Press Democrat, December 8, 2003

The Santa Rosa Symphony provoked both laughter and applause Saturday night, demonstrating through witty works by Bernstein and Shostakovich that classical music need not be entirely serious. 
 
There was plenty of lyricism as well, especially during MacDowell's earnest Piano Concerto No. 2, performed with understated elegance by pianist Norman Krieger.

But the highlight came at the end of the evening, with Shostakovich's high-spirited Symphony No. 9, a work that was written as an ironic riposte to the weighty legacy of Beethoven's Ninth.

Under the baton of Music Director Jeffrey Kahane, the orchestra underscored the playful humor of this trenchant symphony, exaggerating both dynamics and tempo changes throughout.

The symphony attacked the jovial first movement with brisk confidence, tossing off the taunting melodies with precision. Even the lumbering basses sounded crisp.

The woodwinds soared through the eerie second movement with contoured nuance, especially the solo clarinets and flute, while the strings lent heft with their sweeping, elephantine melody.

The violins picked up the pace admirably in the fleet-footed presto, but it was principal bassoonist Carla Wilson who stole the show in the fourth movement with an eloquent, extended solo that meandered improvisationally into the last movement.

In the circuslike finale, the symphony pulled out all the stops, driving toward the explosive conclusion with verve and wit.

While the Ninth Symphony is not nearly as satisfying as Shostakovich's Fifth, which was performed and recorded by the symphony under Kahane in 2000, it still brought cheers and a standing ovation from the crowd.

Also deemed worthy of a standing ovation was Krieger's spell-binding performance of MacDowell's Piano Concerto No. 2, an unfamiliar work written in a nonetheless familiar, Romantic style.

Krieger made a good case for this exciting concerto to be played more often, tossing off the sparkling cadenzas, arpeggios, scales and chords with a virtuosic ease that belied their difficulty.

While the treble passages emerged cleanly from the piano, the bass passages tended to sound muddy, probably due to the acoustics of the hall and to the texture of the music itself, which is often thick and fat.

The concert opened on a jazzy note with Bernstein's "On the Town: Three Dance Episodes," from the composer's first Broadway show.

This work made the orchestra sound like a big band, complete with rhythm section, saxophone and gritty trumpet solo, which is a tribute to the many orchestral musicians, including Kahane, who can swing easily between jazz and classical grooves.

Less attractive among the American offerings was Jennifer Higdon's "Blue Cathedral," which launches itself with an aggressive, off-beat meter that feels tentative and disjointed.

The tension eventually resolved itself, however, with Chinese temple bells and wine glasses supplying an ethereal sound for the blissful conclusion.

The Santa Rosa Symphony will repeat the Saturday program at 8 tonight at the Burbank Center, 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa. Tickets cost $15-$52. Call 546-8742.

You can reach Staff Writer Diane Peterson at 521-5287 or dpeterson@pressdemocrat.com.