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SF Symphony Youth Orchestra Open Rehersal

On Saturday, November 15, 2003, the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra had it's first open rehearsal of the season with a program of Rimsky-Korsakov, Copland, and Tchaikovsky. The Youth Orchestra has an international reputation of being one of the finest youth orchestra's in the world, but portions of Saturday's rehearsal made that hard to believe.

Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Overture opened the program. The first notes, a woodwind section unison, were horribly out-of-tune. It was difficult to tell what the cause of the lapse in intonation was, but it seemed to be coming from the double-reeds. The work progressively got better (and more in tune) as it went. The piece gave many players solo opportunities, most notably from concertmaster Hannah Tarley and second trombone Alex Bedner. There were some very nice moments, especially the full-orchestra tutti sections, but balance became an issue at some points. Balance was espcialy a problem in places where the lower instruments were more important than the higher instruments. Other balance problems came from the brass section, where the trumpets and trombones were not loud enough to balance tuba player Steven Caron. The work ended well, despite a rocky start.

Copland's El Salon Mexico was next o-n the program. one of Copland's most famous works, this short tone poem was written in the late 1930's after a tour of Mexico. The piece is supposed to depict a dance hall in Mexico City, and has bits of various dance music woven into it. one of the most important things about this piece - and many of Copland's works, for that matter - is rhythm. Rhythmic clarity caused some problems for the orchestra, especially in the string section. The violins seemed to be playing many of the passages a little too long, and as a result some of the precision was lost in the somewhat live Davies Symphony Hall. This work also had it's moments. The closing section, with it's fast dance music was appropriately driving. The slow middle section of the piece provided more opportunities for solo playing, and the opening was well-tuned.

The final work o-n the program was Tchaikovsky's monumental Fourth Symphony. o-ne of Tchaikovsky's most performed symphonies, o-ne of the dangers of performing it is that it is fresh in the minds of San Francisco audiences. The Fourth Symphony has been heard at Davies numerous times in the past few years: The San Francisco Symphony performed it last June as part of their Russian Festival, the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra played it last season, and even the Youth Orchestra performed it just a few years ago. By far the most polished piece o-n the program, the Symphony got off to a rough start but eventually settled into a good groove. Intonation difficulties in the horn and bassoon sections made the opening fanfare a bit more frightening than is intended. The first movement was overall good, except for a few momentary lapses in taste by certain members of the brass section who shall remain nameless. (Darby). The second movements was good. The woodwind solos, especially from oboist Alexandra von der Embse and bassoonist Matthew Arnold, were excellent and very musical. The third movement, with its notoriously difficult string passages, was quite good. There were a few moments where the strings were not quite as together as they could have been, but it was overall better than any other youth orchestra could do. The ensemble in the brass section was excellent, and the woodwinds sounded quite good. The last movement started out well, but had some problems. Balance again became a big issue in the brass section with some players being much louder than they should have been (Darby), and other players not being nearly loud enough. (You know who you are).

Overall it was a good performance, but there were recurring problems. Intonation was the most notable of these. Ensemble often came up as a problem. Blend was something that bothered me more often than it should have. While the playing on an individual level was superb, it seems that the biggest things this orchestra needs to work on are problems associated with learning to play as an ensemble, and not just a collection of 100 very talented individuals. I've been told that a lot of work has been done in the two rehearsals since the open rehearsal, so I hope the performance today goes better than this open rehearsal did.

Added:  Sunday, November 23, 2003
Reviewer:  Nathan Lofton
Score:
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Language: eng