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Mid to fantastic at the San Diego Symphony
Sometimes, the conversation is the best part of concert-going
Saxophonist Steven Banks
The San Diego Symphony is in the home stretch of the 2024-2025 Jacobs Masterworks Season. On Sunday, May 4, they presented a concert entitled Czech Masterpieces and a Saxophone Concerto.
The first item on the concert was something of a suite from Bedřich Smetana’s The Bartered Bride. This is famous crowd-pleasing music, but the overture had some issues. Conductor Ruth Reinhardt pushed the tempo so fast that it was physically impossible for the strings to articulate the initial passages accurately.
Video:
Smetana: Overture to "The Bartered Bride"
The first and second violins were out of sync, and the sound in the house was muddy. Happily, it both sounded and looked to me like the players got themselves back together by the time the basses entered. The remainder of the Smetana went well. Reinhardt did take the mic and talk a little bit about the music, but her comments weren’t groundbreaking.
The saxophone concerto was by Takashi Yoshimatsu and performed by Steven Banks. Banks played phenomenally. I enjoyed most of the solo saxophone parts, which were played on the soprano saxophone. However, Yoshimatsu’s orchestral writing was typical of modern pieces, and didn’t add much to the musical experience. I found myself wishing the piece had been a sonata for solo saxophone. Of course, then it wouldn’t have been performed by the symphony. That isn’t to say the orchestra played poorly. They were great. But I didn’t find their music as compelling as the saxophone part.
The final Czech masterpiece was Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8. The performance was average, at best. Throughout the entire piece, the orchestra played well together, but it wasn’t locked in. It wasn’t tight. Reinhardt’s conducting style came off as lightweight and perhaps not up to the task of commanding the score and the orchestra in a way that made the music come alive and soar. All the notes were there, all the dynamics were there, but the musical experience was painfully mid.
The highlight of the concert came at the intermission, when my friend and I bumped into San Diego Symphony communication manager John Velasco. We had a lively and wide-ranging musical conversation. Sometimes, that’s the best part of a concert: conversation with other music-lovers. There have been times when I couldn’t wait for a concert to be over so that I could get into those conversations. This can be the case when a concert is fantastic and when a concert isn’t so fantastic.
Unfortunately, on this day, the latter was the case, except for saxophonist Steven Banks. Musically, he was the best part of the afternoon.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Mid to fantastic at the San Diego Symphony
Sometimes, the conversation is the best part of concert-going
Mid to fantastic at the San Diego Symphony
Sometimes, the conversation is the best part of concert-going
Saxophonist Steven Banks
The San Diego Symphony is in the home stretch of the 2024-2025 Jacobs Masterworks Season. On Sunday, May 4, they presented a concert entitled Czech Masterpieces and a Saxophone Concerto.
The first item on the concert was something of a suite from Bedřich Smetana’s The Bartered Bride. This is famous crowd-pleasing music, but the overture had some issues. Conductor Ruth Reinhardt pushed the tempo so fast that it was physically impossible for the strings to articulate the initial passages accurately.
Video:
Smetana: Overture to "The Bartered Bride"
The first and second violins were out of sync, and the sound in the house was muddy. Happily, it both sounded and looked to me like the players got themselves back together by the time the basses entered. The remainder of the Smetana went well. Reinhardt did take the mic and talk a little bit about the music, but her comments weren’t groundbreaking.
The saxophone concerto was by Takashi Yoshimatsu and performed by Steven Banks. Banks played phenomenally. I enjoyed most of the solo saxophone parts, which were played on the soprano saxophone. However, Yoshimatsu’s orchestral writing was typical of modern pieces, and didn’t add much to the musical experience. I found myself wishing the piece had been a sonata for solo saxophone. Of course, then it wouldn’t have been performed by the symphony. That isn’t to say the orchestra played poorly. They were great. But I didn’t find their music as compelling as the saxophone part.
The final Czech masterpiece was Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8. The performance was average, at best. Throughout the entire piece, the orchestra played well together, but it wasn’t locked in. It wasn’t tight. Reinhardt’s conducting style came off as lightweight and perhaps not up to the task of commanding the score and the orchestra in a way that made the music come alive and soar. All the notes were there, all the dynamics were there, but the musical experience was painfully mid.
The highlight of the concert came at the intermission, when my friend and I bumped into San Diego Symphony communication manager John Velasco. We had a lively and wide-ranging musical conversation. Sometimes, that’s the best part of a concert: conversation with other music-lovers. There have been times when I couldn’t wait for a concert to be over so that I could get into those conversations. This can be the case when a concert is fantastic and when a concert isn’t so fantastic.
Unfortunately, on this day, the latter was the case, except for saxophonist Steven Banks. Musically, he was the best part of the afternoon.