Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
SD Symphony musicians slower than conductor Jahja Ling
Jan Lisiecki piano in Chopin’s concerto could have stood alone
Jahja Ling. My expectations for pacing have generally lined up with what maestro Ling has prepared but not on this night.
The San Diego Symphony concert on Friday, April 12 felt slow and unsettled. I was surprised. In years gone by, the combination of conductor Jahja Ling, the San Diego Symphony, and Johannes Brahms, has been a good one.
For most of the concert, it felt as though the orchestra wasn't quite buying what maestro Ling was selling. The opening number, which was the overture from the opera *Der Freischütz” by Carl Maria von Weber, was especially lugubrious.
Von Weber's Der Freischütz is one of the most underrated operas.
In my opinion, Der Freischütz is one of the most underrated operas. The music is compelling — idyllic and energetic as the story involves young love and a deal with the devil. Weber was a master composer, and his music speaks for itself. It doesn’t need help in being dramatic.
Maestro Ling appeared to be trying to manufacture a great performance by going to the extremes in tempi and dynamics. If a conductor is going to tread that path, the entire orchestra needs to be on the same path. Without earning the complete dedication of the orchestra, a conductor cannot hope to live on the edges of what is musically possible in any given piece.
This is complete conjecture but I would say there was some friction among the orchestral musicians regarding tempo and timing. Everyone has an opinion about the correct pacing for a piece of music. In the past, I’d say my expectations for pacing have generally lined up with what maestro Ling has prepared but not on this night.
The great revelation of the evening was the piano playing of Jan Lisiecki in Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2. The piano part in the concerto could be a stand-alone piece and Lisiecki played it to perfection, based on my expectations for the piece.
Lisiecki was powerful and poetic in his playing. He placed the pillars of power and poetry and then explored combinations of night and day between the two.
Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 was the concluding piece. Having listened to several performances of Ling conduct Brahms I was nonplussed by this version of the fourth symphony.
I will leave it at this. I’m looking forward to maestro Ling conducting Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 on May 3, 4, and 5.
Here's something you might be interested in.
SD Symphony musicians slower than conductor Jahja Ling
Jan Lisiecki piano in Chopin’s concerto could have stood alone
SD Symphony musicians slower than conductor Jahja Ling
Jan Lisiecki piano in Chopin’s concerto could have stood alone
Jahja Ling. My expectations for pacing have generally lined up with what maestro Ling has prepared but not on this night.
The San Diego Symphony concert on Friday, April 12 felt slow and unsettled. I was surprised. In years gone by, the combination of conductor Jahja Ling, the San Diego Symphony, and Johannes Brahms, has been a good one.
For most of the concert, it felt as though the orchestra wasn't quite buying what maestro Ling was selling. The opening number, which was the overture from the opera *Der Freischütz” by Carl Maria von Weber, was especially lugubrious.
Von Weber's Der Freischütz is one of the most underrated operas.
In my opinion, Der Freischütz is one of the most underrated operas. The music is compelling — idyllic and energetic as the story involves young love and a deal with the devil. Weber was a master composer, and his music speaks for itself. It doesn’t need help in being dramatic.
Maestro Ling appeared to be trying to manufacture a great performance by going to the extremes in tempi and dynamics. If a conductor is going to tread that path, the entire orchestra needs to be on the same path. Without earning the complete dedication of the orchestra, a conductor cannot hope to live on the edges of what is musically possible in any given piece.
This is complete conjecture but I would say there was some friction among the orchestral musicians regarding tempo and timing. Everyone has an opinion about the correct pacing for a piece of music. In the past, I’d say my expectations for pacing have generally lined up with what maestro Ling has prepared but not on this night.
The great revelation of the evening was the piano playing of Jan Lisiecki in Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2. The piano part in the concerto could be a stand-alone piece and Lisiecki played it to perfection, based on my expectations for the piece.
Lisiecki was powerful and poetic in his playing. He placed the pillars of power and poetry and then explored combinations of night and day between the two.
Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 was the concluding piece. Having listened to several performances of Ling conduct Brahms I was nonplussed by this version of the fourth symphony.
I will leave it at this. I’m looking forward to maestro Ling conducting Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 on May 3, 4, and 5.
Comments