SFist Reviews: Yo-Yo Ma At The Symphony
Yo-Yo Ma is one of the world's most celebrated musicians, his name one of the most recognizable. To wit: he played for millions of people at Obama's inauguration, and has won tons of hardware (like fifteen Grammy awards.)
So of course, the rock star, if you will, was able to sell out Davies Symphony Hall last week for a series of concerts as part of the Project San Francisco artist-in-residence program. He is playing tomorrow for a special recital with another superlative performer: Manny Ax.
We attended his performance of the Shostakovich Cello concerto No. 2, and, surprisingly, came away unimpressed. Part of the reason is that we prefer the Cello concerto No. 1, much more vigorous and haunting than the second; and part of it is that this performance seemed a tad under-rehearsed. Ma was playing with the score -- and even then he almost stepped in one bar two early in the second movement. Oops.
The artist-in-residence thingy imposes a wide range of program on the performer (this concerto, the recital, a Brahms double concerto and some chamber music) and there's only so much time to sync everything up with the orchestra.
Still, he had his cello's breathy tone under fine control in the first movement. There was a metallic twang in the more extravagant sections of the next two movements and some cohesion issues with the orchestra. Overall, however, it was a rather oppressive and claustrophobic rendition, with only tiny nuggets of lyricism: a nice flute cello duet in the third act, for instance. (We had been warned before hand by MTT that the program wasn't exactly sunny.)
MTT decided to give us an amuse-oreille to console us from the drab wet weather outside, and he chose the Polka from Shostakovich's ballet, the Age of Gold, which sonorities came back in the concerto's first movement. Probably MTT wanted to highlight the connection, but mostly, it was the funnest, most humorous piece of music we've heard in a long time: we actually giggled so infectious was its enthusiasm.
The other pieces on the program: Sibelius' The Oceanides, which is a short sea-themed symphonic poem often compared in its program to Debussy's La Mer. Sibelius is of course from Finland, which is not known for its sailors: Finns only take the sea to get tax-free beer in Estonia, and we found the piece's textures rather earthy. It does kick off shimmery and watery, but then climaxes in some thick Wagnerian muck and ends with an oboe-led petite mort. MTT forgot to acknowledge oboist William Bennett when he asked selected players to stand up, so we do it here.
Lastly, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2 Little Russian (named after Little Russia, i.e. Ukraine, for its folk thematic material, not because it is short). This was a rich, lush rendition, but again the piece did not carry our interest too far, despite the orchestra's best efforts. In the fanfare-like Finale, which MTT played for all its excesses, Tchaikovsky's lays its melody firmly on the first beat of every bar, like a metronome, and it gets quite predictable. MTT choreographed the soft landing which concludes the second movement to perfection, so that he turned around and asked for applause. Which we were happy to give.