Saturday Matinee

Last night, I found myself at the Marin Center for a performance with the Marin Symphony, conducted by Alasdair Neale. I’m really starting to discover the purpose of a community symphony and how it really serves it community. The theater was a big one but all on one floor, where I’ve never seen so much socialization occur across rows of people greeting each other. I couldn’t help but to wonder if they haven’t seen each other since the last Marin Symphony concert.

In last night’s performance, the clear performance of the night was the Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto with Orion Weiss that alone was worth the price of admission. I spoke about Orion Weiss before, when he performed at the house recital. But there, I felt like the environment didn’t serve his talents well – there were real moments of poetry, but there was also a bit of awkwardness and ‘muddiness’ in the piano sound especially in the Beethoven piece, possibly due to the unique circumstances of a living room performance or an unfamiliar piano or a new repertoire. Whatever reservations I took away with me at the recital however, Orion Weiss’ performance with the Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto shattered all expectations with a brilliant performance. The same lyricism that I heard previously in the house recital was there, this time to the fullest extent with an unassuming yet magnanimous confidence, contrasted with moments of almost startling vibrancy in the fast technical passages that still sang. Weiss also has this uncanny degree of quiet unguarded vulnerability in his playing that’s particularly extraordinary in today’s young cynical generation where performers often “give us a show” rather than show us their heart. This allowed the audience to have a personal experience connecting with Weiss through his music. I know that I write a lot of “positive” reviews (I’ve been accused of being “too nice”, many times!) but I think when I truly get excited about a performance, that will come across in my writeups. And this is one of those performances. The first movement was particularly spectacular, with its more free form style. I’m more familiar with the third movement which I learned a very long time ago, but the first movement was the vastly more interesting especially in this performance. This truly is a “can’t miss” performance, which will be repeated on Tuesday night on Nov 4, so be sure to check it out.

The concert opened with the magical Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. It opened tenuously with a woodwind chorale that was plagued with pitchiness and oddly imbalanced middle-heavy chords but most of all a lack of confidence every time the chorale made an appearance. But the soft, quick violins emulated fairies racing throughout a forest, and repeated donkey brays in the middle of the overture was whimsically emphasized. I officially nominate the overture to Midsummer Night’s Dream be entered into the repertoire of Trite and Overplayed Orchestral Pieces, which I find vastly more interesting than some others such as Don Juan and the Miraculous Mandarin Suite. The excerpts were followed by Mozart’s Symphony No. 36 in C major in a spirited rendition, but left the thought that this four movement symphony before intermission was too long as it seemed to go on forever. The orchestra was led with an easy charm and a good dose of wit by Alasdair Neale, who deservedly is the community’s pride and joy.

A quick word on the pre-concert talk with Julia Adam – she happened to be the choreographer who choreographed one of my favorite pieces in the New Works Festival earlier this year at the San Francisco Ballet, and it was a joy to hear her talk about the choreographic process and to watch clips of her choreography with her explaining it. I love the fact that her choreography is deeply set in the music, with a dollop of intellectual thought and quirkiness. She showed clips of her Midsummer Night’s Dream that she choreographed with the Marin Ballet, which was absolutely entrancing. And, fortunately for the Bay Area, Diablo Ballet will be performing it in March! I will definitely catch those performances.

Anyone in the vicinity of Marin County should really go and see this performance. Click here for more information.

A paparazzi shot of Orion Weiss practicing the Beethoven, before the general theater was open.