Saturday Matinee

Being a first timer to a California Symphony concert at its opening concert in its 22nd season under the baton of Barry Jekowsky, it’s easy to feel like an outsider to this intimate community orchestra. This orchestra has been serving the Walnut Creek area for 22 years, and I get the feeling that many of the audience members have been regular attendees for the entire time that California Symphony has existed. In addition, personal touches such as dedicating this concert to the 100th birthday of a “dear friend” in the audience, makes it clear this symphony is what many call their own. However, an intruder like myself is easily drawn to the quality of the music presented in this program. It’s not for the avant garde, but it was a crowd pleasing program tailor made to more traditional audiences and newcomers, with great music to attract all including the finickiest of palates.

Piano soloist Jon Nakamatsu was the highlight of the evening with the best rendition of the Rachmaninoff 3rd piano concerto that I’ve heard so far. This piece was the piece that won Nakamatsu the coveted Van Cliburn Gold Medal in 1997. For me, I’ve heard this concerto performed three times within almost a year. Although a little bit of Rach 3 is better than nothing, each performance until this one left me wanting more. I started to believe that you actually had to be crazy in order to play this piece well (aside from the marvelous Martha Argerich, which to date, is my favorite recording of this piece). With this monstrous piece, it seems like performers have one of two choices to make – either a performer can throw in the towel, submit to its sea of chaos and make it sound like the biggest, bloodiest, messiest mess that it really is. The other route is to take the higher ground and to make it actually sound like music, a route rarely taken with this piece. Nakamatsu chose the latter choice in a very classy interpretation, skillfully presenting a balanced and crystal clear rendition of the Rach 3 that made the piece sound much easier than it is. And yes, the best part was that Nakamatsu made Rach 3 sound like music rather than a chaotic mess – the key was in his precision, where phrasing, contrasts, and details were highlighted in a delightful way. Nothing was (thankfully) overly fussy or obsequious, with the best first movement cadenza that was thrilling in its burst of intensity. The fiery moments were balanced with thoughtful consideration. A dash of humor is in the emphasis on a trip down the keyboard at the end of the first movement. The third movement reveled in its thrilling triumph. Nakmatsu’s take made this overplayed piece fresh and exciting in a way that both audiences new and familiar with the piece could appreciate on many different levels.

Handstand artists Iouri Safranov and Nikolai Melnikov

The concert opened up with a lush rendition of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, a piece I didn’t know even though it sounds very familiar. This piece was reenacted to a hypnotic choreographed sequence by two handstand artists reminiscent of Cirque du Soleil, Iouri Safranov and Nikolai Melnikov. I understand that having a more visual component can be a draw for modern day audiences, although it makes me a little uncomfortable with the idea that symphony music alone is not enough. And as to be expected, the music got pushed to the background with these precarious balances that were amazing to watch up so close. But I understand why it was there, and it also made this performance more kid-friendly.

Dvorak’s New World Symphony closed the concert, where I felt like I could finally get a good sense of what the orchestra was really like. It started off very promisingly with the lively and stirring first movement under the commanding leadership of Barry Jekowsky, with strong solos for different sections of the orchestra, most notably the French horns and the trumpet sections. However in the slower movements, the bright energy of the first movement came to a screeching halt with a deathly slow tempo and severe phrasing. Rather than being shaped into long graceful arcs, phrases would be cut short as there would be an initial rise in a phrase and then the energy and volume would suddenly drop. Although the contrast in a suddenly dropped volume added interest, the result was choppy, with a low energy that felt stagnant because the phrases never went anywhere. Similar phrasing afflicted the slower moments in Rach 3 as well. A slow tempo can still be very alive and soaring with long phrases where the energy is unbroken, but I felt that this wasn’t achieved successfully in this interpretation. The livelier movements more than made up for this small observation however, as the California Symphony gave this symphony heart and life.

There’s one more showing of this concert on October 14. Click here for more information. Go see it for Jon Nakamatsu’s rendition of the Rach 3, and be sure to bring the kids. This program is a great introduction to classical music for them, and there were lots of kids spotted in the audience.

Jon Nakamatsu signed CD’s during the intermission, and I have never seen a crazier CD signing than what was observed. It was crazier than the signings that I’ve seen for Joshua Bell, Lang Lang, and Gil Shaham all put together. Check out his rendition of Rach 3 on Amazon, here. After the concert, a friend and I grabbed dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant when halfway through our dinner, my friend says, “Isn’t that Jon?” I actually thought he was talking about a coworker of mine (the first Jon that comes to my mind), but I turned around to look and it was Nakamatsu with his parents(?). I wish I hadn’t stared so blatantly.

Where’s Jon? Smothered by a sea of people