California Symphony Celebrates the Cornerstone of the Orchestra with “All Things Strings”

     California Symphony recently celebrated the orchestra’s largest section, and its melodic heart and soul, with “All Things Strings,” conducted by California Symphony’s Music Director Donato Cabrera, which performed November 5 -6, 2022 at the Hofmann Theatre at Lesher Center for the Arts (1601 Civic Drive) in Walnut Creek, CA.

     The program welcomed acclaimed pianist and San Francisco native Elizabeth Dorman (who is eight months pregnant!) as soloist in Gerald Finzi’s rarely-heard “Eclogue for Piano and Strings”, and further showcased the lush and lyrical sound of the strings section with Grażyna Bacewicz’s powerful “Concerto for String Orchestra,” Antonín Dvořák’s exulting “Serenade for Strings (in E major)”, and Edward Elgar’s exhilarating “Introduction and Allegro, Op. 47”, written for the unusual configuration of string quartet plus string orchestra.

     Achingly beautiful, “Eclogue for Piano and Strings is one of the few orchestral works by 20th Century British composer Gerald Finzi. Rarely presented by modern symphonies, it showcases interplay between the symphony’s string section and the piano (which features the most strings of all, although technically a percussion instrument). Praised for her “elegance and verve,” Elizabeth Dorman’s performance at the Hofmann Theatre drew a standing ovation from the audience.

     Twentieth century Polish composer and acclaimed concert violinist Grażyna Bacewicz left behind a rich body of work that has only recently been rediscovered, with Bacewicz now gaining recognition as one of the foremost women composers of all time. She received the Polish National Prize in 1950 for her opus magnum, “Concerto for String Orchestra.”  While a traditional concerto features a single soloist accompanied by an orchestra, Bacewicz’s Concerto showcases each string section—violins, violas, cellos and double basses—and makes each the “soloist.” The audience found baroque influences mixing with 20th century styles in this powerful piece.

     Joy then blended with wistful nostalgia in Antonín Dvořák’s “Serenade for Strings (in E major)”, one of the composer’s most beloved works. Famously written in only two weeks, “Serenade for Strings” is one of Dvorak’s happiest and sunniest works. Since its December 1876 premiere in Prague, it has been delighting players and listeners alike with its variety of styles and moods through five melodic and passionate movements.

     Scored for strings, Edward Elgar’s “Introduction and Allegro, Op. 47” was composed in 1905 for a concert by the newly-formed London Symphony Orchestra to show off the virtuosity of the performers. For this concert, a solo quartet featuring California Symphony’s four strings Principals — Concertmaster Jennifer Cho, Philip Santos (violin), Marcel Gemperli (viola), and Leighton Fong (cello) —  traded melodies amongst themselves, as well as with the accompanying orchestra, in a reimagined form of a Baroque concerto grosso. 

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Photo caption: Elizabeth Dorman is the Assistant Artistic Director at the Archipelago Collective, a chamber music festival in the San Juan Islands, and has appeared at other festivals including Tanglewood, Britt, Sarasota, Aspen, Toronto Summer Music, Icicle Creek, and the Banff Centre. A native of San Francisco, Dorman began her training in piano and double bass at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music under Paul Hersh and Stephen Tramontozzi. She was awarded a Doctor of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University.