Heras-Casado delivers wit
San Francisco’s expressive program opens for two weeks
Pablo Heras-Casado returned to the San Francisco Symphony on Wednesday night, and the news was all good.
The Spanish conductor, who made his first appearance with this orchestra in 2010, has had an excellent rapport with the Symphony players from the start. And so it was on this program, which featured works from the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries.
Heras-Casado, who serves as principal conductor of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in New York, is a vigorous, expressive podium artist, and his command of rhythm and dynamics was apparent throughout the evening’s lineup of works by Beethoven, Biber, Haydn and Rameau.
Wednesday’s performance in Davies Symphony Hall, which repeats through Saturday evening, found the conductor in top form, with especially persuasive results in the second half’s superb reading of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 in D major. Eliciting wit and drama in equal measure throughout, Heras-Casado summoned a turbulent atmosphere in the expansive first movement. The Larghetto was especially fine, with graceful contributions from the strings and fluid, gently etched phrases from the woodwinds.
The conductor bore down in the Scherzo, delivering Beethoven’s score with uncommon urgency, and the brilliance of the finale was illuminated in bold, sure strokes.
Heras-Casado has said that Baroque music was his first love — some of his earliest musical recollections are of singing in youth choirs — and the rest of the program, intimately scaled for chamber forces, demonstrated his skills in this repertoire.
Biber’s “Battalia à 9” offered a rare treat. Composed in eight short movements for a compact group of three violins, four violas, two double basses and continuo (in this case, cello and harpsichord), Biber’s 1673 score may rank among the most unusual depictions of battle the music world has ever produced. Representing a group of carousing musketeers, its special effects — foot-stomping, bows hitting strings and episodes of extreme dissonance — certainly place it ahead of its time. With the players — most of them standing — arrayed in a semicircle configuration, Heras-Casado clearly savored the revels in an ebullient performance.
The concert’s first half opened with Rameau’s “Music from Pygmalion.” Drawn from the composer’s 1748 ballet, presented here in a suite assembled by Heras-Casado, the score yielded a brisk and graceful collection of lilting airs and cheerful dances.
In between, Ingrid Fliter joined Heras-Casado and the orchestra in a spirited traversal of Haydn’s 1784 Piano Concerto in D major. The Symphony hadn’t played this charming, exuberant concerto since 2002, and Fliter’s effervescent keyboard technique combined with Heras-Casado’s crisp, energetic conducting in a captivating performance. The Symphony’s oboes and horns played with distinction.
And here’s the best news: This was the first of two weeks featuring HerasCasado. The conductor returns to Davies next week to conduct Bartok’s “Dance Suite,” Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin,” Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9, and the world premiere of Mason Bates’ “Auditorium.” At the April 27 performance, “Auditorium” will be streamed live on Facebook Live to audiences around the globe, making the San Francisco Symphony the first major orchestra to stream a world premiere in real time. Catch it if you can and help make music history.