Antonin Dvorak, master of tone and tune.

The San Diego Symphony previewed their Friday, October 13, Carnegie Hall concert on Saturday, October 4, at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. Music director Rafael Payare and the orchestra had previously performed the same program the night before at Soka University in Orange County.

Symphony CEO, Martha Gilmer, spoke before the concert and explained some of the logistics of the Carnegie Hall sojourn. About 400 patrons and representatives from other performing arts organizations such as The Old Globe and La Jolla Playhouse would be making the trip. Interestingly, Gilmer didn’t mention the San Diego Opera for whom the symphony provides the orchestra in all San Diego Opera productions.

The concert opened with a piece of music that the San Diego Symphony commissioned by composer Carlos Simon. Mr. Simon was in attendance and also had some words to share before the downbeat. He asked the audience to say “Wake up” on the count of three. He then asked the audience to say it again and explained that they would be hearing that for the next 20 minutes in his concerto for orchestra entitled *Wake Up*. Simon also explained that this music was specifically composed for the symphony’s newly renovated home at The Jacobs Music Center at Copley Symphony Hall. I’ll not go too far into the piece at this point but suffice it to say that Beethoven’s *Consecration of the House* it was not.

The second piece was Antonin Dvorak’s *Cello Concerto* with Alisa Weilerstein. From the downbeat, Dvorak’s mastery of tone and tune was immediately on display as was Weilerstein’s. The opening movement immediately invited us into Dvorak’s tonal world. After the *Wake Up* experience, this felt like an exciting world in which I could navigate to some distant beautiful shore. The second movement contained some downright ravishing playing from Weilerstein. Near the conclusion of the final movement, Dvorak reprises the opening theme of the entire piece. It is as if he was gently reminding us of how far we have come together. 

The concluding piece was Dimitri Shostakovich’s *Symphony No. 5*. After the last season’s Shostakovich *Symphony No. 11* I was looking forward to this. I have no concrete evidence but feel as though Payare has a special affinity for Shostakovich. The only downside to the performance was The Shell setting. A constant drone of bass beats echoed across the marina from the convention center. This was especially disturbing in the third movement, a movement during which audience members openly wept at the symphony’s premiere in 1937. 

1937 was in the middle of Stalin’s purges. Family members simply disappeared with no explanation. This third movement, with its subtle references to the Russian Orthodox requiem, served as a memorial to those who had vanished. Now add a beat to that and you’ve got a bizarre musical experience. The third movement is indoor music and needs to be experienced sans pedicab musical marketing.

However, the performance turned in by Payare and the San Diego Symphony was exhilarating in its conclusion. Shostakovich described it as being beaten by a stick and being told to rejoice. Oh, if only I’d had a stick for the pedicabs.