Dalia Stasevska at San Francisco Symphony

 

Davies Symphony Hall

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

Ukranian-Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska made her debut at SFS this week, in a program of Sibelius standards with an opener of Anna Meredith's brief Nautilus. Davies had a big crowd last night, and it took me some time to realize that the reason was not the Sibelius or Stasevska herself, but the presence of violinist Joshua Bell on the program.

I was not particularly enthused about the perpetually boyish Bell myself; at 55, throwing his head back, closing his eyes, and communing with his bow and violin are wearing thin. Of course, I could close my eyes myself, or focus on Stasevska and the orchestra during the Sibelius violin concerto, a great work and among my favorites.

And mostly I did that! But here I have to make a confession: I imprinted strongly and early on the Ormandy/Oistrakh/Philly LP of the piece, which was issued with a magnificent Swan of Tuonela as well. It's a fairly wild ride, and honestly I can't attest to how rhythmically accurate Oistrakh is, but his passion and technical brilliance are dead on. And also his clean articulation and rich tone.

Bell's trademark sound is smooooooooth, smooth like butter, and alas not really what I want to hear in the piece. I want to hear the violinist's bowing, dammit. Bell's style tends to homogenize the phrases and that sound....it's beautiful but...for me, not in this piece.  I confess that I spent some time with my eyes closed....wondering what Alina Ibragimova or Leila Josefowicz would sound like in this concerto.

As well, I thought I heard a few bobbles from Bell here and there, with a couple someplace in the first movement and another coming out of the passage in harmonics in the last. I own that I also thought I heard more portamento than you usually get from the soloist in this work. I approve of portamento, so good for him.

Deep breath. It wasn't the only thing on the program. Nautilus is for a biggish orchestra with a lot of percussion, bouncy and minimalist and really a lot of fun. For it, Stasevska and several of the percussionists -- and maybe some other players -- had earpieces, I assume for a click track. The work was originally written for electronics, but was then orchestrated later.

The big revelation of the evening was Stasevska herself, who led a fabulous performance of Sibelius's Symphony No. 2. She's a conductor of big, sweeping gestures, and her conception of the work was big and sweeping, which, of course, it is. Her tempo for the first movement was brisker than I've heard previous and it worked marvelously well. Throughout, the orchestra sounded fantastic, with an especially rich sound from the strings, and stunning playing from the entire brass section. The flutes sounded especially good in the last movement; Linda Lukas was in the second chair, and while I recognized the player in the first chair, I can't dig up his name from my memory. They were great together.

Lastly, and this is comparatively trivial, Stasevska conducted in loose black pants and an extremely beautiful and colorful jacket over a black shell, breaking the conductors-all-wear-black model. You can see it in the photos in Joshua Kosman's review, link below.

Updates: Yes, there was a click track in Nautilus and that's the reason for the earpieces that Stasevska and some of the musicians wore. And I forgot to say that seeing associate principal timpani Bryce Leafman playing a timpano barehanded in the work was extremely cool.

Related:

• Victoria Looseleaf, SFCV: Dalia Stasevska Has the Heart of a Lion
• Joshua Kosman, SF Chron. Yes, I would be one of those listeners.
• Steven Winn, SFCV
• DB, Kalimac's corner