Review: Straubinger Tagblatt

One more review in from the Regensburg concert, from the Straubinger Tagblatt.

Overwhelming

The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in Regensburg

The expectations were not exactly low when the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra appeared with German pianist Lars Vogt at the Regensburg Odeon Concerts; for years, the arts pages have been falling over themselves with praise for this extraordinary youth orchestra. Only after hearing it yourself, however, can you really understand why this young ensemble is so acclaimed. The self-confidence of the orchestra under the baton of Donato Cabrera was already apparent from their programming, since with John Adams’s Shaker Loops, Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, and Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony the young talents had tackled a big job.

The professional level of this youth orchestra was already clearly obvious in Shaker Loops by the American composer John Adams, who was born in 1947. It was amazing and fascinating to hear how much feeling the young musicians developed for this minimalist string composition. The orchestra gave spellbinding energy to the tremolos, which are continually altered in rhythm and pitch. Donato Cabrera carefully measured out the aggressiveness of the individual string clusters, and the young instrumentalists followed the conductor precisely in every sforzato and dynamic complexity. The harmonic glissandos were also excellent.

Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, which bears the title “the Titan” and displays programmatic characteristics, was incredibly impressive. Whether in the long dynamic buildups of tension, the dynamic nuances, the pure intonation in the horns, or the consistency of the individual sections, it all seems overwhelming when you consider that, in addition to instrumentalists in their late teens and twenties, other orchestra members have not even reached the age of 15 yet.

The quality of this youth orchestra was also apparent in its interaction with Lars Vogt during Grieg’s Piano Concerto. Lars Vogt made an electrifying impression. His power during the opening cadenza and the energetically attacked finale, his self-assured rubato during the solo cadenza of the first movement, his profound feeling for the lyrical passages, and above all the time he allowed for the notes to unfold is hard to surpass. The fact that even during his rests he was visibly conscious of the sound of the orchestra and could scarcely stay on the piano stool also demonstrated how inspired Vogt can be by a work like this – that is passion par excellence.

Naturally, the concert could not end without encores by the soloist and orchestra. For this performance the standing ovation in the main auditorium at the University of Regensburg was by no means excessive.