This time last year, the San Francisco SymphonyWinner of the conductor, Herbert Blomstedt, retire According to a set of concerts, he had to lead Davies Symphony Hall. The nonagenarian had a fall in December 2023 which dismissed him from the commitments here and in the world. Many have undoubtedly assumed his long and stellar career, which included a decade as a musical director of the Symphony (1985-1995), had reached its natural end.
The hypotheses, with regard to tireless Blomstedt, are a bad bet.
The 97 -year -old conductor was back on the Davies stage on Thursday, January 30, for the first of the three planned performances of Schubert and Brahms Symphonies, programming at the center for an artist who has long specialized in the classic German repertoire and Austrian.
Supported on and out of the stage by the solo violin Alexander Barienschik, Blomstedt rose on the podium, turned to recognize the warmth of the afternoon crowd and settled on a padded stool to return to business.
An hour and 50 minutes later, when he brought the Brahms N ° 1 Symphony to a decisive and declarative end, the members of the applauding public renewed their gratitude and their connection. With a large smile and a pressed hand in his heart, BLOMSTEDT responded in kind.
This last hectic movement of the Brahms saw the driver adopt his deeply considered, almost architectural approach. By seriously slowing down the passage of the early picked strings, Blomstedt said: “Be patient. Wait and see. Gradually, by increasing the tempos and tension, highlighting a horn passage here, a wooden interpolation there, the musical arches began to develop and stretch towards their destination. When the famous lovely melody emerged, Blomstedt and the orchestra went to a brilliant and exultant finish which confirmed the undoubted debt of Brahms in Beethoven.
There were fresh pleasures elsewhere. Sitting the first and second sections of violin on the opposite sides of the scene, with the bass, the cellos and the altos have turned off from left to right, gave beautiful sounds. A conference of the two violin sections in the Andante movement was particularly the choice. The same goes for the violin solo of Barirants Expressed. The dark heart rate of the first movement, beaten by the Timpanist Edward Stephan, fueled in attacks of sharp and pungent strings.
For all its carefully marshy design, this Brahms performance was also marked by balance problems, unstable entries and blurred cohesion. Too zealous woods have become strident at different times. A pedal horn note attracted too much attention to itself. These details have spoiled the overall construction.
Driving without sticks and reporting your wishes with gestures retained but clearly articulated, Blomstedt seemed more firmly in control in Schubert Symphony No. 5. With a light and safe touch, he followed the agitation changes of this bubbling work, key changes and key changes and this bubbling work, false rates. But there was also a pressure of seriousness through all this, as if to remind listeners that even if Schubert wrote the play at 19, he felt the rampant shade of mortality. (The composer would die at 31 years old.)
A brilliant and rope sound hastened in the first movement, the game present but detached itself. The Andante who followed was masterfully, the sentences with soft edges delicately posed and have turned off against each other. In the central section of this movement, the strings seemed to think about the origin of their coming, the establishment of the nostalgic and soft-amer return and the transformation of the opening subject.
The woods, more temperate than in the Brahms, stood out in the third crisp movement. When a minor key storm broke out in the final movement, BLOMSTEDT and the players have looked into the inexhaustible invention of Schubert.
Here too, there have been some errors and uncertainties along the way. However, they seemed to be almost young, too reduced. Age is just a number. Music, as she always does, begins again with each idle.
This story was published for the first time in Datebook in partnership with the San Francisco Chronicle.