Saturday, February 22, 2025

This Week at San Francisco Symphony.

On the left, a half-smiling young Black man wearing glasses in a black suit, his hands over the top of his bassoon. On the right, a balding, bearded white man wearing glasses, in a black shirt. He is smiling and holding a handful of sticks for playing percussion instruments, business ends pointing at the viewer.

Bassoonist Joshua Elmore, left; Percussionist Stan Muncy, right.
Photo courtesy of San Francisco Symphony

I reported on the appointment of Joshua Elmore as principal bassoon and Stan Muncy as section percussionist, as well as reviewing last night's banger of a program:
Various details that I could not fit into my review:
  • Daniil Trifonov's encores were Samuel Barber, Mvt II from Piano Sonata, Op. 26, and Prokofiev, Gavotte from Cinderella, Op. 95 No. 2
  • Xavier Muzik used a mirrorless Fujifilm X-Pro3 digital camera and a vintage Yashica Electro 35 film camera, mostly with Kodak Gold film, for the photos in the slideshow accompanying Strange Beasts
  • There was a brief pause between Parts I and II of The Rite of Spring, planned by Esa-Pekka Salonen. The pause was also for principal trombone Timothy Higgins and guest associate principal trombone Gracie Potter to change places so that Higgins could play bass trombone.

Previously:
  • Joshua Kosman on Salonen's first Rite of Spring performance with SFS. I completely agreed with him about the weirdly soft-focus Stravinsky on the program, which I didn't find effective.
  • Joshua Kosman on timpanist Elayne Jones. As it happens, SFS had a Black player before Jones, bassist Charles Burrell. Subsequently, these Black musicians were members of the orchestra:
    • Violist Basil Vendrys, now principal viola of the Colorado Symphony
    • Bassoonist Rufus Olivier, now principal bassoon of the SF Opera and SF Ballet Orchestras
    • Nicole Cash, former associate principal horn


 

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