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June 15, 2014 On June 12, 1939, the sounds emanating from the Sunken Garden Theater in Brackenridge Park were not the usual big band tunes or lectures or theatrical fare. This time, thanks to the efforts of a far-sighted and dedicated group of music lovers, the audience was introduced to the fledgling San Antonio Symphony, led by its founding music director Max Reiter. A German-Italian Jew, the conductor had fled anti-Semitism in Milan a year earlier and come to America in hopes of finding an orchestra. On that night, his dream became reality. Fast-forward 75 years to June 14, 2014, whenthat concert program was replicated amost in its entirety at the Majestic Theatre by the orchestra and its present music director, Sebastian Lang-Lessing. The only departure from the original agenda of Weber, Wagner and Ravel was substituting the Sibelius D-minor Violin Concerto for several works sung by renowned tenor Charles Kullman. The featured artist for Saturday's concert was violin virtuoso Joshua Bell, whose technicallybrilliant, deeply personal reading of the score demonstrated why his interpretations have been called “poetry.” Mr. Reiter's programming – all selections being richly melodic and vividly orchestrated – was a clear showcase for his new forces. We don't know about then, but the present-day orchestra was in top form: responsive, well-balanced and displaying impressive unity of purpose. The concert opener was the overture to “Oberon,” by Carl Maria von Weber, who is considered the father of German Romantic opera. His unique, colorful style incorporated folk tunes, horn calls and character motifs in ways that set the stage for music dramas by Richard Wagner and others that followed. The complex and rather silly “Oberon” is rarely staged, and its libretto was slammed for its “unmitigated awfulness,” but the overture is popular concert fare. Mr. Lang-Lessing elicited an expressive, beautifully contoured reading. The two Wagner opera excerpts that followed, the Prelude and Liebestod from “Tristan und Isolde” and the Prelude to “Die Meistersinger,” both brim with deeply felt emotion and longing not to mention daring (for the time) harmonies and dissonances. The first depicts passionate love in several forms, while the second evokes passion for attaining a long-held life goal in addition to love. Here, Mr. Lang-Lessing never lost architectural focus, but emphasized the nuances and dramatic sweep of each score. The orchestra played with distinction on virtually all sides and all sections, seasoned with exceptional solo work by section principals. San Antonio's introduction to the young violinist who was to become a superstar came in 1990, when Joshua Bell closed that season's Tuesday Musical Club Artist Series. Watching his career climb over the years has been fascinating, and the reasons for its success were abundantly obvious during his confident performance of the Sibelius. The tone was multi-hued, various aspects of the technique seemingly effortless, and, despite having played it countless times, there was a near-palpable emotional connection to the piece. Throughout, Mr. Lang-Lessing and musicians were strong, pliant partners. The concert's finale was a shimmering, properly hypnotic account of Maurice Ravel's “Bolero.”  In addition to celebrating the orchestra's 75th year, the concert also closed its final season at the Majestic Theatre. The symphony is moving to the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, the completely rebuilt and refurbished Municipal Auditorium, which was the orchestra's (then cavernous and acoustically bizarre) home for decades before it bounced around for a while and settled at the Majestic in 1989. How's that for a karma-driven circle? Diane Windeler

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Joshua Bell

A reprise, 75 years on

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San Antonio Symphony, SLL, Joshua Bell