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Bizet, Poulenc and Vaughan Williams: Paul Jacobs (organ), Nadya Tichman (violin), San Francisco Symphony, Yan-Pascal Tortelier, Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, 24.4.2009 (HS)

Bizet: Suite: L’Arlesienne
Poulenc: Organ Concerto
Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending< Symphony No.4 in F minor


San Francisco Symphony regulars have learned to anticipate Yan-Pascal Tortelier’s annnual visit with relish. His latest program, heard Friday, bristled with electric energy. The centerpiece was supposed to be Poulenc’s Organ Concerto, and soloist Paul Jacobs gave Davies Hall’s mighty Ruffati organ an entertaining workout. But even more impressive were the two contrasting works by Ralph Vaughan Williams that made up the second half of the concert: The Lark Ascending, in as refined and sublime  performance anyone is likely to hear, and the Symphony No. 4, suitably stark and uncompromising. 

The program opened with a boisterous set of pieces from Bizet’s L’Arlesienne, selected by Tortelier. He seemed more enchanted by the loud, clangorous ones, but the familiar “Farandole” reached a fever pitch that foreshadowed the strong emotions to come from the Poulenc concerto and the Vaughan Williams symphony. 

Anyone who has indulged in silent movie revivals accompanied by live organ music will recognize whole swathes of the Poulenc concerto. This music has been well plundered for dramatic effect in other guises, but on its own, in the hands of the enthusiastic and talented Jacobs, it took on a more complete sense. Poulenc’s music often sounds like that of other composers, but if you listen to it alongside the other music it’s supposed to resemble, it has a stamp of its own, a sort of knowing Gallic wit that says, “I know this will remind you of Stravinsky, but I have my own idea how this should go.” The concerto is full of intentional or unintentional references to Bach, Saint-Saëns, Tchaikovsky and yes, Stravinsky (in his neo-classical mode), but in its French-ness it’s all Poulenc.

More to the point, it puts a big organ array through its paces, opening and closing with big, stentorian outbursts reminiscent of Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D minor,” but carrying long sections with sweet, single-line melodies that sometimes amble off into uncharted harmonies. Jacobs looks even more fresh-faced than his 27 years (he already occupies the William Schuman Scholar’s Chair at Juilliard) but plays with maturity and depth to go along with his stylistic flourishes. Some of the best parts of his work on the concerto were the quieter, simpler moments, which just felt right. 

The French-born and -trained Tortelier led the symphony’s strings in a warm and responsive give-and-take with the soloist, but the orchestra’s best moments were yet to come. Tortelier, conductor laureate of the BBC Philharmonic, showed a sure touch with the Vaughan Williams pieces.

In The Lark Ascending, he got the orchestra to lay a soft carpet of plush sound for Nadya Tichman, the associate concertmaster who is no stranger to starring roles in her 29 years with the orchestra. This may have been her best turn, perhaps because it seemed to suit perfectly her serene, centered, aura. She always looks as if nothing can faze her, as if she is in some kind of Zen zone, which is just what the Lark’s music needs. With its long lines, and easy-on-the-ear pentatonic mode, it can easily slip into kitsch, but in Tichman’s hands it had luminosity, discipline and ultimately soaring serenity.

Tortelier charged into the Fourth Symphony as if ready for battle, yet he found a clarity in the dense music and driving rhythms that brought a sense of narrative to the episodic work. This is not your typical Vaughan Williams pastoral but complex, dissonant and loud music that only occasional recedes into something peaceful. The first two movements, in fact, stomp noisily for most of their span, the orchestra often blaring out the tightly clustered chromatic musical cell that the whole symphony is built upon (D-flat, C, E-flat, D), but both movements seem to lose their nerve in their final measures and settle into sort of musical fetal position, ending softly and quietly. The third movement ends with a seamless transition into a big, loud finale, but any comparisons with Beethoven’s Fifth lose out when, instead of blazing in the sunlight of any kind of arrival of C major, the growling returns in the form of a recurring fugato based on that snaky, brutal four-note motto, which bears a remarkable similarity is emotional and musical content to Shostakovich’s recurring favorite D, E-flat, C, B.

Tortelier’s approach was no-nonsense. For him the arch of the music was the grinding away of the dissonant sections, with the softer parts there to take a breath momentarily before diving in for more. He got magnificent playing from the orchestra, which articulated this difficult music with ease. The Fourth may be Vaughan Williams’ least-played symphony, perhaps because it is so unlike his other music, but if other conductors could make it as cohesive as Tortelier did here, it would be worth hearing more often.

Harvey Steiman


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