Saxophonist Andrew Harrison

SYMPHONIC CONTRASTS IN SRS WEILL HALL CONCERT

Santa Rosa Symphony's Jan. 11 concert was billed as “RACH and the Hollywood Sound,” although the actual order of the program put Rachmaninoff's 1940 Symphonic Dances last, rather than first.
The rest was indeed the Hollywood Sound, beginning with a suite from Elmer Bernstein's score for the 1960 film “The Magnificent Seven.”

Its opening crashing chords gave way to the famous theme that could almost be considered the archetype for a western movie, one so familiar that it's often recognized even by those who've never seen the film. The orchestra was clearly enjoying doing it justice. At the time the film was released, few homes had anything beyond a basic record player, and the SRS's impressive sound, helped by Weill Hall’s acoustics, was a reminder of why people went to movie theaters to hear a score played as it was intended to be heard.

Bernstein's score could be considered an example of the Hollywood Sound at its best: when studios could combine the efforts of first-rate “bespoke” composers with big studio orchestras of elite musicians and the most advanced multitrack recording and reproduction technology in the world. The beginnings of that sound, however, could be found some three decades earlier, when studios first considered the score an integral part of the story, rather than just incidental music.

Viennese composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold came to Hollywood in 1934. Considered a huge child prodigy in Europe, Korngold had already enjoyed considerable success with operas, chamber music, and symphonies to his credit, and was the first internationally known composer to work in film, creating symphonic scores he described as “operas without singing” for Errol Flynn swashbucklers like Captain Blood, Robin Hood and The Sea Hawk.

The plot of the 1946 Bette Davis film “Deception” revolved around both a love triangle and a fictional cello concerto, the latter seen and heard only during a single five-minute scene. Korngold expanded this to a 13-minute single-movement concerto, performed here by Adelle-Akiko Kearns. Beginning with a tense theme quite unlike much of the composer’s late romantic Viennese idiom, it alternates this with moments of Elgaresque lyricism. Much of it is written in the cello's upper registers, making much use not only of the 5th position on the A string, but of the difficult thumb positions beyond.

Ms. Kearns executed all of these, as well as occasional descents all the way to the bottom C string and somewhat gruff sequences reminiscent of Shostakovich, with aplomb and complete technical confidence. The concerto ends with a typical Hollywood flourish (one could think roll the credits) and while standing ovations at the end of almost every piece seem to have become de rigeur for the SRS, this one was deserved by Ms. Kearns and the orchestra.

The final piece before the intermission was a suite of “Escapades” from the John Williams score of Steven Spielberg's movie from 2001 “Catch Me If You Can”. Wiliams has mentioned Korngold scores as inspiration for Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies. For its three movements Alto saxophonist Andrew Harrison was joined in front of the orchestra by jazz combo elements of double bass and vibraphone, and the first movement, “Closing In” had an edgy cool jazz feeling. The second (“Reflections”) had a wistful tone, with the saxophone and vibraphone playing over strings and muted horns. The final movement (“Joy Ride”) had the same driving rhythm as the Infernal Dance from Stravinsky's “Firebird” ballet, with rapid chromatic runs perfectly synchronized between Mr. Harrison's saxophone line and Allen Biggs’ vibraphone part.

The single work after the intermission was Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances. Rachmaninoff said that the Philadelphia Orchestra was his favorite to play with during his pianist career, and the Dances were composed for and dedicated to the Philadelphia. The piece has since been choregraphed and performed by several dance companies.

It's the composer's final published work and a tribute to his rhythmic inventiveness: the three-note descending fifths figure at its opening persists, often modified and sometimes inverted, throughout the opening and ending sections of the movement. A lyrical interlude between them features a long solo for alto saxophone (a rarity in symphonic music at the time) beautifully played by Mr. Harrison, who had quietly joined the orchestra's woodwind section for the piece. The second movement begins as a slightly eerie waltz and is perhaps the entire work's best chance to show off both the composer’s mastery of orchestration and in his trademark harmonically lush string writing.

Rachmaninoff had a lifelong fascination with liturgical music and the last movement of the Dances is based almost entirely on the 12th century dies irae plainchant. Indeed, while tempo and rhythm change constantly, there's hardly a single moment in which the chant doesn't appear: sometimes changed, but always clearly recognizable, even when accompanied by folk melodies or quotations from the composer's a capella choral work All Night Vigil. Conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong and the orchestra managed to keep this in the foreground during even the most densely scored passages. The ending chord is accompanied by a fortissimo stroke on the tam-tam (a large orchestral Asian gong), and Mr. Lecce-Chong held his final arm gesture in compelling silence until the gong sound died away.

Once again, the audience was on its feet for an ovation.