Unduly-Neglected Prokofiev from Gil Shaham

Violinist Gil Shaham (photograph by Luke Ratray, courtesy of SFS)

Last night Davies Symphony Hall saw the return of violinist Gil Shaham in his latest regular appearance as guest artist with the San Francisco Symphony (SFS), performing under the baton of Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT). Throughout his career Shaham has maintained a consistently adventurous approach to repertoire where both selection and interpretation are concerned. Last night he chose to give the first of the week’s three performances of the lesser known of Sergei Prokofiev’s two violin concertos, Opus 19 in D major.

The score had a somewhat rocky history. Prokofiev began work on it in 1915, moved on to other projects, and only completed it during the summer of 1917. However, its premiere was delayed, particularly because of the difficulty the composer had in finding a soloist up to the task of performance. Ultimately, the premiere had to wait until Prokofiev was living in Paris, where Serge Koussevitzky presented with the Paris Opera Orchestra on October 18, 1923 with Marcel Darrieux, the orchestra’s Concertmaster, as soloist.

The concerto was not received very well by Koussevitzky’s audience, but one member of that audience was Joseph Szigeti. He was impressed enough to decide that he would add the concerto to his personal repertory. Also, as bit of irony, the concerto received its first performance (of sorts) in the Soviet Union only three days later. The violinist was Nathan Milstein; and, because an orchestra was not available, a piano reduction of the score was played by Vladimir Horowitz.

The solo part is extremely challenging, one might almost say uncompromisingly so. Nevertheless, as always seems to be the case, Shaham breezed his way through the performance without showing the least sign of intimidation. MTT was always right there with him, reinforcing the solo work with Prokofiev’s consistently imaginative approaches to his instrumental resources.

One of the more curious aspects of the instrumentation involved brass resources consisting of four horns, two trumpets, and one tuba. In the absence of any trombones, the audience could enjoy a better look at Principal Tuba Jeffrey Anderson, who clearly grasped both the comic and the lyrical in Prokofiev’s use of his instrument. As always seems to be the case when he ventures into rarely travelled repertoire, Shaham left the attentive listener with an eager desire listen to this concerto more often.

Having selected an unfamiliar concerto, Shaham then took an unconventional approach to his encore. While he tends heavily to draw upon solo Bach for his encores, last night he turned to Jean-Marie Leclair, who is probably best known for having composed twelve sonatas for two violins in two collections of six. Last night’s selection was the Gavotte movement from the fifth of the sonatas (in E minor) from the Opus 3 collection. Shaham was joined by Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik for the performance, which was as delightfully engaging as it was novel.

The “overture” for last night’s overture-concerto-symphony program was the world premiere of Steven Mackey’s “Portals, Scenes and Celebrations.” The piece was composed on an SFS commission for MTT. As Mackey observed in his notes for the program book, this was his sixth piece for MTT in the year in which the conductor will reach the age of 75 (this coming December). This was a decidedly upbeat composition that romped its way through the full extent of SFS resources and then some. (The percussion section required two small bottles of compressed air hissing out in rhythm.) Everyone seemed to be having fun with the piece (including Mackey taking his bows). In the grand scheme of things, the work may not have much staying power; but it was certainly enjoyable in its “first contact” experience.

The symphony that concluded the program was Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 36 (fourth) symphony in F minor. I am never sure what to expect each time I encounter this symphony. The very way in which it was written is almost an invitation to over-indulgence, with conductors being the worst offenders in accepting that invitation. In addition, my past history with listening to MTT’s Tchaikovsky has been checkered. Back in August of 2015 he conducted the Opus 64 (fifth) symphony in E minor; and all I could hear was the ghost of music critic Julius Korngold yelling at his son Erich, “Don’t bathe!” In MTT’s interpretation, the water was spilling out of all sides of the tub.

I was therefore more that a little relieved last night to encounter a reading of Opus 36 that was more interested in the relations among the thematic subjects than in the composer’s personal agonies. Yes, the brass section pulled out all of the stops during the opening measures. However, they had plenty of time to recover their strength over the course of the symphony’s four movements. So, when the time came to establish the conclusion of the final movement as the ultimate climax, the entire ensemble was ready to rise to the occasion. MTT managed to summon up a “listener’s Tchaikovsky,” one of the rarest of birds, whose presence was greatly appreciated by this particular listener last night.