Review: Symphony dazzles with Japanese composer’s saxophone paean to colorful double stars
Steven Banks plays the soprano saxophone with the San Diego Symphony Photo by Jenna Gilmer San Diego Symphony Tokyo-born composer Takashi Yoshimatsu can t claim the international reputation of compatriots Joe Hisaishi of Studio Ghibli fame or Toshio Hosokawa but that may be changing soon Among his -plus compositions you ll find six symphonies concerti for everything from piano and cello to alto saxophone bassoon and Japanese shakuhachi and koto a film count for an anime TV classic and an orchestration of Emerson Lake Palmer s prog-rock Tarkus Largely self-taught Yoshimatsu s music dabbled with serialism until he embraced what he calls new lyricism in the mid- s Since then outside of Japan where he s programmed frequently his music has revealed audiences from Prague Czech Philharmonic and Vienna Musikverein to Germany and Lithuania Closer to home Yoshimatsu s Symphony No was performed last year by Sorrento Valley s Villa Musica Symphony Orchestra This past weekend -year-old saxophonist Steven Banks and the San Diego Symphony elevated Yoshimatsu s profile further with a dazzling performance of his concerto for soprano saxophone Albireo Mode While Banks largest part often performs the alto and baritone saxophones he s previously shown his chops with the soprano sax think John Coltrane s My Favorite Things in John Adams Saxophone Concerto and Saad Haddad s A Sonata for When Time Stands Still Named after differently-tinged double stars in the Cygnus constellation Yoshimatsu s -minute Albireo was a revelation Against a shimmering wash of harp piano and subtle percussion the meditative first movement Topaz mostly lets the soloist show his stuff Banks complied with a gorgeous mesmerizing range of colors and textures Though Albireo Mode has been recorded only once by Nobuya Sugawa and the BBC Philharmonic Banks sheer tonal power and expressive charisma earns him pride of place In his second-movement Sapphire Yoshimatsu sought to offset the cool and beautiful hues of the first movement with something hot and deep Sapphire offers lovely lyrical moments but its heart seems to be jazz bluesy glissandos Brubeckian rhythms etc and nature animal-like braying screeching and trumpeting etc Yoshimatsu packages it all so virtuosically in a foundation of oceanic strings tasteful percussion and drone-like woodwinds that his wild sonic ride goes down smoothly Responding to a standing ovation Banks encored with a compelling take on the Saraband from Bach s flute partita in A Minor Given the flute s elegant clarity Banks reedy penetrating vocally expressive soprano put a whole new spin on Bach s gem With the imprimatur of a Juilliard scholarship and a Dudamel Fellowship -year-old German conductor Ruth Reinhardt won her first leadership post last June as the Rhode Island Philharmonic s next music director No podium acrobat she s nevertheless a proactive fully immersed leader using economical left- and baton-hand motions and continual eye communication to steer her ship Reinhardt seemed to bask in the color and volume the Symphony s musicians put at her disposal The overture and three dances from Smetana s Bartered Bride are a riot of Bohemian rhythms dynamic contrasts racing tempos and complex orchestration but Reinhardt kept the orchestra tightly turning on every dime The activity s closing Czech bookend was a gritty iridescent Dvorak s Symphony No More than just chronological years separate it from Smetana s Bartered Bride While the latter explicitly celebrated its Czech roots Dvorak also a proud Czech had a more international read Germanic orientation Keeping tempos in the middle of customary ranges and respecting Dvorak s long line Reinhardt shone a luxuriating light on Dvorak s bravura orchestration She policed unanimity but let individual sections and instruments strut the horns first and second movements the trumpets and trombones fourth movement Valentin Martchev s bassoon second movement Rose Lombardo s flute fourth movement and the luxuriant sheen of the strings throughout But this was very much a collective coup Paul S Bodine has been writing about music for over years for publications such as Classical Voice North America Times of San Diego Orange County Register and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Among the artists he s interviewed are Joshua Bell Herbert Blomstedt Sarah Chang Ivan Fischer Bruno Canino Christopher O Reilly Lindsay String Quartet and Paul Chihara
