Two performances of this work by two North Bay orchestras so closely spaced was a strange conjunction. The Elgar symphonies are not often heard here, and Sunday's performance suggested some reasons why. It made me appreciate more the Elgar that has managed to travel ÷ the (earlier) Enigma Variations and String Serenade; the (later) Cello Concerto; all the little salon pieces. What all these have in common is memorable material, clearly-defined form, and a start-to-finish trajectory that always makes musical sense, whether it's half an hour from beginning to end or only a couple minutes. 

It would be hard to credit the same composer with this great ungainly beast of a symphony, except that the tunes say "Elgar" all right. The opening theme that Elgar obviously means to be a "protagonist" is a case in point ÷ stately, contained, and yet passionate; the walking bass for order, and the calm, suspension-laden melody for emotional depth. If you've ever played any Elgar, you'd predict that the designation "nobilmente" is hovering somewhere around the opening bars of the score. You'd be right. 

Strange rhetoric 

The opening theme, several times repeated, sounds like the peroration of a slow movement, not the beginning of anything. And the first movement's subsequent hurly-burly might almost have been put there to make you want that opening calm triumph back. But to get to it, you need to travel through Antsy-Scherzo Land, then a dreamland so beautiful that you really do want to stop right there, then a chaotic country where you can make inroads only through the back of the string sections (seriously: the last stands of the violins gradually bring back the opening theme), and then you're home free and you celebrate maybe just a little too long and loud. 

That sounds like the outline of a Mahler symphony. In practice, the Elgar's just enough like a Mahler symphony to sound like a Mahler symphony gone all wrong ÷ a smidge further off and we would all have perforce to call it sui generis and let it make its own standards, but where it stands it's practically begging for the comparison. Which doesn't do it much good. 

The things that stand out in the Elgar are the things he always did well ÷ that opening theme is strong and (yes) noble; the scherzo is irritating but certainly alive; and the slow movement is the finest thing in there, solemn and deep and intense. The problem is in the vast expanses of the outer movements that were obviously meant to pad the piece out into acceptable symphonic form. Keeping your upper lip stiff through all that is some job. 

Strength and tenderness 

Santa Rosa's performance was strong, especially from the strings, who were magisterial in the opening and exquisitely tender throughout the slow movement (they also tackled the scherzo with spirit and no little virtuosity). The Luther Burbank Center's sound enhancement system isn't particularly nice to the winds (I think it's the first stands of strings that get the biggest boost), but they held their own. 

The first half opened with David Matthews' 1981 Introit for two trumpets and strings. It rises out of a pedal C and culminates in a blazing antiphonal trumpet duel, with much intricate string writing in between. Matthews mentions Monteverdi as an influence, but he obviously knows the British string heritage very well. (No one who knows Britten's First Quartet, for example, could fail to recognize that opening texture ÷ a cluster of three notes in whole steps, and pizzicato punctuation below. Of course, Matthews' version was two octaves lower, Britten's ethereal texture fallen to earth.) 

And then the Walton Cello Concerto, with Mark Kosower as soloist. Jeffrey Kahane has an uncanny habit of featuring brilliant young string players just before they start touring with big-name orchestras. Mark Kosower, on the evidence of his playing Sunday, is another name to watch for. He certainly has the sound for a big career, rich and vibrant; and his left-hand technique is pretty well immaculate. And the Walton suited him very well. The almost cinematic lyricism of the slow sections, the nervous Prokofiev-meets-Debussy Scherzo ÷ this was perfect music for him. 

(Michelle Dulak, editor of San Francisco Classical Voice, is a violinist and violist who has written about music for Strings, Stagebill, Early Music America, and the New York Times.) 

©2003 Michelle Dulak, all rights reserved