San Jose Turns Out in Droves for Favorite Conductor

By Eman Isadiar

Thousands of music fans flocked to the California Theatre in San Jose from March 26 through 29 to hear Symphony Silicon Valley conducted by George Cleve in perhaps the season’s most eagerly anticipated concert set.

The program opened with Le carnaval romain by Berlioz, followed by Brahms’ Violin Concerto with Korean soloist Ju-Young Baek, and concluded with Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 titled From the New World.

The Man behind San Jose’s Glorious Symphonic Past

Conductor George Cleve leads Symphony Silicon Valley in music by Berlioz, Brahms and Dvorak (Photo by Bob Shomler)

Recognized internationally as a distinguished conductor, George Cleve’s name in the Bay Area is forever associated with San Francisco’s hugely popular Midsummer Mozart Festival, which he founded nearly 35 years ago.

Many also remember Cleve as the music director who transformed the now extinct San Jose Symphony from an average regional ensemble to a highly acclaimed orchestra. His public charisma and capable leadership brought a new level of artistic prestige worthy of the state’s third largest metropolis.

Over the decade following Cleve’s departure in ’92, the symphony sadly fell into a downward spiral due to a host of controversial factors leading to its eventual demise.

However, Maestro Cleve returns frequently to San Jose, now as a favored guest conductor of Symphony Silicon Valley. One such occasion was the last week in March, when the public got a taste of San Jose’s glorious symphonic past in a highly energetic—and technically demanding—program.

Program Highlights

Le carnaval romain comes from an obscure and seldom-performed opera named Benvenuto Cellini by French composer Hector Berlioz.

Most operas begin life as a brief orchestral overture containing the most important musical elements, which the composer then uses to seek funding in order to complete the project. With Benvenuto Cellini, however, the sequence of events was reversed.

Four years after the full opera’s completion and disastrous premiere, Berlioz condensed the music into the concert overture we now know as Le carnival romain, which, on its own merit, has become a fairly popular and frequently played orchestral piece.

Korean violinist Ju-Young Baek appears with Symphony Silicon Valley in Brahms’ Violin Concerto (Photo courtesy of Symphony Silicon Valley)

Then came a unique and memorable rendition by Ju-Young Baek of the only violin concerto left by German composer Johannes Brahms. The concerto was composed during Brahms’ years in Vienna, and is dedicated to the legendary violinist Joseph Joachim.

The most prominent feature of the work is that it elevates the orchestra’s role to a near-equal partnership with the soloist in terms of skill and melodic importance.

Clearly, Baek is not afraid to dig deep into the strings for a passionate, gritty timbre. She brought a rare sensitivity to the piece, which demonstrated not only her irreproachable technique, but also her profound musical insight.

Baek’s powerful bowing, however, caused her instrument to require re-tuning at the end of the first movement. While this may have been slightly disruptive, the audience quickly slipped back into a musical trance with a remarkably lyrical Adagio movement. Baek’s richly grainy tone returned in the third movement for an exciting finale.

After many rounds of heartfelt applause, Ju-Young Baek offered the gift of an encore—a slow movement from one of Bach’s sonatas for violin solo. Gone was the highly emotional, deep bowing of Brahms, now replaced by a pure and unornamented sound, indicating Baek’s delicate musical finesse.

The concert reached perhaps its highest point with a strong and bold interpretation of Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony. George Cleve blew away the musical dust and cobwebs that tend to gather on such a widely performed work as the “New World”, and gave it a fresh symphonic coat of paint. It was the kind of performance that makes one want to rush home and look for that old CD of Dvořák’s immortal tribute to America.

Not surprisingly, wild applause and a standing ovation followed. As if a brave “New World” weren't enough, we got another stunning symphonic treat—Dvořák’s Slavonic Dance No. 1.

While recitalists and soloists almost always play additional music when the applause reaches a minimum requisite decibel level, orchestral encores are exceptionally rare, which made this concert all the more special.

Another fact deserving mention is that George Cleve conducted the entire program from memory.

San Jose’s Promising Musical Future

Though Symphony Silicon Valley has not yet completely filled the cultural hole left by San Jose Symphony, the latest concert with George Cleve at the helm was a welcome reminder that such a prospect is within reach.

Even years after his remarkable tenure in San Jose, the enigmatic conductor managed to draw an impressive crowd to the symphony in not one, but three shows, which, in this economy, proves only one thing.

Cleve’s baton is in fact a magic wand.

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Eman Isadiar teaches piano at the Peninsula Conservatory and writes about music in the San Francisco Bay Area.