‘Impressive’ concerts with the San Francisco Symphony
28 abr 2016
«Heras-Casado clearly appreciated the wide variety of hues and shades on Ravel’s instrumental palette, and his approach to Le Tombeau de Couperin more than did justice to the broad diversity of skills among the SFS musicians. Equally impressive in sonority was his account of the final work on the program, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 70 symphony in E-flat major . . .
Rich instrumentation was also on display at the very beginning of the program with Béla Bartók’s 1923 composition that he called simply “Dance Suite.” Since this is a single-movement composition, it is not, strictly speaking, a suite. However, it does tour through a variety of rhythmic sections, each of which could be associated with its own distinctive dance form. These are separated by a recurring Ritornello motif, perhaps allowing the dancers to catch their breaths before going on to the next dance. Also, possibly with a nod to classical ballet, there is a Finale that revisits excerpts from all of the previous dances. Heras-Casado’s account of this music delivered all of the requisite high spirits, once again providing more than ample opportunity for the full diversity of the SFS instrumentalists to strut their stuff with exuberant pride.»
Stephen Smoliar – Examiner