Violinist Elmar Oliveira, Cellist Nathaniel Rosen and Max Bragado-Darman
It was an exciting evening last night in Sunset Center as the Monterey Symphony, under the direction of Conductor Max Bragado-Darman, presented the last concert of its 2013-2014 season. On hand were magnificent soloists violinist Elmar Oliveira and cellist Nathaniel Rosen, performing one of Brahms’ finest masterpieces, the Concerto for Violin and Cello, Op. 102, on a program that also featured bold and dramatic performances by the Monterey Symphony of Liszt’s Les Préludes and Respighi’s Pines of Rome.
We heard a first-rate, solid performance by Oliveira and Rosen, whose command of their instruments was matched by a high degree of artistic sensitivity and dramatic flair. The big moments in the Brahms “Double” concerto were rendered with sweeping authority, while the lovely lyrical melodies sang forth with soulful charm. Brahms concertos are sometimes accused of being more symphonic than soloistic. To a certain extent that is true, and this may have contributed to the evening’s soloists preparing a surprise encore for us after their performance of the Brahms Concerto. Normally, encores at any concert tend to be little bonbons or two or three minutes duration, so we were not surprised when Oliveira addressed the audience and said they were going to play a little “ditty” for us.
Well, the “little ditty” turned out to be a seven-minute virtuoso tour de force rendition of the Passacaglia from Handel’s Keyboard Suite No. 7 in G Minor arranged as a duo for Violin & Cello by Norwegian composer Johan Halvorsen. This is a remarkable piece that received a truly remarkable performance by the two musicians. Every possible virtuoso effect possible on the two instruments was trotted out for our musical amazement, yet this was not a throwaway virtuoso showoff piece, but one whose musical values triumphed over glitz. This knockout performance brought the audience to its feet with thunderous applause and bravos.
The remainder of the concert after intermission was devoted to rousing performances of Liszt’s Les Préludes and Respighi’s Pines of Rome. Both composers were adept as remarkable tone painters of pictorial images and as skillful orchestrators who knew how to exploit every instrument in the orchestra, and then some – in the Respighi one of the instruments was a recording of a nightingale! At the end of the concert Maestro Max acknowledged just about everyone in the orchestra, for every player had important roles.
An interesting historical note: during World War II Reichsminister Joseph Goebbels selected the heroic climatic theme from Liszt’s Les Préludes to be featured in propaganda broadcasts. As listeners to the evening news heard this powerful theme on the radio, they knew they were about to learn of glorious new victories on the Eastern Front. After the debacle of Stalingrad in January 1943, the heroic theme from Les Préludes was heard no longer on the evening news.
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