“The Santa Rosa Symphony and Music Director Bruno Ferrandis parted company on Monday, May 7, in the most sweet and appropriate way possible: with words of appreciation and a largely stirring performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony,” writes Joshua Kosman in Wednesday’s (5/9) San Francisco Chronicle. “Monday’s concert … found conductor and orchestra administering a healthy challenge to their communal abilities—the Ninth is notoriously difficult both technically and interpretively—and rising to meet it…. The French conductor, who next season cedes his baton to Francesco Lecce-Chong, was greeted by a standing ovation … and he opened the proceedings with heartfelt words of thanks…. The short first half of the program was devoted to a performance of ‘Temporis,’ a work for cimbalom … by Czech composer Michal Rataj….. The Mahler … conveyed the main expressive impetus of the occasion … from the halting, dissociative opening gesture … to the shimmery fade-out of the symphony’s final moments…. Rataj’s 20-minute score, which featured Jan Mikusek as soloist, turned out to be full of intriguing sonorities…. Rataj’s … moodily expressive palette almost seemed designed to bring the audience into Mahler’s world. And that in turn helped ring down the curtain on Ferrandis’ tenure in a satisfying way.”
Posted May 10, 2018
