the barren Venezuelan plains. He encounters the Devil, heartily portrayed by baritone Gustavo Castillo, and is challenged to a singing duel.
The 1954 score is a mixture of nationalism and Stravinsky (from his “Rite of Spring” and “Symphony of Psalms” periods). Estévez brilliantly combined these ingredients into a potent crowd-pleaser.
The San Diego Master Chorale contributed mightily with lusty or dramatic singing. To add final zing to the proceedings, nine actresses portraying different incarnations of the Virgin Mary walked down the aisles and took to the stage to dispel the devil.
The brass section was stellar throughout, and the audience gave everyone a heartfelt standing ovation.
The entire evening was an enthralling confirmation of the great things Payare and the Symphony have accomplished, and a seductive taste of possibilities to come next season in a renovated Copley Symphony Hall.
Hertzog is a freelance writer.
