San Antonio Symphony
Vigor on the page , and on the podium
October 17, 2009The calendar said autumn, but the program was all youthful vigor -- and so was the leadership of guest conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni -- in the San Antonio Symphony’s concert of Oct. 16 in the Majestic Theater.
Both Richard Strauss and Ludwig van Beethoven were in their mid-20s, feeling their oats and strutting their stuff, when they completed, respectively, the splashy tone poem “Don Juan” and the brilliant Piano Concerto in B-flat. (Beethoven was in his late teens when he started work on this concerto.) Antonin Dvorak was a firmly established composer in his late 40s -- a fairly advanced age for the period -- when he conducted the premiere of his Symphony No. 8 in 1890, but only the brief introduction could be considered autumnal. The rest is among the most frolicsome music in the repertoire.
“Don Juan,” dating from 1889, was Strauss’s first big success. It is a compositional showpiece -- unprecedented in the intricacy of its use of the large orchestra as a palette of many colors -- and an orchestral showpiece, full of virtuosic solos and demanding taut ensemble all around. It’s also a conductor’s showpiece, because all those coloristic details have to be expressed at the right time without interrupting the forward motion.
Strauss’s music is mother’s milk to this orchestra, whose founding conductor, Max Reiter, was a friend and protégé of the composer. If one can overlook the chronic shortage of middle strings, a real problem in this music, the orchestra played like a champion. Especially notable work came from concertmaster Ertan Torgul, principal oboe Mark Ackerman and the wonderful horn section.
From the tornadic opening statement, Zeitouni impressed with his fleet pacing, superb sense of line -- flagging a bit only in the tender love scene with the oboe solo -- and attention to details of dynamics and articulation, which helped keep the balances light and bright. A friend reminded me of Larry Rachleff’s breathtaking account of the same piece with this orchestra just two years ago. If Zeitouni didn’t match that spine-tingling level, this was nonetheless a very handsomely rendered performance.
Zeitouni did a similarly fine job with the Dvorak. He always seemed to know exactly where the music was going and how to shape dynamics and tempo relations to lead the way. He got an uncommonly warm, silken sound from the strings. He had the patience to let the adagio unfold at its own pace and the skill to maintain its musical arc. He brought plenty of Bohemian feeling to the lilting allegretto, and the boisterous finale was plenty of fun, though perhaps not quite as giddy as it could have been.
In the Beethoven concerto, most of the musical interest was contributed by the orchestra and the conductor, who nicely brought out the Mozartean character of the introductory ritornello and gave the whole orchestral backdrop a beautifully flowing shape. The soloist was Misha Dichter, whose performance was remarkable mainly for the warp speed with which he began the finale and for a shortage of color or musical feeling all the way through. Dichter’s digital facility was ample, though not exceptional, but his dynamic range was narrow and his phrasing was often brusque. His encore, Debussy’s “Claire de lune,” was given souped-up Romantic treatment, but with too little sensitivity to the distinctly Debussian pulse.
If you’re keeping score on the search for a music director to succeed Rachleff, note that the orchestra gave Zeituni a thunderous foot-stomping salute at the end of the concert. His nearest competitor thus far, according to my reading of the feet-o-meter, is Sebastian Lang-Lessing, who returns next month to conduct Serge Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet” Suite and Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto with pianist Ewa Kupiec.
Mike
Greenberg
