Weilerstein’s Program of Sharp Contrasts

SFS Visiting Conductor Joshua Weilerstein (photograph by Sim Canetty Clark, courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony)

My choice of headline comes directly from Joshua Weilerstein, who is conducting this week’s program of the San Francisco Symphony. Particularly noteworthy is that the two primary contrasting composers are both Czech, separated by about half a century. The earlier of these was Antonín Dvořák, represented by his Opus 22 serenade in E major for string ensemble, which he composed in 1875 when he was 33 years older. The later composer was Bohuslav Martinů, whose 1938 concerto for two string orchestras, piano, and timpani was written after he had fled to Switzerland as Adolf Hitler began to expand German control over Europe. Ironically, his concerto was completed on the date of the signing of the Munich Agreement, in which the United Kingdom, France, and Italy allowed Germany to appropriate that portion of Czechoslovakia known as the Sudetenland.

In that context Martinů’s concerto was the darkest selection on the program. It would not stretch the imagination too far to approach the two string orchestras as the opposing forces arguing over whether the annexation Germany desired could be called more accurately invasion. Similarly, the aggressive timpani performance by Edward Stephan easily evoked Hitler’s stentorian rhetoric, making his demands with no room for the slightest compromise. The piano part, in turn, tended more toward percussive reinforcement, rather than thematic intervention between the two string ensembles.

(As a sidebar it is worth noting that it did not take long for Martinů to feel as much at risk in Switzerland as he had been in Czechoslovakia; and he emigrated to the United States in 1941, where he would live in New York City.)

The Dvořák serenade provided just the right sunny disposition to dispense with the dark shadows of Martinů’s concerto. This has long been a popular composition with an impressive discography. Nevertheless, there is much to be gained from listening to this music in concert. Dvořák had an uncanny knack for interleaving the voices of an ensemble. That skill is frequently evident in his chamber music for strings, but it is particularly sophisticated in the Opus 22 serenade. Thus, between the spatial layout of the performers and the clarity of the performance that Weilerstein conducted, one could appreciate the full extent of interleaving details, even without the benefit of looking at the score pages themselves.

The Martinů and Dvořák selections were separated by a string orchestra account of the second (Andante moderato) movement from Florence Price’s string quartet in G major. Readers may recall that violinists Annamarie Arai and Kashi Elliott, violist Christina Simpson, and cellist James Jaffe performed this quartet in its entirety for the One Found Sound “virtual watch party” streamed this past November. Weilerstein brought convincing clarity to last night’s ensemble version, but I suspect that I shall always prefer string quartets to be played by only four performers. The program sheet included the account of how this quartet was one of the manuscripts that was not discovered until 2009; and, as a result, the date of composition printed on the program (1929) amounts to a well-educated conjecture, similar to the situation on the American Quintets recording of Price’s piano quintet discussed on this site this past Wednesday.