SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Prokofiev, Beethoven, Mozart: Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, Yuri Temirkanov, conductor; Julia Fischer, violin. Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, 19.11.2007 (HS)

A full-house audience came out to capacious Davies Symphony Hall on a Monday night a few days before a major holiday in America (Thanksgiving), a notoriously bad time to draw a crowd to arts events, to hear a Russian orchestra and a German violinist just now getting the recognition she deserves. Perhaps that says something of the steadfast support San Francisco's large Russian community pays to its own. Certainly, conductor Yuri Temirkanov is well known and liked by local music lovers, who have experienced his conducting at San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Symphony and from earlier visits by his "home" orchestra, the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic.

Or maybe it reflects the newly minted stardom of Julia Fischer, Gramophone's current artist of the year (although that magazine's audience in the U.S. is not extensive). The young violinist wowed San Francisco symphony subscribers with a gorgeous performance of the Sibelius concerto  earlier this year and toured the piece with the orchestra in Europe in September.

Whatever the reason for the big crowd, she was the best thing about this  concert, bringing a freshness and sense of discovery with each phrase of the familiar Beethoven concerto. The orchestra displayed muffled sounds and seemed more dutiful than inspired, both in its opener, Mozart's Overture to Marriage of Figaro, and its second-half turn, Prokofiev's familiar Symphony No. 5. But they sounded great in the Beethoven, providing a soft cushion to Fischer's un-mannered playing.

Temirkanov's baton-free conducting style, more mystic than precise, consists primarily of horizontal hand movements, punctuated by the occasional downward chop and body sway. The orchestra musicians, whom he has led for 20 years, seem to follow it all, and when it works it can produce music of incandescence. On this occasion, the second of two programs as part of San Francisco Symphony's Great Performers series, articulation and intonation missed just enough to produce an unfocused sound. This orchestra seems to aim for a burnished quality, everything round and open-textured, which takes the edge off any moments that ought to be brilliant.

In the overture, taken at a rapid clip, this resulted in phrases with little shape and a sort of flatness to the dynamic range. Mozart's sudden fortes felt like mezzo fortes, eased into. Phrases skipped ahead with little arc to them.

In the Prokofiev symphony, this approach made the slow movement glow and the music rise and fall like a gentle tide, but the composer's sarcasm in the scherzo lacked punch. The outer movements were better. I was especially taken with Temirkanov's sense of the relationships between tempos, although they were generally on the slow side, and the singing quality of the secondary themes. He seemed intent on bringing out what complexity there was in the music rather than outlining the highlights, and the orchestra, ever responsive, followed him beautifully.

Tempos were on the slow side for the Beethoven. If the tympani opening spoke softly rather than whispering, and the phrasing aimed for beauty rather than an edgy Beethovenian spirit, that just placed Fischer's playing in greater relief. The violinist drew out heartbreaking phrases in the gorgeous slow movement, which became the anchor of the piece. And she favored a graceful pulse in the outer movements, hitting every phrase with pinpoint accuracy, but giving them just enough hesitation here, or anticipation there, to lend freshness.

Most of all, she used her formidable technique in cadenzas to produce double - and triple-stops of amazing accuracy and richness. In both the first movement and finale, she wove three different lines together in a display that had to leave violinists in the audience slack-jawed. It wasn't a showy display of brilliance, most of it occurring in the middle range, but it added tremendous depth to the music.

For an encore, Fischer let fly with Paganini's airy Caprice No. 2, as light and ephemeral as the Beethoven was meaty.

For their encores, the orchestra played the "Nimrod" variation from Elgar's Enigma, an unusual choice for a Russian ensemble and, surprisingly, understated to the point of missing its nobility. But then they finished with Tchaikovsky's opening music from the Nutcracker pas de deux. That sounded like they meant it.

Harvey Steiman

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