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Saw the same at Soka Hall on Thursday night

Posted by Botanico92007 (A) on February 15, 2015 at 19:10:37

In Reply to: Saw Dutoit and the Suisse Romande at Mondavi Center in Davis, CA last night posted by jdaniel@jps.net on February 14, 2015 at 10:10:57:

The Suisse Romande with Dutoit played the identical program at the Soka Performing Arts Center in Orange County. I was sitting in Row F in line with the conductor. I've written before of the superb acoustic in this hall - same acoustician as Disney Hall, only the hall sits about 1000.

I echo all of jdaniel's comments. I can't imagine the Sunrise from Daphnis and Chloe being more beautifully done. There was no chorus, so extra woodwinds substituted in the final dance. There were seven double basses and ten cellos with a big bass drum, along with excellent lower brass, all giving the orchestra real weight at the climaxes. It got very loud at the end of Daphnis.

Debussy's Iberia opened the concert, and I thought it equaled Monteux's famous version on Philips. Dutoit controlled all the strands of the music with the hall allowing everything to be heard. I also thought the Paganini Variations were very well done by Nikolai Lugansky, incisive when necessary and warmly expressive in the 18th variation. He was a relief after Andrei Gavrilov showy and indiosyncratic performance of the Rach 3rd in the same venue last month. I saw Gavrilov in a solo recital in our local library a week ago on Sunday. There are a lot of ex-pat Russians in the area, and somehow they were able to get him. He played on a Steinwasy B and attacked it like a tiger pouncing on a prey. I was only about 15 feet away and could see the piano move a few times. He has tremendous dynamic range and speed. There were moments of transcendental beauty and technique, interspersed with long pauses and dramatic gestures. The audience loved it. He played the 10 pieces from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. There was much remarkable playing.

The audience was slightly cool in its reception of Song of the Nightingale at Soka, but gave a long standing ovation at the end of the concert. Everyone wanted an encore, but we didn't get it.

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