Gidon Kremer is a great violinist and an even great musician, and yet
greatness was in short supply tonight in Herbst Theater.

At a San Francisco Performances recital, Kremer presented an unusual
program - something he always does, to his credit and to the audience's
enjoyment - with some high points and nothing really going "wrong," but
the magic was mostly missing.  "French Connections" came and went, but
one's heart did not sing.

One reason for that could be Kremer's choice of a partner.  Naida Cole
is a young Canadian, with fashion-model looks, fingers of steel, the
ability to perform long complex works without a score (such as two
unending parts of Messiaen's "Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jesus"), but...

All evening long, Cole played on the surface of the music, not delving
into it, her physical rigidity seemingly translated into stiff performances.
While a technically dazzling pianist, Cole's take on Satie's "Gymnopedie
No.  1," for example, came across as a school exercise - simple-boring,
not simple-sublime.

Kremer's choice of her is especially puzzling because of his brilliance
of selecting young musicians and driving them (gently) to ever-greater
heights, as you can experience at any concert of the Kremerata Baltica.

The Kremer-Cole combination, at least tonight, produced a fine concert,
but memorable moments could be counted on one hand, coming in Kremer's
performance of Ysaye's Sonata in G Major for Solo Violin, and in the
violin part of Satie's "Choses vues a droite et a gauche (sans lunettes)."

The evening's major work, a "symphony for two," was very enjoyable
(getting a big audience reaction), but it's establishing a dangerous
precedent at this time of diminishing orchestra budgets - and I am only
half kidding.  Who knows what budget cuts coming our way?

Ernst Alder's transcription of Franck's big, splashy Symphony in D minor
makes the work sound as if it was written originally for violin and piano
(it wasn't); the performance was fluent and facile, quite without new
insight or value added...  and that is just not what one expects from
Kremer.

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
[log in to unmask]