Program Sets Up Dialogue Of Opposites
Elegant, Romantic Works Offset By Eerie, Sometimes Chaotic Rouse Concerto

by Diane Peterson 

The Press Democrat, January 24, 2005

SANTA ROSA--The Santa Rosa Symphony under Music Director Jeffrey Kahane wove together a program of power and restraint Saturday night that underscored music as a dialogue between order and chaos, darkness and light.

It was a fitting program to start the new year, when the classical season revs up in earnest and both players and audiences are primed for some serious challenges.

During the alluring first half, Kahane hopped nimbly from the classical elegance of a Mozart piano concerto to Christopher Rouse's eerie, contemporary violin concerto without skipping a beat, settling back after intermission into the romantic plushness of Sibelius' Symphony No. 2.

There was something for everyone, and if you didn't hear something you liked, then perhaps you should try your hand at composing.

Conducting from the keyboard, Kahane opened the three-course feast with a palate cleanser - Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 15, a challenging work that Mozart warned "would make one sweat." Of course, it's hard to think of a Mozart piece that doesn't make a musician sweat, since every note is exposed.

In his usual fashion, Kahane danced through the refined work with ease, executing lightning-fast runs in both hands, milking all the emotion possible out of the slow movement and romping through the dancelike finale with wit and charm.

This was perhaps the best example we've heard yet of Mozart by Kahane, who used a cushiony but clear touch to underscore the conversation between piano and orchestra and the interplay between left and right hands.

The reduced symphony lent sensitive support, playing Mozart as delicately and as simply as possible, but at times, a few folks had trouble keeping up with Kahane's fleet tempos.

The meatier main course of the evening, Rouse's eerie and beautiful violin concerto written in 1991, was played before intermission with disciplined virtuosity by Yumi Hwang-Williams, concertmaster of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

Dressed in a long, gray gown with aqua spangles, Hwang-Williams dove into the concerto's dark and ominous opening with flawless intonation and a big, powerful tone.

But it was her physical control of the bow - the efficiency of motion and effort, the even tone - that was really impressive.

In this concerto, as in the Sibelius after intermission, the woodwinds, brass and timpani added considerable heft and drama.

The interlude of violin, celeste and timpani between the concerto's two movements was particularly effective.

During the controlled chaos of the last movement - which sounded more like an argument than a conversation - Hwang-Williams pulled out all the virtuoso stops, from spiccato to harmonics, and remained in control even way up in the upper register.

She pulled off this feat with the steely strength of a Middle East peace negotiator, nearly getting swallowed up in the cacophony before leading the orchestra back into the stunning finale - a haunting violin melody, followed by a breathtaking moto perpetuo and a climactic conclusion, which literally had the audience on the edge of their seats.

After intermission, the symphony scaled the craggy heights of Sibelius' Symphony No. 2 with boldness and verve, alternating smoothly between its gentle, pastoral melodies and its restless fragments and rhythms.

Ensemble was a little ragged in the first and second movements, especially in unison passages, but it all came together for the powerful finale.