This afternoon in Davies Symphony Hall marked the beginning of pianist Igor Levit’s tenure as the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) Artist-in-Residence for the 2022–23 season. His first performance took place during the first half of this afternoon program, devoted entirely to music by Ludwig van Beethoven. Levit joined Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen and SFS in a performance of Beethoven’s Opus 73 (fifth) piano concerto in E-flat major, often known as the “Emperor.”
Opus 73 broke with conventional structural expectations from the very beginning: a full ensemble performance of an E-flat major triad began the concerto with a “call” whose “response” was the first of many elaborate cadenzas written out for the soloist. However, while this sit-up-and-take-notice gesture had no trouble seizing audience attention, maintaining that attention turned out to be more problematic. The difficulties were due more to Salonen than to Levit, who had no trouble covering the full gamut of expressiveness that was given a note-by-note account by the composer. Unfortunately, the interplay of that expressiveness with the instrumental side of the coin never seemed to establish itself convincingly under Salonen’s baton. One could almost wonder whether or not conductor and soloist had come to an agreed approach to the “ground rules” for both the structure and phrasing of this concerto that has maintained “war horse” status for over two centuries.
Portrait of Beethoven made around the time his Opus 13 was published (painted by Carl Traugott Riedel, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)
The good news is that those worrying about whether or not Levit could bring more compelling expressiveness to his Beethoven were able to abandon those worries with his encore selection. He performed the Adagio cantabile (second) movement from the Opus 13 (eighth) piano sonata in C minor, given the title “Grande sonate pathétique” by Beethoven’s publisher. This was one of Beethoven’s earliest adventures into intense rhetoric; but that rhetoric was confined to the first and third movements, leaving the middle movement as a calm before the storm returns. This movement is relatively simple in its structure, but Levit established just the right expressive context.
Beethoven also enjoyed a more expressive interpretation during the second half of the program, when Salonen conducted his Opus 55 (third) symphony, also in E-flat major (and also given its own name, “Eroica”). This was the first Beethoven symphony whose duration was significantly longer than that of any symphony that had preceded it. Indeed, each of the four movements could have served as a stand-alone composition; but the overall journey through all four of them tends to be close to an hour (if not more so, depending on the dispositions of the conductor).
Salonen’s interpretation of Beethoven’s score showed a convincingly-conceived approach to pace. This served to focus the attentive listener on the significant changes in tempo as the performance advanced from one movement to the next. Thus, the listening experience began with intensely out-of-the-gate vigor, which then turned on a dime for the darkness of the second movement’s funeral march. True to its title, the scherzo movement was vigorously playful, presenting the listener with polyphony coming from the horns, rather than the string section. That “fanfare rhetoric” heralded the elaborate variations unfolding during the final movement, all based on a theme that is almost ridiculous in its simplicity.
It goes without saying that Opus 55 was probably already familiar to just about everyone in the audience, but Salonen’s personal stamp on the score was more than enough to persuade any listener to sit up and take notice (again). One might almost credit Salonen for establishing a new perspective of “Beethoven for our time.” Given the popularity of this symphony, I personally would welcome other conductors following Salonen’s lead!
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