Thursday, March 05, 2015

James Feddeck Replaces Semyon Bychkov at SFS

I bought a ticket for the SFS performances of Bruckner's 8 exclusively to hear what Semyon Bychkov could do with a composer I don't really care for much. A press release from SFS brings bad news:
SAN FRANCISCO, March 5 – Conductor James Feddeck will replace Semyon Bychkov in concerts with the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) performing Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8, March 25-27 at Davies Symphony Hall. Maestro Bychkov recently underwent hip replacement surgery and while he is recovering well, his doctors have advised him to delay long distance travel for a short time. These concerts provide a rare opportunity to hear Bruckner’s final completed symphony—it was most recently performed by the SFS in 2005 led by Herbert Blomstedt. A work of complexity and magnitude, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 uses an expanded instrumentation, complete with eight horns, four doubling on Wagner tubas. It is approximately 80 minutes long and will be performed with no intermission. This will be Feddeck’s conducting debut with the SFS.
If you have heard Maestro Feddeck, I'd like to hear your opinion of him. 

3 comments:

Unknown said...

You can hear some of this young conductor's work here:

http://www.instantencore.com/music/details.aspx?PId=5086211

Anonymous said...

Yes, as a matter of fact, I have. I heard him two months ago in Phoenix. Maybe SFCV will now publish my Arizona trip report. In the meantime, here's the relevant part of what I wrote about that concert:

The Phoenix Symphony concert on Friday featured Brahms’s Symphony No. 3, a performance so broadly-paced and of gentle mien that it sounded more like the pastoral Second than the usually “heroic” Third. Guest conductor James Feddeck, formerly Assistant Conductor with the Cleveland Orchestra, led subjectively, with merely generally indicative gestures.

The effect was entirely different in the tight, punchy Russian pieces in the first half: a quick, dancing Shostakovich Festive Overture, and Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2, with impressively light and feathery work from soloist Vadym Kholodenko.

Lisa Hirsch said...

Three weeks later and I still haven't decided whether to turn in my ticket or not.