"My Evening with Slava" was a discombobulating affair. In a good way.
And yet befuddling.

Here we are, at the very beginning of a report about Mstislav Rostropovich's
appearance in Davies Hall, and already it's on the one hand and the other
and one more. Where, please, is the easy certainty one expects from a
Kritik? Not to be found here, alas.

Great cellist, important icon, brave warrior in the cause of peace for
a half a century, everyone's favorite uncle (excepting some orchestra
musicians here and there), and so on and so forth, Rostropovich is also
a conductor. As such, he is not easy to classify.

For starters, he had planned to lead the San Francisco Symphony in a
program of Duteilleux's "The Shadows of Time" and the Shostakovich Eighth
Symphony.  Sanity prevailed before the scheduled three performances
(perhaps after the first rehearsal), and the first half of the concert
was changed. Radically.

Instead of the 25-minute utterly complex "Shadows," of wicked syncopation
and the prominent use of children soloists, Rostropovich switched to the
utterly simple and overplayed Prokofiev First Symphony, "padding" that
15-minute work with Duteilleux's five-minute "Slava's Fanfare," a musical
greeting card to Rostropovich in 1997 on his 70th birthday. The fanfare
went well, although the brass, dispersed all around Davies Hall, seemed
out of sync at times.

The Prokofiev was surprising. Instead of the fleet, lithe, charming piece
one expects, in Rostropovich's interpretation, it was something on the
stolid side, with a "misguided" Largetto. The slow movement, meant to
*invoke* Beethoven and Tchaikovsky (among others), sounded weighty enough
to *be* the real thing, with a dash of Mahler added.

And then, on to the grand, nay, colossal Shostakovich, and here, again,
confusion: the largely monochromatic first movement, running almost a
half an hour, received a dutiful, unexceptional reading. Nothing to
complain about, the orchestra playing hard and well, but the work lacked
the inner tension and excitement recent MTT performances achieved. It
was something more in the restrained, angular manner of Herbert Blomstedt
- the former SFS music director having given the only previous local
performances of the Eighth, a decade ago.

Then the short, dynamic Allegretto, and something began to change. It
was as if Rostropovich and the orchestra have finally warmed up and
warmed to the task, playing with true verve and more from the heart.

And yet this movement, and certainly nothing that preceded it, could not
begin to prepare the listener for what was about to happen, during the
half-hour-long presentation of the last three movements, performed without
a break. If the opening movement is pretty much all of one thing, this
combined last portion contains the whole universe of music, traversing
all conceivable feelings, moods and sounds - one of the truly great works
of the 20th century.

And here was Rostropovich, after all those hesitating, "on the one
hand..." and definitely confused takes on his status as a conductor,
emerging as an indubitable giant, presenting not only a "perfect"
performance, but also an exciting, amazingly varied, committed, wonderful
picture of a musical galaxy. From playful to tragic, dark to bright,
grieving to triumphant, the work shifted swiftly, flawlessly, encompassing
a lifetime of emotions in minutes... and yet in a timeless setting.

By this time, the orchestra was at its very best - matching its recent
high point, which just happened to be another Shostakovich, the Symphony
No. 15, with MTT - and the musicians alternating between brilliant solos
and flawless ensemble playing. Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik,
principals Michael Grebanier (cello), Julie Ann Giacobassi (English
horn), Stephen Paulson (bassoon), Glenn Fischtal (trumpet), among many,
played gloriously.

So what kind of conductor is Rostropovich? I am not sure. Going back
next week to find out more. The program: Bernstein's "Slava! A Political
Overture," Britten's Symphony for Cello and Orchestra and Tchaikovsky's
Fifth Symphony. Will he play the cello? No, the soloist is Steven Isserlis,
somebody who would be warmly welcomed in any other situation, except
when he is presented as an alternative to Slava. If only Rostropovich
played the cello... there is nothing confusing about that.

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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