United States Lindberg, Berg, Stravinsky: Isabelle Faust (violin), San Francisco Symphony / Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor). Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, 23.5.2025. (HS)
Magnus Lindberg – ‘Chorale’
Berg – Violin Concerto
Stravinsky – The Firebird
If Esa-Pekka Salonen’s intent was to remind San Francisco Symphony patrons of just what they will be missing after he leaves his position as music director next month, this sensational Firebird made the point emphatically. In a way, it summarized what has made his five-year tenure leading the orchestra so special. Conducting Stravinsky’s full ballet score for the 1910 sensation, not one of the shorter suites, he made it unfold with a perfect sense of pace, each detail in place, never fussy. Control of dynamics and overall balance let every nuance come through, and individual solos were delivered with appreciable freedom.
Lighter sections, especially ‘Appearance of the 13 Enchanted Princesses’ and the lilting scherzo ‘Game of the Princesses with the Golden Apples’, contrasted nicely with the rough edges and unbridled vigor of the ‘Infernal Dance’ – delivered with awe-inspiring verve and punch. ‘Kashchei’s Death’ followed with a palpable sense of evil evaded. The cinematic flow of these sections was mesmerizing.
Salonen stationed the ‘offstage’ extra trumpets (called for in the scene introducing the princesses) above the stage to the left and right and on the first tier behind the audience. It created an extra dimension to the sound, especially when added to the full orchestra in one big climax. Also of note were superb solo contributions from principal bassoon Joshua Elmore and principal oboe Eugene Izotov, and rapid-fire xylophone solos by principal percussionist Jacob Nissly.
The famous finale was especially delicious. It began with a softly plush undercurrent from the strings for a languid and expressive French horn solo from visiting Nikolette LaBonte (currently principal horn of the Calgary Symphony). The way that Salonen held back the layers to savor the tune passed around the orchestra articulated a perfect change of mood between this final section of the score and the fairy-tale frights of the story.
The gradually building excitement of the finale (titled ‘General Thanksgiving’) reached its climax with brilliant, measured chorale playing by the brass. The sustained final chord built its crescendo ever so slowly before expanding into a sonorous peroration at the very end. The whole thing raised the hairs on the back of my neck, which is exactly what Stravinsky meant to accomplish.
The performance in the first half of Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto would have earned top billing in other concerts with the expressive work by soloist Isabelle Faust, whose only previous performance with this orchestra was in the Britten concerto in 2014. She found all the depth and singing sincerity, achieving gratifying elegance in Berg’s final completed work. Salonen judged perfect balances between soloist and orchestra, which allowed the violin to come through even against the full orchestra in the few moments where it was necessary.
For me, Berg is the one composer who consistently was able to create beauty within the 12-tone atonality of the early-twentieth century. The first movement’s statements of the tone row, much of it expressed with open fifths and other melodic aspects, feel less dissonant than most atonal works of that era.
As the second of the two movements gains in grittiness, the miraculous Adagio that finishes the concerto takes the unexpected turn of quoting J. S. Bach’s setting of the Lutheran hymn ‘Es ist genug’, playing on the coincidence that the first four notes of that chorale duplicate the last four notes of Berg’s tone row. Faust and Salonen brought out the astonishing beauty of the concerto’s series of variations on Bach’s melodies and harmonies, especially in the final measures. Faust finished on a rising version of the tone row, sailing into her instrument’s highest register as the orchestra quietly descended. It was breathtaking.
‘Es ist genug’ was also the cornerstone of Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg’s ‘Chorale’, a six-minute ‘opener’ written specifically as a companion piece to Berg’s Violin Concerto. Salonen conducted the premiere in 2002; the performances this weekend are the first by the San Francisco Symphony. As subtly as Berg handled the connections between Bach and atonality, Lindberg charged into the fray with unharnessed dissonance – not atonal, but it was harsh stuff. As in the Berg, Lindberg’s music comes to rest on an old-fashioned major chord. Only Berg made it feel inevitable.
This was the first of four final subscription concerts for Salonen, a sort of farewell tour in-place. Coming next is an all-Beethoven program, then Sibelius’s Symphony No.7 along with a world premiere from Gabriella Smith. Salonen goes out on Mahler’s Symphony No.2 in mid-June.
Harvey Steiman
Featured Image: Esa-Pekka Salonen blows a kiss to the audience after Firebird © Stefan Cohen