San Diego Symphony's Rachmaninoff: the heavens opened

The San Diego Symphony concluded its Jacobs Masterworks Series with a weekend of Rachmaninoff and Beethoven. I attended the Saturday, May 25 concert.

This was the third time I’d heard the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 at the San Diego Symphony. It was my favorite time hearing it. Once the piece started it moved like a freight train under full steam. Conductor Cristian Măcelaru and pianist Simon Trpčeski gave no quarter as they put Rachmaninoff through his paces in the first movement.

The second movement contained the most incredible moment I’ve ever experienced at the San Diego Symphony. About 30 seconds before the second movement cadenza there is a false climax. The tuning of that chord, specifically in the brass, was so in tune that the heavens opened and the golden light of the angelic band flickered upon the stage.

When a chord is that perfectly tuned it creates an acoustic effect which cannot be described. I caught myself before I proclaimed my sense of aural pleasure with an audible “oooh” for all to hear. The same effect occurred in the third movement, but the moment was less pronounced in the context of the composition.

For the past several weeks, leading up to this concert, I’ve been brushing up on Beethoven’s two most neglected symphonies, besides his Symphony Nos. 1 & 2. You know which two I’m speaking of.

The Third Symphony is the Eroica, the Fifth Symphony is Beethoven’s Fifth, the Sixth Symphony is The Pastoral, the Seventh is the Seventh, and the Ninth Symphony is Beethoven’s Ninth.

What of the Fourth and Eighth? Four and Eight are overshadowed by their robust siblings on a regular basis. For good reason? No, not really. I find the opening movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 to be full of optimism. It might be his most optimistic opening.

The performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8, was the optimistic benediction on the season which we needed. Needed? Wanted. Deserved. Yes, deserved is correct. The optimism surrounding the San Diego Symphony is more than warranted because their next concert, in the autumn, is music director Rafael Payare conducting Mahler Symphony No. 5.

Cristian Măcelaru crafted a performance of the Eighth which was full of idiosyncratic articulation and phrasing. It was a performance which exceeded the orchestra’s batting average for Beethoven—except for the final movement.

My opinion is that the final movement of Eighth doesn’t work unless it’s played at 120 miles per hour. Examples of that pacing are Pierre Monteux’s recording from 1950 with the San Francisco Symphony and, to a greater degree, Herbert von Karajan’s 1963 recording with The Berlin Philharmonic.

It cannot be said that Cristian Măcelaru’s tempo was wrong. The pace of the finale movement lined up with performances by any conductor you can think of, including the two mentioned above. Monteux’s version with Chicago was slower as was von Karajan’s later versions with Berlin.

I was pleased with the performance but I felt as though it was played in “safe mode” and didn’t turn it00000s eyes toward the possibility of greatness. The possibility of greatness is why I feel so much optimism about The San Diego Symphony.

In the final movement I was hoping Măcelaru would push the orchestra into a spot where they might fail only to have them rise up and triumph. One thing is for sure, when it comes to tuning, the orchestra was already at that point for the Rachmaninoff.