United States Various: Randall Goosby (violin), San Francisco Symphony Chorus, San Francisco Symphony / Edward Gardner (conductor). Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, 16.1.2026. (HS)
Vaughan Williams – Overture from The Wasps
Bruch – Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor
Holst – The Planets
Well, that was vivid. Under the energetic baton of Edward Gardner, the San Francisco Orchestra dived into Ralph Vaughn Williams’s Overture from The Wasps as a sort of ‘amuse bouche’, as Gardner put it in his charming comments before the concert. A packed audience was drawn, no doubt, by Gustav Holst’s kaleidoscopic The Planets, although the thoroughly engaging violinist Randall Goosby playing Max Bruch’s First Violin Concerto was also worth the trip.
Gloucester-born and the principal conductor of the London Philharmonic, Gardner certainly knows his way around English music. He injected plenty of muscle into the rhythms of both the overture and the suite, coaxing sonorities from the brightest to the darkest, and a motivated San Francisco Symphony responded with vitality. That was apparent from the first buzzy phrases of The Wasps which captured the sound of bothersome flying insects so well that I had to shrug off the urge to wave them away. The lyrical center of the piece flowed easily, and it all finished with a bang.
In The Planets, sneaking into ‘Mars, the Bringer of War’ Gardner kept the music tightly wound and soft at first, gradually crescendoing, step by marching step, into the glorious sound of the full orchestra. Led by the brass and the flair of timpanist Edward Stephan, the music practically exploded. It never lost forward motion, even when the tempo occasionally drew back. The contrast with the sweetness of ‘Venus, the Bringer of Peace’ allowed one to exhale, as the orchestra smoothly shaped the languid pace and long lines from horns and strings. ‘Mercury, the Winged Messenger’ danced spryly from the first phrases.
I always look forward most to ‘Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity’, with its panoply of English folk songs, both bouncy and orotund. Sudden shifts in rhythm felt natural, and the overall effect brought smiles as the tunes made their way through the orchestra in a coherent line. ‘Saturn, Bringer of Old Age’ softened the rhythms just enough to convey an ‘old-man’ vibe without losing the pulse. ‘Uranus, the Magician’ unfolded with a delightful wittiness and ‘Neptune, the Mystic’ created a slowly unfurling blanket of serenity. Holst’s harmonies, accented by celestas and, finally, with an offstage women’s chorus, painted a soft glow that faded into silence at the end with a feeling of regret.
The clarity, rhythmic vitality and attention to the wide range of sonorities made this performance of such a familiar piece extraordinary.
Before we could get to the solar system (or, more precisely, per Holst’s own explanations, the astrological legends of these planets), Randall Goosby delivered a performance of Bruch’s First Violin Concerto that brimmed with joy. The violinist savored the sweep of the music, even if his execution sometimes veered off slightly. In the way he listened and responded with his body one could recognize the artist’s connection with the music unfolding around him, not just his solo part. As Bruch’s colorful canvas began, both Goosby and Gardner savored the way slow harmonies are garnished by responses from the soloist. The middle Adagio was most rewarding as Goosby drew out the long lines without overdoing anything. The Finale: Allegro energico bounced along with a beguiling freshness.
For an encore, Goosby loosened up significantly for a favorite encore of his, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s rhythmic cakewalk fiddle-fantasy, ‘Louisiana Blues Strut’. It is also a favorite encore of Augustin Hadelich. Goosby’s was funkier but just as flamboyant.
Harvey Steiman
Featured Image: Conductor Edward Gardner © Mark Allan