Arts & Events

In a career spanning almost four decades, Joshua Bell has established himself as one of the premier violinists of his era. He returned to Davies Hall for four performances, April 22-30, with the San Francisco Symphony under the direction of Dalia Stasevska, who was making her local debut. The main attraction for this series of concerts was the Violin Concerto in D minor of Jean Sibelius, with Joshua Bell as soloist. 

Opening the concert was a brief 6-minute piece, Nautilus, by contemporary Scottish composer Anna Meredith. In its first performance by San Francisco Symphony, Nautilus, originally written as an electronic piece, was heard here in an arrangement for orchestra by Jack Ross. It is a piece oddly reminiscent of Ravel’s Bolero, in that like Bolero, Nautilus features an unrelenting ostinato endlessly repeated. The basic melody is offered by the brass instruments, especially the trumpets; but what gives this work variety is.the use of different percussion instruments. Among these were xylophone, tubular bells, snare drum, marimba, bass drum, and floor tom, plus an unidentifiable upright instrument with two rows of metal gongs struck by metal mallets. Never having seen such an instrument before, neither I nor anyone around me could identify this instrument, though its use greatly contributed to the effectiveness of Nautilus, which otherwise would have bogged down in unrelenting repetitiveness. After the concert, I learned that the instrument in question was a form of tubular bells similar to the bonang bells in Indonesian gamelan music. 

Next on the program was the Sibelius Violin Concerto featuring Joshua Bell as soloist. This work, which premiered in 1905, famously opens with the violin’s dissonant and off-beat first note, making for a striking beginning that the composer himself found “marvelous.” The first theme is a dreamy song heard in the violin, played here by Joshua Bell with warm intonation in the violin’s mid-range. There ensues what may be called a “mini-cadenza,” starting with a flurry of 16th notes. After an orchestral interlude, the second theme, highly romantic in nature, is also heard in the violin. Then comes a long and dramatic orchestral passage leading to the work’s true cadenza, which demands great virtuosity from the soloist, here magisterially performed by Joshua Bell, who truly worked up a sweat in this challenging cadenza. 

2 

The second movement, a moving Adagio, opens with a five-measure introduction for the woodwinds, after which the solo violin enters with a gentle melody accompanied by chords from the horns and bassoons. This is a sentimental poem of great tenderness, accompanied at times by pizzicato in the cellos. Towards the end of this movement there occurred a brief passage where the orchestra tended to smother the mid-range of Joshua Bell’s violin, though, thankfully, this moment was very brief. The Finale opens with timpani and basses projecting a strong rhythm, then joined by the solo violin in music that musicologist Donald Francis Tovey famously called “Evidently a polonaise for polar bears,” (a remark which this concert’s program notes indicate “it seems no writer can resist quoting.)” This movement is full of brilliance, with two forceful orchestral tutti. In the coda, Joshua Bell’s violin offers pyrotechnical octave passages 

that bring this work to a brilliant close. 

After intermission, conductor Dalia Stasevska returned to the podium to conduct the Symphony No. 2 in D minor by Jean Sibelius. Milton Cross opines that “The Symphony No. 2 in D minor, is neither the best of Sibelius’ symphonies nor the most representative. But concert audiences have been most partial to it. It is not difficult to understand why.” Indeed, this symphony is highly dramatic, extroverted from beginning to end, full of bravura surges. The first movement features much use of timpani and brass initially, and later offers fine interplay between woodwinds and strings. The second movement begins with a soft timpani roll followed by extended pizzicato plucking in the cellos and basses. Later, there is a lovely passage for flutes over pizzicato from the cellos. The orchestra then builds to a dramatic crescendo, forcefully led by conductor Dalia Stasevska. The third movement offers a scampering theme, vigorously conducted here by Dalia Stasevska; and the fourth and final movement under her lead was a celebratory romp, bringing this Sibelius Second Symphony to a brilliant close. 

In her local debut, conductor Dalia Stasevska, who is chief conductor of Finland’s Lahti Symphony, made a forceful impression. She is a highly physical conductor, throwing her whole body into her exhortations to the orchestra. Indeed, her conducting might even be a bit over the top in physicality. At least that seemed to be the case in her interpretation of the Sibelius Second Symphony, though the results in this work were undeniably strong.