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San Diego Symphony plays new music for a new venue

There’s much to be proud about the San Diego Symphony and its music director, Rafael Payare, but their disregard of San Diego composers has been frustrating, to say the least.

Chinary Ung, Anthony Davis and Christopher Adler have never received performances by the symphony, and it’s been nearly 30 years since we’ve heard anything by Roger Reynolds.

The symphony’s concert on Friday at UCSD’s new Epstein Family Amphitheater was a step in the right direction.

Works by UCSD professors Rand Steiger and Lei Liang, as well as by one of its music department’s most illustrious alumni, Anna Thorvaldsdóttir, were performed alongside music by Stravinsky and Barber.

Thorvaldsdóttir’s 2017 composition “Metacosmos” begins with a low drone that slowly spreads into a cluster, answered by an equally thick tangle of high notes in flutes and violins. The paradox of her music is how it seems to constantly evolve while remaining static. At times, notes become unpitched air sounds, as if the orchestra is breathing. A modal melody emerges, disappears, only to reassert itself towards the end with consonant harmonies colored by dissonant filigrees, expiring into faint noise in the closing measures.

Steven Schick conducted with authority, overseeing a sympathetic performance.

Before this, Schick was the percussion soloist in the world premiere of Steiger’s clangorous “Triton’s Rise.” It began with Schick smashing four cymbals, followed by a crescendo on bongo leading into a rapid barrage of eight drums. A wash of cymbals sonically moved from stage left to stage right, an impressive effect.

“Triton’s Rise” calls for 16 percussionists positioned around the amphitheater to accompany the soloist. The cymbal rolls and crashes spread throughout the venue but were surprisingly cut off by a conch blown from the rear right, and then the rear left. This eventually led into a wonderful, brief section in which 17 conches sounded a weird harmony that enveloped the audience.

Other memorable moments included an extended section featuring tuned cowbells, and the roar of the giant tam-tam halfway through and at the conclusion.

Schick gave his usual dramatic performance. The accompanying musicians were a combination of percussionists from the symphony, UCSD and San Diego State University. It was an exciting, visceral way to open the new amphitheater.

For the most part, the amphitheater’s sound system complemented the orchestra’s playing in Barber’s Violin Concerto and Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements. The sound board technicians made the San Diego Symphony sound almost as good as they do at The Rady Shell.

Liang’s “Bamboo Lights” was sharply conducted by Elena Schwarz, but I missed the acoustic warmth that a good hall would have provided. It’s scored for a one-of-each instrument ensemble, and the music’s frequent silences would have benefitted more from acoustical afterglow.

In Barber’s Violin Concerto, given a heart-on-the-sleeve performance by soloist Paul Huang, Schwarz and the orchestra provided lots of give and take. The orchestral phrases were sculpted well.

I’ve heard the San Diego Symphony play Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements on two previous occasions; Schwarz’s was the least cohesive performance. In the first movement, there was not enough momentum to catapult into the next section. It came off sounding like a bunch of random jump cuts instead of the juggernaut it can be. At times the textures were a thicket of notes where a clearer differentiation between main lines and background was warranted. The second and third movements were played better but still had the impression of not enough rehearsal.

Congratulations to UCSD for an exciting new venue. Congratulations to the symphony for programming UCSD composers. Let’s see more collaboration like this for both organizations.

Editor’s note: The writer of this review, who has been a longtime Union-Tribune contributor, is a UCSD employee.

Hertzog is a freelance writer.