The San Francisco Symphony, sometimes considered second-tier, doesn't have a particularly distinctive tone. Wednesday, the string section performed with a nice unity and sheen, even a kind of mellowness. It is not a heavy sound, and sometimes it lacked a little bite. The healthy brass section could sometimes overwhelm it, and Tilson Thomas allowed it to.And here I've been blaming Davies for most of the balance problems.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
SFS in OC
Tim Mangan of the Orange County Register reports on a visit by our local band:
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4 comments:
Granted, it was their first time in our new hall.
It's a clue, though. In Davies, the orchestral sound was different from the usual for James Conlon, as I recall it, better.
I have to say that I think this Orange County reviewer really nailed it with MTT & our symphony. MTT likes a lot of sound, & he lets the brass blast away without balancing them in order to achieve this. The reviewer also caught on to MTT's swinging back & forth when he doesn't have anything to add. I heard the Copland film music during a subscription concert, & I agree that it was the best-conducted work on that particular program.
Thanks for that. I just got tickets to a bunch of SFS concerts, and will take note of what he does. I've got programs he's conducting, plus Gaffigan, Ashkenazy (zzzzz, but I could not miss Belshazzar's Feast!), Masur....
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