This afternoon in Davies Symphony Hall the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra (SFSYO) concluded its 40th anniversary season, led by Wattis Foundation Music Director Daniel Stewart. At least some readers may recall that this season has involved a fair amount of disappointment, but nothing about this final perfomance of the season was disappointing. To the contrary, the account of Igor Stravinsky’s music for the ballet “The Rite of Spring” (Le Sacre du printemps), which concluded the program, could not have been a more engaging listening experience from beginning to end. Once could say the same of the selection that preceded the intermission, George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris.” The opening selection was the Overture movement of the Spring Festival Suite, composed in 1956 by Li Huanzhi; and it was engaging even for those (like myself) that were totally unfamiliar with Li’s compositions.
Stravinsky’s score probably called for the largest ensemble of the entire SFSYO season. All of the winds are required to command a wide spread of registers, and many of the players have to alternate instruments. The brass section requires less doubling but more than enough instruments to hold their own against not only the winds but also a seriously massive percussion section. Indeed, because the score calls for five timpani, two players are required. Furthermore, even if the setting for the music is “pagan Russia,” one of the percussionists is required to play a Latin American güiro.
The score for this music was not the first score I had ever purchased, but it was an early addition to my library. I was first hooked on the music through Fantasia, and I have to confess that it then took me several years before I purchased a record that would allow me to listen to the music they way Stravinsky had written it. My copy is still legible; but I have to negotiate any number of notes I had written on the score pages, reflecting the many times that I consulted this score when preparing a term paper or writing a review of a performance.
By now I have pretty much internalized the music itself, meaning that I could approach this afternoon as an attentive listener without burying my head in the score pages. My attention was definitely rewarded. By following the musicians rather than the notes, I came to appreciate the ways in which Stravinsky expressed his account of the ballet itself through his own control of the physical space of the musicians.
Just how he managed the “physical space” of the orchestra pit at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris continues to leave me perplexed (particularly after I was able to see a performance of Jacques Offenbach’s La Perichole in that venue, allowing me to inspect the pit myself). Much more important was the way in which Stewart put every square inch of the Davies space to good use. Indeed, the spatial qualities of the “auditory signal” were just as compelling in his performance of “An American in Paris” as they were for “The Rite.”
The instrumentation for Li’s overture were somewhat more modest. Nevertheless, there was still a generous amount of diversity; and Stewart deployed his players on the stage to provide the best account of Li’s sonorities, which reflect both Chinese and Western influences. Listening to his overture left me curious about how he approached the other three movements of his suite.
I have to confess that I was a bit amused that Stewart should summon the final measure in Stravinsky’s score to conclude his season by “going out with a bang.” More important was the confidence and accuracy summoned by all the SFSYO musicians to keep up with Stewart’s negotiation of the music. Clearly, this concluding selection sealed SFSYO’s 40th anniversary with a more-than-memorable bang.
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