Tonight, in Davies Hall, it was deja vu all over again:  Kenneth Sillito
leading the Academy of St.  Martin in the Fields.  He was substituting for
Iona Brown who is ill.  Three years ago, Sillito substituted for Neville
Marriner, who was ill then.

Both events were among the very best of the Academy's concerts I have
attended.  Especially tonight.

With the Mendelssohn Symphony for Strings No.  9 as a terrific `warmup,'
the orchestra played a memorable performance of the Shostakovich-Barshai
Chamber Symphony, went on to the Mozart Divertimento in D Major, concluding
with the Britten `Frank Bridge Variations.'

Ensemble playing was impeccable, the sound lush but not too much, solos
(Sillito again) just wonderful.

And yet, this is not about the concert.  It's about two sort-of-related
items concerning Britten.

First, an intense (but polite) debate with a friend at the concert
comparing their specific works tonight and the Shostakovich-Britten
equation in general.  Beginning with a statement that the Chamber Symphony
is `deeper, bigger, more intense and effecting' than the Britten work
(which I like very much), I surprised myself by saying that perhaps this
is true in general when comparing the two -- at least for me, of course.
However much Shostakovich had to pretend and fool around in his music, it
all sounds more `real' to me than most of Britten.  But, I feel decidedly
undecided about the `correctness' of this.

Second, a most exciting/frustrating radio encounter with a work I had heard
before, but could not identify to save my life.

Life, indeed, was in jeopardy as I was zooming south on the freeway,
from Redding to near Sacramento, agonizing over the identity of this
very strange work -- Chopinesque piano solos, Rachmaninoff-like orchestra
portions, bits and pieces strung together without one identifiable voice.
I was certain that once the piece is identified, I will shout very loudly:
OF COURSE!  And yet the opposite happened:  there was absolutely nothing
obvious about it.

It was the Britten Piano Concerto No.  1.  With your hand over your heart,
tell me that you could identify it as Britten if it snuck up on you like
this!

Janos Gereben/SF
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