San Francisco Chamber Orchestra’s “Revolution”

Last night the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra (SFCO) brought its second MainStage concert performance to Herbst Theatre. The title of the program was The Revolutionary Artist, and it would be fair to say that each of the three selections was revolutionary in its own way. The second half of the program was devoted entirely to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 92 (seventh) symphony in A major. By the time Beethoven composed this piece in 1812, his departures from past conventions had become well-known to his audiences; but he still had a knack for pulling unconventional rabbits out of unexpected hats.

The first half of the program was unconventional simply for extracting single movements from multi-movement compositions. Mind you, taking on a single movement from a concerto by Niccolò Paganini is a major undertaking; and, since the soloist was fourteen-year old Lisa Saito (a student of Concertmaster Robin Sharp), jumping through all of the hoops of the Opus 6 violin concerto movement was challenge enough! Saito’s performance was consistently solid and just as consistently balanced in her engagement with the orchestra. Mind you, that single movement is a rather long-winded one; but conductor Jory Fankuchen knew how to maintain a pace that would fit in with Saito’s approach to interpretation.

The cover illustration of Louise Farrenc on her Erato album, recognizing the attention she deserved last night

This opening movement was preceded by a finale: the Allegro movement concluding the last of Louise Farrenc’s three symphonies, Opus 36 composed in the key of G minor. Some readers may recall that I came to know all three of these through an Erato release performed by the Insula orchestra conducted by Laurence Equilbey. However, I wrote about that listening experience in June of 2023; and, by last night, most of those thoughts had faded from memory. Nevertheless, G minor tends to be a good key for getting audience attention; and, once again, Fankuchen found the right way to engage the audience from the very beginning of the evening.