Salonen Brings his Cello Concerto to San Francisco

 Cellist Rainer Eudeikis (photograph by Kristen Loken, courtesy of San Francisco Symphony)

Last night in Davies Symphony Hall, Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen led the San Francisco Symphony in a performance of his own cello concerto, which he had written for Yo-Yo Ma in 2016. This was a major undertaking for a full instrumental ensemble with a generous percussion section (distributed between the rear and front of the stage), augmented with live electronics designed and maintained by Ella Wahlström. The cello soloist was Rainer Eudeikis, who holds the Philip S. Boon Chair of Principal Cello.

The performance was as engaging as it was energetic. Indeed, the energy was so intense that one of Eudeikis’ string broke. All string players are prepared for this problem, and the string was quickly replaced and adjusted over the course of a relatively brief pause. If the overall flow of the performance was interrupted, one could still appreciate the rhetorical diversity in the interpretation of Salonen’s score. Indeed, as mathematicians would say, this was music of “high information content;” and it was clear that there was far more depth to the structure than one could glean from the “surface structure” of a “first contact.” Personally, I found the encounter an engaging one, leaving me wishing that I could get to know the music better through a recording.

The concerto began the second half of the program, which then concluded with a far more familiar selection. This was Claude Debussy’s three-movement tone poem “La Mer.” This music is so familiar and so well enjoyed that it is hard to believe that the initial reactions were negative. One reviewer, Pierre Lalo, declared, “I do not hear, I do not see, I do not smell the sea” (as if that was what was expected of the listener). These days listeners seem to be more receptive, and the music has achieved “war horse” status.

Perhaps Debussy’s listeners were not yet attuned to the rich interplay of thematic sources. Contemporary ears respond to such complexity far more readily. For that matter, the music has received so much attention that most listeners recognize at least a few, if not many, of the motifs that may have puzzled initial listeners because they never unfolded into themes. Salonen’s command of the interplay of those motifs could not have been better; and, when they all came together in the final measures, his control made for a thoroughly stirring climax.

The first half of the program was devoted entirely to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 68, his sixth (“Pastoral”) symphony in F major. By way of disclaimer, I should confess that this was the first Beethoven symphony I really got to know in my childhood. I suspect that the programmatic titles of the five movements served as a guideline that was lacking in other symphonies I was encountering at that time. Later, of course, I would encounter the visual interpretation of those titles in Fantasia; but, by that time, my own imagination had been sufficient to guide me through the program. Fortunately, Salonen’s interpretation came closer to that imagination than it did to Fantasia; and I was locked into his approaches to the different dramatic motifs from the opening “Awakening” gesture to the final cadence of the “Shepherd’s Song.” Having lived with this music for more years than I would care to enumerate, I could still enjoy the freshness of last night’s performance.