Sarasota Orchestra drops Bradenton concerts over COVID protocols for Masterworks series

A newcomer to the Sarasota Orchestra podium, and to Sarasota itself, will lead the orchestra’s fourth Masterworks program of the season with performances of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Gabriella Smith next weekend.

“I hear it’s a great orchestra,” said Yaniv Dinur. “I hear it’s a beautiful place.”

But Dinur won’t be conducting as many performances as originally expected. Two weeks ago, the Sarasota Orchestra announced it was dropping concerts at the Neel Performing Arts Center on the campus of State College of Florida in Bradenton where it may not follow all the COVID safety protocols it agreed to with dozens of other area arts organizations.

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Those protocols require patrons to show a negative COVID-19 test or proof of vaccination and wear a face mask inside the venue.

SCF follows a recommended mask policies “but prohibits other users, such as the Orchestra, from mandating face coverings while performing” at Neel, the organization said in a letter to its patrons.

The decision eliminates concerts scheduled for Feb. 3, Feb. 25 and March 10.

The orchestra previously had to cancel its third Masterworks program hours before the first performance because of positive COVID cases, and then altered its Great Escapes series programs for the same reason.

A Sarasota conducting debut

Dinur, a native of Jerusalem, is resident conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and music director of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra. A board member of the New Bedford symphony who lives part-time in Sarasota connected Dinur to the Sarasota Orchestra.

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Dinur will lead soloist Augustin Hadelich in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, along with orchestra performances of Smith’s “Field Guide” and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.

“The Beethoven is a perfect piece, I would say,” Dinur said in a telephone interview from his in-laws’ home in Atlanta before heading to Italy for performances in Padua and Milan earlier this month. “Every note is in place.”

He and Hadelich, who won a Grammy Award in 2016 for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for his recording of Dutilleux’s Violin Concerto with the Seattle Symphony, have made music together onstage in Milwaukee – Dinur playing piano, his first instrument – but the Sarasota concerts will mark the first time Dinur has been at the conductor’s podium with him.

Hadelich said the process of melding soloist, visiting conductor, and orchestra is not difficult with a piece as well known as the Beethoven concerto, which he has performed many times.

“We’re meeting everyone with a lot of knowledge about the piece, and certain expectations, things that are usually done,” Hadelich said.

The concerto, commissioned by violinist Franz Clement in 1806, is notable for its emphasis on the lyricism of the music itself, not the ability of the soloist.

It’s among Hadelich’s favorite pieces of music, one he has performed probably 100 times.

“In my adult career, it was quite quickly one of the pieces I loved suggesting and programming,” he said. “After you do it many times and spend a lot of time with it, you start getting a better and better sense of what it expresses, which it means.”

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The piece has evolved in its performance over the centuries. Initially not very popular, perhaps because the manuscript was completed just a few days before its premiere and is technically challenging, it grew on musicians and audiences especially after 12-year-old German violin prodigy Joseph Joaquin performed it 38 years later under the baton of Felix Mendelssohn and became its champion.

“He pretty much single-handedly made sure this piece was finally recognized,” said Hadelich.

Even in recent decades, the concerto has changed.

“What happened in the second half of the 20th century, performances became slower and slower, more and more romantic,” stretching to between 50 minutes and an hour, Hadelich said. “It’s very, very beautiful, but it almost feels like the whole thing is a dream.”

Of late, violinists and orchestras have picked up the tempo and made the concerto much leaner.

“The differences between the slowest and the fastest performances are just incredible,” he said. “It has to have a certain depth and gravitas. I think if it’s too fast, the opening starts to sound a bit too much, it doesn’t quite have the depth to it. When it’s too slow, you start to lose the sense of architecture to the first movement.”

‘Beethoven & Tchaikovsky’

Sarasota Orchestra Masterworks 4. Yaniv Dinur, guest conductor, Augustin Hadelich, violin soloist. 8 p.m. Feb. 4-5, 2:30 p.m. Feb. 6, Van Wezel Performing Arts Center, 777 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Tickets $35-$98. Classical Conversation with Dinur at 10:30 a.m. Feb. 3, Holley Hall, Beatrice Friedman Symphony Center, 707 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Tickets $11 advance, $16 at the door. 941-953-3434; sarasotaorchestra.org

Read more arts stories by Susan L. Rife

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: No Sarasota Orchestra concerts in Bradenton due to COVID protocols