Black and White equals gold for music in schools

By Eman Isadiar

SAN FRANCISCO – The City’s long-awaited bi-annual black-tie social event known as the Black and White Ball will be held on Saturday, May 22. The War Memorial Performing Arts Center and surrounding area will be transformed into one giant party scene to raise funds for San Francisco Symphony’s citywide music education program in elementary schools known as “Adventures in Music.”

Tony Bennett and k.d. lang will kick off SF Symphony’s signature event “Black and White Ball” with a performance at Davies Symphony Hall on May 22 at 8 pm. Courtesy of San Francisco Symphony

The evening will begin with a special joint concert at Davies Symphony Hall by Tony Bennett and k.d. lang. The entertainment line-up for the post-concert party, beginning at 9 p .m., includes: party headliners Kool & The Gang; two-time Grammy-nominated Afro-Cuban ensemble Tiempo Libre; hip hop/R&B songstress Faith Evans; the illustrious Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra; all-star jam band Moonalice; retro-swingers Royal Crown Revue; unstoppable rock ‘n’ roll party band Wonderbread 5; nine-piece salsa band Candela; California surf band Papa Doo Run Run; Foreverland, a 14-piece musical tribute to Michael Jackson; and all-female Led Zeppelin tribute band Zepparella.

The dancing, food, drinks and the rollicking midnight surprise are all included with a single ticket purchase of $200 per guest. All of the above plus the preceding concert by Tony Bennett and k.d. lang will cost $325 per guest. For details and tickets visit sfsymphony.org/bwball or call 415-864-3000.

Garrick Ohlsson -- Chopin's birthday gift to San Francisco and vice versa

By Eman Isadiar

SAN FRANCISCO – Michael Tilson Thomas conducted the San Francisco Symphony last weekend inChopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 with pianist Garrick Ohlsson as part of a flurry of concerts held this year throughout the world to commemorate the composer's bicentennial birthday. The program also included the second movement of Litolff's Concerto symphonique No. 4 with Ohlsson as soloist, the orchestral suite from the ballet Giselle by Adam and Debussy's La mer.

Bay Area pianist and first American to win the Chopin competition Garrick Ohlsson Courtesy of San Francisco Symphony

The evening opened with the only movement of a single work by Henry Charles Litolff which seems to have endured as a concert piece – the Scherzo from his Concerto symphonique No. 4. in D minor. Without this movement, the world may well have forgotten the Franco-Scottish composer and virtuoso pianist to whom Liszt dedicated his own first piano concerto.

Bay Area pianist Garrick Ohlsson was the soloist.

As the title suggests, the Concerto symphonique elevates the orchestra's size and role as compared to a typical piano concerto. It is a charming work vaguely reminiscent of the music of Mendelssohn in its elf-like motifs. With the exception of a brief transitional section, the piano weaves in and out of the orchestra – non-stop from start to finish – with a repetitive theme featuring quiet, rapidly descending staccato mordents requiring great skill and control.

Then followed an unforgettable rendition of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, again with soloist Garrick Ohlsson, who also happens to be the first American ever to win the International Chopin Piano Competition 40 years ago.

Similar to Beethoven's second concerto, the work predates the composer's first concerto, but was published later and numbered counter to its chronology.

Chopin's unique brand of romantic classicism permeates this piece, with a fast and heroic first movement written in sonata allegro form, a slow, poetic and utterly enchanting second movement, and a fast folk dance-inspired third movement in rondo form.

Since the beginning of this historic anniversary year, audiences everywhere have been treated to the music of Chopin in concert halls big and small. Now that Garrick Ohlsson and Michael Tilson Thomas have shared the stage to honor the composer, the world can rest assured that Chopin's 200th birthday has indeed been celebrated.

Next on the program was music from the ballet Giselle by Chopin's Parisian contemporary Adolphe Adam. The work highlighted San Francisco Symphony's special flair for lavishly orchestrated and technically demanding romantic music. Apart from the conductor, the piece kept two orchestra members particularly busy – principal viola Jonathan Vinocour whose stunning solo passages pierced through the thick orchestration, and principal percussion Jack Van Geem whose precise striking of the triangle was simply brilliant as he switched back and forth among many other instruments.

The evening concluded with Debussy's three-movement symphonic work, or "three symphonic sketches" better known as La mer. Conducting from memory, Michael Tilson Thomas brought to focus the pronounced dynamics of the piece with wave after wave of symphonic sound gushing in a formidable musical deluge flowing from the tip of his baton.

Exaggerated climaxes such as we find in La mer are rare in the music of Debussy.

Paris, France figures prominently in the life of each and every composer whose work was included in the program.

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Eman Isadiar is a San Francisco-based pianist and music writer.

Pop! Goes the Symphony

By Eman Isadiar

In its latest concert, San Francisco Symphony was led by guest conductor Edwin Outwater in a premiere of songs from the musical play Whisper House by pop artist Duncan Sheik. The concert also included excerpts from the ballet suite from the opera Faust by Charles Gounod and local premieres of Zipangu by Claude Vivier and music from the ballet Les biches by Francis Poulenc.

The concert opened with selected movements of the ballet suite from the opera Faust. Charles Gounod added this music ten years after the opera was first performed in order to accommodate a more elaborate new production.

The work requires a sizable orchestra for the rich, colorful sounds that are typical to the late romantic period. While San Francisco Symphony is known especially for its unique flare for romantic repertoire, Outwater's conducting brought out the most brilliant colors the orchestra has to offer.

Then came the evening's headliner, Duncan Sheik, whose works include chart-topping pop singles, award-winning musicals and film scores. The concert featured the song suite from Sheik's latest musical play titled Whisper House, which debuted last January in San Diego.

Award-winning pop artist Duncan Sheik performs songs from

Whisper House withSan Francisco Symphony

(photo courtesy of San Francisco Symphony).

The music was especially arranged for the San Francisco Symphony by Sheik's long-time collaborator Simon Hale. The large orchestra included a partially off-stage brass section, whip, wind machine and electric guitar. Sheik was the lead vocalist, with backup by his female counterpart.

Whisper House tells the story of a haunted lighthouse in Maine, whose musical ghosts sing to the eleven-year old orphan living there with his aunt in the 1940s. Prior to their death, the ghosts were apparently musicians on a steamer that crashed nearby in 1912. The songs of the ghosts examine our modern world—as its in 2010—torn by conflict and fear.

The opening number, “We're Here to Tell You,” is a hypnotic tune with an eery orchestral accompaniment. “The Tale of Solomon Snell”—a rather sinister song about a man whose lifelong fear of being buried alive comes true—leaves the listener with a lingering sense of unease. “Earthbound Starlight” has a catchy melody and is deeply emotional. As the title suggests, “I Don't Believe in You” is a callous and mean-spirited song, proclaiming man's inability to change his dark fate.

Sheik's haunting tunes are a perfect fit for a story about ghosts. The lyrics are powerful, poignant and sobering. The orchestration is dazzling and extravagant. While the wind machine evokes the stormy New England coast, the electric guitar provides an impressively wide array of ghostly sound-effects and echoes.

Sheik's music bears the undeniable influences of pop, aspires to Broadway dimension and features an elaborate orchestration all at the same time. By crossing multiple boundaries of genre and style, Sheik is well on his way to creating his own. Something we might call “symphonic pop.”

The next piece on the program was French-Canadian Claude Vivier's Zipangu—a reference to Japan as it was known at the time of Marco Polo. Outwater explained from the stage that the music focuses rather on the “idea” of Japan as the far-away place of mystery and intrigue to Marco Polo, and not necessarily on the country itself or its music.

Zipangu calls for a 13-piece string ensemble and has a striking introspective quality. It takes the listener—as the proverbial Marco Polo—on a distant journey to the remote corners of the self. One of the most prominent features of the music is its rough bowing technique, which draws multiple tones from one note. In this regard, Vivier joins the ranks of 20th century avant-garde composers who used musical instruments in unconventional ways, seeking to produce sounds not originally intended for the instrument.

San Francisco Symphony associate concertmaster Nadya Tichman truly outdid herself, not only with her flawless technique and variety of sound, but also as the musical glue that held the piece together in this difficult and highly demanding work.

Zipangu is a clear testament that, had he not been silenced by murder in 1983, Claude Vivier is likely to have become an influential voice in contemporary art music.

The orchestral suite from the ballet Les biches (“The Does,” as in female deers) by Francis Poulenc made for a strong ending to the concert. While Vivier's music featured sounds the instruments may not have been intended for, Poulenc takes the conventional “intended” sonorities of each instrument to new heights with his breathtaking orchestral writing.

Poulenc originally composed Les biches in 1923 for Diaghilev, but wrote the orchestral suite 16 years later as a stand-alone concert piece. While the subject of the ballet may have been inspired by Nijinsky's choreography of the Prelude to the Afternoon of a Fawn, Poulenc's music has little in common with that of Debussy.

The music prominently features rhythmic motifs well-suited for dance. The rapid tempos and quickly shifting dynamics require an orchestra of the highest caliber, led by a capable conductor. San Francisco Symphony and its own former Youth Orchestra music director Edwin Outwater proved to be equal to the task.

The most striking aspect of Les biches is its use of musical norms established in the preceding century, a stylistic feature now commonly labeled as “neo-classical.” Poulenc's music shares this retrospective quality with that of his fellow members of the group of young, aspiring musicians known as "Les Six" (“The Six”) in 1920s Paris.

Incidentally, Les Six has ties to the Bay Area through one of its members, namely Darius Milhaud, who moved to America and taught at Oakland's Mills College.

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Eman Isadiar teaches piano at the Peninsula Conservatory and writes about music in the San Francisco Bay Area.

San Francisco Symphony Combines Classical with Neo-Classical

By Eman Isadiar

In a rare performance of Mozart's piano concerto No. 23, Michael Tilson Thomas appeared in the twin roles of conductor and soloist (photo courtesy of San Francisco Symphony).

During a break in this winter's extreme weather, San Francisco Symphony music director proved himself a force of nature on the keyboard in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23. This rare appearance by Michael Tilson Thomas in the twin roles of conductor and soloist was framed by two works by Stravinsky – the Octet for winds and music from the ballet Pulcinella – each representing a different side of the composer's stylistic temperament.

Until today, we might have thought it impossible for Michael Tilson Thomas to charm us any more than he already has over his fifteen-year history as the symphony's music director. For a world-renowned conductor to show his instrumental skills, it takes more than courage. It is a meaningful gesture – an expression of trust.

And having done so with the sublime elegance of a Mozart concerto rather than a technically opulent romantic or modern work, M.T.T. made this occasion even more precious.

There is a long list of reasons why many consider Mozart's K. 488 concerto in A major to be his greatest musical achievement. Completed five years before the composer's death, the concerto predates Mozart's decline in health and was written at a time when his creative genius and his career in Vienna were both at their brightest. It was also written in the same year that saw the creation of The Impresario and The Marriage of Figaro, which could explain the concerto's unmistakable operatic quality.

Tilson Thomas displayed a clear sense of reverence in his approach to the concerto, which indicates the piece must hold a special place in his repertoire as a conductor and pianist. Delicate dynamics, lyrical swells and singing effects were prominent throughout the first movement. The very subtle fluctuations in tempo added a moderately romantic touch, and the tastefully held-back cadenza displayed some impressive finger work.

Some fleeting moments of the second movement, however, were intensely laden with emotion. The most powerful of these was marked by Tilson Thomas' sophisticated half-pedaling and use of the sostenuto pedal, which simulated the sonorities of an 18th century fortepiano. In a moment of pure musical enchantment, the faint, pleading voice of Mozart was heard, as if through a tunnel from 220 years away.

Any clouds which may have gathered during the dark despair of the second movement were quickly dispelled in the opening bars of the energetic third, and the more familiar jovial Mozart came bursting through.

Stravinsky's Octet for winds preceded Mozart's concerto on the program, and made a rather suitable complement. The piece dates back to the middle period in the composer's career dominated by a return to older musical idioms, during which Stravinsky explores the same principles of music used and perfected by Mozart, but in a contemporary context.

The three-movement Octet for winds is notoriously difficult in its frequent and sudden tempo changes, which are often managed by a conductor. Stravinsky himself conducted the premiere at the Paris Opera House, and was described by playwright Jean Cocteau as “an astronomer engaged in working out a magnificent instrumental calculation in figures of silver.”

While most chamber groups would have required a conductor to smooth out the rapidly shifting transitions, the elite ensemble of the San Francisco Symphony was able to give a solid performance of the Octet without the need for one. The fast-paced and playful finale was particularly exciting.

The final piece on the program was the music from Stravinsky's ballet Pulcinella commissioned by the fabled Russian ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev. Stravinsky was specifically tasked with using music attributed to 18th century Italian composer Giovanni Pergolesi, which Diaghilev thought would be the perfect accompaniment to the ballet's Comedia dell'arte setting.

While wrapping the ancient Italian tunes entirely in his own unique style – to the point that any trace of the original composer is all but entirely erased – Stravinsky is deeply marked by this return to Europe's earlier music. Pulcinella is said to be the seminal work that triggered an important period in Stravinsky's style, and subsequently that of other composers of his generation, known as “neo-classicism.”

Apparently, Diaghilev had in mind a lavish ballet production, incorporating orchestral and vocal music as well as making prominent use of the visual arts in the sets, which were to be designed by none other than Pablo Picasso. The choreography and libretto were both done by Diaghilev's protégé Leonide Messine.

Michael Tilson Thomas led the San Francisco Symphony in a stunning performance of Pulcinella with its nine arias, each sung brilliantly by mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, tenor Bruce Sledge and bass Eric Owens.

While both of the Stravinsky pieces were written in close chronological proximity, they represent the two extremes of composer's approach to neo-classicism – the Octet being essentially a modern piece aspiring to classical principles while Pulcinella contains old music guised in 20th century modernism and orchestral color.

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Eman Isadiar teaches piano at the Peninsula Conservatory and writes about music in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Composer George Benjamin Inaugurates ‘Project San Francisco’

By Eman Isadiar

Guest conductor David Robertson led the San Francisco Symphony in music by British composer George Benjamin, the first resident artist of the orchestra’s new “Project San Francisco” program. The season’s latest concert also included works by Debussy and Mendelssohn.

British Composer George Benjamin is featured as San Francisco Symphony’s resident artist in “Project San Francisco” (photo by Betty Freeman)

George Benjamin comes to us by way of Paris, where he studied as a precocious teenager at the Conservatoire with one of the brightest musical luminaries of the last century, Olivier Messiaen.

Now 50, Benjamin is noted equally for his painstaking and meticulous writing style, and—not surprisingly—for the fewness of the works he has produced since being a favored student of Messiaen in the ‘70s.

The program opened with Benjamin’s 1985 work titled Jubilation for orchestra and a chorus of about 100 children’s voices, sung here by the Allegro chorus of Berkeley’s Crowden School. The imposing size of the orchestra and Benjamin’s rich tonal palette in Jubilation would win over even the most averse of patrons to contemporary music.

Guest conductor David Robertson led the San Francisco Symphony in Jubliation and Dance Figures by George Benjamin (photo courtesy of San Francisco Symphony).

Leading such a large ensemble, some of whose youthful singers also doubled as clave players, required attention to a dizzying level of detail. The challenge was a perfect match for St. Louis Symphony music director David Robertson, who appears frequently as a guest conductor of the San Francisco Symphony.

Then followed Debussy’s Three Etudes for the piano, orchestrated by Swiss composer Michael Jarrell.

The études by Debussy were conceived as technical exercises, which, similar to the études of Chopin, serve not only to enhance the pianist’s skill, but are also each a gem of great musical brilliance. These pieces are doubly precious as they also represent Debussy’s very last works for the piano near the end of his battle with cancer.

The first étude features quickly repeated notes, while the second focuses on bringing out individual melodic lines in a thick harmonic setting. The last etude deals with the difficulties of playing parallel block chords moving in rapid succession.

Jarrell’s orchestration closely follows Debussy’s own orchestral model, and retains much of the musical value of the études. Surprisingly, even the educational component intended by Debussy seems to be present, but transferred from keyboard to strings.

Next on the program were Benjamin’s Dance Figures—a collection of nine short pieces adapted from the original piano version to an orchestral accompaniment for dance, or as a stand-alone symphonic concert piece. With a creative voice uniquely his own, Benjamin’s Figures range from intrigue to exuberance; from introspection to excitement.

A distinctly French thread ran through the first half of the program, with music by a composer whose formative years were shaped at the Paris Conservatoire, the orchestral reincarnation of piano works by the founder of French impressionism, and a conductor with a distinguished set of artistic tenures in both Lyon and Paris.

By contrast, the second half of the program brought Scottish-inspired music by a Jewish-born composer from Hamburg.

Felix Mendelssohn allegedly felt the first stirrings of what was later to become the Scottish Symphony while visiting Scotland as a budding 20-year old musician. However, he completed the work 13 years later at the height of his creative genius.

Typical of composers of the romantic period, Mendelssohn’s four-movement work follows the classical symphonic form as brought into practice by Haydn and perfected by Mozart and Beethoven. Yet the longing melodies of the second movement and the heroic motifs of the fourth bear the unmistakable mark of Mendelssohn’s unique musical gift.

The Scottish Symphony—a workhorse of the standard repertoire—provided a well-balanced ending to an evening whose goal was clearly to introduce the San Francisco public to the music of George Benjamin.

As part of the symphony’s “Project San Francisco,” Benjamin will make multiple appearances as conductor and pianist in his own music as well as that of other composers through January 17. George Benjamin will be followed by cellist Yo-Yo Ma as the second resident artist of “Project San Francisco”, with concerts through January 26.

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Eman Isadiar teaches piano at the Peninsula Conservatory and writes about music in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Cabrera Does Wonders with Symphony of Teens

By Eman Isadiar

When San Francisco Opera’s artistic leadership was transferred from Donald Runnicles to Nicola Luisotti, the associate conductor under the former régime didn’t have far to go to find a new job. Donato Cabrera, simply packed his baton and crossed the street from the War Memorial Opera House to Davies Symphony Hall, where he now serves as San Francisco Symphony’s newest assistant conductor and music director of its acclaimed Youth Orchestra. Cabrera’s first matinee concert on November 15 was a clear testament to his rare skill not only as a conductor, but as an educator and motivator of young musicians.

Donato Cabrera begins his first season as San Francisco Symphony’s newest assistant conductor and music director of the Youth Orchestra (photo courtesy of San Francisco Symphony).

The program opened with The Infernal Machine by contemporary American composer Christopher Rouse. The title—which is not to be taken in the “diabolical” sense—could refer to the technical demands of a large orchestra, among whose instruments appear a slapstick, ratchet and sandpaper blocks.

Requiring the highest level of rhythmic precision, this brief symphonic work awakens, excites and invigorates with its relentless pace and constant musical surprises. After hearing Rouse’s five-minute showpiece, one could easily spend twice as long wondering just how such sounds were possible.

Rouse later used The Infernal Machine as the second movement of a larger symphonic work titled Phantasmata.

Compared to the works of later composers, Haydn’s plentiful symphonies are often perceived as naively optimistic and gentle. Yet the second piece on Cabrera’s program, namely Symphony No. 92 by Haydn (also known as the Oxford), offered the perfect counterbalance to the opening music by Christopher Rouse.

As though the rhythmic complexity of the preceding piece had somehow heightened the listener’s awareness, the delicate nuances of Haydn’s musical symmetry came through with elegance and clarity.

While the symphony was one of three works commissioned to be performed in Paris, it was reportedly conducted by Haydn in 1791 at a ceremony in London, where the composer was awarded an honorary doctorate in music. Owing to the occasion of its premiere, the work was immediately dubbed the Oxford Symphony.

In passages alternating between major and minor modes, Haydn creates a sense of contrast between light and dark, tension and release. Haydn’s own unique brand of counterpoint is ever present in this work, and clear thematic relationships from one movement to the next bind the symphony together as a cohesive whole.

It was in the program’s final piece, Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations, where the extraordinary skill and passion of the young musicians came shining through with dazzling brilliance. The piece also brought to focus the electrifying chemistry between Cabrera and the youthful talent now in his care.

The Enigma Variations form a set of theme and fourteen variations, each depicting one of Elgar’s close personal friends and colleagues. Using the individual’s nickname, initials, or a linguistic code as the title for each variation, Elgar keeps the identities of his subjects somewhat secret; hence the “enigma.” Biographers and musicologists, however, have long since unraveled every last one of Elgar’s mysterious subjects in exacting detail.

Specific musical elements in each variation depict one or more of the subject’s character traits—often with affection or humor—as well as a general impression of the individual’s personality. Winifred Norbury’s laugh in Variation VIII, titled W.N., or Dora Penny’s stutter in Variation X, titled Dorabella, are both unmistakable examples of the tender fondness with which Elgar remembers his friends in this musical tribute.

The grand finale of Variation XIV, titled E.D.U., is an allusion to the composer’s own nickname, “Edu”, as he was often called by his wife, Alice, and also contains references to some of the earlier variations. In this section, the music reaches exhilarating dynamic peaks for a befitting conclusion to what has become Elgar’s best-known large-scale composition.

The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra remains among the nation’s top teen ensembles (photo courtesy of San Francisco Symphony).

With such a widely varied program in form and style, the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra once again proved itself capable of tackling the most challenging of symphonic works worthy of its venerable adult counterpart. Under Maestro Cabrera’s leadership, this highly gifted symphony of teens promises to achieve great victories in seasons to come.

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Eman Isadiar teaches piano at the Peninsula Conservatory and writes about music in the San Francisco Bay Area.

New Season Opens for Symphony and Opera

By Eman Isadiar

Much like the turning of the leaves or the migration of the pelicans, there is a certain September week that signals the yearly progression of life in San Francisco. Yet it marks more than the mere passage of time. It is a moment of civic pride, of joyful celebration, and of being dressed to the nines for two extravagant opening nights.

On September 9, music director Michael Tilson Thomas inaugurated San Francisco Symphony’s 98th season at Davies Symphony Hall–and his own 15th anniversary at the podium–with works by Liszt, Ravel and Rodgers, and Prokofiev’s monumental Third Piano Concerto with keyboard legend Lang Lang.

Across the street at the War Memorial Opera House, Nicola Luisotti led a cast of stars in Verdi’s Il Trovatore on September 11–this time not as the favored returning guest conductor from Italy, but as San Francisco Opera’s newest music director.

The Public Goes Ga-Ga for Lang Lang

Maestro Tilson Thomas opened the symphony’s program with a series of three waltzes, each boldly different from the rest in style and character.

Mephisto Waltz No. 1 by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt is a fleshed-out symphonic version of his better-known work for the piano. The title is apparently derived from the character of Mephistopheles, who is an incarnation of the devil in the legend of Faust.

Far from the title’s reference to the underworld, the waltz expresses man’s rather innocent longing for youth and vitality in a perpetual struggle with moral issues. This, the orchestra communicated in a thrilling performance with bursts of supersonic tempos and stunning technical brilliance.

Then came La valse – simply, “The Waltz” – by French composer Maurice Ravel. The work was originally conceived for dance, but was made into a stand-alone concert piece after a dispute between composer and choreographer.

Being exceptionally gifted at orchestration, Ravel creates sensual tonal textures that, while being uniquely his own, are also an unmistakable musical salute to the great master of the Viennese waltz, Johann Strauss.

If Liszt’s waltz speaks of valiant youth and vigor, Ravel’s speaks of princes, fairy-tale castles and chivalry.

The third and final waltz on the program – taken from the Broadway musical Carousel by American composer Richard Rodgers – speaks simply of tender affection.

One might find the harmonies of the opening bars by Rodgers surprisingly sophisticated for a Broadway production. A brief detour into polytonality hinted at the composer’s interest in the emerging musical trends of his time on both sides of the Pond, which made this piece a particularly intriguing specimen for the waltz sample three-pack.

The evening’s principal attraction, however, followed intermission, with Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto played by one of the most popular performers of our time, Lang Lang.

Pianist Lang Lang shines in San Francisco Symphony’s opening night concert on September 9, 2009 (photo courtesy of San Francisco Symphony).

Despite being billed primarily as a Chinese sensation, Lang was a student of Graffman at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute, and could be equally considered a product of American training. At 27, he has played the great concert halls of the world many times over, and already demonstrates the rare sensitivity and skill of a veteran of the stage.

After years of polarized reviews, Lang Lang’s flawless execution has now aged into soulful art, right before our very eyes.

It was not the technical demands of Prokofiev’s concerto, but rather its unexpected romanticism that revealed the breadth of Lang’s interpretive canvas.

After endless applause and four returns to the stage, Lang Lang finally relented to an encore – Chopin’s Etude in A-flat, Op. 25, known as the “Aeolian Harp.”

If you think you’ve heard this piece before, think again!

To breathe new life into the single most commonly played Chopin Etude for over 160 years – now, THAT takes more than anything taught in a music school; American or Chinese.

So, who deserves credit for producing the world phenomenon that is Lang Lang? China and the U.S. may well have to fight this one out, too, along with the trade deficit and carbon emissions.

'Il Trovatore' Marks New Beginning for San Francisco Opera

Since San Francisco Opera’s public announcement of its new music director exactly two years and eight months ago, the enigmatic Nicola Luisotti has been the talk of the town as the man next in line to bear the mantle of his illustrious predecessors, the English Sir John Pritchard and the Scottish Donald Runnicles.

Nicola Luisotti conducts his first production as San Francisco Opera’s new music director (photo by Terrence McCarthy).

It is also a compliment to our city and to our opera that a European conductor of Luisotti’s stature should dismiss multiple offers, no doubt, from highly prestigious opera companies on the continent in favor of San Francisco.

Rivers of ink have flowed in Luisotti’s mention since he conducted last year’s production of La Bohème, and was featured as a guest conductor of the San Francisco Symphony in March. Naturally, this year’s season-opener with Verdi’s Il Trovatore was laden with excitement with perhaps a dash of skepticism.

Moments into the music, one could faintly hear a qualitative change in the orchestra’s sound. Whether a result of the new chemistry between conductor and orchestra, a side-effect of the slightly raised pit, or simply a musical placebo effect caused by the massive publicity in advance of Luisotti’s arrival – it is hard to know for sure.

Whatever the case, this is definitely a positive change.

The opera itself is a tragic tale of love, cruelty and murder, set to music by the master of Italian opera Giuseppe Verdi based on the work of Spanish playwright Antonio Gutierrez.

Sometime in fifteenth century Spain, Count Di Luna is convinced that his young son is ill from witchcraft, and orders a certain gypsy woman burnt at the stake in order to break the evil spell. The gypsy’s daughter named Azucena – herself the mother of a young boy – kidnaps the count’s son in a desperate attempt to trade his life for that of her mother, but arrives too late.

As the flames devour Azucena’s mother, she throws the count’s abducted son into the fire in a fit a vengeful wrath, only to realize in chilling horror, that she has instead burned her own son alive by mistake.

Azucena raises the count’s son as her dead boy Manrico, who grows into a handsome troubadour – trovatore in Italian – and whose sweet melodies capture the heart of a certain Leonora.

The count’s second son becomes the new Count Di Luna after his father’s death, and also falls in love with Leonora. Being a powerful and wealthy man – not to mention lethally jealous – the count manages to capture Manrico, whom he intends to kill over the woman they both love.

Leonora vows marriage to the count in exchange for Manrico’s life, but soon commits suicide to get out of the bargain. This enrages the count, so he hangs Manrico, upon which Azucena reveals to the count that he has killed, not a rival, but his own long-lost brother.

The story ends in a perfect example of operatic justice when the count pays the price for the long-ago death of a gypsy woman, and has to live out his days knowing he has killed his own flesh and blood, eerily sharing Azucena’s fate.

Verdi’s Il Trovatore opened San Francisco Opera’s 87th season on September 11, 2009 (photo by Robert Kusel).

American soprano Sondra Radvanovsky was ravishing as Leonora. Her perfectly controlled high notes in the aria “D’amor sull’ali rosee” (“On the Rosey Wings of Love”) of Act 4 – where Leonora sings of her concern for Manrico while pacing outside the prison – drew the evening’s loudest cheers.

Singing the troubadour’s part was Italian tenor Marco Berti, who did a fine job carrying the added burden of – not only being the leading tenor – but being a leading tenor who happens to be a singer in the story itself.

Berti’s aria “Ah, sì ben mio” (“Ah, My Beloved”), was one of the opera’s highlights, in which Manrico longs for death knowing that Leonora has agreed to marry the count.

Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, who appears frequently in important roles with the San Francisco Opera, sang the part of Count di Luna with command and authority. First-timer mezzo soprano Stephanie Blythe, made a lasting impression in the complicated and disturbing character of Azucena.

Under chorus director Ian Robertson’s leadership, the band of gypsies, nuns, and ordinary fifteenth century Spaniards played a crucial part in the opera’s success.

Each scene was treated as though a delicately balanced painting, where the interplay of shadow and light filled open spaces, creating a kind of picture book to accompany the story.

David McVicar and Walter Sutcliffe co-directed the production with the finest of sets, costumes and choreography at their disposal.

Clearly, San Francisco Opera is charting its own artistic course through the rough waters of the world’s worst economic crisis ever. In contrast, this opening night was nothing but smooth sailing all around.

Of course, with Captain Luisotti now at the helm, San Francisco Opera may as well be the QE2.

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Eman Isadiar teaches piano at the Peninsula Conservatory and writes about music in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Close of Landmark Seasons for Youth Orchestra, New Century Chamber Orchestra

By Eman Isadiar

Benjamin Shwartz mounted the conductor’s podium one last time at Davies Symphony Hall on Sunday, May 17 and led San Francisco Symphony’s award-winning Youth Orchestra in a demanding program of Barber’s First Symphony and Symphonie fantastique by Berlioz.

Later that same afternoon, legendary violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg concluded her first season as music director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra with a concert titled Shadows and Light performed in San Rafael’s Osher Marin JCC Auditorium, featuring works by Mozart, Herrmann, Borodin and Strauss. The concert’s highlight was a new commission by emerging Brazilian composer Clarice Assad, with Salerno-Sonnenberg as soloist.

Benjamin Shwartz conducted San Francisco Symphony’s Youth Orchestra in his final concert on May 17, 2009. (Photo courtesy of San Francisco Symphony)

Youth Orchestra Conductor Bids Farewell

Young Israeli-American conductor Benjamin Shwartz has served since 2005 under Michael Tilson Thomas as resident conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and music director of the Youth Orchestra. Shwartz leaves his posts to pursue guest conducting engagements in the US and abroad. He is succeeded by Donato Cabrera, who joins the San Francisco Symphony as the newest member of the conducting staff.

The most striking feature of the concert was the profound artistic maturity of the teenaged orchestra, which, under Shwartz’s direction, could upstage even the best of “grown-up” ensembles.

The Philadelphia Connection

Shwartz opened the concert with Symphony No. 1 by Samuel Barber, with whom he shares a special bond.

Nearly 70 years apart, Barber and Shwartz both attended the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Other Curtis alumni include such diverse artists as Leonard Bernstein, Miles Davis and Lang Lang.

Coincidentally, violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonneberg, whose latest concert is covered in the second half of this article, is also a past student of the Curtis Institute

In his Symphony No. 1, Barber condenses the traditional four-movement symphonic form into a single movement, yet preserving the musical processes by which the different sections of a symphony are bound together as a whole.

The idea of a one-movement symphony was rather uncommon at the time, and only one other composer—Jean Sibelius—had completed such a work twelve years prior with his Symphony No. 7, thus providing a model for Barber.

Samuel Barber dedicated his First Symphony to the Italian-American composer and librettist Gian Carlo Menotti, who, by the way, happens to be yet another graduate of the Curtis Institute.

Symphonic Hallucinations

While Haydn and Mozart left it to the listener to imagine a storyline to accompany their music, Beethoven was the first composer to begin the trend of suggesting program ideas to the audience.

Since then, no composer has left such a descriptive—not to mention disturbing—program as that of Hector Berlioz for his Symphonie fantastique.

According to Berlioz, the music depicts an artist who intends to commit suicide over a woman by taking opium. But instead, he finds himself trapped in a series of nightmarish hallucinations, and witnesses his own execution for having killed the woman he loves. Following his death, he encounters his beloved once again in the afterlife, but this time as a prostitute in the company of devils and sorcerers.

Despite the clearly R-rated Symphonie fantastique, the PG-rated orchestra managed to express every last horrific detail of Berlioz’s music. In fact, Schwartz’s rendition of both works on the program was bold, introspective, and filled with refined music worthy of a professional symphony orchestra of any age.

If it were possible to form an orchestra solely of young prodigies, one wonders whether it wouldn’t sound something like San Francisco Symphony’s Youth Orchestra.

A New Era for New Century

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg concludes her first season as music director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra. (Photo by Jim Block)

On her blog, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg declares herself to be officially “bi-coastal” following her appointment as music director of San Francisco’s New Century Chamber Orchestra. She continues to maintain her primary residence in New York while wrapping up her first season in the Bay Area with record-breaking results, both in terms of concert attendance and revenue for the ensemble.

Known to the world simply as “Nadja”, she captured the hearts back in 1981 as the youngest violinist ever to win the Naumberg competition with Tchaikovsky’s concerto, which was broadcast live from Carnegie Hall on national television.

Much of Nadja’s tumultuous career since the early days has been dedicated to performing and promoting new music—a cause she continues to champion in her new role in San Francisco.

The program, which was titled Shadows and Light, featured music having to do with nighttime and darkness. Ironically, the concert venue’s stage lighting malfunctioned throughout the entire concert.

It was fascinating to witness the non-verbal, almost telepathic interaction between Nadja and her ensemble of 18 musicians, each clearly an accomplished artist. It is probably not too difficult to follow Nadja’s lead anyway—she is famous for being especially mobile on stage.

Some may frown at Nadja’s romanticized Mozart, with the grandiosity of her gestures and the richness of her vibratos. Many others, however, would find her approach to the program opener—Eine Kleine Nachtmusik—rather refreshing as she breathed new life into an otherwise dusty, old cliché of the string repertoire.

Following Mozart, the audience got a surprisingly powerful musical thrill with Herrmann’s Psycho Suite. While most of the musical ideas of the suite are introduced in the opening “Prelude”, one does not mind the repetitiveness, perhaps owed to the unrelenting rhythmic energy of the piece.

The famous squawking sounds of “The Murder” movement instantly brought to mind the shower scene, the silhouette and the knife.

The public was asked not to applaud in between Borodin’s Nocturne and Assad’s new commission Dreamscapes. The program was planned in such a way as to allow the lushly romantic music of Borodin to prime the listener for a deeper understanding of Assad’s music. Applause would clearly have disrupted the trance-like state intended by the composer.

Borodin’s Nocturne was deeply moving.

It is difficult to determine whether the profound impact of Assad’s work was brought on by the music itself, or by Nadja, in whose hands any piece of music can find sublime expression. Perhaps, it was a magical combination of both. Either way, the performance of Clarice Assad’s Dreamscapes with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and the New Century Chamber Orchestra was a rare musical experience of transcendental dimensions.

Had the program ended with Assad, the audience would likely have left the hall in a sleep-walking daze. Strauss’s unmistakably Viennese Die Fledermaus Overture, however, waltzed us back to reality, rendering us capable of operating our respective motorized vehicles home.

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Eman Isadiar teaches piano at the Peninsula Conservatory and writes about music in the San Francisco Bay Area.

San Francisco Symphony Welcomes New Opera Director

By Eman Isadiar

San Francisco Opera's new music director Nicola Luisotti leads San Francisco Symphony in music by Kodaly, Bloch and Brahms (Photo by Dario Acosta)

So far this season, we have seen a host of distinguished guests from far and wide on the conductor’s podium at Davies Symphony Hall. But one man in particular stands out for the prominent position he will soon occupy in the city’s cultural life. In its latest concert, the San Francisco Symphony was led by the charismatic Italian conductor Nicola Luisotti, who has been named as San Francisco Opera’s next music director.

The stylistic variety of the program offered ample proof that Luisotti’s musical skills extend far beyond the realm of opera. The concert had a pronounced ethnic flavor with Kodály’s Dances of Galánta followed by Bloch’s Hebraic Rhapsody with cellist Michael Grebanier. The evening culminated with a symphonic monolith of the Romantic repertoire—Brahms’ Fourth.

Hungarian Dances

The Dances of Galánta opened in a slow and lavishly orchestrated movement, evoking gypsy music with haunting melodies from ancient times. Traveling to the remote corners of his native Hungary, Kodály seems to have amassed an impressive collection of folk songs from various regions, which he brought back to life in an entirely new form through his ground-breaking orchestral techniques.

Each of the five dances was progressively livelier and more colorful than the preceding one, leading to an exciting and rhythmically invigorating finale. Since the individual movements were performed attacca (with no significant pause in between), the dances merged together in a kind of musical patchwork, not unlike a symphonic counterpart to Liszt’s familiar Hungarian Rhapsodies for the piano.

Kodály’s Dances of Galánta feature an especially prominent part for the clarinet, which the symphony’s own Carey Bell played brilliantly. In comparison to other guest conductors, Luisotti seemed to take extra care to show his appreciation for the orchestra by acknowledging Bell and other musicians with important solos at length during the applause.

Grebanier Shines as the Voice of Solomon

Then came a stunning piece by Swiss-born American composer Ernest Bloch (not to be confused with German philosopher Ernst Bloch). Having served as director of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Bloch the composer is forever associated with the Bay Area’s musical heritage. He also taught composition at UC Berkeley, and was for a time a resident of Mill Valley.

Schelomo—Hebrew for Solomon—is a single-movement rhapsody for cello and orchestra inspired by Jewish texts attributed to King Solomon. The composer had originally intended the work for voice and orchestra, but could not decide between English, French, German or Hebrew as its language. He finally chose the cello over the human voice.

Bloch’s Hebraic Rhapsody clearly displays Jewish-inspired melodic motifs with the emblematic augmented second intervals of Middle-Eastern and Eastern European folk music. The work as a whole, however, contains no trace of any known authentic Jewish tunes.

Predating the golden age of American cinema by about four decades, Schelomo nevertheless evokes the rich orchestral sounds of the great biblical sagas produced by Hollywood in the mid to late 50s. In fact, much of the music for American films was written by European-born composers of Bloch’s generation, who may have shared some of the same formative influences.

San Francisco Symphony’s Michael Grebanier is no stranger to Schelomo, having appeared as the soloist ten years ago under Roberto Abbado. His sensitive interpretation conveyed at once majestic grandeur and gentle poetry, while bringing out the most soul-stirring tones a cello can produce.

Grebanier’s broad range of color—from his delicate overtone brush to his powerful and grainy bowing action—gave an especially vibrant voice to the fabled prophet-ruler of the Old Testament. A voice that elicited endless applause, multiple returns to the stage and a standing ovation fit for a king.

Luisotti’s Trump Card—Brahms’ Fourth

The final piece on the program, namely Symphony No. 4 by Johannes Brahms, was a worthy conclusion to an evening of successive symphonic delights. This highly dramatic and passionate work seemed especially well-suited to Luisotti’s musical temperament, and once again refuted any notion that he is strictly a conductor of opera.

Nicola Luisotti gave us a bold, extroverted Brahms with higher peaks and deeper valleys than most. While at times he seemed to physically draw out gushing symphonic waves with all his might, at other moments his conducting was distilled to the subtle movement of his head during the instrumental solos.

From Brahms’ thick orchestral textures, Luisotti often brought to the foreground a melodic line or fragment that would otherwise have gone unnoticed, making the audience aware of the interplay among the many layers of music.

If Luisotti’s rendition of music by Kodály and Bloch prompted the audience to sit up and take notice, his stellar performance of Brahms firmly earned their respect and admiration.

A Distinctive Style

From the first flick of his baton, Nicola Luisotti intrigued and fascinated the audience with his flamboyant, highly expressive conducting style. He brought a clear and evident measure of drama to the music being performed—perhaps a function of his operatic background.

But what exactly is this “conducting style” that sets one conductor apart from another, one might ask. It is a complex and mysterious concept, having to do with the knowledge of how music works, and the ability to somehow project this knowledge onto the musicians.

In addition to the established conducting gestures of entrance and exit cues, tempo and dynamics, every conductor also develops a set of his or her own highly individual signals, ranging from precise instrumental articulations to very abstract musical ideas.

Although the motions are aimed at the musicians, they can also have a profound influence on the public’s perception of the music by providing visual clues indicating humor, gravity, passion, serenity and so on.

This is where Luisotti’s gift truly came to light. His conducting is a kind of sign language that is nearly as comprehensible to the least musical member of the audience as it is to the highly trained musicians of the orchestra.

It is almost a shame that such a uniquely rich gesticular vocabulary should be confined to the dimly-lit War Memorial orchestra pit come September.

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Eman Isadiar teaches piano at the Peninsula Conservatory and writes about music in the Bay Area.

San Francisco Symphony Presents Famed Argentine Pianist

By Eman Isadiar

Martha Argerich appears with the San Francisco Symphony in Ravel's Piano Concerto in G (Photo courtesy of San Francisco Symphony)

If traffic was especially congested in downtown San Francisco on the evenings of March 5 through 7, a small woman from Buenos Aires may have had something to do with it. Contrary to her physique, pianist Martha Argerich is among the greatest musical giants of the century, which explains the masses who poured in to see her perform Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G with the San Francisco Symphony in three sold-out shows.

They may have come for Argerich, but they also stumbled upon an unexpected musical jewel: the Requiem by Romanian composer György Ligeti. The program opened with a late Renaissance choral work titled In eccelsiis by Giovanni Gabrieli, and closed with an early romantic tone poem called Lament and Triumph by Franz Liszt.

Only in his second year directing the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Swedish-born Ragnar Bohlin has clearly hit the ground running. Being four centuries apart and infinitely different in style, each of the program’s two choral works had its own set of technical challenges.

For example, how does one perform in a modern concert hall such an ancient piece as Gabrieli’s In eccelsiis, which was meant to be sung in a church setting?

Perhaps for another choral director, such a dilemma would never even exist, as the rear chorus box at Davies Hall and the stage are the two obvious places for the singers. But Bohlin chose to break up the chorus into three groups of roughly 30 each standing on stage and along the length of the aisles on either side of the audience. This created a multi-dimensional flow of sound similar to the acoustics of a cathedral—at least for those seated in the orchestra-level section.

The instrumental accompaniment in Gabrieli’s music leaves room for different orchestrations, which in this performance was distributed among six brass instruments and an organ. Being primarily an instrument for ancient music, one would have expected the harpsichord in the center of the stage to be used in this piece. Ironically, the harpsichord was for the ultramodern music to follow.

The soloists, namely mezzo-soprano Lisa Scarborough, tenors Thomas Busse and Joel Jay Baluyot, and baritone Steven Rogino each sang their brief parts with impressive skill. Thomas Busse, who had the shortest solo of all, was particularly striking for his virtual absence of a vibrato, which is stylistically consistent with vocal music of pre-classical times.

Then came the evening’s most stunning surprise: Ligeti’s Requiem.

San Francisco Symphony music director Michael Tilson Thomas has repeatedly proven his gift for communicating very abstract and complex musical insights in a language that engages the simple laity and the aficionado alike.

An especially lengthy introduction from the stage, however, can be disconcerting as it usually signals a highly dissonant piece with irregular rhythms or other features not easily understood or appreciated by the average patron.

Perhaps such was the expectation as the audience braced for the Requiem after the conductor used the words “avant-garde” and “experimental” in his remarks. But the guarded, cautious listening soon gave way to a sense of interested intrigue, followed by thoughtful reflection.

Dissonant indeed was the opening Introitus, but not of the type the unrefined listener might find absurd or intolerable. It was a very familiar dissonance, like the hum of insects or the distant sound of an oncoming train—only laden with profound sorrow.

The first movement seemed to end in notated rests, as Tilson Thomas continued to conduct after the last notes had dissipated.

Ligeti’s music was filled with tone clusters—basically groups of neighboring notes played or sung simultaneously. This is especially difficult for the human voice as there is a very strong tendency for multiple voices to shrink into unison when singing in close harmonic proximity, or to expand into an octave when singing in sevenths. But never did the singers’ pitch slide discernibly in either direction, which, again is owed to the remarkable work of chorus director Ragnar Bohlin.

The third movement, De die judicii sequentia, was the most powerful, evoking deep, primal emotions ranging from utter anguish to absolute horror, particularly in the tutti passages. This is where the soloists, mezzo-soprano Annika Hudak and soprano Hannah Holgersson—both also from Ragnar Bohlin's native Sweden—displayed their stunning technique with laser-like accuracy in very uncomfortable harmonies or at the very limit of their ranges.

Another fascinating aspect of the music was the unusual way in which the instruments doubled the voices, making it difficult to tell where one ended and the other began. Also, the extremely low notes for both the voice and the tuba hinted at the chanting of Tibetan monks. In some instances, the notes were so low that they may well have been on the very edge of the human hearing spectrum.

The final movement titled Lacrimosa is where the harpsichord was finally put to use by the symphony’s keyboardist Robin Sutherland. This movement was intensely emotional and brought to mind the deep scars Ligeti must have sustained, having lost his entire family to the Holocaust.

Once again, congratulations to Maestro Tilson Thomas for his constant efforts to instill and cultivate a taste for modern art music in the public. Clearly, it takes not only a certain measure of boldness, but also a dash of faith in the audience’s openness to new musical experiences.

Of course, having a headliner such as Martha Argerich on the program probably made the task a little easier.

Those unfamiliar with Ravel’s Concerto in G will immediately note the composer’s reference to American music, particularly in the first and third movements. Could Gershwin—more than 20 years his junior—have influenced Ravel from across the Atlantic? That is unclear, but it is known that Ravel had taken a keen interest in jazz, which had already reached European shores by that time.

Aside from the Gershwinesque motifs, the concerto also bears signature traits of French impressionistic music, of which Ravel was himself a founder. These include frequent use of the pentatonic mode, parallel harmonies, and a whole-tone glissando of the harp.

Martha Argerich delivered a breathtaking performance, with perfectly shaped phrases and precisely controlled dynamics. She maneuvred her part with great agility from the foreground to the background and vice-versa, weaving through the many layers of music like a sort of musical chameleon. This was reciprocated by Michael Tilson Thomas’ very attentive conducting.

The Adagio movement contains perhaps Ravel’s most sublime music. Argerich produced the purest possible sound by delicately fluttering the damper pedal on the Hamburg Steinway in the most intimate passages. On a number of occasions, it seemed as though her fingers gyrated on the keys as if to create a vibrato similar to a string instrument.

Ravel’s energetic finale requires phenomenal physical prowess and stamina, both of which were found abundantly in Argerich’s musical reserves. Her flawless playing offers irrefutable proof that Rachmaninoff-sized hands are not a pre-requisite for perfect and absolute mastery of the piano.

The audience’s persistent standing ovation was rewarded with a surprising and very appropriate encore: Ravel’s “Fairy Garden” from Mother Goose, a four-hand piece featuring Argerich in the primo and Tilson Thomas in the secondo parts. This piece also exemplifies Ravel at his most elegant, with echoes of his other piano solo compositions such as Le Tombeau de Couperin or Pavane pour une infante défunte.

Seeing the maestro at the piano was a foretaste of next season, which will feature Michael Tilson Thomas as the soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 scheduled for January 2010.

The evening concluded with Liszt’s orchestral work called Lament and Triumph inspired by the writings of Italian poet Tasso. Michael Tilson Thomas gave his fans a subtle hint of his other musical interests by drawing a parallel between Liszt’s tone poem and rock music, naming Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and the music of Led Zeppelin. This reference definitely piqued the audience’s interest.

In Lament and Triumph, Liszt establishes the free romantic format of the orchestral “tone poem” versus the highly structured “symphony” of the classical period. Later generations of composers followed in Liszt’s footsteps by composing similar orchestral works, most notably among them Wagner, Strauss and Mahler.

Michael Tilson Thomas demonstrated yet again his facility for this repertoire in a rich and sensitive interpretation of Liszt’s tone poem. In fact, many consider Tilson Thomas a kind of artistic heir to the great romantics through his mentor Leonard Bernstein. He continues to be an ardent champion of the music of Mahler, which—not surprisingly—figures prominently in next season’s program and an eagerly-anticipated CD release.

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Eman Isadiar teaches piano at the Peninsula Conservatory and writes about music in the San Francisco Bay Area.

More Mahler on the Menu at San Francisco Symphony

By Eman Isadiar

Conductor and music director Michael Tilson Thomas unveils San Francisco Symphony's 2009-2010 season. (Photo courtesy of San Francisco Symphony)

SAN FRANCISCO—Music director Michael Tilson Thomas announced the 98th season of the San Francisco Symphony at a press conference held on March 2. Following a prepared presentation, board president John Goldman and executive director Brent Assink expressed optimism about the minimal impact of the current economic climate on the symphony’s direction and goals leading to the centennial season and beyond.

The 2009-2010 season will open on September 9 with pianist Lang Lang, followed by a three-week festival exploring the music of Gustav Mahler and others with artistic ties to the composer. Segments of the festival will be filmed for future episodes of the symphony’s signature educational series Keeping Score. Selected Mahler works will also be performed on tour in New York and in Lucerne, Switzerland, while SFS Media plans to release a new album with Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand recorded live at Davies Hall in November 2008.

Other important season highlights include new Keeping Score episodes featuring music by Berlioz, Shostakovich and Ives to be broadcast on KQED in the fall, new residency projects with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and composer George Benjamin, and a star-studded roster of guest artists from violinist Itzhak Perlman to baritone Thomas Hampson. San Francisco Symphony will also host performances by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Orchestra and Mariinsky Orchestra.

No Artistic Budget Cuts

Executive director Brent Assink announced that the symphony has sealed a new four-year collective bargaining agreement with the musicians, extending well past the symphony's 100th anniversary. He also added that the accompanying digital media agreement will enable the symphony to cultivate its audience base through technology.

With regard to economic conditions Board president John Goldman emphasized that, while the symphony’s endowment has been deeply impacted by the present crisis, the symphony’s board of governors is committed to maintaining the organization’s unsurpassed artistic excellence. He pointed out that, beginning in the fourth quarter of 2008, the board has taken significant measures to reduce the symphony’s administrative costs, and will continue to find new ways to weather the current economy. He insisted that none of these efforts will include a reduction to the artistic budget in any way, shape or form.

When asked if touring presented a significant drain on resources, Goldman replied that national and international concert tours are a great way to uphold the symphony’s image as a world-class orchestra. He added that the board is diligent to ensure that touring frequency and costs are sustainable over the long term.

Tilson Thomas the Pianist

Ending the conference on a musical note, Michael Tilson Thomas said that he has felt a new surge of inspiration to practice the piano. He added that he plans to appear as the soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in January 2010, which he jokingly hoped would not be a “suicide performance.”

Tilson Thomas also spoke about his rediscovery of Schubert through the composer’s vast repertoire of four-hand piano music. He added that he often gets so absorbed in the music that he attempts to simultaneously play both parts alone.

For additional information about the San Francisco Symphony, visit sfsymphony.org or call (415) 864-6000.

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Eman Isadiar teaches piano at the Peninsula Conservatory and writes about music in the San Francisco Bay Area.

San Francisco Symphony Goes Russian

By Eman Isadiar

While music director Michael Tilson Thomas was away on tour in Southern California, San Francisco Symphony’s latest two programs back home were led by guest conductors David Robertson and Charles Dutoit.

With the exception of Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun,” the concerts featured symphonic music by Russian composers such as Scriabin, Stravinsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Anglo-Australian pianist Stephen Hough was the soloist in yet another piece from the Russian repertoire, namely Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 2.

Valentine’s Day with Charles Dutoit

On February 14, guest conductor Charles Dutoit led the San Francisco Symphony in a program of Debussy, Stravinsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Famed for his award-winning recordings with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Dutoit’s flair for the romantic made this performance a memorable tribute to Saint Valentine.

Greek Mythology Set to French Music

Debussy’s Prélude à l’apres-midi d’un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) got the evening off to a cosy start. Inspired by a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé, the music of Debussy depicts a faun, who, while playing his pan-pipes in the woods, chases a group of nymphs. But the creatures seem to vanish, and the faun falls asleep in the afternoon heat, drifting in sensual thoughts and visions.

Dutoit’s affinity for Debussy was apparent from the famous opening—seven falling notes of the chromatic scale played by solo flute—leading to a rather intimate rendition of this important piece of the French repertoire. The absence of a baton in conducting the Prélude was a telling indication of the Dutoit’s sensitive interpretation.

A Neoclassical Symphony

Next on the program was Stravinsky’s Symphony in C, the product of a particularly difficult period in the composer’s life marked by the death of his daughter, wife and mother from tuberculosis, and being himself diagnosed with the disease. The four-movement work was begun in Europe and finished in the United States.

Although Stravinsky’s Symphony in C does not enjoy the wide popularity of his ballet music, it represents the composer at the height of his stylistic maturity. Nearly a quarter of a century after The Rite of Spring, the symphony shares many of the same musical elements, such as its intricate, syncopated rhythms and blasts from the brass section in the most dramatic moments.
With an impressively wide dynamic range, Dutoit had complete and absolute control of the orchestra, which is as much a credit to the conductor as it is to the musicians.

The Symphony in C is clearly a modern work of daring originality with its simultaneous use of multiple tonalities and complex harmonies. Yet it demonstrates a return to baroque and classical values in its use counterpoint and strict thematic structure. This style of writing known as “neoclassicism” came into existence during the period between the two world wars, and was supported by Stravinsky and his contemporary Prokofiev among others.

“Arabian Nights” with a Russian Twist

After intermission came the evening’s centerpiece: Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic suite Scheherazade, considered one of the most important musical landmarks of the Russian romantic repertoire.

This was also where the musical gift of Maestro Charles Dutoit came to full view with dazzling brilliance.

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov belongs to a group of five Russian composers known as “The Mighty Handful”, whose mission was to establish a uniquely Russian identity in their music. Their inspiration came from well-known children’s stories from the heartland and exotic folk tales from the remotest corners of the Russian Empire.

Named after its famous narrator, Scheherazade draws from the vast collection of Persian tales called One Thousand and One Nights (also known as Arabian Nights). According to the legend, each of the concubines in a certain sultan’s harem is put to death after her purpose has been fulfilled during a nightly visit by the sovereign.

One clever concubine named Scheherazade comes up with the idea to entertain the Sultan until dawn by telling a captivating story with a suspenseful cliff-hanger every night for a thousand and one nights, thus delaying her own death.

Each of the suite’s four movements opens with a haunting melody on the violin, representing the narrator’s introduction as she takes the sultan on a journey of the mind with a new tale. Russian violinist and concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony Alexander Barantschik played these with the utmost musical finesse and mastery.

Charles Dutoit’s precise conducting brought out in stunning clarity some of the musical details that are often lost in the rich harmonic texture of Rimsky-Korsakov’s music. Dutoit’s sweeping fortes and delicate pianissimos left the audience breathless and in awe.

With a lengthy and whole-hearted standing ovation, San Francisco fans seemed to wish Dutoit the best as he begins his tenure this year as artistic director of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Robertson Conducts Tchaikovsky and Scriabin with a Dash of Humor

On Friday, February 6, David Robertson conducted an exceptional performance of Tchaikovsky’s seldom-performed Piano Concerto No. 2 with soloist Stephen Hough, followed by Scriabin’s Poems of Ecstasy.

The audience was caught slightly off-guard with Robertson’s humor from the stage as he introduced himself first in the style of a restaurant waiter, listing the evening’s musical specials, and quickly slipped into the role of a flight attendant preparing the audience for takeoff.

Contrary to commonly accepted concert hall etiquette, Robertson encouraged the audience to applaud after only the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s three-movement concerto. This was done perhaps in anticipation of the extravagant orchestral ending of the first movement likely to compel some audience members to burst into premature applause.

The Forgotten Concerto

Only a few measures into the first movement, it became abundantly clear why Tchaikovsky’s Second Piano Concerto is so rarely performed. It is a work of arresting technical difficulty, marked by furiously flying octaves and three cadenzas, where the orchestra comes to a complete stop allowing the soloist to take center stage.

While the concerto remains in relative obscurity due to its technical challenges, it contains Tchaikovsky’s unmistakable lush orchestration, largely exaggerated dynamics, and passionate melodies in the “cello” range of the piano. The audience’s thunderous applause after the first movement came as no surprise given the conductor’s pre-approval.

Following a bell-shaped musical scheme, the second movement contained passages of sublime beauty, falling as though in fragrant clusters from Hough’s fingertips. This movement was framed by a delicate lyrical dialogue between the violin (Alexander Barantschik) and cello (Michael Grebanier), each pretending to be the other by playing in that instrument’s register. The dialogue was delivered with such skill that, without the visual cues, it would have been difficult to tell the two instruments apart.

The third movement was rather jovial, with hints of Russian folk dances as the piano’s principal melody is written for both hands two octaves apart, creating a gypsy-like sound. Tchikovsky uses a similar effect in the opening of the final movement of the First Concerto.

The technical bravado of the first movement once again returns in the third, although to a lesser degree. An exciting accelerando marks the final passage of the concerto, reaching supersonic speeds and ending in an awesome surge of symphonic sound. The audience showed not even a moment’s hesitation before leaping to a standing ovation.

Scriabin’s Controversial Harmonies

Scriabin’s orchestral work Poems of Ecstasy is post-romantic in style, probably influenced by the music of Richard Wagner. In Scriabin’s Poems the consonant, peaceful intervals of thirds and sixths do not occur unless they are accompanied by the dissonant, tense intervals of a tritone or seventh, in an attempt to express a certain sense of longing.

The music keeps swelling harmonically, going from one dominant harmony to another without a sense of resolution while the tension builds up. Since this work is performed widely all over the world, audience reactions are known to differ widely.

Some feel a sense of disorientation in the ever-drifting tonalities, thereby losing their sense of musical direction, while others are able to maintain their focus on the anticipated final resolution. Perhaps this is why the composer himself advises us to “look at the eye of the sun” when listening to the Poems of Ecstasy.

After twenty minutes of thickening clouds of unresolved leading tones, a long overdue major triad finally bursts through. David Robertson led a flawless performance. However, the unfortunate recurrence of a piercing electronic alarm from an unknown source inside the hall destroyed this otherwise unblemished concert.

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Eman Isadiar teaches piano at the Peninsula Conservatory and writes about music in the Bay Area.

Photos: Courtesy of San Francisco Symphony.