On Friday evening, the San Diego Symphony played to one of the smallest crowds I’ve seen at the Rady Shell.
Was it the threat of rain that night? Cold weather? Lack of a big-name soloist? Perhaps fear of the dissonant 20th-century masterpieces book-ending the concert?
Whatever the reason, absentees missed one of the most exciting Symphony performances this year. The evening began with the barbarous beauty of Bartók’s Suite from “The Miraculous Mandarin” and ended with the sonorous savagery of Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring,” thrillingly performed by the Symphony under the direction of music director Rafael Payare.
Clearly people came just to hear “Rite of Spring.” I don’t normally see attendees head banging or jumping around in their seats at other Symphony concerts.
Payare drove the orchestra with fast tempos, keeping all on their toes, and they responded with ferocious playing. The San Diego Symphony has played “Rite of Spring” more cleanly with other conductors, but for excitement this performance was second to none.
“Miraculous Mandarin” is Bartók’s most abrasive orchestral score. It depicts lurid crimes in a filthy urban environment. Right from the get go, the brass blares cacophonously while shrieking winds fly up and down. This was played with élan over dissonant swirling in the strings.
This music cuts you open, and from there Bartók pours acid in your wound. The few moments of simulated tenderness, representing a seductive young woman luring marks to their doom, are perversions of sensuality. The clarinets played a lascivious dance, queasily passed on to the violins. It is harsh music, but in its forthright depiction of dark criminal passions it is brutally beautiful.
Under Payare’s direction, ensemble playing and intonation were tight, bringing Bartók’s sinister but compelling score to brilliant life.
For a happy contrast, Villa-Lobos’ “Bachianas Brasileiras” no. 7 followed this. The composer’s synthesis of Baroque counterpoint with Brazilian folk music was easy listening compared to the rest of the program, and was warmly played by the Symphony.
Following intermission, the symphony presented the world premiere of Ukrainian native Vladimir Tarnopolski’s “Danse Macabre,” which the composer himself introduced in a pre-recorded video. He could not attend the concert because he fled Moscow after the Russia invaded Ukraine and he’s now exiled in Germany without travel documents.
As its title suggests, “Danse Macabre” was a grim and often sardonic work, a contemporary dance of death, and a commentary on the loss of life in Ukraine.
It juxtaposes a dissonant re-harmonization of the 8-note passacaglia from Brahms’ Symphony no. 4 with the Dies Irae plainchant melody from the Mass for the Dead.
In addition to acerbic new harmonies for these melodies, Tarnopolski’s score is laden with grotesque, at times hilarious, orchestral effects: scraping piano and harp strings; blowing air through wind and brass instruments; wood blocks clacking away; eerie woodwind flourishes; and thwacking, rattling percussion effects.
The piece climaxed with the entire horn section whooping up to the top of their range in a desperate trill, after which a long denouement featured principal horn Benjamin Jaber trading elaborate runs with trumpeter Christopher Smith. This alternated with a jangly violin solo strummed like a balalaika by concertmaster Jeff Thayer, interjected with woodwind and trombone laughing music.
It was simultaneously somber and funny, given an understanding performance by Payare and the Symphony. It deserves to be widely played, and hopefully we can hear more Tarnopolski works in future Symphony concerts.
Hertzog is a freelance writer.
