Berkeley Symphony Orchestra presents Romance featuring Philippe Quint, violin soloist, with guest conductor, Edwin Outwater
2016-10-13
Zellerbach Hall Auditorium
U.C. Berkeley, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave, Berkeley, CA 94305 USA
7:00 PM, Thursday, October 13, 2016

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• Paul Dresher: new work TBD » 9/9: Crazy Eights & Fractured Symmetries (World Premiere Commission)
• Erich Korngold: Violin Concerto
• Igor Stravinsky: Petrushka

[6:53 seated and ready, most of the orchestra is onstage for tuning and last minute practice]
[7:06 PM lights down, announcements from Rene Mandel]
[7:08 PM concert tuning, pause, Edwin Outwater out to conduct]

1. [7:09 PM] Paul Dresher (b.1951): Crazy Eights & Fractured Symmetries (2016) (World Premiere, BSO Commission)
   [work ends 7:24 PM; applause, bows, PD up onstage for more applause, flowers, then off]

[brief pause to rearrange things slightly onstage]

[7:27 PM orchestral tuning]

[7:28 PM Philippe Quint & Edwin Outwater out to begin next piece]

Erich Korngold (1897-1957): Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 (1945)

1. [7:28 PM] Moderato nobile
2. [7:38 PM] Romanze
3. [7:46 PM] Allegro assai vivace
   [work ends 7:53 PM; applause and bows, flowers, then Edwin pantomimes bowing a violin to induce Philippe to take an encore]

John Corigliano (b. 1938): Variation No. 5 of Caprice from the Red Violin (1999), performed by Philippe Quint, solo violin

1. [7:55 PM] Variation No. 5
   [set ends 7:58 PM; applause and bows, then all off just after 8 PM]

[8:20 PM lights down, concert tuning]

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971): Petrushka (1947 revised version)

Part I. The Shrovetide Fair

1. [8:21 PM] Introduction (at the Shrovetide Fair) »
2. [8:24 PM] The Crowds »
3. [8:27 PM] The Charlatan's Booth »
4. [8:29 PM] Russian Dance »
    
   Part II. Petrushka's Cell
5. [8:32 PM] Petrushka's Cell »
    
   Part III. The Moor's Room
6. [8:34 PM] The Moor's Room »
7. [8:38 PM] Dance of the Ballerina »
8. [8:39 PM] Waltz - The Ballerina & the Moor »
    
   Part IV. The Shrovetide Fair (Evening)
9. [8:43 PM] The Shrove-Tide Fair (Near evening) »
10. [8:44 PM] Dance of the Wet Nurses »
11. [8:47 PM] Dance of the Peasant and the Bear »
12. [8:49 PM] Dance of the Gypsy Girls »
13. [8:50 PM] Dance of the Coachmen and Grooms »
14. [8:52 PM] The Masqueraders »
15. [8:54 PM] Conclusion (Petrushka's Death)
    [show ends 8:56 PM; applause and bows, then all off]

• Joana Carneiro: music director, (absent “for personal reasons”);
• Edwin Outwater: conductor; others vary by program, see http://www.berkeleysymphony.org/about/musicians/.

• Philippe Quint: violin.

I like hearing brand new music, so starting this season and tonight's concert with a brand new piece by Paul Dresher seemed like a grand idea. This work, Crazy Eights & Fractured Symmetries, seemed very different to me than the Concerto for Quadrachord & Orchestra that opened the 2012 season xref, or Cornucopia, performed in 2010 xref. Today's piece seemed to bear more than a bit of influence from Philip Glass, seeing as the majority of the work was filled with arpeggios (the crazy eights?) that zigged and zagged this way and that across the orchestral landscape. I'd certainly like to hear the work again, especially if it were taken up by a crack ensemble determined to polish it up to a fierce shine.

Tonight's showcase piece, the Korngold violin concerto, was certainly lush and romantic – fitting the advertised bill of fare – and while I enjoyed it, I could also see why some critics decried it for being too melodramatic or schmaltzy. I suppose it comes down to whether you think that the emotions being conveyed are genuine or merely affectations. I'll give Korngold the benefit of the doubt and presume that he was being sweet rather than saccharine. I don't know that I'd care to listen to the piece again soon, but I'd prefer it to most of the atonal modern music that critics and composers of the 20th Century seemed to champion instead.

I really enjoyed hearing the solo encore from Philippe – he's an amazing musician – but I'm flumoxxed as to exactly how he compressed a roughly 10 minute, 6-part work (cf. Corigliano's info page) down to a three minute encore. Lou Fancher posted a review of the show for SFCV – my thanks to her for clarifying the derivation of Philippe Quint's encore.

I found the final half of tonight's show, the 1947 revision of Stravinsky's Petrushka, rather difficult to follow. Without the visual cues of the ballet/theatre, nor anything resembling a full-stop in the musical performance, it was really hard pinpointing where the sections given in the program started or stopped. I can understand why some recordings offer the piece as a single track, or break it down only by the four main scenes. I dunno. I probably should have just shut my eyes and listened instead of trying to hear the musical cues mentioned in the program as characteristic of each movement. (And you, dear reader, should realize that's a backhanded way for me to admit that the timing I gave above for this piece is more or less a hopeful shot in the dark).

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