Constantine Orbelian, the San Francisco-born music director of the Moscow
Chamber Orchestra, likes to change programs. Tonight, for example, at a
concert in Herbst Theater, he announced right in the middle of the event
that he is moving up Boccherini's Symphony in D minor from the second
half of the concert, to be played instead of Shostakovich's "Five Preludes
for Orchestra." As to the work to end the concert, Orbelian said, there
would be a surprise.

That turned out to be the Tchaikovsky Serenade, played well enough, but
to replace the Shostakovich? Why? It couldn't have been to attract an
audience - too late for that. Here was one program change that didn't
make much sense.

But what Orbelian did on Sept. 11, 2001, made all the sense in the world.
At the orchestra's performance in Santa Rosa, he replaced the program-ending
work on that fateful day with Schnittke's Concerto for Piano and String
Orchestra.

Today was a "normal" day, but the Schnittke, opening the concert, still
packed a wallop, it impressed and moved as no other part of the program
did.  The 1979 concerto is vintage Schnittke - dark, brooding, with
beautiful harmonies interrupted by violent dissonance. I wasn't in Santa
Rosa on 9/11, but I can imagine the impact of this traumatizing music
in that context.

The 25-minute concerto is all of one piece, disparate, conflicting
elements melding into an overwhelming coherence that's impossible to put
in words.  Some of the dissonance is exaggerated, grotesque, the deliberate
ugliness working as the contrast does in Strauss' "Elektra," good and
evil bouncing off each other, completing the other.

Orbelian conducted, minimally, from the keyboard, and he gave a superb
solo performance. Whether playing centered, beautiful passages against
the wrenching off-key derision from the first violins or switching over
to the other side, the piano mocking the slowly rolling unison in the
strings, Orbelian's performance came from the heart, with a musical-emotional
authenticity that made one forgive him for skipping the Shostakovich.

Something about Schnittke's use of "sound clusters" reminded me of Tan
Dun's "Water Passion," which is trickling around the world after last
year's US premiere at the Oregon Bach Festival, where I heard and disliked
it. What a difference between Schnittke - sincere, simple, spiritual,
communicating directly - and Tan Dun's showy, calculated work, always
reaching for effect... and then reaching some more. Guess who's going
to be more successful? Still, as long as I can hear Schnittke performed
like this tonight, the rest of the world can have Tan Dun slushing water
in huge acrylic bowls - to each his own.

Besides the fine Tchaikovsky and the facile but unexceptional Boccherini,
the orchestra also performed three Armenian Dances, arranged by Aslamazian,
and offered a virtuoso violinist who doesn't play the violin well.

Alexander Markov has the hair and looks to be one of the (yet to be
formed but inevitably coming) Three Violinists, but his solo in Franz
Waxman's Fantasie on Themes from "Carmen" was rather painful, with poor
intonation, clipped phrases, distrust of the music, tentative attacks,
incomplete phrasing, and exclusive attention on the flashy, showy,
superficial. A solo encore, of Paganini's Capriccio No. 24, was much
the same.

To end with some good news: Daniel Levenstein, who presented the concert,
in association with the San Francisco Russian Center, announced formation
of a "Chamber Music San Francisco" organization, which will start producing
a concert series next year in the Palace of Legion of Honor.

I hope Orbelian's ensemble will be among the performers. It is a good
orchestra and, apparently, a thrifty one. It's certainly the only one
I know, outside high schools, in which groups of three violinists use
a single music stand. For the add-on musician in the back, there is a
distance of about 4 feet to the score, and yet I heard no missed note,
demonstrating excellent eyesight.

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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