Czech Philharmonic Honors its “Native Son”

When the Czech Philharmonic presented its debut concert in 1896, it was conducted by Antonín Dvořák. Since that time the ensemble has cultivated a rich repertoire with particular attention to Czech composers, but its bond with Dvořák will always be the strongest. Therefore, it should be no surprise that, when the ensemble visited Davies Symphony Hall last night for the latest installment in the Great Performers Series presented by the San Francisco Symphony, the program consisted entirely of Dvořák’s music, all the way down to the two encores that concluded the evening.

Conductor Semyon Bychkov (photograph by Sheila Rock, courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony)

The ensemble was led by Chief Conductor and Music Director Semyon Bychkov. The soloist was Alisa Weilerstein in a performance of the Opus 104 cello concerto in B minor. This one composition accounted for the first half of the program, whose second half also presented only one piece, the Opus 70 (seventh) symphony in D minor. Those with the right vantage point were able to notice that Weilerstein returned to the stage to take a place as a member of the cello section. Both of the encores were taken from Dvořák’s two collections of Slavonic dances.

The Czech Philharmonic made its first appearance in Davies in 2000 as part of the Great Performers Series. Given how many young faces were up on stage, it is likely some major changes in personnel have taken place between then and now. Most importantly, however, is that this is a highly disciplined ensemble that could not have been better matched to Bychkov through both his attentiveness to the text and his capacity for expressiveness across a broad range of emotional dispositions. Indeed, both concerto and symphony take an expansive approach to that breadth, perhaps due to Dvořák’s potentials for expressiveness when working in a minor key.

Where that “text” was concerned, Bychkov was particularly effective in recognizing the rich palette of sonorities that Dvořák evoked in the use of a relatively “routine” ensemble of strings, winds, and brass. Indeed, the choice of instruments was so conventional that the appearance of a triangle at the beginning of the final movement of the Opus 104 concerto almost comes as a shock. Nevertheless, Bychkov’s sense of balance was so acute that the attentive listener could be easily surprised at the wide diversity of imaginative sonorities that emerge behind the cello’s solo work.

For her part Weilerstein has a long history with this concerto. Nevertheless, like Bychkov, she seemed to appreciate just how many stunning details there were in the score. Thus, even in the most familiar passages, there was always a sense that Weilerstein was consistently finding new lights that would bring the freshness of discovery to her interpretation. Sadly, there are some prominent cellists out there susceptible to “bathing” in the lusher qualities of Dvořák’s score. Fortunately, Weilerstein is not one of them; and last night’s interpretation felt more like new discovery than an encounter with old friends.

Where the Opus 70 symphony is concerned, Bychkov did not have to worry quite so much about excessive familiarity. The piece is not ignored; but it does not have the popular draw of either Opus 95 (“From the New World”) in E minor or Opus 88 in G major. Nevertheless, the music serves up a rich variety of imaginatively expressive passages, delivered through tempi that range from the raging Vivace of the Scherzo to the intensely introspective Poco adagio second movement.

That expressiveness remained in play through the two encore selections of Slavonic dances. The first came from the second series, Opus 72, the second dance in the set of eight in the key of E minor. This took the attentive listener back to those introspective moments in both Opus 70 and Opus 104, which Bychkov had disclosed with so much sensitivity. Having served up a healthy round of sentiment, Bychkov wrapped up the evening with the very first (C major) dance in the Opus 46 series.

The one departure from Dvořák came in Weilerstein’s encore selection. She, too, opted for the virtue of a shift in mood. However, for her solo encore performance she went back to the mother lode of solo cello music, the suites of Johann Sebastian Bach. She chose the quietude of the saraband from the E-flat major suite (BWV 1010), almost a reflection of the quietude encountered in the final measures of the solo cello part in the Opus 104 concerto (before the orchestra has a last hurrah for its own say).