San Diego composer, pianist featured in TICO concert

By Eileen Wingard

Eileen Wingard

SAN DIEGO — Youth Overture by Arkady Luxemburg opened the June 4 concert of the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra (TICO).

Luxemburg, who died recently, was a Russian-Jewish immigrant, residing in San Diego for more than two decades and writing music in many genres.

His brief, upbeat work displayed influences of Kabelevsky and Khatchaturian, with its opening dissonant brass fanfare and sprightly string theme returning at the end. In between, was a jazzy section and an interlude of solo percussion followed by solos for the tuba, celli, bassoon, horns and oboe before the return of the string theme.

Luxemburg’s son was there to take a bow after the overture.

Brahms melodious Second Symphony was the next piece on the program.

The first movement’s lilting waltz-like theme, reminiscent of Brahms’ lullaby, and the lovely horn solo were nicely rendered. The celli shone in the Adagio movement and the Allegretto Grazioso was like a gemuetlich stroll in the Vienna woods. Even the challenging finale movement, Allegro con spirit, came through with appropriate zeal.

Opening the second half of the program was a work by a Japanese composer, seldom played in the West, Yasushi Akutagawa (1925-1989). He studied in the Soviet Union and his piece, rather than echo Japanese folk influences, resembled Stravinsky and Shostakovitch.  It was divided into two sections, slow and fast. The orchestra performed the work with conviction.

The final work was Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, with Oksana Germain as soloist. She is a San Diego native who now attends the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.

The young artist, attired in a blue, sleeveless gown, her long hair drawn together in a bun, played with assertiveness.  She was technically secure and commanded a wide spectrum of dynamics to convey her musical ideas.

Although the opening introductory bars in the strings lacked pure intonation, the problem seemed to right itself, once the piano entered. Particularly memorable was the way the young pianist attacked the lilting Rondo theme in the last movement, driving the piece with energetic momentum to its joyful conclusion. Greeted with a standing ovation, she rewarded the audience with an encore, a passionate reading of Rachmaninoff’s Etude, opus 36 #5.

David Amos is to be commended for featuring local composers and artists such as Luxemburg and Germain.

However, with a full length symphony, a full length piano concerto and an overture, it would have been preferable to have programmed the Akutagawa piece at another time.

When too much music is prepared, given the limited rehearsal time, it inevitably results in some pieces being under rehearsed. It also makes for concerts which run more than the normal two hours.

The final TICO program of the season, their annual Pops Concert, will be Sunday, July 30 at 3:00 p.m. at Tifereth Israel Synagogue, 6660 Cowles Mountain Blvd., San Diego, CA 92119.

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Wingard, a retired violinist with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, is a freelance writer specializing in the arts. She may be contacted via eileen.wingard@sdjewishworld.com