Last night in Herbst Theatre, the New Century Chamber Orchestra (NCCO) launched the San Francisco installment of its 2021–2022 season. The title of the program was, appropriately enough, New Century Returns; and the performance itself made a convincing case that the ensemble is, indeed, back in business. Music Director Daniel Hope served as both Concertmaster and soloist, as well as providing useful commentary on the program selections in the absence of program-book content.
There was enough diversity in the program to appeal to a variety of tastes. My own personal preference tended towards the second of the three works performed, the Opus 42 concertino by Mieczysław Weinberg. Due in no small part to the efforts of violinist Gidon Kremer, there has been a gradual swell of interest in Weinberg’s music that has accumulated over the course of my writing activities. As I result, I now find myself with a generous supply of recordings of his music but few opportunities to listen to his work in performance.
Hope provided a brief biographical introduction, beginning, as many do, with the prodigious size of the Weinberg catalog. That included seventeen string quartets and 22 symphonies, the last of which was the final entry in his catalog, Opus 154. He had been championed by Dmitri Shostakovich, but both of them fell afoul of Joseph Stalin’s brutality. Indeed, Weinberg had been sentenced to death; and his life was spared only due to Stalin’s death of March 5, 1953. (By that time his opus count had only been in the low fifties.)
Opus 42 was composed in 1948, a time when composers such as Shostakovich were getting out from under the depression of having to endure World War II. Hope joked about the fact that Weinberg had been criticized for writing too much in the minor mode, so he tried to turn the tide with Opus 42. However, no key is provided in the published edition of this composition; and, while there may be major mode cadences, the prevailing rhetoric still resides in minor. Nevertheless, it was more than a little refreshing to experience the textures of this music in performance, rather than contending with a recording (even a recoding made by Kremer).
If Opus 42 was written at the time of a close relationship between Weinberg and Shostakovich, the final work on the program, Josef Suk’s Opus 6 serenade, reflected an even closer relationship. Suk’s most inspiring teacher was Antonín Dvořák, and the two of them became very close at a personal level. Indeed, Suk became so close to the Dvořák family that he married his teacher’s daughter Otilie. It is reasonable to assume that Suk’s Opus 6 was, at least in part, a reflection on Dvořák’s Opus 22 string serenade in E major. However, Suk’s composition is on a somewhat shorter scale of only four movements and tends to lack the transparency found when Dvořák wrote for a small string ensemble. Nevertheless, Hope’s programming allowed for an informative journey of discovery.
The program opened with the United States premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s “Lament,” scored for solo violin and strings. NCCO contributed to the commissioning of this composition. Back in the last decade, Turnage had established a bit of a “bad boy” reputation, having composed operas about both Jerry Springer and Anna Nicole Smith. My own first encounter took place in Davies Symphony Hall, when Benjamin Shwartz led the San Francisco Symphony in a performance of Turnage’s Three Asteroids. This was also around the time that a new Godzilla movie had been released with the motto “SIZE MATTERS.” This could apply as the answer to the riddle: What does Anna Nicole Smith have in common with an asteroid about to collide with our planet?
I was therefore a bit surprised to encounter Turnage composing on a smaller scale. In such a setting, there was less of a sense of being immersed in vulgarity. Nevertheless, there were two many moments when a potential for intensity devolved into being simply overwrought. Apparently, Turnage’s skills have not improved with age.
No comments:
Post a Comment