SFS Takes New Year Off to a Roaring Start

This afternoon in Davies Symphony Hall the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) launched the second half of its Orchestral Series with highly-charged gusto and diverse programming. That mood was established from the get-go as guest conductor Elim Chan took the stage to make her SFS debut. Her program began with a world premiere, Elizabeth Ogonek’s “Moondog,” composed with the support of an SFS commission. This was followed by the return of violinist James Ehnes serving as concerto soloist. This marked his return to Davies since his performance of Max Bruch’s Opus 26 (first) concerto in G minor in May of 2019. For this occasion he made a major shift in repertoire with Sergei Prokofiev’s Opus 63 (second) violin concerto in G minor. The program was concluded following the intermission with a wildly energetic account of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 17 (second) symphony in C minor.

Elizabeth Ogonek taking her bow after the performance of her “Sleep & Remembrance” (photograph by Brittany Hosea, courtesy of SFS)

Ogonek established her SFS presence last year, when Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted her “Sleep & Remembrance,” a contribution to an overall program that was awarded the status of the most memorable experience of last year for the month of March. “Moondog” distinguished itself as a study in which textures served as an alternative for more conventional approaches to thematic material. What was important was that Ogonek’s command of those textures was so solid that she could still create a piece that followed the familiar ternary form. Chan’s conducting made it clear that she understood everything about the nuts-and-bolts of the score well enough to provide the audience with a stimulating listening experience. Given that she has established a global presence, she may become a compelling agent for the qualities of Ogonek’s talents as a composer.

The Prokofiev concerto, on the other hand, has provided a vehicle for many violin soloists performing with SFS. Ehnes made his SFS debut in 2003, and I have been impressed with the consistent quality of his performances since then. He certainly was not shy in taking on the composer’s rough edges, and Chan knew exactly how to enhance those sharp qualities through balancing the wide variety of sonorities provided by the ensemble. While both of them were received enthusiastically by the audience, she made it a point to turn the spotlight over to Ehnes by encouraging him to taken an encore. He selected the sixteenth of Niccolò Paganini’s 24 caprices for solo violin (which happened to be dedicated to Rodolphe Kreutzer, whose name is better known thanks to Ludwig van Beethoven).

Assuming that the SFS musicians had sufficient time to “recharge” during the intermission, Chan pulled out all the stops in her interpretation of the Tchaikovsky symphony. This is a symphony that provides the attentive listener with a prodigious panoply of contrasting sonorities, and Chan knew exactly how to make sure that the uniqueness of each of those sonorities registered with the attentive listeners in the audience. Mind you, in the interest of those sonorities, there was more than a generous amount of thematic repetition; but Chan provided the best possible account for allowing listeners to appreciate and savor the differences. (She also seemed to relish the vigorous stroke on the gong at the climax of the final movement.)

For all of that diversity, it remains impressive that Ogonek should make as strong an impression with her second appearance as she did with her first; and I hope that Chan’s lightning will strike again in a not-too-distant future SFS season.