Museum Mondays

Glass vessel

Last Dinner at Pompeii

Palace of the Legion of Honor

San Francisco, CA

August, 2021

 

Friday Photo

San Francisco City Hall

October 29, 2021

 

Coming to San Francisco Opera

The Spoleto Festival has exciting plans for 2022, including two world premiers and a staging of La Boheme by Yuval Sharon. Here is a chunk of their press release, about Rhiannon Giddens (!!!) and Michael Abels' new opera Omar. Make sure that you read as far as the boldfaced text:

Omar

World premiere

Music by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels

Libretto by Rhiannon Giddens

Directed by Kaneza Schaal

Conducted by John Kennedy

Principal cast: 

Jamez McCorkle, Omar

Cheryse McLeod Lewis, Omar’s mother

Laquita Mitchell, Julie

By 1808, Charleston’s ports alone recorded more than 100,000 West Africans who had been stolen from their homelands, whose brutal vanishings left families and generations to come wondering of their whereabouts and existences. Omar, a new opera based on the life and 1831 autobiography of Omar Ibn Said, tells one such story.

Opening in Senegal, the opera’s narrative traces Omar Ibn Said’s spiritual journey from his life in West Africa to his enslavement in the Carolinas. A Muslim African scholar, Said was 37 years old when he was captured in Futa Toro and brought to Charleston. His story is one of strength, resistance, and religious conviction, a story of truth and of faith.

Upon arrival in the United States, Said was sold to a Charlestonian, but escaped and fled to North Carolina, where he was recaptured, sent to jail, and then resold to James Owen, the brother of one of the state’s governors. Said penned his autobiography in Arabic in 1831. It is considered the only surviving autobiography of an enslaved person in the United States written in Arabic and therefore unedited. According to many scholars, as many as 30 percent of the enslaved Africans who arrived in the colonies, and subsequently the United States, were Muslim, a largely unexplored truth in modern American discussions of slavery.

Rhiannon Giddens, a Grammy Award winner and MacArthur Fellow known for exploring the legacy of African American folk traditions, has created the libretto. Giddens spoke about the opera: “To have the opportunity to craft an opera around Omar Ibn Said is a dream come true that I didn’t even know I had until I was deep in the thick of it. I realized I am a mere shepherd of this work—what is coming through me is truer than anything I could think up on purpose. This is my way, of the possible many, many ways, through the story that Omar represents. He was a remarkable man whose words speak to us beyond generations. Bringing this music to life with the supremely talented and collaborative composer Michael Abels has been nothing short of fantastic. I’ve learned much from Michael and from Omar, and I can only be honored that I have had a hand in bringing this version of his life to the operatic stage.” 

Giddens has co-composed the score with Michael Abels, an American composer perhaps best known for his work in award-winning films including Get Out and Us. Musically, the work incorporates West-African traditions with conventional Western opera instrumentation. It is written for a cast of 8 soloists with a full choir and orchestra. “Omar’s story demonstrates the power religious belief has to nurture and uplift the spirit under the direst circumstances,” says Abels. “The unavoidable postponement of the premiere due to the pandemic provided the opportunity for Rhiannon and me to enhance the storytelling and music even more. I’m excited beyond words to finally be able to share Omar’s journey with Spoleto audiences.”

Acclaimed opera and theater artist Kaneza Schaal leads the work’s direction. “The West has a fantasy of its singularity; it imagines itself as constant and fixed. Opera lost itself to that lie,” says Schaal, a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow. “This new work, about Omar Ibn Said, brings the opera back to its true self—a form built on hundreds of years of cultural exchange, and one that has always been deeply hybrid. It’s a place big enough for the contradiction, violence, and holiness of Said’s journey.”

Omar is co-produced by Spoleto Festival USA and Carolina Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Following its world premiere in Charleston, Omar will be presented in future seasons by opera companies including LA Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago. The opera is inspired by Dr. Ala Alryyes’s translation of Omar Ibn Said’s autobiography in his book, A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Omar Ibn Said. Reprinted by permission of the University of Wisconsin Press. © 2011 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. All rights reserved.  

A Few Articles to Read Together

Regular readers know that I have been rolling my eyes at Music@Menlo's programming for the last ten years or so. The festival directors, Wu Han and David Finckel, work pretty much in the dead-white-European-male canon, even when there are obvious opportunities to break out of that particular line of programming.

The pair are also directors of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Weirdly, the one time I saw them in SF, they played a new song cycle and Amy Beach's piano quintet, the sort of thing various people wish they'd do more of.

CMS's season opener led to the following:

• Review: Chamber Music Society Returns, Unchanged, by Zachary Woolfe. Subhead: The organization opened its season with a program encapsulating a persistently conservative vision of the repertory.
• Chamber Music Society's Leaders on Balancing Old and New, by Javier Hernández. An interview that contains a ton of gobbledegook, including the ridiculous claim by Finckel: "I mean, there is more variety and diversity in a single string quartet of Haydn than you can find in about a hundred works of other composers." W the actual F. This is a willful dodge around what "diversity" means.
• Diversify the world of classical music? Some key players are digging in their heels, by Joshua Kosman, wielding a very sharp pencil.
  
• Catalyst Quartet shines a spotlight on the chamber music of Black composers, also by Joshua Kosman. Lack of diverse programming means omitting a lot of terrific music from our concert halls.
  
• The Programmatic Lightness Of Being, by Drew McManus at Adaptistration.
  
• There's plenty of mockery of the CMS/LC on Twitter, as well.

Museum Mondays

Fresco: Siren and Sea Monsters

Last Dinner at Pompeii

Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco

August, 2021

 

The Oncoming Concert Pile-Up

Next weekend, there's just too much to choose from:

• SFS with MTT/Ludovic Merlot
• Oakland Symphony
• Ars Minerva's Messalina
• Cosi fan tutte at San Francisco Opera

I'm teaching Thursday night, so I can't swap my SFS ticket for that night so that I be out at concerts four days in a row. I'm having to settle for SFS, Messalina, and Cosi.

One Does Not Quite Know What to Say.

MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS

Photo by Brandon Patoc, courtesy of San Francisco Symphony

A San Francisco Symphony press release that gives some cause for concern: Ludovic Merlot to conduct the first half of Michael Tilson Thomas's program next week, with Ma Mere l'Oye replacing William Grant Still's Patterns. As always, wishing the best for MTT.

LUDOVIC MORLOT JOINS MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS TO CONDUCT THE SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY NOVEMBER 18–20

 

Morlot conducts Tim Higgins’ Trombone Concerto and Maurice Ravel’sMa Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose) Suite (replacing William Grant Still’s Patterns); Tilson Thomas conducts Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Ludovic Morlot joins Music Director Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) to conduct part of the November 18–21 San Francisco Symphony concerts at Davies Symphony Hall. Morlot will conduct the first half of the program, including Maurice Ravel’s Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose) Suite, which replaces William Grant Still’s Patterns, and the world premiere of San Francisco Symphony Principal Trombone Timothy Higgins’ Trombone Concerto, commissioned by the SF Symphony and performed by Higgins. Music Director Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas will lead the orchestra in Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring as planned.

Michael Tilson Thomas says: “I’m happy to be in San Francisco, making music with my Symphony colleagues once again. I am feeling well, having returned to the stage in New York last week for the first time since my surgery. I now see that I have to conserve my energy as I continue to recover and have made the decision to focus next week on conducting Copland’s Appalachian Spring. I am so happy that Ludovic Morlot can be here to premiere the Higgins Trombone Concerto, which I was hoping to perform with the remarkable Tim Higgins. I look forward to conducting William Grant Still’s Patterns with the San Francisco Symphony at a later date, and to seeing you at Davies Symphony Hall this coming week.”

Music Director Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas also conducts the San Francisco Symphony this week in three performances November 12–14 featuring music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Robert Schumann, and his own composition, Notturnofeaturing flutist Demarre McGill.

Road Trip!

Christine Goerke as Elektra

San Francisco Opera, 2017

Photo by Corey Weaver, courtesy of SFO

When Houston Grand Opera announced their 2021-22 season, this was the principal cast for Dialogues of the Carmelites:

• Blanche: Natalya Romaniw 
• Madame Lidoine: Christine Goerke 
• Madame Croissy: Anna Caterina Antonacci 
• Mother Marie: Jennifer Johnson Cano 
• Sister Constance: Lauren Snouffer 
• Marquis: Rod Gilfry 
• Chevalier: Eric Taylor

That...is a terrific cast, and Anna Caterina Antonacci is rarely seen on these shores. (I've been lucky to see her four times.)

As it happens, it seems that she won't be appearing in this opera. The current cast is:

• Blanche: Natalya Romaniw 
• Madame Lidoine: Christine Goerke 
• Madame Croissy: Patricia Racette 
• Mother Marie: Jennifer Johnson Cano 
• Sister Constance: Lauren Snouffer 
• Marquis: Rod Gilfry 
• Chevalier: Eric Taylor

Making her role debut as the Old Prioress, one of my favorite singers, Patricia Racette. The chance to see her and another of my favorite singers - that would be Christine Goerke - as the New Prioress, well.

Patricia Racette as Cio-Cio-San

Marty Sohl / Metropolitan Opera

Friday Photo

Samuel Lewis Trust Dwellings

Ixworth Place, Chelsea

London, November, 2019

The Samuel Lewis Charitable Trust was established to provide good-quality house to poor people in London.

 

Bychkov Withdraws from NY Phil Program

Dima Slobodeniouk

Photo: Marco Borggreve, courtesy of the NY Philharmonic

Press release this morning:

Dima Slobodeniouk To Make His New York Philharmonic Debut Replacing Semyon Bychkov

November 17–19, 2021, at Alice Tully Hall

Semyon Bychkov will be unavailable to conduct the New York Philharmonic’s performances at Alice Tully Hall, November 17–19. He will be replaced by Dima Slobodeniouk in his New York Philharmonic debut. The program — featuring Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with soloist Karen Gomyo in her Philharmonic subscription debut and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1, Winter Dreams— remains unchanged.

I saw Dima Slobodeniouk at the BSO two years ago conducting Elgar and Nielsen and thought he was excellent, so don't turn in your tickets!

Museum Mondays

Mosaic of skeleton with two wine jugs

Last Dinner at Pompeii

Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco

August, 2021

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous and Back Again

Esa-Pekka Salonen

Photo by Minna Hartinen, courtesy of San Francisco Symphony

Nobody's perfect, but last week's San Francisco Symphony program (Oct. 28-30, 2021) did leave me wondering what, exactly, Esa-Pekka Salonen was thinking when he made one particular decision: putting Richard Strauss's Symphony for Wind Instruments, known as Fröhliche Werkstatt (Happy Workshop), on the program. 

James Keller's program notes describe it as a "big-boned piece, about 40 minutes long", and while that's true, my personal characterization would have been more like "40 minutes of completely worthless rambling, best heard outdoors, preferably far away from me." Seriously, about a third of the way into each movement, I wanted to stand up and shout "Make it STOP", the opposite of applause between movements, but I did not want the ushers coming after me, so I held my tongue and regretted that it's much too loud to simply sleep through. About the best I can say about the thing is that it is vague and meandering, and the first movement is so vague that I couldn't find the damn downbeat. And Salonen himself is not a vague conductor. 

I also found it slightly unnerving that the number of instruments in play did not match what was in the program. For one thing, James Button had a second oboe on a stand next to him, though I never caught whether he played it. For another, the instrumentation claimed "3 clarinets, basset horn, and Eb clarinet." What I saw was five players, three clarinets (played by Carey Bell, Jerome Simas, clarinetist whose name I don't know), basset horn, and alto clarinet, with Simas swapping his clarinet for an Eb. I think. (Apologies; I don't know the names of the basset horn and alto clarinet players either.) So there were actually six single reeds up there, not five.

WHATEVER. The rest of the concert was sublime and if I hadn't had a ticket to the last Fidelio at SFO and plans for dinner with friends, I would have gone back and quietly slipped out for the Strauss.

There was a bit of a surprise before the concert started, in that the opening work, Anders Hillborg's new Kongsgaard Variations, is for a small string orchestra, but there was a piano sitting at the left rear of the stage, where the piano is generally placed when it's part of the orchestra, for example, in Petrouchka. And lurking in its neighborhood, even playing it occasionally, was Yefim Bronfman, the soloist for Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto, which took up the second half of the program.

Hillborg was there for the concert, because these were the first SFS (and I believe United States) performances of the piece. He was quite droll in introducing it, but I did not take notes and can't recall what he said except that he was not going to be giving a piano demonstration in advance of the performance, but Bronfman would. That's because Hillborg's variations are based on the Arietta from the second movement of Beethoven's piano sonata no. 32, Op. 111. This is a most beautiful theme that Beethoven himself builds a monumental set of variations around, and Bronfman gave a mesmerizing account of it, so gorgeous and sensitive that I would have been perfectly happy if he'd played the whole thing. 

The Kongsgaard Variations are necessarily very different, in sonority, in approach, in harmonic language. Hillborg doesn't develop the theme as such; he sets it, or echoes of it, in a variety of styles ranging over the centuries. It is a perfectly lovely piece, played with great poise and an inward quality by Salonen and the orchestra, and featuring solos for the principal violin, viola, and cello. I hope to hear it again and I hope that it will be recorded.

The Beethoven Third Piano Concerto got the kind of performance you just don't hear very often; for me, it was out there in HOLY MOTHER OF GOD territory. Bronfman played with flawless technique, passion, and real intellectual sinew, the kind of performance where you get a sense of the whole structure of the piece and where every last phrase fits in. For contrast, I saw a performance recently of one of the other Beethoven piano concertos where the soloist knew the notes but not really much else about the piece; the phrases were flat and had little connection to each other, and there was no poetry at all. Bronfman was in every way the opposite of this, and he got a completely earned standing ovation; it was a performance for the ages.

He came back for an encore and I'm pretty sure it was the finale of one of the Beethoven piano sonatas, but I couldn't identify it on the spot and my scores are in storage at the moment. I definitely need to ask the press room about it. I understand that he played Chopin for the encore on Thursday; I was at Friday's concert.

If I had been programming this concert, I would have done it differently: substituted Eine Alpensinfonie for the wind thing, because it's shorter and a lot more fun that what they actually played.  Alternatively, I would have doubled Bronfman's fee, and asked him to play the whole of Op. 111. (You bet that I am now regretting that I missed any solo recitals he might have given locally.)

One more thing about this program, personal to me.  I played flute long ago in a performance of the Beethoven 3rd piano concerto. At the time, Russell Sherman, who was a teacher at the New England Conservatory, was developing a national reputation as an interesting Beethoven player, and so he was  getting invitations to play with various orchestras around the country. He tried out all of the concertos with local-to-Boston orchestras, including the Brandeis U. orchestra, where I was a member of the flute section. So there was a time when I knew this concerto from the inside.

 I had not heard it for at least ten years, though; I go in cycles of listening to Beethoven and then ignoring him for an extended period. Before the concerto started, I was trying to remember how it goes. Then Salonen lifted his baton to give the downbeat and before it descended, the whole thing flooded back. I must say that while I reasonably expected great things of Salonen in certain repertoire, that didn't include Beethoven, which I'd never heard him conduct before this season. But he did great things in the 7th Symphony and this concerto, so I am even happier to have him with SFS.

Update, May 13, 2023: Joshua Kosman's review, calling the Strauss "an intricate and extravagantly pointless piece".

Friday Photo

Colorful townhouses, Chelsea

London, November, 2019

 

Pittance Chamber Music, Los Angeles

Pittance Chamber Music is an organization of members of the LA Opera orchestra and chorus; they have been putting on several chamber music programs a year in the LA area. Their venue is in Pasadena for 2022 and it looks gorgeous in the photo on the web site. 

They're just announced what looks like a lovely 2022 season. I doubt I'll be able to get to any of the concerts, but honestly, this is terrific programming (and I love the Liebeslieder-Walzer. Doesn't every singer??).

These are folks who've been performing for many years under the direction of James Conlon and Grant Gershon, who are superb conductors. Check them out!

Concert 1: Theresa Dimond and Friends - Saturday, January 22, 2022; 7:30 p.m.

The first concert of the year takes a deep dive into the pit – landing in the percussion section. Hosted by the LA Opera Orchestra's principal percussionist and UCLA lecturer Dr. Theresa Dimond, the program features a wide variety of repertoire performed by musicians from the percussion, woodwind and string sections of the orchestra.

 

Ingolf Dahl:  Concerto a Tre for Clarinet, Violin and Cello 

Arvo Pärt: Spiegel Im Spiegel (Cello and Marimba)

Nathan Daugherty: Burn 3 for Flute, Clarinet and Marimba

Barbara Kolb: Homage to Keith Jarrett and Gary Burton (Flute and Marimba)

Gerard Lecointe: Point Bak (Mallet ensemble)

 

Concert 2: The Lyric Oboe - Saturday, February 26, 2022; 7:30 p.m.

The second concert features LA Opera Orchestra Principal Oboe Leslie Reed, pianist Edith Orloff and members of the LA Opera Orchestra, in a recital program of favorite works that reflect the lyric side of the oboe, ranging from the pastoral to folk traditions, including works inspired by famous paintings.

Saint-Saens: Sonata for Oboe and Piano

Gilles Silvestrini: Etudes for Oboe, inspired by the paintings of Boudin, Monet, Renoir and Manet)

     1. Scène de plage – Ciel d'orage (Eugène Boudin)

     2. Hotel des Roches noire à Trouville (Claude Monet)

     3. Sentier dan les bois (August Renoir)

     4. Le Ballet Español (Edouard Manet)

Joseph Horovitz: Quartet for Oboe and Strings

Gabriel Fauré: Pièce

Jacques Ibert: Escales

Nino Rota: Elegia

Gabriel Pierne: Serenade

Alyssa Morris: Collision Etudes (inspired by the paintings of Cassatt, Mitchell, Thomas and O'Keeffe)

       1. Summertime (Mary Cassatt)

       2. City Landscapes (Joan Mitchell)

       3. Rainbow (Alma Thomas)

       4. Autumn Leaves (Georgia O'Keefe)

Arnold Bax: Quintet for Oboe and Strings

 

Concert 3: Liebeslieder! - Saturday, April 23, 2022; 7:30 p.m.

Pittance is pleased to present this special evening featuring the complete Liebeslieder-Walzer of Johannes Brahms, for vocal quartet and piano four hands. Members of the LA Opera Chorus are joined by soprano Elissa Johnston, with LAO conductors Grant Gershon and Jeremy Frank at the keyboard. 

Johannes Brahms:  Liebeslieder-Walzer, Op. 52 and 65*

 

*This program will be performed without intermission.

 

Venue

First United Methodist Church, 500 East Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101

 

How
- For additional information about Pittance Chamber Music’s 2022 season: www.pittancechambermusic.org; info@pittancechambermusic.org; 310-871-0621

- or to order tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/194883711427

- Visit us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pittancechambermusic

- Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PittanceCM

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/pittancechambermusic/

 

Tickets – General Admission 

- Subscription-Three Concerts: $110

- Senior Subscription-Three Concerts: $60

- Single Ticket: $40

- Senior Ticket: $25

- Student Rush: $10

 

Covid Safety Protocols
Pittance Chamber Music is committed to the health and safety of its patrons, artists and staff. At this time, we are requiring proof of full vaccination or a negative PCR test within 72 hours at the door, for everyone attending in-person Pittance events. Policies regarding masks will be in compliance with current Los Angeles County/City of Pasadena guidelines. For the most current information on Pittance Chamber Music COVID safety protocols, please visit the website at www.pittancechambermusic.org. 

Santa Fe Opera 2022

Santa Fe Opera House from the parking lot

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

First out of the gate with a season announcement: Santa Fe Opera, as always (but later than usual for them). 

• Carmen, with a good cast: Harry Bicket/Isabel Leonard, Bryan Hymel/Michael Fabiano, Michael Sumuel, Sylvia D'Ermano, David Crawford.
• Tristan und Isolde, James Gaffigan/Simon O'Neill, Tamara Wilson, Jamie! Barton!, Nicholas Brownless, Eric Owens.
• Falstaff, Paul Daniel/Quinn Kelsey, Alexandra LoBianco, Roland Wood, Elena Villalón, Eric Ferring, Ann McMahon Quintero, Megan Marino.
• The Barber of Seville, Iván López-Reynoso/Emily Fons, Jack Swanson, Joshua Hopkins, Kevin Burdette, Ryan Speedo Green.
• M. Butterfly, Carolyn Kuan/Kangmin Justin Kim, Mark Stone, Hongni Wu, Kevin Burdette, Joshua Dennis.

The Tristan is a must-see for me, because Tamara Wilson and Jamie Barton are must see in those roles. Carmen: I never want to see it again, but maybe Bryan Hymel will sing all of his assigned performances? And if not, perhaps Michael Fabiano is covering! Falstaff is a favorite opera and Quinn Kelsey is a fine singer, but oh man I panned Paul Daniel both times I saw him conduct, in very different works many years apart: Die Walküre at ENO in 2004 and The Thirteenth Child (admittedly a hapless work) in 2019 on my last trip to Santa Fe. It's definitely a conductor's opera.

Critical Opinion

Jonas Kaufmann is on a recital tour of the United States, with his usual pianist, Helmut Deutsch. Kaufmann is famous, cute, and rarely seen in this country, where he hasn't appeared much in opera west of the Hudson River, if ever, and hasn't done a concert tour in about a decade. He has many fans. It turns out that two of the critics who've seen him aren't among them.

• Alex Ross, The New Yorker
• Joshua Kosman, S.F. Chronicle

Both of these reviews are well-reasoned and make similar points about where Kaufmann's strengths and weaknesses are. The two reviewers are by no means in accord at all times when they've reviewed the same performances.

Joshua got some heated blowback and wrote a commentary about it, which you can read here.

I'm genuinely shocked at his mention that "a fellow music critic asserted that I should never be allowed to review anything at all." There is no other reviewer I agree with all the time and it would not be a good thing if there were. Suggesting that someone shouldn't be "allowed" to review over a single disagreement is ridiculous and wildly unprofessional for someone in the business. (I'm not sure whether to read Joshua's Twitter timeline and FB feed to see who said this, out of concern that it might be someone I respect...and would respect a little less.)

As for me, I missed this recital, but both of the reviews I link to are in accord with what I heard at Kaufmann's 2011 recital and in a couple of opera broadcasts, including the Met HD of Die Walküre. I didn't blog the earlier recital, which was mostly Lieder with a couple of light classics thrown in for fun. I recall wondering what all the fuss was about. I found Deutsch a recessed and anonymous player, much more of an accompanist than a partner, which is unfortunate. The right pianist can make an enormous difference.

Kaufmann's interpretations seemed generalized and worked best with the most operatic of the songs, where a good line and dynamic control can take you a long way. I did not find his interpretations particularly insightful or detailed. I did note in email to a friend that "Die Rose, die Lilie" from Dichterliebe was not very successful, because it didn't have the requisite light touch.

I found Kaufmann similarly generalized in opera. I'm sorry to have missed him in the Met Parsifal, in a role that's a real dramatic test for the tenor.

It's not, by the way, that I haven't read ludicrous reviews and reviews that I disagree strongly with. I have blogged about a fair number of eye-rolling reviews or specific remarks from reviewers. Bernard Holland criticizing an amateur group for having the nerve to sing a challenging work at Carnegie Hall comes to mind. And back in 2017, the year that Mason Bates premiered a better opera than John Adams, there was a fair amount of disagreement among critics about both The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs and Girls of the Golden West. You could look it up! Reasonable people can, and do, disagree all the time.

Museum Mondays

 

Detail of a Pompeiian arca

Palace of the Legion of Honor

San Francisco, August, 2021

Friday Photo

Stained glass Michelin Man, aka Bibendum

Former Michelin Building, Chelsea, now a restaurant

London, November, 2019

 

Museum Mondays

Detail of Pompeiian seafood mosaic

Palace of the Legion of Honor

August, 2021

 

Sartorial Report, San Francisco Symphony Edition

Davies Symphony Hall

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

An issue that has come up fairly regularly over the last 20 years in discussions of western classical music's accessibility is what orchestral musicians wear on stage during performances. For many many years, the standard was black tails and white tie for men, long black for women, with some orchestras putting restrictions on what exactly "long black" means. (I understand from a FB post by violinist Holly Mulcahy that there are often restrictions about high heels, lace, length of long black (NO ANKLES), whether your forearms show, etc. "Nothing fashionable that you might want to wear" was part of what she said.) This uniformity of dress is intended primarily to focus attention on the music rather than on the musicians themselves. Conductors have always had somewhat more flexibility in dress (Nehru collars, for example) and soloists even more, although female soloists generally have had much more latitude than male soloists. See, for example, photos of Leila Josefowicz playing the violin in concert.

This style sets a particular standard of formality, which is potentially intimidating to people who aren't well-off, don't wear tails or tuxedos, are put off by the degree of formality, and so on. For a lot of people, this style of dress is also heavily coded white, notwithstanding traditions of very formal dress in some Black communities. The style also leads potential audience members to wonder whether they will be welcome if they dress informally. (The answer here is a resounding YES just about anywhere in the United States.)

This season, both San Francisco Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra have decided to go with a less formal style. At SFS, the men are wearing black jackets and black button-down shirts, tie optional; black shoes with black socks. The women are wearing long black, which can include a long dress; long skirt with black top; slacks with black blouse or shirt. I have seen heels of varying heights, varying degrees of low-cut-ness of blouses, varying degrees of forearm showing, lace at the neckline or wrist or forearm. 

I'm fine with this, to be honest; I'd be fine with practically anything on stage short of shorts and bathing suits. It'd be interesting to see what an orchestra would look like and how the audience would respond if everybody dressed like Josefowicz, but I'm certainly not holding my breath. I would be....surprised...if concertmaster Alexander Barantschik turned up in the male equivalent of Josefowicz's dresses, for example. That would be some distance from his artistic personality.

In any event, there were also some individual style changes since the pandemic.

• Esa-Pekka Salonen has a short, stubbly beard. From where I'm sitting, I needed my binoculars to be sure of this.
• Principal clarinetist Carey Bell's shoulder-length hair and goatee are back.
• Principal bassonist Stephen Paulson now has wavy, shoulder-length, white hair and I keep wondering why associate concertmaster Nadya Tichman is sitting with the bassoons. (For pre-pandemic images of Paulson, look here.)

Belated Friday Photo

Visiting dog, our cat

July, 2021

Dessner / Schubert / Beethoven at San Francisco Symphony

"Eternal Notes" for Dia de los Muertos

by Fernando Escartiz

Seen at Davies Hall on Friday, October 22, 2021.

This week, SFS presented the U.S. (and obviously local) premiere of Bryce Dessner's new violin concerto. Dessner is one of Esa-Pekka Salonen's collaborative partners, and so is the Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto, who played the solo part.

Holy cow! If this is the kind of thing that we can look forward to from the collaborative partners, wow wow and more wow. The piece itself is grand; it incorporates stylistic nods to vernacular fiddle music and to the western classical concerto tradition (three connected movements with a dramatic cadenza); it's very very colorful, to the point that I could not figure out how certain sonorities were produced; the solo part is wildly demanding.

Kuusisto, who looks like a highly animated owl on stage, played this thing flawlessly, as far as I could tell. He is a wonderful player! (And here I want to nod to Claire Chase, also a collaborative partner, who played Kaija Saariaho's flute concerto Aile du Songe splendidly last week. Would be something to see these two great musicians together.)

Joshua Kosman has a longer description of the violin concerto in his review, where said this about the Schubert 5th that occupied the second half of the program:

After intermission, though, Salonen and the orchestra offered a weirdly genteel and bloodless account of Schubert’s Fifth Symphony, all lace doilies and tiresome good manners. After the eruptive fervor of Dessner’s concerto, this landed as a limply ineffectual conclusion.

There are a bunch of things going on here. One is that the Schubert was on this program at all. It was not a particularly good choice to accompany the exciting, flamboyant, and colorful Dessner, to start with. 

It makes sense only because the orchestra has played a ton of music new to them, or rarely performed by them, in the last few weeks. The works new to SFS included the Dessner, Unsuk Chin's Graffiti, and Hannah Kendall's Tuxedo: Vasco ‘de’ Gama. The orchestra last played Messiaen's Oiseaux Exotiques in 2010. I have not checked out the works that appeared on opening weekend.

So they have spent a lot of time rehearsing this stuff, and there's only so much rehearsal time in a week. It's not a big surprise that a comparatively short, uncomplicated, and familiar work was programmed in there someplace -- although, of course, SFS has played Beethoven's 7th innumerable times and did a great job with it two weeks ago. And maybe there are other easy-to-rehearse works that would have gone better with the Dessner (I would enjoy hearing your candidates!).

I thought last night's Schubert okay, if not great. I found Salonen's interpretive choices mostly defensible. The scherzo was distinctly dull; it should have been faster and more mysterious. The whole work would have sounded better with a larger orchestra and gutsier conducting and playing, for sure. Maybe it was better than Thursday. But I'm pretty sure that in this case, the context contributed a lot to how Joshua reacted to it (and it could have been a lot worse on Thursday).

(Oh, yeah, the Beethoven was the third (thanks, Mike!) second Leonore overture, which opened the program. Best thing about it was the 10 second solo by Mark Inouye (I presume), from somewhere waaaaay up in the hall.)

Welcome News from the New York Philharmonic, MTT Edition

Michael Tilson Thomas

Photo by Brandon Patoc, courtesy of San Francisco Symphony

Michael Tilson Thomas will conduct his scheduled programs at the NY Philharmonic in early November. From their press release:

MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS RETURNS TO CONDUCT THE
NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC 

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GIL SHAHAM To Perform BERG Violin Concerto

 

Program Also To Include

CRAWFORD SEEGER Andante for Strings

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3, Eroica

 

Alice Tully Hall, November 4, 5, and 7

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Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas leads the New York Philharmonic in works by Crawford Seeger, Berg, and Beethoven, November 4, 5, and 7, 2021, at Alice Tully Hall. These performances mark Tilson Thomas’s first conducting appearances since undergoing brain surgery in July 2021. Tilson Thomas, who served as Music Director of the Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts from 1973 to 1977, last conducted the Orchestra in 2011. He said:

“Through these past difficult months, my love and appreciation of music has remained undiminished. The thought of sharing it with New York audiences gives me great joy.”

Tilson Thomas is joined in these concerts by frequent collaborator Gil Shaham, who performs as soloist in Berg’s Violin Concerto. In 1989 Tilson Thomas conducted Shaham’s breakthrough performances with the London Symphony Orchestra, in which the violinist replaced Itzhak Perlman. The two have bonded over and explored many works together throughout the years, including Berg’s Violin Concerto, which Tilson Thomas strongly encouraged the young Shaham to integrate into his repertoire. Their latest collaboration, a recording of this concerto with the San Francisco Symphony, was released by the SFS Media label in February 2021.

Again, best wishes to MTT for successful treatment and the best possible outcome.