two concerts

Symphony Silicon Valley, Paul Polivnick conducting. A nautical opening, with Wagner's Flying Dutchman Overture and the Passacaglia and Interludes from Britten's Peter Grimes. Followed by Beethoven's Seventh. Should maybe have picked that big Schubert symphony instead, for not only does it bounce along like a boat over the waves, also it's in C.

Fairly tight, fast performance, not overwhelming but this isn't the San Francisco Symphony. More than adequate work with only a couple bobbles. The hall has a drier sound than I recall from it.

Sonoma County Philharmonic, Norman Gamboa, music director, conducting. I'd never heard this orchestra before, but I couldn't resist going up for this concert because it featured something I'd never heard before, Dvorak's complete "Nature, Love and Life" cycle. (Usually only the "Carnival Overture" panel is remembered.) Put the pieces in context, but the highlight was Tchaikovsky's First. Well suited for this community orchestra's precarious attempts at balance, and the very clotted acoustics of their hall, one of those old high-school auditoriums with insufficient brick-covered lobby space.