Just 20, violinist Tessa Lark strode onto the stage at Watsonville’s Mello Center Sunday afternoon in a strapless gown of something between emerald, teal and aquamarine. The 2008 Klein International String Competition winner’s glamorous entrance matched her performance of Tchaikovsky’s flamboyant Violin Concerto in D. John Larry Granger’s Santa Cruz Symphony provided a snappy and responsive accompaniment.
The piece itself is no small workout, and Lark was fully into it, sparking a standing ovation after just the first movement. She took every opportunity to turn circumspect and thoughtful, a refreshing alternative to those virtuosi who can’t seem to slow enough to smell the roses. Yet, when high-flying pyrotechnics demanded it, she ignited fireworks. A measure of her prowess emerged in the passage right after the big orchestral tutti of the first movement, where she plays both the melody and the accompaniment, keeping the melodic shape consistently clear and propulsive. Using a mute to open the second movement gave her instrument a nasal tone that returned to its inherent golden quality as soon as she removed it. Only in the run-up to the first movement’s conclusion was Lark momentarily overwhelmed by the orchestra. In the fiery finale, however, she more than held her own. The audience demanded an encore and got some sizzling bluegrass from her native Kentucky.
2010 marks the 170th birthday of Tchaikovsky, as well as the 100th of Samuel Barber, whose famous Adagio for Strings opened the program in a warmly expressive reading. Asked why he didn’t opt for another of Barber’s less familiar but no less excellent works, Granger said, “Money. The other works (you mentioned) are very large orchestrations, therefore very costly.” (He added that the response to a recent fund-raising appeal surpassed any during his tenure in Santa Cruz, but that the orchestra is still not out of the woods.)
The program concluded with a finely wrought performance of the “Scottish” Symphony by Mendelssohn (whose second centenary was in 2009.) The concert will be broadcast by KUSP on April 30 at 8 pm.
The Symphony’s 2010-2011 season will include works by Galindo, Gershwin, Holst (The Planets), Beethoven (Triple Concerto and Ninth Symphony), Mozart, Liszt (Piano Concertos 1 and 2) and Rimsky-Korsakov.
