Arts & Events

Substituting for Sol Gabetta, who recently gave birth to her first child, cellist Joshua Roman gave a finely honed rendition of Antonin Dvorák’s great Cello Concerto in B minor. In a series of San Francisco Symphony concerts at Davies Hall, October 19-21, Joshua Roman teamed up nicely with conductor Krzysztof Urbanski, avoiding the mismatched difficulties that plagued the team of Urbanski and violinist Augustin Hadelich ten days or so ago in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. Though I laid most of the blame on Hadelich for that highly unsatisfactory rendition of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, conductor Urbanski must shoulder some responsibility, for, ultimately, it is up to the conductor to bring in line a recalcitrant soloist. Happily, with Joshua Roman as soloist in Dvorák’s Cello Concerto, there was no need for Urbanski to right the ship, for Roman and Urbanski seemed to be on the same course from the outset.  

Under Urbanski’s lead, the orchestral introduction in the first movement was spot on, with a lovely melody for low clarinet and bassoons. Once Joshua Roman entered, his burnished tone gave notice of great things to come. And come they did. Roman may not have the robust, eminently physical attack of a Rostropovich or a Gauthier Capuçon, but Roman holds his own in matters of finesse. His was a deeply sensitive, finely nuanced rendition of the Dvorák Cello Concerto. And if one missed the robustly physical attack of a Rostropovich, a Capuçon, or, for that matter, a Jacqueline DuPre, conductor Urbanski supplied just such a robust attack whenever the orchestra launched out in full blast on its own. There seemed to be an implicit understanding between Joshua Roman and Krzysztof Urbanski, in which Roman offered finesse and Urbanski supplied the occasional big bang. Together, they presented a most satisfying Dvorák Cello Concerto, and the audience responded with a standing ovation. As an encore, Joshua Roman eschewed the more flashy material and opted instead for a highly introspective Sarabande from Bach’s Cello Suites.  

After intermission Urbanski returned to lead the orchestra in the Overture to Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. In this Overture, with the help of his fellow Mason Emmanuel Shikaneder, Mozart incorporated into his music the Masonic Order’s preoccupation with mystical symbolism regarding the number three. Thus, the Overture begins with a prophetic proclamation of each of the three notes of the tonic triad; and later these three chords are heard again, this time in the dominant key of B flat. Meanwhile, there is fine interplay with the violin section and quite a bit of stimulating counterpoint. Urbanski led a taut, concisely dramatic rendition of this wonderful Mozart Overture to The Magic Flute. 

To close out the program, the San Francisco Symphony performed Witold Lutoslawski’s Concert for Orchestra of 1964. Before embarking on this piece, conductor Urbanski took the microphone to offer some remarks about how Lutoslawski structured this work. Urbanski then had the orchestrate play examples of each of the structures he had pointed out. This little exercise was mildly illuminating, though some of what Urbanski said got lost in the less than perfect public address system emanating from the hand-held microphone. Or maybe it was partly lost due to Urbanski’s Polish accented English. Still, give the man credit for seeking to engage his audience in the niceties of musical appreciation. Urbanski is certainly an engaging, charismatic conductor, though I don’t share with my colleague Joshua Kosman a full-blown man-crush over Krzysztof Urbanski. Nor do I offer Urbanski gushing praise for everything he does. (Witness my remarks earlier in this article about the mis-matched teamwork of Urbanski and Augustin Hadelich.) In any case, Urbanski led the San Francisco Symphony in a convincing rendition of Lutoslawski’s Concerto for Orchestra. This work may not be one of my favorites. Nor, for that matter, is Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, on which Lutoslawski’s is modeled. But I believe Urbanski when he says how deeply he loves the music of his Polish homeland, not only this Lutoslawski work but also Penderecki’s Therody for the Victims of Hiroshima, which Urbanski conducted here ten days ago, and what a privilege it is for him to present this music to San Francisco audiences. We are indeed fortunate to have this opprtunity.