Capital Region Performance Gallery

Concert Review

Sacramento Youth Symphony - Premier Orchestra

Musical Masterpieces

This was the first concert of the Sacramento Youth Symphony’s 2018-2019 season, and it featured the Premier Orchestra — the most selective of this organization’s 7 ensembles. I must confess it was my first experience of this fine musical organization, which has had a 62-year history in Sacramento that has included international tours, and which has high educational and performance standards, with a record of producing many professional musicians. I attended this concert not as a critic nor even as an expert observer, but as an ordinary person with a little exposure to and appreciation of classical music. I wanted to share what it was like to experience this event from the perspective of the average audience member.

The concert consisted of 3 works:

• Overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by Richard Wagner
• Concerto for Two Violins in D minor by Johann Sebastian Bach
• Symphony #5 by Dmitri Shostakovich

(Click here to open the concert program in a new window.)

The concert was directed by Sacramento Youth Symphony (SYS) icon, Michael Neumann. The violin concerto featured guest soloists (and married couple), Kineko Okumura and William Barbini. The event took place in the recently remodeled auditorium of C.K. McClatchy High School, a roughly 800-seat facility that was about half-full on this occasion. With the carpet, comfortable seating and tasteful decorating, it was one of the best local high school auditoriums that I have visited.

The 75+ young musicians began to take their positions on the stage at 2:55 on this Sunday afternoon. All formally dressed in concert black, most appeared to be of high-school age, though many were younger, including quite a few who were obviously of grade-school age. Precisely at 3:00, the audience was greeted by SYS General Manager, Robert Vann, who spoke briefly about upcoming events and introduced director Michael Neumann and the first of the two co-concertmasters, Dianna Chang. Neumann’s dress was interesting: all black, of course, but no tie or formal shirt and a long, flowing, gold-rimmed tunic over dark clothes.

Wagner.  From the start, this didn’t sound like a youth orchestra to me: the sound was nothing less than that of a very fine orchestra. In the Wagner, I was immediately aware of the impressive ensemble playing of the violins. Indeed, unified ensemble playing was apparent to me for each section throughout this concert. There was crisp marcato and smooth legato, and the intonation was such that I, for one, never noticed any bad intonation. It was all indicative of well-trained, well-rehearsed, disciplined musicians.

Occasionally, features of the performance stood out to me, such as the solo passages by the woodwinds that seemed perfectly synchronized. And I have to add that I soon focused on one very young cellist. While I couldn’t really detect emotion among the other players, this young fellow’s head movements showed me how completely he was feeling the music that he was playing.

At the end of the Wagner, the whole orchestra stood for a bow, and the brass and woodwinds left the stage. Moments later, the guest soloists for the Bach violin concerto, William Barbini and his wife, Kineko Okamura, entered the stage, accompanied by director Neumann. I don’t recall hearing Okamura play, but for the many seasons that I was in the chorus, I had the pleasure of hearing Barbini play as the concertmaster of the Sacramento Symphony, and it was a delightful surprise to find him on this afternoon’s program. Needless to say, Barbini and Okamura played with great energy and expression, and I have to feel that they were an inspiration to the young string players behind them.

Bach.  The Bach violin concerto was a showcase for the strings, and having had no training in any of these instruments myself, I felt that I saw a wide variety of bowing and fingering techniques among these young people, evidencing the high degree of competence they had attained. And It was striking to me to see even the very young string players’ consistent use of finger vibrato. I hasten to add that I was watching the “Premier Orchestra” of the Sacramento Youth Symphony, full of young musicians who, by dint of talent, training and practice had earned the right to be there.

After intermission, I watched my favorite young cellist (mentioned above) come out with the other players. Before taking his seat, he scanned the audience and broke into a smile. It was almost inspiring to see how, young as he was, he was able to pause and appreciate the significance of this moment.

The Sacramento Youth Symphony is not just a performing organization — it is primarily an educational organization, and you could see how these young musicians were learning what it means to be a professional. Their demeanor was always serious and workman-like — never a hint of any kind of fooling around. There were two co-concertmasters, one for each half of the program, and I was impressed to see this sharing of experience and responsibility among as many people as possible. The tuning sounded like every professional orchestral concert I've ever attended. Their concentration when playing was absolutely intense. And the dress was traditional for these special kids: how many girls their age have a long black dress in their closet and how many boys own a tuxedo?

Shostakovich.  Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, which took up the whole second half, was clearly the highlight of this concert, and it required different instrumentation. The harp was the most obvious addition, though I don't recall having noticed the horns or bassoons before. Before the performance began, Maestro Michael Neumann turned to the audience and gave an introduction to the piece that was very important in helping us appreciate the music that was to come. He explained that this symphony, which was composed and first performed in 1937, reversed what had been disapproval of Shostakovich by the Soviet Union's officialdom, and it earned enthusiastic public response both in the USSR and in the West. However, Neumann pointed out, it's still a question whether this sophisticated composition was a celebration of the Soviet system — or a veiled critique or even a parody. With this introduction, all of us in the audience were able to listen to the piece more intelligently and imaginatively.

No doubt the young players had been given an even more thorough explanation of the sound pictures that this music was portraying. A story was being told here, and these young musicians were telling it with conscious expressiveness. Neumann had described this piece as extremely difficult to perform — especially for a youth orchestra. And we in the audience could see that from the start. The emotional content was heavy. As the mood evolved from passage to passage, I wrote down words that expressed what I was sensing: ominous, harsh, uplifting, high-minded, hopeful, despairing, afraid, intimidating/intimidated, stealthy, resolute, apprehensive, etc. As these emotions flew by, I looked at the faces of the young players, and I saw no emotion at all. It wasn't necessary — they had in their hands the means of expressing every emotion.

Throughout this piece, as in the earlier parts of this concert, I was aware of excellent ensemble playing: so often I felt that I heard not an instrumental section, but a single instrument. Then there were the numerous brilliant incidental solos. It struck me what a responsibility each young player had assumed in preserving the integrity of the piece as they played their solo passage. But that assumption of responsibility was equally true for the ensemble players, who, at least as far as I could see and hear, performed as one. Throughout the afternoon's concert I heard sharp attacks, clean cutoffs, and exquisite dynamic control. Technique is important for players like these, but surely concentration and self-control are equally important. And what a life lesson that is for any young person.

There were many impressive moments in the Shostakovich, and one that comes to mind was a passage of thrilling intensity in the third movement. But the moment that everyone in the audience will remember was when the 12 brass players in the back row stood up for the finale of the fourth movement. That culmination of this remarkable piece of music brought all of us in the audience to our feet, as well. And that's where we stayed, applauding, while Maestro Neumann recognized each soloist and each section of the orchestra for a performance of which he surely was proud, of which parents and family in the audience were proud, and of which each player should deservedly have been proud, as well.

Dick Frantzreb is past editor of the Sacramento Choral Calendar and co-founder and past President of the Sacramento Valley Choral Coalition. He currently edits the Capital Region Performance Gallery and the Placer Performance Calendar.