By Lyn Bronson

Maestro Larry Granger certainly knows how to create an “audience pleaser” program. For the latest in the Santa Cruz Symphony series, he served up two perennial favorites: a big bold reading of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 and the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor in a “knock ’em dead” performance by Gold Medal Van Cliburn winner Jon Nakamatsu.

Pianist Emanuel Ax in an interview once said, “Although I have been playing the Brahms D Minor Concerto for over forty years, it never gets any easier.” Nevertheless, Jon Nakamatsu made it look like child’s play on Sunday afternoon at the Mello Center in Watsonville as he stormed the heavens in a large scaled richly detailed performance. All the big gestures were there, his tone was rock solid, the virtuoso passages raced by at the speed of light, and he played the first movement’s second theme and the lovely slow movement with heartfelt passion. The final movement in this performance was especially moving, for not only was the marvelous fugue beautifully effective, but the final coda was hair-raising in its intensity.

After receiving a huge standing ovation Nakamatsu rewarded us with one encore — Mendelssohn’s Andante and Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 14. The melodies in the beautiful introductory Andante were beautifully and expressively shaped, and the Presto that followed was gossamer light and faster than a speeding bullet. At its end I wanted to whip out my cell phone — “Hello, Guinness Book of Records? I want to report a new world’s record for the fastest ever performance of Mendelssohn’s Rondo Capriccioso!” This was truly a Romantic performance that was full of joyous abandon.

As always, it is pleasing to renew our acquaintance with Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, and Maestro Granger led the musicians through a nicely paced and emotionally satisfying performance. Especially effective on this occasion was the perpetual motion final movement that that really kept the Adrenalin flowing.

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