Blake Pouliot and the San Diego Symphony Soar in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto at the Rady Shell
Over the last four seasons of La Jolla SummerFest, local audiences have learned to savor the artistry of violinist Blake Pouliot. Earlier this month in La Jolla we heard him excel performing chamber works by a variety of composers from Mozart to Anton Arensky to Miklós Rózsa, and his engagement with pianist Conrad Tao in Cesar Franck’s majestic Piano Quintet proved exhilarating.
Violinist Blake Pouliot with the San Diego Symphony [photo (c.) Gary Payne]
But it was not until we heard Pouliot in Friday’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the San Diego Symphony at The Rady Shell did the complete profile of Blake Pouliot reveal itself. From the Concerto’s familiar opening violin phrase he projected an electrifying edge that he sustained throughout the Concerto, augmenting the composer’s already ample dramatic intensity. He led with elegant, expressive phasing, and his brilliant technical agility also deftly accommodated a dreamy sense of rubato. In addition to Pouliot’s spectacular cadenzas, I particularly admired the hint of mystery he communicated in his glowing second movement cantilena.
Not only did Music Director Rafael Payare give Pouliot scintillating collaboration throughout–the orchestra’s command and robust ensemble matched perfectly the young soloist’s verve.
Because of a longstanding tradition of the annual Tchaikovsky concert that brings the orchestra’s summer season to a close, this program needs to end with The 1812 Overture and an accompanying display of fireworks. With the Overture at the end of the program, Payare opened with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F Minor. I appreciated starting the program with a major symphony, and Payare persuasively launched the orchestra in high gear from his first downbeat. The symphony’s brass sections offered a thrilling, stentorian account of the work’s familiar extended opening fanfare, and the woodwinds followed with a volley of shimmering themes in the major mode to complement the somber opening. Payare and the orchestra retained the first movement’s delectable dramatic tension throughout in spite of its unusual length–it is almost as long as the Symphony’s other three movements combined.
Principal Oboe Sarah Skuster’s burnished account of the winning theme that characterizes the “Andantino” suggested an emotional plane midway between melancholy and stately procession. Tchaikovsky’s pizzicato “Scherzo” is one of his most felicitous musical creations, and the string sections captured its mesmerizing spell with apparent ease. A “Finale” marked allegro con fuoco invites the risk of indulging in too much of a good thing, but the composer wisely spliced a charming Russian folk song in the middle of his blistering finale. Payare and the San Diego Symphony gave the enthusiastic Rady Shell audience the best of both worlds delivering the final movement with ebullient runs and roiling flourishes as well as a carefree folksong to hum during the intermission break.
For the program-concluding exuberant 1812 Overture, the San Diego Symphony was assisted by the well-trained First Marine Division Band from Camp Pendleton. Standing on tall risers behind the seated symphony players, the Marine musicians’ sonic muscle added everything this grandly martial overture required.
This concert was presented by the San Diego Symphony on Friday, August 30, 2024, at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park on San Diego Bay.
Ken Herman, a classically trained pianist and organist, has covered music for the San Diego Union, the Los Angeles Times’ San Diego Edition, and for sandiego.com. He has won numerous awards, including first place for Live Performance and Opera Reviews in the 2017, the 2018, and the 2019 Excellence in Journalism Awards competition held by the San Diego Press Club. A Chicago native, he came to San Diego to pursue a graduate degree and stayed.Read more…