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Mozart, Mussorgsky-Ravel: San Francisco Symphony, Lisa Saffer, soprano; Donato Cabrera, conductor; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco. 17.4.2009 (HS)


Conductor Donato Cabrera stepped in at the last minute to conduct the San Francisco Symphony in its subscription concerts this week. Although Cabrera led a lively if largely unexceptional performance of three works by Mozart and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, no one is likely to call to mind a young Bernstein rescuing the day when Bruno Walter could not take the podium that day in 1943, when Bernstein made his debut.

Cabrera was in fact a substitute for a substitute. The English composer Oliver Knussen had been scheduled to conduct music from his own one-act opera, Where the Wild Things Are, plus another piece by a British composer, Stations of the Sun by Julian Anderson, and finish up with the seldom-heard Stokowski orchestration of the Mussorgsky work. When he withdrew due to illness, the orchestra turned to Alasdair Neale, music director of the Marin County Symphony who for 12 years was associate conductor of the San Francisco Symphony. Out went the Knussen and Anderson works, replaced  by an overture, a symphony and Esultate Jubilate by Mozart. The vocal music gave soprano Lisa Saffer, already under contract, something to do. Gone, too, was the Stokowski version of Pictures, replaced by the more familiar Ravel.

Then, when Neale fell ill early in the week, the call went to Cabrera, familiar to some locally because of his tenure as an associate conductor under Donald Runnicles at the San Francisco Opera before moving to New York to work with James Levine at the Met. Despite those credentials, one can only do so much with one rehearsal before Thursday’s first performance.

That may explain some things. In Friday’s performance, Mozart’s Overture to Le Nozze di Figaro, the Esultate and the Symphony No. 38 “Prague,” works that rely on so many subtleties to rise above the mundane, came off as perfunctory, while Ravel’s showy orchestrations, and the orchestra’s better familiarity with it, produced much more satisfaction.

Cabrera certainly had the right idea on tempo in Mozart, keeping it zippy and steering away from anything that could be considered heavy. Maybe he was too careful. The crescendos that punctuate the Figaro overture never amounted to much, and the rapid-fire eighth notes, while note-perfect, never approached the comic flummery in Mozart’s mind. This music should sound like it’s chasing its tail, not doing exercises. The same lack of inflection kept the Prague symphony from loosening itself from its tight chains. And Saffer didn’t help much, noticeably flagging in the early going of the Esultate whenever she had coloratura to inject. The final Alleluias seemed to click into place and the piece rocketed to a nice finish.

Unlike Mozart, who gives the musicians a framework that they must bring to life by finding the spring in the rhythms and shaping phrases with grace, Ravel spells it all out. His orchestrations reveal a genius for writing balances, emphases and colors into the score so thoroughly that an orchestra that just plays the notes right will produce a fairly exciting performance. It also helps when principal trumpet Mark Inouye plays the opening “Promenade” with such flair that the rest of the brass section can only follow his lead, the percussion provides spectacular seasoning with its on-the-mark contributions, and soloist after soloist registers high on the expressiveness meter. Of special note, former bass clarinetist Donald Carroll played the alto saxophone turn on “The Old Castle” with rotund tone and tubist Jeffrey Anderson gave the extra-high tessitura of “Bydlo” a clean and soulful ride.

For Cabrera’s part, he set appropriate tempos that never lost momentum, even in the broad final pages of “The Great Gate at Kiev,” which some conductors slow to a crawl. Cabrera played it safe, kept things moving, and brought the concert home by letting the music provide the drama. Deeper interpretations, not to mention explorations of lesser-heard versions of familiar music, will have to be left to other occasions. This one called for playing it safe.

Harvey Steiman


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