Ozawa's Impressive Orchestra, Terrific Mahler Ninth
By Michelle Dulak, www.sfcv.org
Visiting conductors on the San Francisco Symphony's concert series
are generally (and understandably) reluctant to tread on Michael
Tilson Thomas' repertorial home turf. But Seiji Ozawa, who conducted
at Davies Symphony Hall last Sunday, had every justification for
performing Mahler's Ninth Symphony, an MTT favorite. Ozawa's
association with Mahler's music goes back even farther than Thomas'.
Ozawa led the San Francisco Symphony from 1970-76, and on Sunday he
was back with Japan's Saito Kinen Orchestra and the Mahler Ninth.
Ozawa himself founded the Saito Kinen Orchestra in Japan more than
sixteen years ago, and from the sound of things, he has built it
into a very impressive ensemble. The membership is, of course,
overwhelmingly Japanese (though there are prominent exceptions, like
the well-known clarinetist Karl Leister, who is Ozawa's principal
clarinet). Most of the players are quite young as well (though,
again, with exceptions), and their overall quality is very high.
Most of the musicians' names were unfamiliar to me, but I was startled
and delighted to find the distinguished chamber-music player Ko
Iwasaki (a longtime colleague of Gidon Kremer) mid way down the list
of cellos.
It is not an orchestra quite on the level of today's San Francisco
Symphony, I think, but it is very fine. Best were the strings, who
threw themselves into their music with a passionate involvement that
was as evident to the eye as to the ear. They were nimble, delicate,
vehement, and bluff by turns, following Mahler's intentions and
Ozawa's lead with great agility. And while their true excellence
was in pianissimo (there were some heart-stopping effects here), they
could make meaty sounds too, as the violins did (high up on the G
string) at the beginning of the last movement. The one lack was of
sheer power, especially from the violins in the highest register,
where they were impeccably in tune and not a bit tepid, but simply
not quite strong enough.
Splendid Horns, Crass Brass
The winds were a little less impressive. They were animated and full
of character, but didn't always blend terribly well; and there were
particular timbres (I'm thinking especially of the principal oboist's
rich, almost clotted tone) that stuck out a bit too much. The brass,
too, were a mixed bag. The horns (seated, unusually, somewhere
towards the back of the second violins, a good twenty feet or more
from the rest of the brass) were splendid, the trumpets and trombones
rather crass.
As is his custom, Ozawa conducted from memory and without a baton,
molding every gesture with his bare hands. He and his orchestra
clearly had together grown to know the music in intimate detail. It
was not a blockbuster performance; the "big moments" were, if anything,
underplayed. But the long stretches--especially the expanse of the
last movement, though the first was scarcely less impressive--Ozawa
sustained with unusual patience and control. The ending,
preternaturally hushed, was amazing; and for once a Davies Symphony
Hall audience refrained from applauding until 25 seconds of silence
had gone by, a rare tribute.
And what followed was the longest and most unanimous standing ovation
I've yet seen at Davies. It went on and on, Ozawa revisiting the
stage many times and (in the end) apparently thanking every single
player personally as he wandered through the orchestra. The audience
can't have been demanding an encore (what do you play to follow Mahler
9? Ozawa sensibly decided: nothing). Some, no doubt, were remembering
and commemorating Ozawa's term as the SFS's music director; others,
possibly, were applauding Ozawa's creation of a Japanese orchestra
worthy to complete in the Euro-American big leagues. And some rose
to honor a terrific Mahler 9. I joined them.
(Michelle Dulak is a violinist and violist who has written about
music for "Strings," "Stagebill," "Early Music America" and The New
York Times.)
Janos Gereben/SF, CA
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