Stasevska Returns: More Sibelius and a Premiere

Conductor Dalia Stasevska (from her Web site)

Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska made her debut with the San Francisco Symphony almost exactly two years ago, at the end of April of 2023. Her program emphasized Finnish composer Jean Sibelius with Joshua Bell as soloist in a performance of the violin concerto (Opus 47 in D minor), followed by the second symphony (Opus 43 in D major) for the second half of the program. Last night she returned to Davies Symphony Hall, concluding her program with another Sibelius symphony, Opus 82, the fifth in E-flat major. The first half of the program presented the world premiere of “Before we fall,” composed for cello and orchestra by Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir with Johannes Moser as soloist. The program began with Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis,” composed for three string ensembles, a large one on stage, a smaller one in one of the Terrace areas, and a string quartet.

“Before we fall” was the most disappointing of the selections. The program book included two extended quotations from Thorvaldsdottir. Sadly, these said more about the music than the music could say about itself. Mind you, there were many impressive demands on Moser’s cello skills, and he handled them all confidently and adeptly. Nevertheless, there was little to mine from the engagement between soloist and ensemble; and, as is often the case in such situations, the entire affair outstayed its welcome long before the halfway mark of the overall 25-minute duration.

Once again, the listening experience was far more satisfying through the previous century than with the recent past. The Vaughan Williams and Sibelius selections were composed within five years of each other (1910 and 1915, respectively). They could not have been more different; but, under Stasevska’s attentive control, they made for thoroughly engaging “bookends.”

Her conducting skills could not have been better in balancing the three ensembles in the Tallis fantasia. Where Sibelius was concerned, it was a matter of pace and phrasing. There is almost a sense of stream-of-consciousness meandering that pervades the three movements and the final coda feels almost as if it had been deliberately conceived to provoke. One wonders just how this music should be interpreted, but Stasevska seems to have found the path to delivering an account that let the music speak for itself.

To be fair, however, Sibelius composed this symphony in 1915. He revised it one year later, and revised it again in 1919. (When the Sibelius Edition of recordings was released, it included both the 1915 and 1919 versions.) Stasevska opted for the original one from 1915. Personally, I appreciated her making that choice!