The Master Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra finished its season Sunday, May 4, at the Los Altos United Methodist Church, with Franz Schubertās epic āGreat C Majorā Symphony, numbered variously 7, 8 or 9 in different systems. Itās sometimes thought to be called āGreatā because of its sheer size, but in fact itās so called to distinguish it from an earlier work which is the āLittle C Majorā Symphony.
The āGreat C Majorā was written soon after the famous āUnfinishedā Symphony. With the āUnfinished,ā Schubert had given his previously placid symphony-writing all the drama and anguish introduced by Beethoven. But the āGreat C Majorā is nothing like that or indeed like anything that had ever previously been written.
Itās a wholly cheerful, good-natured, endlessly bouncy symphony in four fast movements (nothing really slow) based on endlessly repeating rhythmic figures that made some early performers swear that the work was unplayable. It was playable by the Master Sinfonia under Music Director David Ramadanoff, however. The rhythm and flow never faltered, despite signs of fatigue near the end of the monumental 50-minute span. The brass was bright and brash; the winds and strings tireless and cheerful.
The symphony was interestingly matched by the Concierto de Aranjuez by the 20th-century Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo. This is a concerto for guitar, with the solo part played by the young virtuoso Eduard Hrmushyan, currently a student at the San Francisco Conservatory. He played the complex solo parts here with full fluency.
The concertoās title reflects it having been inspired by a visit to the 16th-century Royal Palace of Aranjuez and its gardens. The outer movements, like Schubertās, are based on repeating rhythmic patterns. In this case, the rhythms, which in both movements are introduced by the guitar, are those of court dances that would have been performed at Aranjuez in its heyday.
The middle movement is a slow piece with a haunting theme, played in alternation by the guitar and various instruments or groups of the orchestra with slight variations and elaborations.
A guitar concerto can be a tricky thing, as the instrument has a soft sound. But Rodrigo has the knack for surrounding it with colorful orchestral work without ever drowning out the guitar. Because the orchestration is light, this is an excellent piece for a small orchestra. Hrmushyanās firm playing further contributed to the well-balanced accomplishment.
The concert began with the Tragic Overture by Johannes Brahms, a somber piece that resembles the first movement from some unknown symphony. The small orchestra was nevertheless able to generate a large and voluminous sound, especially powerful in contrapuntal passages, where melodic lines of equal importance cross and overlap one another.
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