San Francisco Symphony: Arabella Steinbacher plays the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto; Charles Dutoit conducts Stravinsky and Bartók, by Steven Kruger

Arabella Steinbacher

The San Francisco Symphony
Davies Hall, San Francisco
Saturday, March 3, 2012

Charles Dutoit, conductor
Arabella Steinbacher, violin

Stravinsky – Le Chant du rossignol (1917)
Tchaikovsky – Violin Concerto in D major, Opus 35 (1878)
Bartók – Concerto for Orchestra (1943)

Every time I hear Stravinsky’s 1917 tone poem, Song of the Nightingale I’m reminded that being a successful revolutionary is difficult. What exactly is a composer to do next, when he has overturned the apple cart so thoroughly with works like The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring? By the standards of those pieces, Song of the Nightingale can seem a pale also-ran, going over “old new ground” from Petrushka. Its Geneva premiere elicited something of a riot, it is true, but before a Swiss audience still unfamiliar with the groundbreaking ballets.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!