Peter LieuwenPhoto: Wayne Smith

The most remarkable aspect of this very nicely put together performance was the strength of those exposed solos, both musically and theatrically — the players in this orchestra knew how to evoke the characters in the ballet. Especially notable performances came from Martha Long (principal flute), Jennifer Berg (English horn), Lee Hipp (principal tuba), John Carroll (principal trumpet), Rodney Wollam (bass clarinet), Riely Francis (principal percussion) and Vivienne Spy (piano).  The distinct instrumental timbres that were so important to Stravinsky projected in glorious high-definition sound, visceral and bristling with presence, at least as heard in the mezzanine of the H-E-B Hall. The acoustics were absolutely ideal for this music — clean and nimble as the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Disney Concert Hall, but not quite so clinical; rich and blended as the Dallas Symphony’s Meyerson Symphony Center, but not so erotically opulent. The new San Antonio venue had some issues fresh out of the box last fall (as is the case with nearly every brand-new concert facility), but tinkering with the physical configuration and orchestral seating has  produced an acoustical environment that can compete with the best in the nation.  

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Vaslav Nijinsky created the role of Petrushka for the Ballets Russes. 

March 21, 2015 Put the right musicians and the right music in the right hall, and you have a special kind of magic. Few experiences in life can make the spirit smile so broadly.  Spirits smiled broadly indeed on March 20 when the San Antonio Symphony, under guest conductor Daniel Raiskin, essayed Igor Stravinsky’s “Petrushka” in the Tobin Center’s H-E-B Performance Hall. The landmark ballet score, in its 1947 version, capped a program that also held P.I. Tchaikovsky’s rarely performed “Voyevoda” symphonic ballad, the world premiere of Peter Lieuwen’s agreeable “Samba Spirits” and Frédéric Chopin’s Concerto in F Minor, with the pianist Alexei Volodin.   “Petrushka,” Stravinsky’s second collaboration with Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes, first appeared in 1911 in Paris. The ballet tells of a puppet jester who has been endowed with human feelings by his maker, a cruel magician. The composer revisited the score after World War II in part because the original version, published in Russia, was not protected by international copyright;  in order to benefit financially from the work’s great popularity, he would have to create a revised version for publication in the West. But the intervening years also had changed Stravinsky’s musical values in some ways. His music had become more economical, leaner.  The revised version, intended for concert performances rather than for ballet, calls for a slightly smaller orchestra and much more extensive use of the piano. The music is a bit more angular and contrapuntal, and it is more transparent to individual instrumental timbres in the many solo passages.    Bravi to acousticians Paul Scarbrough and Russ Todd and their colleagues at the Connecticut firm a-ku-stiks. (The tinkering, by the way, continues. The peripatetic Peter Flamm, principal timpani, was stationed this week at center-right rear, as seen by the audience, joining the rest of the percussion and the brass on a low platform. The shell, forestage reflector and stage extension were configured as they have been since Jan. 23-24.) Tchaikovsky himself regarded “Voyevoda” as “rubbish” and, almost immediately after  1891 premiere, destroyed the score; it was reconstructed later from the orchestral parts. Despite the composer’s misgivings, “Voyevoda” certainly held its head high in this performance. The music is inspired by the Polish writer Adam Mickiewicz’s story about an officer who returns home from war to find his wife with another man. Mr. Raiskin expertly built the tension across the long crescendos in the fast outer sections, with their ostinato figures suggesting a wild ride on horseback. The central romance was nicely shaped. Mr. Lieuwen is a native of Utrecht, The Netherlands, but he grew up in New Mexico and, since 1988, has been on the faculty of Texas A&M University. His five-minute “Samba Spirits,” continuing the symphony’s series of 75th-anniversary “American Preludes” commissions, is a sunny saunter briefly interrupted by a couple of stormy patches and some intriguing abrupt changes of color. The complex Brazilian-inspired rhythms suffered, alas, from some imprecise ensemble in this performance.  Many people probably enjoy Chopin’s F Minor concerto, but none of those people is writing this review. The piece is overdue for retirement. The solo line is overdecorated and often just sounds like flashy busy-work, while the orchestral writing is often murky and dull.  An extraordinary soloist can make the concerto tolerable. Mr. Volodin wasn’t that soloist. He elicited a beautiful tone (though not a lot of it) and a very nice legato from the Steinway, but his playing was largely monochromatic, and his phrasing too often impeded the rhythmic flow. His encore, Chopin’s Nocturne No. 20 in C-sharp Minor, Op. Post., came off more poetically.                                                                                                             Mike Greenberg

SA Symphony, Daniel Raiskin, Alexei Volodin

Bravi to the musicians — and the acousticians

Daniel Raiskin Photo:  Marco Borggreve

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