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THE CLASSICAL TRAVELER | San Antonio Symphony and Lang-Lessing Excel in Strauss Festival Programme

By Paul E. Robinson on February 15, 2015

conductor Sebastian Lang-Lessing
conductor Sebastian Lang-Lessing

San Antonio Symphony/Sebastian Lang-Lessing at Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, February 6, 2015

San Antonio, Texas | Even part-time Texans like myself (my wife and I have been living part of each year in Austin since 2005)  tend to forget that San Antonio is the second largest city in Texas. Houston is No. 1 with about 2.1 million people, but San Antonio is not far behind at 1.3 million. In the latest census, Dallas came in at 1.2 million. Actually, the Dallas-Ft.Worth Metroplex is over 2 million. That said, San Antonio is still one of the largest cities in Texas and growing rapidly.

As one might expect of a city with a large population, San Antonio has a vibrant cultural life. I recently drove there from Austin to hear a concert by the San Antonio Symphony and I was both surprised at and delighted with what I heard.

The San Antonio Symphony (SAS) has had its share of ups and downs, both financially and artistically. In 2003, the season was cancelled and the organization declared bankruptcy. Twelve years later – 2015 – the orchestra appears to be doing well. It is programming ambitious concerts, and in September 2014, it moved into a new hall. On the basis of what I heard, this new hall, the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, is a tangible asset to both the orchestra and the community.

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of composer Richard Strauss, the SAS has organized a two-month-long Strauss Festival. This is indeed ambitious programming, but under its German-born conductor, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, the orchestra seems quite equal to the task. Over the course of the festival, many of Strauss’ major orchestral works will be played and there will be chamber music concerts, ballet performances and other events, including opera productions.

At the age of 48, Lang-Lessing is an experienced opera conductor, having been resident conductor at the Deutsche Opera Berlin for eight years and having conducted opera performances in Paris, San Francisco, Houston and Washington. Several weeks ago, two fully-staged performances of Strauss’ opera Salome, starring Metropolitan Opera star Patricia Racette, were presented with Lang-Lessing leading the SAS in the pit.

San Antonio Symphony
San Antonio Symphony

At the orchestral concert I attended, Lang-Lessing conducted with authority and a strong sense of how this music, especially the Richard Strauss works, ought to be played. He has a wonderful sense of structure and a remarkable ability to balance a large orchestra. The SAS played with total commitment under his direction. Lang-Lessing has a fluid and graceful conducting technique even if at times his gestures were larger than they needed to be.

This concert program was somewhat oddly constructed. Two major works by Richard Strauss were preceded by two short works by other composers. One of these, the Artist’s Life Waltz by Johann Strauss, was a delightful introductory piece. Charming in itself, it also celebrates the same idea that inspired Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life). The ‘hero’ of Richard Strauss’ work is, after all, the composer himself.

The concert opened, however, with a brief work that had nothing whatsoever to do with Richard Strauss, Johann Strauss, heroes or artists – a bright and bouncy piece based on traditional Latin melodies and rhythms by Colombian composer Juan David Osorio Lopez. As entertaining as the piece certainly was, it simply didn’t fit the program. For the record, Piedemonte, Symphonic Prelude was commissioned by the San Antonio Symphony.

This Richard Strauss Festival includes some rarely heard pieces by the composer, including the ballet score Josephs-Legende (Jan 23-24) in its later concert version, and the Symphonic Fantasy from Strauss’ 1919 opera Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman Without a Shadow).

Late in life, Strauss himself put together some highlights from Die Frau ohne Schatten to form an orchestral piece. The opera is magnificent but often difficult to follow and extremely challenging for a stage director. Like so much of Strauss’ late music, the Symphonic Fantasy Die Frau ohne Schatten features extremely rich and complex contrapuntal textures. Under Lang-Lessing’s sure hand, these textures were heard with clarity and with no loss of warmth. Climaxes were perfectly judged and the orchestra played superbly. Although this was my first experience in the Tobin Center, my sense was that the acoustics are ideal for this type of late romantic orchestral music. From my seat in row N on the orchestra level, the sound had presence and even in the loudest passages, it still had clarity.

After intermission came the major work of the evening, Strauss’ symphonic poem Ein Heldenleben, a big piece requiring a large, virtuoso orchestra and a first-class violinist to play the prominent solo part. The San Antonio Symphony did indeed sound like an ensemble of virtuosi on this night. The nine French horns tossed off their acrobatics with fearless aplomb and the introspective horn solos near the end were played with mastery by Jeff Garza. Other notables included principal trumpet John Carroll and principal oboist Paul Lueders.

The hero’s helpmate (Strauss’ wife Pauline?) is depicted in Ein Heldenleben by the solo violin. In dialogues with basses and cellos, Strauss brings out many facets of her character, sometimes feisty and argumentative but ultimately warm and loving, and beloved by her husband. Concertmaster Eric Gratz had no problem with any of the technical challenges in the solo part, but his sound did not project well into the hall. His first note, a C-sharp held over from the orchestral tutti, was practically inaudible from where I sat and throughout his solos I strained to hear all the details of his work. For the time being, I will assume that the new hall is at fault here.

On the whole, this concert was a triumph for both conductor and orchestra. Setting aside the composer’s shameless self-promotion in the piece, I love this work and this performance was among the best I can recall hearing. There were many memorable moments, but I won’t soon forget the thrilling crescendo leading to the last three bars. Brass and timpani were perfectly balanced and Lang-Lessing held the crescendo exactly to the breaking point, no more and no less. This is one of great moments in Strauss’ music and they pulled it off.

Sebastian Lang-Lessing was appointed conductor of the SAS in 2010 and has been contracted through at least 2019.

For something more…

The entrance to the Tobin Center is the preserved façade of one of San Antonio’s iconic buildings, the Municipal Auditorium, which has stood on the site since 1926. What a wise decision it was to preserve this beautiful structure. Especially at night, when it is imaginatively lit, this entrance wall is breathtaking.

Once inside, this new structure, which is designed on a modest scale, becomes a magical place with the creative use of lighting. The concert hall seats 1,750 and there is also a studio theater in the building seating 231. The new section of the building which houses the performance spaces and links up with the River Walk on its north side is covered, to quote the architects, in a silver “metallic veil”.

Off to one side of the building is an elegant dining room for patrons who wish to eat before the concert. My wife and I took advantage of the opportunity and found the food, the service and the quiet surroundings to be ideal. But why doesn’t this dining room have a name? Might we suggest that it be given a name worthy of the fine meals being offered there?

For Strauss lovers interested in hearing more from Die Frau ohne Schatten, I highly recommend a DVD based on a production by the Bavarian State Opera in 1992, conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch and directed by Ennosuke Ichikawa. The performance, taped in Nagoya, Japan, is available as part of a boxed set from Arthaus Musik.

Paul E. Robinson

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