Afro-Peruvian folk music opens SDSO concert

It began with a solo horn, joined by all the brass in a fanfare-like theme, followed by a melodic segment passed through the strings, then marked by extensive use of the rhythmic 6/8-3/4 alternation (Like in Leonard Bernstein’s song, “America” from Westside Story), which accelerated into an exciting climax.

The 37-year-old Lopez is the current composer-in-residence of the San Diego Symphony. This piece was commissioned in 2013 by fellow Peruvian native, Conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya, then Music Director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and was dedicated to Harth-Bedoya, even embedding his initials into the entire work.

Next was the Violin Concerto by Alban Berg, disciple of the 12-tone pioneer composer, Arnold Schoenberg. Jeff Thayer, concertmaster of the San Diego Symphony since the 2004-5 season, was the soloist in this challenging work. Thayer studied with the Israeli violinist, Zvi Zeitlin, at the Eastman School; with Donald Weilerstein, father of cellist, Alisa Weilerstein; with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School; and with William Preucil at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Through a generous gift to the San Diego Symphony Orchestra from Joan and Irwin Jacobs and the Jacobs Family Trust, Thayer performs on the 1708 “Bagshawe” Stradivarius.

Although dedicated to Louis Krasner, the American-Russian-Jewish violinist who commissioned the concerto and premiered it, the piece was inspired “in memory of an angel,” 18-year-old Manon Gropius, who had just died of polio. She was the daughter of Alma Mahler, widow of Gustav Mahler, and Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius, the composer’s close friends.

The concerto is constructed in four movements, with the first two connected without pause and the last two joined in the same manner.

In the opening Andante, the violin commenced with the four open strings, ascended to subsequent fifths, then soared from the open G string to the furthest heights on the E string.  That set the melancholy mood. The next section, Allegretto, was dance-like, while the third movement had the improvisatory virtuosity of a cadenza, interrupted by an ominous rhythm, climaxing into what represented Manon’s death. The last movement, Adagio, included a Bach Chorale, Es Ist Genug (That Is Enough), thus incorporating tonal music into this atonal composition. It ended in solemn sadness.

The San Diego Symphony is fortunate to have in Jeff Thayer, a concertmaster capable of performing solo works from the violin repertoire as impressively as many of the guest soloists who travel the world.

After intermission, hearing the opening woodwind chords of Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony was like returning to the warmth of one’s own hearth after being on an adventurous outing. For those of us who heard this symphony before (or, as in my case, performed it numerous times), its familiar themes sparkled. The second movement Scherzo had the magic quality of his Midsummer’s Night music and the third movement, Adagio, sang forth in lyrical glory. The finale, Allegro vivacissimo, was taken at a rapid clip, ending with the opening from the first movement in a more majestic guise, drawing the symphony to an energetic close.

Although this work was inspired by the young Mendelssohn’s visit to Scotland when he was 20 years old, it was not completed until 13 years later and was actually the last of his five symphonies. He died in 1847 at the young age of 38.

Once again, the San Diego Symphony, under its dynamic conductor, Raphael Payare, and with its concertmaster as soloist and a work by its composer-in-residence, delivered an exciting evening of great music-making.