John Storgårds at SF Symphony

John Storgåards

Photo by Marco Borggreve / courtesy of San Francisco Symphony

John Storgårds conducted SFS last week for the first time, and his work was a wow. If the orchestra hadn't already engaged Jaap van Zweden to lead an unnecessary full cycle of the Beethoven symphonies over this and the next two seasons, I'd suggest they hire this guy.

• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV/SF Chronicle
• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle
• Harvey Steiman, Seen & Heard International
• Charlise Tiee, Opera Tattler
• Stephen Smoliar, The Rehearsal Studio

During the Beethoven, I kept thinking "Gosh, the last time I heard this the conducting wasn't nearly as good. Who was it?" The answer turned out to be....Jaap van Zweden. Joshua Kosman liked that performance more than I did.

 

Van Zweden Takes the Fifth

 

Davies Symphony Hall

Jaap van Zweden, the outgoing music director the NY Philharmonic, was the guest conductor last week at San Francisco Symphony.

I heard JvZ live only once before, at the Chicago Symphony in November, 2016. At that concert, he conducted the instrumental version of the Prelude and Liebestodt fromWagner's Tristan und Isolde, Mozart's Masonic Funeral Music, and the Brahms Requiem, the big piece on the program. I don't seem to have written a blog post about it, and it was months before I blogged about the primary reason I was in Chicago, performances at Lyric Opera of Berlioz's Les Troyens. 

I do remember not really liking anything on the program. The Wagner was stodgy, the Mozart had little sparkle, the Brahms was at best okay. The orchestra's ensemble wasn't great; nothing seemed to hang together.

My other experience with van Zweden was reviewing the first two installments of his concert performances, with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, of Wagner's Der Ring des Niebelungen. I though the casting a very mixed bag (Matthias Goerne as Wotan? Petra Lang as Brünnhilde??); I thought the orchestra had a poor sense of style; I thought the conducting off in various ways. I was not at all surprised to learn that he'd never conducted a staged Wagner opera. They lack drama, and I disliked them enough that I declined to review Siegfried and Götterdämmergung. (Those reviews were published in Leitmotiv, the journal of the Northern California Wagner Society; if you'd like copies, let me know.)

All of this throat-clearing is prefatory to saying that did my best to go into Thursday's performance with an open mind, because you never know when you're about to see a great performance. Performers can surprise you!

And indeed, I was very, very pleasantly surprised by van Zweden's account of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony. It was colorful, flexibly conducted, well paced, and with plenty of drama. It was an excellent performance and I have no complaints about it. I wasn't taking notes, and I also haven't got a lot of details to provide about it.

On the other hand, wow, the other big 5 on the program, the one by Beethoven? Ooof. I didn't like it at all, although I'll note that nearly everyone else in the audience gave it a standing ovation.

What didn't I like? Well, the whole darned thing sounded grayish, without a lot of color; the tempos, while not in Norrington territory, were fast and did not work well, because van Zweden trampled on a lot of fermatas and rests and did not give the music room to breathe or space for the fermatas and rests to make their various structural points. The gorgeous second movement came off as perfunctory and without nuance. There was little mystery in the initial statement of the scherzo, or in its ghost, which returns in the last movement.

It was not anywhere near as bad as the truly dreadful Schubert Great C Major Symphony that Manfred Honeck conducted last year, which was super-fast for its own sake and consequently lost all detail. It just wasn't really good, and the Shostakovich showed what van Zweden is capable of. I don't know if the Beethoven just got the short end of the rehearsal time stick, or what. 

I was also reminded that I missed the last performance of Beethoven's 5th, two years ago during the Omircron COVID surge. I believe that it was on a program with the Nielsen Fifth, a quirky and fabulous symphony, and that Herbert Blomstedt conducted it. I turned in my ticket, which I deeply, deeply regret.

Elsewhere:

• Joshua Kosman, SF Chronicle, is more enthused about the Beethoven than I am. I agree completely about principal flute Yubeen Kim, who has a gorgeous sound that he can vary at will.
• Rebecca Wishnia, SFCV
• DB at Kalimac

Previously:

• Alex Ross, TNY, on van Zweden's appointment. Note the remarks in both New Yorker articles about Salonen, for whose presence in SF I am grateful, however long his tenure here might be.
• Alex Ross, TNY, on various issues around the NYPO's search for a music director, including a review of a JvZ concert that included Beethoven's Fifth.
• Zachary Woolfe reviews the same concert in the NY Times (gift link)

Valley of the Moon Festival, 2020

The upcoming Valley of the Moon Festival is, well, what you might expect this year: there's a whole lot of Beethoven, but 1) original instruments 2) a good chunk is off the beaten track. The musicians are a very fine bunch.

Here's the full schedule:

WHAT:

The sixth annual VALLEY OF THE MOON MUSIC FESTIVAL presenting a program in celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, The Obsession: Beethoven’s Influence 1770 – 2020.

MUSICIANS:

Violin

Liana Bérubé

Elizabeth Blumenstock

Cynthia Freivogel

Francisco Fullana

Monica Huggett

Catherine Manson

Rachel Barton Pine

Anna Presler

Rachell Wong (TANK Trust Laureate)

Viola

Andrew Gonzalez

Phyllis Kamrin

Cello

Tanya Tomkins

Clarinet

Eric Hoeprich

Fortepiano

David Belkovski (TANK Trust Laureate)

Christian De Luca (TANK Trust Laureate)

Eric Zivian

Contralto

Emily Marvosh

Tenor

Kyle Stegall

WHEN:  

April 25 – 26, 2020 in residence at the Green Music Center

Saturday and Sunday

July 18 – August 2, 2020 in residence at the Hanna Center

Saturdays and Sundays

PROGRAM:  

April 25, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.

MUSICIANS FROM VALLEY OF THE MOON MUSIC FESTIVAL IN CONCERT WITH SONOMA STATE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Johannes Brahms, Double Concerto in A minor, Op. 102

Beethoven, Symphony No. 5

Liana Bérubé, violin

Tanya Tomkins, cello

Alex Kahn, conductor

*   *   *

April 26, 2020 at 3 p.m.

“BEETHOVEN: THE SHATTERING OF FORM”

All-Beethoven program:

Sonata for Piano in E-flat major, Op. 27, no. 1

Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 1, no. 3

Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major, Op. 30, no. 1

Clarinet Trio in B-flat major, Op. 11

Eric Hoeprich, clarinet

Catherine Manson, violin

Tanya Tomkins, cello

Eric Zivian, fortepiano

* * *

July 18, 2020 at 4 p.m.

"A CROWN UPON HIS HEAD, A THORN IN HIS PAW"

Beethoven, An die Ferne Geliebte

Robert Schumann, Fantasy, Op. 17

Antonin Dvořák, Songs

Dvořák, Piano Quintet

Kyle Stegall, tenor

Eric Hoeprich, clarinet

Francisco Fullana, violin

Rachell Wong, violin

Tanya Tomkins, cello

Eric Zivian, fortepiano

* * *

July 19, 2020 at 4 p.m.

“THE MOST PRESCIENT MESSENGER OF THE FUTURE”

C. P. E. Bach, Sonata for Violin and Fortepiano in C minor

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sonata in E minor, K. 304

Igor Stravinsky, Duo Concertant

Beethoven, Songs

Beethoven, String Quintet, Op. 29 (“Storm”)

Kyle Stegall, tenor

Eric Hoeprich, clarinet

Liana Bérubé, violin

Francisco Fullana, violin

Rachell Wong, violin

Phyllis Kamrin, viola
Tanya Tomkins, cello

Eric Zivian, fortepiano

David Belkovski, fortepiano

* * *

July 25, 2020 at 4 p.m.

“A GIANT MARCHING BEHIND”

Joseph Haydn, Piano Trio

Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms, Songs to Goethe texts

Brahms, Sonata for Violin and Piano in D minor, Op. 108

Emily Marvosh, contralto

Elizabeth Blumenstock, violin

Rachel Barton Pine, violin

Tanya Tomkins, cello

Eric Zivian, fortepiano

Christian De Luca, fortepiano

* * *

July 26, 2020 at 4 p.m.

“BEETHOVEN WAS WRONG!”

Carl Maria von Weber, Piano Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 8

Hector Berlioz, Claude Debussy et al., French songs

John Cage, Six Melodies for Violin and Keyboard

Maurice Ravel, Piano Trio

Emily Marvosh, contralto

Rachel Barton Pine, violin

Tanya Tomkins, cello

Eric Zivian, fortepiano

with participating apprentices

* * *

August 1, 2020 at 2:30 p.m.

FREE CONCERT

Featuring VMMF apprentices to be announced this spring

* * *

August 1, 2020 at 4 p.m.

“MUSIC IS THE SHORTHAND OF EMOTION”

Clara Schumann, Piano Trio

Leoš Janáček, String Quartet No. 1 (“Kreutzer Sonata”)

Beethoven, Sonata in A minor, Op. 47 (“Kreutzer”)

Liana Bérubé, violin

Cynthia Freivogel, violin

Monica Huggett, violin

Anna Presler, violin

Phyllis Kamrin, viola

Tanya Tomkins, cello

Eric Zivian, fortepiano

with participating apprentices

* * *

August 2, 2020 at 11 a.m.

“HIS WORSHIPPER AND ADMIRER”

Carl Czerny, Funeral March

Franz Schubert, Sonatina for Violin and Piano

Beethoven, Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 97 (“Archduke”)

Tanya Tomkins, cello

Eric Zivian, fortepiano

with participating apprentices

* * *

August 2, 2020 at 4 p.m.

“NO LONGER MUSIC, BUT A NEW ART”

Beethoven/Ries, Eroica Symphony, first movement

Berlioz/Liszt, Harold in Italy, first movement

Beethoven, Sonata for Violin and Piano

Brahms, String Quintet in G major, Op. 111

Cynthia Freivogel, violin

Andrew Gonzalez, viola

Tanya Tomkins, cello

Eric Zivian, fortepiano

with participating apprentices

WHERE:

Green Music Center

Sonoma State University

1801 East Cotati Avenue

Rohnert Park, CA 94928

Hanna Center Auditorium

17000 Arnold Drive

Sonoma, CA 95476

TICKETS:

$25 - $45 

Discount tickets available for individuals under 35 years old, for early bird reservations, and for groups of six or more. Discounts also apply to packages of two or more concerts.

Tickets will go on sale this spring at valleyofthemoonmusicfestival.tix.com or by phone at 888-596-1027.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

valleyofthemoonmusicfestival.org

Really?

Garrick Ohlsson is giving a recital at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and the press release includes this:

The program opens with Sonata Op. 13, "Pathétique," a piece that was a major early success for Beethoven and established him as a significant composer, not just a pianist. Following are Op. 57, nicknamed "Appassionata," and Op. 53, the "Waldstein," the latter of which is considered the most technically challenging of all the composer's sonatas.

The Waldstein? Really? I thought it was Op. 106, für das Hammerklavier, that most struck terror into the hearts of pianists.