By Eileen Wingard in San Diego
Aram Katchaturian’s Violin Concerto could find no better practioner than the composer’s fellow Armenian-born violinist, 41-year-old Sergey Katchatryan, whose family name closely resembles that of the composer’s, although they are not related.
Sergey Katchatryan gave a stunning performance of the exciting work on the first half of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra’s October 10 concert at the Jacobs Music Center.
Aram Katchaturian was born in 1903 in Tbilisi , Georgia, and his first 18 years were deeply influenced by the Armenian folk tunes that permeate his music. At 18, he moved to Moscow to study at the Gnessin Academy of Music where the composer, Michael Gnessin, whose sisters founded the Gnessin Academy in 1895, was his teacher. Michael Gnessin was one of the members of the Jewish Folksong Society, whose mission was to incorporated Jewish folk and liturgical music into their serious compositions. Katchaturian’s teacher no doubt encouraged him to use the Armenian music of his heritage as touchstones for his work.
Katchaturian’s Violin Concerto overflows with Armenian folk influence. After the first movement’s brief orchestral introduction, Katchatryan entered with the percussive excitement of the opening theme, then brought out the lyrical beauty of the second theme. The development included a lovely cadenza, written by the great Soviet-Jewish violinist, David Oistrakh, to whom the concerto was dedicated. After the return of the original themes in the recapitulation, the movement culminated in a virtuosic climax.
The second movement, a heartfelt lament, was repeated with ornamented variations, concluding quietly. The third movement, Allegro vivace, was in rondo form, with a frenzied dance rhythm as the theme. One of the interludes brought back the lyrical second theme from the first movement. To conclude, the soloist and orchestra scurried to the wild D major final chords.
In contrast to the wild excitement of the Katchaturian Concerto, the violin soloist chose as an encore, a serene 10th century sacred Armenian hymn, Havun-Havun (The Bird Was Awake). Its subdued, meditative quality brought the audience to a hushed silence before the soloist was again greeted with appreciative applause.
After intermission, the San Diego Symphony gave an impressive reading of Bruckner’s Symphony #9. Bruckner came to composing late in life. From childhood, he studied organ and became highly accomplished on that instrument. From the age of 21, he worked in Sankt Florian, Austria as both a schoolteacher and an organist. It was not until he was 31 that he began a correspondence course with the noted Viennese music theorist, Simon Sechter, whose post he took over at the Vienna Conservatory, after Sechter’s death. Another conservatory teacher, Otto Ketzler, introduced Bruckner to Wagner, whom the budding composer idolized. Bruckner did not complete his studies until he was 40 years old and he did not become famous until after the premiere of his 7th Symphony, at age 60.
He completed the first three movements of his 9th Symphony shortly before his death. Although some of Bruckner’s students tried to complete a fourth movement from sketches that Bruckner left, only the three completed movements were performed by the SDSO under Rafael Payare’s impassioned direction.
Bruckner calls for eight horns and four of them double on Wagner tubas to help create a tsunami of sound, especially in the first and third movements, rising to great heights, only to pause and drop to soft pianissimos before slowly increasing in dynamics like a growing tidal wave. Bruckner’s writing is heavily influenced by the organ, of which he was a master, and by the music of Wagner.
The middle movement, Scherzo, was a bit lighter in texture, although that, too, had its massive sound in the second part of the Scherzo section, returning after the lighter middle part Trio.
There were many finely played solo passages, especially in the woodwinds and brass. Two principals who were there when I was still in the orchestra (I retired in 2004), and continue to deliver outstanding performances, are clarinetist Sheryl Renk and bassoonist Valentine Marchev. Always admirable is the artistry of principal horn, Benjamin Jaber.
Once again, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra delivered an impressive rendition of a complex, lengthy work, difficult to perform and challenging to comprehend.
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Eileen Wingard, a retired violinist with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, is a freelance writer based in San Diego.