The San Francisco Symphony presentation of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Mlada" is
still a week away, but three local debuts tonight in Davies Hall forecast
the concentration of Russian singers scheduled for the opera.

Tonight's all-Shostakovich installment of Michael Tilson Thomas' Russian
Festival bracketed "From Jewish Folk Poetry," Op.  25, between "Two Pieces
for String Octet," Op.  11 (with seven of the orchestra's finest, led by
concertmaster Alexander Barantschik) and the Symphony No.  5, Op.  47.

Written in 1948, the song cycle could not be performed publicly until
1955, two years after Stalin's death.  The trio singing the music premiered
back then by Nina Dorliak (Sviatoslav Richter's wife), Zara Dolkhanova and
Alec Maslennikov, tonight consisted of soprano Ljuba Kazarnovskaya, mezzo
Susanna Poretsky (stepping in for the indisposed Nathalie Stutzmann) and
tenor Vsevolod Grivnov.

With MTT and the orchestra having a ball, the three soloists provided a
great ensemble for the cycle, but their individual performances varied
widely.

Poretsky is a thrilling young talent.  Not only does she have a grand
voice, but she is consistent in producing the same clean vocal line and
diction I first heard from her in the recent LA Opera "Pique Dame."

Kazarnovskaya, the scheduled Princess Voislava in "Mlada," is a striking
presence, with an unfortunate tendency to conduct herself, instead of
keeping an eye on MTT.  She looks like a diva, but doesn't sound like one.
Her voice is lacking in warmth and beauty, and she has a tendency to go
shrill.

Grivnov is a fine young singer in the typical Russian high-pitched
lyrical-tenor range, without a big voice, but impressive with his accuracy
and projection.  Although the "Boris Godunov" Dmitri is his signature role,
I don't hear the hint of steel in the voice needed to win the argument with
Marina.

The song cycle, first heard in Northern California tonight, is wonderfully
entertaining, a solid work of music, not an ethnic pastiche.  While the
text has its share of "Oy!" and clarinets get choice solos, Shostakovich
not only fought Soviet anti-Semitism, he also created lasting music.

Beyond laments of hard lives, of loss and grief, the cycle covers a range
of emotions, including a goofy hymn to "The Good Life" (including a clearly
ironic tribute to the "collective farm river flowing merrily") and the
concluding "Happiness" - the cobbler's wife rejoicing in her sons becoming
doctors.  Beneath the dizzy operetta finale of "Happiness," as MTT was
whipping the music into a comic frenzy, there were possible volumes of
dissertation about the reality, significance and uses of Stalin's (Jewish)
doctors and their alleged conspiracy.  If only they actually did away with
history's most murderous music critic!

Janos Gereben/SF
[log in to unmask]