Esa-Pekka Salonen Meets the Firebird

May 24, 2025 – San Francisco Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall –

Esa-Pekka Salonen, Music Director of the SF Symphony, led the orchestra through a fascinating program: Chorale, by Magnus Lindberg; Violin Concerto, by Alban Berg; and The Firebird, by Igor Stravinsky. When Maestro Salonen entered the stage, the audience and the musicians stood to applaud him. It was very moving to see him, especially now, with only a few more concerts as the SF Symphony’ Music Director. The performance of The Firebird was an amazing celebration of his leadership.

Magnus Lindberg, composer (Born 1958 in Helsinki) Magnus Lindberg has been friends with Salonen since they were both students at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. His compositions can be complex; eventually, the works came to be assisted by a computer program he invented in order to create even higher complexities. Chorale was written in 2002 and premiered in 2002 conducted by Salonen with the Philharmonia Orchestra. It is 6 minutes long, with novel rhythms and inventive use of his instrumentation. Chorale was composed as a “companion piece” for Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto. The basis for the “companion” status is that both works use the Lutheran chorale, It is enough, which was set by Johann Sebastian Bach for his Cantata 60, O eternity, you word of thunder, long before.

Alban Berg, composer (1885 – 1935)

Deep emotion is not something most music lovers would identify with Berg’s works, but this Violin Concerto, written in 1935, has deep sadness in every note. An eighteen year old daughter of friends died from polio. Berg delighted the girl; she was the daughter of Alma Mahler Werfel and the famous architect, Walter Gropius. It is true, her mother was Gustav Mahler’s widow. When the score was finished, Berg wrote “To the Memory of an Angel” on the manuscript. Berg had adopted the 12-tone principles developed by Arnold Schoenberg. As the composition grew, Berg discovered that the opening notes of Bach’s Cantata No. 60 matched the closing four notes of his concerto’s tone row. Here are the words of the Cantata which also inspired Magnus Lindberg Chorale:

It is enough!/Lord, if it pleases you./Unshackle me at last. /My Jesus comes;/I bid the world goodnight./I travel to the heavenly home./I surely travel there in peace,/My troubles left below. It is enough! It is enough!

The Violin Concerto translates Manon Gropius’ pain and struggles into music. The second movement is frightening; one cannot avoid imagining the lovely girl knowing that she was dying. There are two harmonies that put forth the complete 12-tone row from the lowest to the highest. It reaches to three octaves higher. The violin does that, but the other instruments go so low as possible. A tragic event, Berg died of blood poisoning Christmas eve day. This was his only solo concerto. Isabelle Faust, solo violin, played with direct feeling and strength.

Igor Stravinsky, composer (1882 -1971)

Stravinsky’s The Firebird was a fabulous showpiece. Parisians who heard the premiere all reported that it knocked their socks off.
It was composed 1909-1910 and created the fame and style of Stravinsky. Serge Diaghilev, The Magnificent Impresario, with Michel Fokine, dancer-choreographer, the Ballet Russe, made Paris its home. They reached into Russian folk tales and came up with the Firebird and Kashchei the Deathless, a personification of evil. Three well known composers turned down the opportunity to make music for that. Stravinsky, who had only orchestrated Chopin piano pieces for Diaghilev, went for it. At age 27, his career going nowhere, Stravinsky stayed in St. Petersburg and composed. The meetings of Fokine and Stravinsky, improvising movement and music, must have been electric. Much of the music came from Russian folk tunes and, as written by Benjamin Pesetsky for the program notes, “even his harmonic sleights-of-hand and modern orchestrational wizardies don’t stray far from those of Rimsky-Korsakov.” The Firebird was good and the Kashchei was terrible; Stravinsky made happy music that one might be able to hum (for the Firebird) and dark harmonies that were bad (for Kashchei). Why not? The story ballet energized the music; the costumes brought color to the audience’s imagination. Act One brings the Dance of the Firebird. The violins, clarinets, and flutes play for the magical bird. Prince Ivan discovers thirteen princesses. The thirteen ballerinas dance a version of a khorovod, a Russian folkdance in a circle. Kashchei and his cronies kidnap the Prince. Kashchei must dance the Infernal Dance accompanied by timpani, brass, and xylophone. Good will win: the Firebird’s Lullaby, accompanied especially by the bassoon, shows peace can return. There is a wonderful horn solo before the entire orchestra brings powerful goodness. The audience was left to applaud and even shout out. Not quite a year after The Firebird, Stravinsky, having learned that ballet is the way, composed Petrushka using the vast array of percussion, rhythms, harps, everything. Last night’s performance had a glorious ending.

Conductor Dalia Stasevska: A Great Performance

San Francisco Symphony, Davies Symphony Hall, May 15, 2025 — Dalia Stasevska conducted the SFS through three wildly different pieces; all were played with excellence.

Dalia Stasevska, Conductor, chief conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of the International Sibelius Festival.

Ralph Vaughn Williams, composer (1872 – 1858), England
Ralph Vaughn Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis opened the concert. Tallis ( ca.1505- 1585) was a 16th century composer. He provided music for three kings and one queen; starting with Henry VIII and ending with Queen Elizabeth I.

Thomas Tallis, composer (ca. 1505 – 1585), England) Ralph Vaughn Williams spent two years editing the English Hymnal. This turned his ear to the fine, sacred music of earlier times, and it influenced what he came to write. The music is delicate but still strong. In one part, it creates a sound like that of an ancient cathedral. It is only strings. Vaughn Williams divided the strings into differently sized groups. The music could be called “otherworldly.” It has the beauty we will never know except in this music. Thinking back to the 16th century, how can we do that. Thinking back to 1910 when it was composed, also another world. We are so fortunate to hear this and imagine.

Anna Thorvaldsdottir, composer (Born 1977, in Iceland)

Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Before we fall featured the cellist soloist, Johannes Moser. This was a world premiere of this SF Symphony commission. The title suggests the moments before the earth’s ecosystem collapses forever. The composer offers this explanation of her “core inspiration behind the cello concerto Before we fall centers around the notion of teetering on the edge, of balancing on the verge of a multitude of opposites. The musical structure flows between lyricism and a sense of distorted energy–two main forces that stabilize this entropic pull. Driven by the strong sense of lyricism that permeates the piece, the work also orbits a forward-moving energy that connects and balances the opposites in different ways.” The music was powerful and mysterious. There were novel ways of making music and putting the music into the rhythms. There were sticks hitting sticks making new music. The cellist worked strenuously, pressing the moments forward and sometimes pulling back. For this listener, it felt very cold although the sounds could become lyrical. The music is continual, not in movements and without a sense of finality; instead, we are surely balancing against forces beyond our time.

Jean Sibelius, composer (1865 – 1957), Finland

Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Opus 82 closed the concert with astounding brilliance. What experiences there are in this great symphony! Sibelius was aiming at completing this symphony in time for his birthday. World War I had just begun as he began writing and revising the symphony. It was done in 1919 with the European world back to what would have to pass for stability and peace, for a while. When beginning his 5th, in 1914, Sibelius wrote “In a deep valley again. But I already begin to see dimly the mountain that I shall ascend….God opens His door for a moment and His orchestra plays the Fifth Symphony.” It opens with E-flat major which puts it into the company of Beethoven’s Eroica and the Emperor Concerto, all opening with an E-flat major chord, but this E-flat major belongs to Sibelius. He uses many diverse approaches: chords in crescendo, flutes and oboes, woodwinds blowing through. The audience sits up as the music gives nothing less than surprise; we must react. His rhythms cross over, a dance sings with rhythm, the brass introduces a scherzo, the orchestra repeats a call. Sibelius originally had four movements in the 5th, but changed it into three movements. His second movement has new sounds for rhythms; some are energetic, others are more calming. What will happen to those rhythmic themes? The finale movement takes off like a tornado whirling through space. Sibelius gives the audience amazing excitement, a lift off of woodwinds and cellos, dissonance, new melodies. There is such a rush that the final four chords make the eyes open wider. It is done, and we want to start again.

The conductor, Dalia Stasevska, was a star throughout the concert, and yet her physicality and attention was especially fantastic in this Sibelius masterpiece. The SFS rose to play on an even higher level – we thought they were already up there – and entirely with her in this great Symphony No. 5. Orchestra and Maestro were were thrilling.

Chamber Music Champions @ Gunn Theater, SF Legion of Honor

May 11, 2025, Gunn Theater, Legion of Honor, San Francisco – The brilliant musicians, Alexander Barantschik, violin; Peter Wyrick, cello; Anton Nel, piano, performed magnificently. Their full- to-the-rafters audience knew it would be wonderful, and this concert was over their expectations. Impossible. It was the last of their 2024/2025 season. This time the program offered three piano trios. Other times they would play a solo, duets, and trio; now it was all three all the time. Fantastic.

Above, L to Rt: Barantschik, Nel, Wyrick

Joseph Haydn, composer (1732 – 1809)

They opened with Joseph Haydn’s Piano Trio in G major, Hob.XV:25 (1795). Its first two movements were graceful and gentle, an Andante followed by Poco adagio. It was a perfect way to tune everyone’s mind. One will forget about parking and the not at all Andante-driving on the way to the museum. We adjusted to being in an elegant chamber with perfect music. Then, the Finale: Rondo all’Ongarese: Presto. We might have lulled ourselves in the first two movements, but this is totally different. It is inspired by Hungarian music and rhythms. Haydn lived in Esterhaza in Hungary for years and absorbed the music which was very popular in Vienna. The music stirred the audience. The listeners did not ponder grace and beauty; they were suddenly attired in those fancy uniforms with fancy buttons and dancing wildly. James M. Keller points out in his program notes that there is a puzzle in this music: Was Haydn inspired by folk music and turned it into Haydn? Or did popular music, considered to be folk music, have Haydn origins?

Frank Bridge, composer, (1879 – 1941)

Phantasie for Piano Trio won the competition for “Phantasies” in 1907. Bridge may be mostly known in the US as Benjamin Britten’s mentor, but Bridge was well known in his lifetime and is still widely recognized as an important musician, violist, and composer, especially in England. The Phantasie was a popular form during the early 20th century. It has one movement. The founder of the competition, Walter Willson Cobbett, encouraged composers to let loose their imaginations “to write what they liked – in any shape – so long as it was a shape.” The music is sweeping and beautiful. It seems like an impressionistic work without any narrative or visual representation, except that it is lush and original with Bridge. It feels like walking on a hill with a breeze swaying branches but not a storm. Invigorating and challenging, it lifts the leaves off the ground, tosses them in circles, but does not smash them. It is not a weak breeze nor a sappy emotion. It is a thrill to be part of the scene.

Felix Mendelssohn, composer (1809 – 1847)

Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Opus 66, by Mendelssohn is an immense, complex piece. It is powerful and gorgeous. Commentary in the program book writes that part of the music “prefigures” Brahms. The author finds Schumann in this music, too. The author may be giving readers something helpful the better to understand Mendelssohn’s extraordinary music. Comparing these composers seems very strange. Mendelssohn died when Brahms was only 14. Schumann declared Mendelssohn’s piano trio in D minor, Opus 49, “the master trio of our time.” The person sitting next to me in the Gunn Theater happened to be a fine pianist. He said he had never heard the music, Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, opus 66 before. Stunned, like the others in the audience, he could only say it was very great. I find myself unable to comment on this work. Mendelssohn wrote a trio that had the character and invention of a great symphony. I will only suggest that one looks online or at a music library and listen to this work. When Barantschik, Nel, and Wyrick stood up, they smiled and looked as though they had finished an Olympic race. And they had won. This trio demands exquisite technique and heart. Listen.

Giancarlo Guerrero Conducts an A+++ Program

Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, May 2, 2025–There should be an award for the greatness of this concert. Maestro Giancarlo Guerrero conducted music by Kaija Saariaho, Igor Stravinsky, Ottorino Respighi. Each selection was unique in mood, rhythms, story; something wonderful. Bring him back.

Maestro Giancarlo Guerrero conducted the entire concert without a score. His conducting style uses clear, strong arm movements, sometimes subtle motions, or a muscular one gathering in a whole section. A characteristic movement is one arm with baton straight up to the Davies roof; it looks strong enough to levitate him.

Guerrero is a six time Grammy winning conductor. For sixteen years he has been music director of the Nashville Symphony. In those years he commissioned and premiered about twenty-four pieces and released twenty-one recordings. He received eighteen Grammy nominations and eleven awards in various categories. He will become music director of Sarasota Orchestra in 2025. He has conducted the best known US orchestras: New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and more as well as European houses. He conducted the San Francisco Symphony first in 2013.

Kaija Saariaho, composer (1952 – 2023)

Guerrero spoke to the audience about Asteroid 4179: Toutatis, the first piece on the program. The composer, Kaija Saariaho, wrote it for a commission from the Berlin Philharmonic. It was to be a partner piece with Gustav Holst’s The Planets. There really is an asteroid with that number and name. Toutatis, the Celtic god, was to protect tribal life in ancient Gaul. NASA considers this asteroid to be unique in our solar system. It has no fixed north pole as Earth has and lacks an ongoing spin as planets have. Its shape, sort of irregularly long, it does not turn but “tumbles.” Toutatis never repeats a pattern in its wanderings. Regardless of the peculiarities of Toutatis, the music was terrific. Its sounds could have been electronic music, but it was not. The music was made by real instruments: oboes, flutes, horns, strings, celesta, glockenspiel, and more. It captured my attention, made me feel cold, and set me wondering if Asteroid 4179 would collide with us. The music created mysteries and new sounds. Guerreo led the SF Symphony on a space walk. I loved it.

Igor Stravinsky’s Petrushka has delicate moments and crashing alarms. I have not heard it for a long time; hearing it while watching its ballet may have let me miss the music’s innovations and drama. It is magical as it should be when a magician turns three puppets into live persons.

Igor Stravinsky, composer (1882-1971); Vaslav Nijinsky (in Petrushka costume) (1889 -or 1890 –1950 or 1951).

The Petrushka story was Stravinsky’s idea. Stravinsky wrote: “I had in mind a distinct picture of a puppet, suddenly endowed with life, exasperating the patience of the orchestra with diabolical cascades of arpeggi. The orchestra retaliates with menacing trumpet blasts. The outcome is a terrific noise which reaches its climax and ends in the sorrowful and querulous collapse of the poor puppet.”* Sergei Diaghilev, director of the Ballet Russes, had great artists for his sets and costumes, but Diaghilev was the Magician of the theater. He was behind every scene, except that he liked being seen. He joined Stravinsky in making the scenario. Alexandre Benois designed and painted marvelous scenes; Leon Bakst designed costumes which were museum worthy as were the sets. Despite the jolly Fair and the miracle of living puppets, it is a sad story. The fascinating music tells all the tensions and jealousy. The dainty ballerina chooses the Moor, a brute who has no culture. The three fail even though they are now alive like humans- or is that why? The Ballerina tries to stop the Moor’s chase of Petrushka, but the Moor kills Petrushka. Petrushka’s ghost mocks the Moor; the Magician runs away from what he set in motion. The music changes quickly from loud to almost not there. The tiny, light steps of the Ballerina, Petrushka’s suffering, the brutal kick of the Moor, the crowd’s Russian dances; all the action is heard and makes the characters visible. It gives us so many changes that the listener can hear the thoughts of the puppets. Amazing. I felt I was hearing it for the first time. Thank you again, Maestro Guerreo and the very fine SFS musicians.

Ottorino Respighi, composer (1879 – 1936)

Guerreo spoke to the audience before conducting Ottorino Respighi’s Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome. He described the real places that Respighi’s music calls forth. The Fountains were composed in 1914-16; Pines were composed 1923-24. Each work has four scenes. Respighi wrote: “In this symphonic poem the composer has endeavored to give expression to the sentiments, and visions suggested to him by four of Rome’s fountains, contemplated at the hour when their characters are most in harmony with the surrounding landscape, or at which their beauty is most impressive to the observer.”* These two symphonic poems were joined by Roman Festivals, 1928. Michael Tilson Thomas conducted that piece at his 80th birthday celebration, April 26.

The first Fountain is in the farmland of Valle Giulia. Cattle roam in the “fresh, damp mists of the Roman dawn.“* The music does not stop as it might for movements. Instead, loud horns play while the orchestra trills; it is the Triton Fountain. Mythical beings like “naiads and tritons” chase each other and dance in a “frenzy” around the sprays of water. Fountain number three’s music is quieter, set at noon at the Trevi Fountain. Neptune, the mythical god of the sea, rides in a chariot led across the water by seahorses. The last Fountain was at Villa Medici. It is sunset. There are bells and sounds of leaves in a breeze in peaceful surroundings. The most interesting sound is the recording of a nightingale singing. Although Respighi was considered a conservative composer by many, he had the the nerve, or vision, to engage the bird’s song. The reality of the bird’s voice opens one’s mind to the environment. Hearing it was a memorable, treasured moment. It was possibly the first use of electronic sound in music.

The idea of changing music as different hours change light and shadows is a notion similar to Monet’s, the Impressionist painter of a series of haystacks. He, like Respighi, took in the environment’s change with the daylight’s changes. A conservative composer when compared with Stravinsky, but perhaps now more current as his musical vision included the natural environment.

The Pines of Rome begins at the Villa Borghese (Allegretto vivace). Children play in pine groves. They pretend to be soldiers and “They twitter and shriek like swallows at evening,..” Next is Pines Near a Catacomb (Lento) The trees shadow the entrance of a catacomb. The music sounds a hymn and chanting until it is cut off. Next scene is The Pines of the Janiculum (Lento). Respighi wrote “there is a thrill in the air.” It is a full moon, we hear a nightingale, and see the trees’ shadows. The Pines of the Appian Way (Tempo di Marcia) close this atmospheric symphonic poem. Respighi hears “incessant marching” and imagines a poet who “has a fantastic vision of past glories” and sees the historic Roman army burst “forth in the grandeur of a newly risen sun…mounting in Triumph…”

The triumph is that of the SF Symphony conducted by Giancarlo Guerreo. My message regarding Maestro Guerreo is: BRING HIM BACK!

*signifies quotations from Stravinsky and from Respighi, taken from the SFS program book.

Frankenstein: Run to It!

You may have seen Frankenstein movies; the Frankenstein ballet is better. Nothing against Boris Karloff, the Monster (or Creature); he was so good in the 1931 movie that the story goes on and on. Before I tell readers more, I advise you to get tickets now. Frankenstein’s last day and night is May 4th. Week day tickets are available now at half price.

Go to this link: https://www.sfballet.org/productions/frankenstein-encore/

The most important aspects of this ballet are the wonderful performances. I saw it with Dores Andre as Elizabeth Lavenza, Victor’s fiancee; Max Cauthorn as Victor Frankenstein, the aspiring scientist; Nathaniel Remez as The Creature; Alexis Francisco Valdes as Henry Clerval, Victor’s best friend; Julia Rowe as Justine Moritz, when Victor and Elizabeth were young, Justine was a playful friend, but she had a tragic future. The entire company danced so well it is difficult to describe the feats they achieved. They had intensity as well as technique; theater skills that lifted them out of any staginess; lifts and jumps that were real though they seem unreal.

Jasmine Jimison as Elizabeth & Cavan Conley as The Creature, FRANKENSTEIN ballet by Liam Scarlett performed by SF Ballet, photo Lindsey Rallo

The choreographer of all this, Liam Scarlett, devised a way for a lift to go higher. The ballerina is lifted by the danseur; he catches her up from a jump; she makes a second jump into the air from his arms. I write that it is a second jump, but to jump one normally pushes off from the floor – or from something. Here, the ballerina engages her energy and ascends. Does the partner toss her up again? Maybe. Ballerinas are strong and equally brave as they are strong. That’s it.

The ballet has two amazing pas de deux for the leads. They dance together when they decide they will marry. It was lovely and did not hide their emotions. The elegant turning into each other and sometimes away from each other was continually inventive and beautifully executed.

Another pas de deux happens when Victor has lost The Creature. He is anxious and preoccupied. Elizabeth tries to calm him with some of the steps from their previous pas de deux, but they cannot get back to the Before The Creature feelings.

There are choreographic motivations demonstrated by Scarlett. Throughout the ballet, there are movements that look straight out of modern dance technique. This ballet has a full range of emotions, and basics of modern dance show emotion. If a person pulls her/his abdomen in and lets the contraction move the back into a curve, the onlooker will see pain or sorrow. Changes of direction are dramatic: What should I do? Is there someone to turn to? Scarlett has many ways to move large groups. In the ballet, there are people in a tavern. They are excited and questioning what is going on. That scene has thirteen dancers, including Victor. Scarlett differentiates these dancers: how do they stand, what do they do to look over a table, they break into separate directions or focus at the same spot. The ball to celebrate Victor’s and Elizabeth’s marriage features a large gathering of dancers. The couples dance filling most of the stage: Then, there are more dancers dancing closer and closer to each other in complex designs. In addition to the designs the dancers make, their designs, dancing so closely, and then more quickly; it becomes frightening.

Aaron Robison in Scarlett’s Frankenstein // © Lindsay Thomas

The music composed by Lowell Liebermann fits every turn in the plot and the changes in the characters. Victor goes from tremendous joy at succeeding creating a new life from pieces of other bodies to feelings of guilt and terror. The music underscores the work of Scenic & Costume designer John McFarlane. There are gorgeous sets in the Frankenstein mansion, the frightening fight with the Creator in the garden, and the dreadful execution of innocent Justine.I was especially glad to see appropriate costumes for the story’s era. It is late 18thc., around the time of the American Revolution. Think of Ben Franklin and his experiments with a kite and electricity. The Lighting by David Finn told the story just as much as the dance and music. It will surprise you.

San Francisco Ballet in Scarlett’s Frankenstein // © Lindsay Thomas

As the choreographer passed away, the ballet was staged by Lauren Strongin and Joseph Walsh; Walsh danced the role of Victor during this run.

The story is based on the book written by Mary Shelley, the wife of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, author of The Rights of Women, and William Godwin, philosopher and writer. One night, in 1818, near Geneva, she was with friends during a great storm. Fall out from a volcano eruption half way around the world made the world dark for days. They decided they should each write a scary story. Mary’s was Frankenstein. The science at the time sought more knowledge about electricity. There was philosophical debate and curiosity about what is life.

Cavan Conley as The Creature & Esteban Hernandez as Victor in Frankenstein ballet by Liam Scarlett performed by SF Ballet, photo LIndsey Rallo

In the ballet’s Act I, scene 2, Victor’s mother dies. She was pregnant, fell to the floor, disappeared, but gave birth to Victor’s baby brother. That is a way of creating life. Victor wants to create life from body parts from the dead. He rejoices that the electricity he masters can create life, too. The Creature wants Victor to make another creature to be his partner. He learned to read – not explained much in the ballet – and learned that Victor wrote in his journal that his experiment had failed. The Creature became angry; he wanted love, but could he love?

The extraordinary, but real, Nathaniel Remez could not have been made. This other way of creating life is compared with Victor’s mother’s death and his brother’s birth. Remez performed majestically. He became the sad/angry Creature without love. His presence on stage was that of The Creature who killed the whole family, but Nathaniel Remez’s human beauty is not from AI.

Photos courtesy of San Francisco Ballet

LOVE FEST FOR MTT

LOVE FEST FOR MTT: April 26, 2025

San Francisco knows how to throw a Love Fest. For Michael Tilson Thomas’s 80^th birthday, nothing better than the best of the best could do. MTT, as he is called, is now Music Director Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony, Conductor Laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra, and co-founder and artistic director laureate of the New World Symphony. He has won 12 Grammy Awards and conducted all the major orchestras in Europe and the US. However, San Francisco thinks of MTT as ours. His active participation in the life of the SF Symphony and through that making the City as home; that’s why the completely packed Davies Symphony Hall, even in the partial view seats, started teary and smiling and sharing stories before the concert began. San Francisco loves MTT, and we believe he loves us, too.

MTT has been living with a brain tumor. Still, he has come back to conduct first twice a year and then once a year. If you are wondering how he could conduct, his ability to conduct is still there. No question. What is gone is the physicality of his former conducting. There were the jumps, the great reach to the roof, both arms crossing together from left to right and then indicating one section or player with his baton. Oh, there were also the deep knee bends. He danced with force.

The first time MTT conducted the SF Symphony they played Mahler’s 9^th. He became the Music Director in 1995. We need to remember that MTT’s Mahler concerts were so well known and admired that MAHLER was written on the side of Muni Buses.

Mayor Daniel Lurie names this day, MTT day, and awards him for the whole city.

MTT conducted two lengthy pieces, one at the beginning of the birthday program and another at the end. The opening was Benjamin Britten’s, Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell, Opus 34 (1946). It is also called The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. While it might have educational aspects, it is, as Michael Steinberg wrote, “the work is very much worth playing for its sheer musical pleasure.” The music’s theme comes from Purcell’s revival of Abdelazar, or the Moor’s Revenge, a play by Aphra Behn. The music first identifies one section of instruments – maybe strings or percussion and the others. Then, Britten puts the orchestra back together in a fugue; he has themes for each section. The instruments play them one at a time and then together. It is happy, playful music which is not at all superficial; it brings music that bows and smiles. Wonderful choice.

Benjamin Britten, composer (1913 – 1974)

MTT also conducted Overture from Khantshe in Amerike, by Joseph Rumshinsky (arr. MTT), a composer originally from Lithuania and then lived in New York. He came to the US in 1904 because Boris Thomashefsky, MTT’s grandfather, asked him to come. Rumshinsky aided the Yiddish Theater and created it as a source of fine operettas. MTT produced The Thomashevskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater. Its premiere was at Carnegie Hall, 2005. I was thrilled to be in the audience for his presentation of The Thomashevskys on the Davies Symphony Hall stage. It was fun and touching with MTT’s music and music from the early 20thc.

Sasha Cooke, mezzo soprano
The next section of the celebration presented seven songs, five of them by MTT. Of the two that were not his were Claude Debussy’s La flute de Pan from Chansons de Bilitis (1897), sung by Frederica von Stade, mezzo soprano, John Wilson at the piano. Frank Loesser’s Take Back Your Mink, from Guys and Dolls (1950). The singers were stars. Three of them, Ben Jones, tenor; Jessica Vosk; and Sasha Cooke, mezzo soprano, got their career starts with help from MTT. Frederica von Stade and MTT have worked together since 1970. In Take Back Your Mink, the SF Symphony Chorus women added lively singing, dancing, and swinging somethings not mink. MTT’s songs are tender, sometimes ironically funny, personal in ways that most everyone thinks. The titles tell it: “Not Everyone Thinks That I’m Beautiful” (1985); “Drift Off to Sleep” (1982); Answered Prayers, 1974. The songs were a special way to know more of MTT. Unlike some other conductors who write music, Michael Tilson Thomas very rarely put his own work on an SFS program; it was his songs I most wanted to hear this night.

The after intermission concert started with a beautiful MTT song titled “Grace.” (1988) Sasha Cooke and Frederica von Stade gave the song thoughtfulness and shading of emotions. Very lovely. John Wilson on piano. The SFS Chorus, directed by Jenny Wong, reached into the heart of the music by Leonard Bernstein, the Finale from Chichester Psalms (1965). As Bernstein and MTT were good friends, it was the right selection for this birthday.

Leonard Bernstein in 1973. (Photo by Allan Warren/Creative Commons)

One more terrific, long piece to close the show; it was MTT conducting Roman Festivals (1928), by Ottorino Respighi. The movements are four festivals. Each one has a different energy and a different sound, rhythm, character. I had never heard it before and enjoyed it very much. The different movements included: Games at the Circus Maximus, The Jubilee, The October Festival, and The Epiphany.

Planning a program is an art. Our Maestro made wise choices for what he would conduct. Excellent music that might not be the “usual” thing, two long pieces which had interesting changes of emotion and rhythm, and, most of all, demonstrated that despite his condition, MTT, you’ve still got it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MTT!

Photos by Stefan Cohen, courtesy of SF Symphony

SF Symphony: Brahms & Shostakovich

Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, March 30 — This was a great program. Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D Major, Opus 77 and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Opus 93.

If you ever learn that Gil Shaham, violinist, is playing near you, someplace on this same planet, go to hear and see him. He was the guest soloist playing Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major. He is a blissful musician and shares the bliss with his audience. As he played, he related to the conductor, Juraj Valcuha, and also turned toward the Concertmaster, Alexander (Sasha) Barantschik. It seemed that he wanted their experiences in the music to fit with each other so that they enjoyed making music together.

Gil Shaham, violinist, He performs regularly with the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Israel Philharmonic. He has multi-year residencies with Montreal Symphony, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony.

The Concerto is something different in Brahms’ repertoire and new to the late19th century audience for serious music. “Normally,” in concerti of the era, the orchestra was a frame for the music made by the soloist. The soloist dominated the two-some. In this concerto, they are equals. It also offers new, off-center rhythms that made the listeners at the 1879 premiere decide it was a strange Brahms, as though he had heard wisps of this music from E.T. The first movement has a lovely, lyrical method to carry through changes from major to minor and the presence of Hungarian folk tunes folded into this Allegro non troppo. I remember it, even when there are surprising switches, as a deep and moving quiet, moving like a river, not entirely moving like an emotion. This is where an Adagio oboe melody drifts through gentle but never weak, winds. The violin brings more musical strife and then it all becomes calm, but never still. The finale, Allegro giocoso ma non troppo (happy but not too happy) is obviously demanding over-the-top technical brilliance. Shaham was in clover. It was not a bit challenging to him as the full audience were thrilled.

Johannes Brahms, composer (1833-1897) This is the first Violin Concerto he wrote. He was pounced on by writers and music lovers. What had he done? He had made a great piece with new sounds and rhythms which were not welcomed. The reception rattled him so much that he destroyed his second violin concerto and never wrote another. Occasionally, I hear the finale movement of the Violin Concerto in D major on the radio, but not the whole concerto. It is a rare jewel. Shaham, Valcuha, and the SF Symphony gave it the performance it deserves.

Dmitri Shostakovich, composer (1906-1975)

On one of my first visits to the San Francisco Symphony, I learned that they would not play anything by Shostakovich. It shocked me. The idea was that Shostakovich was a loyal Russian Communist, and therefore an enemy. Later, Leonard Slatkin was a guest conductor. He spoke to the audience and encouraged them to understand Shostakovich’s hunted life, and appreciate the greatness of his music. It surprises me now to note that some music writers still assume that Shostakovich was all about Communism and writing music that supported the current ideals. Some even treat the two times he had lost approval by Stalin’s regime was, “after all, only twice.” This is a great composer. He could not have his work performed. He could not work. He wrote for movies, and tried to be rehabilitated. He had to know that other artists had been sent to Siberia, which was a place to die, or, they were shot. When he was allowed to go to the US as an artist on display but with grim chaperones, he was reported to look like a prisoner speaking what he had to say. He was denounced by the authorities, lost his teaching positions, did not write between his Symphony No. 9, 1945, until the Symphony No. 10, 1953. What happened? Stalin died. So, the question about his Symphony No.10 in E minor, Opus 93 is whether the Symphony was specifically about Stalin. For myself, I think it is about Stalin, but not as a portrait of that dictator. The atmosphere, what there was to breathe, what to think, how not to think was all Stalin and his cohorts all the time. Shostakovich and other artists who lived in Stalin’s world had lives which were continually repressed by the entire regime. Shostakovich was there; his family and private life were constantly in danger.

Shostakovich at the piano

The Symphony opens with the cellos and basses. Moderato, it has a sound lying under the music; that sound says, “Be careful. You may be watched.” The strings carry the movement forward to language from solo instruments: a clarinet solo, a horn fills the music, more clarinet, and a flute accompanying plucking strings. The whole orchestra builds its very loud cries, and the music becomes even louder. Briefly, it sounds like an army. The movement ends with piccolo and timpani. The listener, becoming anxious, catches her breath, but still the eyes open wide in the quiet but ghostly end. The second movement is an Allegro, like a super fast scherzo. It is rushing to the edge of the moon. Is someone running away? Is a whole nation running after…what? It pushes the heart of the music. There is no moment to think; the strings play very, very quietly. The scherzo abruptly cuts itself off. The third movement has three styles: Allegretto – Lento – Allegretto. It is not so fast as the Allegro, but runs briskly. Then, there are slower moments and a return to the brisk movement. There is a teasing, lively mood that has that under lying, troubling, secret sound. The piccolo, flute, timpani, and triangle present a sardonic tone as the music marches on. The Symphony ends with Andante – Allegro beginning similarly to the first movement’s cellos and basses. A lovely oboe almost calms the music as once again the flute flies solo. Now, the wildness of the second movement becomes an energetic, klezmer. It is at last a joyful sound for all of us.

Barantschik, Nel, Wyrick Make Art at the Legion of Honor

March 23, 2025, Gunn Theater at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor – This trio of Alexander Barantschik, violin; Anton Nel, piano; Peter Wyrick, cello, always presents magnificent music, and they let the audience know how exciting their Chamber Music can be. Alphabetically, here they are:

Alexander Barantschik, violin, has been the Concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony since 2001. He was previously concertmaster of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. He played in chamber music and as a soloist through Europe and toured with the LSO through Europe, Japan, and the US.

Anton Nel, pianist, tours as a recitalist, soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. He has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and others. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in 1994. He holds an endowed chair at the University of Texas at Austin and is on faculty at the Aspen and Ravinia Festivals. He is also a harpsichordist and fortepianist.

Peter Wyrick, cellist, joined the SF Symphony 1986-1989 and then returned as Associate Principal Cello, 1999-2023. He retired last season. He was principal cello for the Mostly Mozart Orchestra and associate principal cello for the New York City Opera. He played soloist with the SFS in music by C.P.E Bach, Leonard Bernstein, Haydn, Tan Dun’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. He has collaborated with Joshua Bell, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Yefim Bronfman and more.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer (1756-1791)

The program for the trio’s concert was superb. Three selections, each one was entirely different from the others except for the greatness of the music. Mozart’s Piano Trio in B-flat major, K. 502 opened the concert. it was exactly Mozart’s touch and holds an important role in the evolution of the piano trio. In the mid-1780s, Haydn and then Mozart moved to give each of the instruments its own importance; no longer a sonata which focuses on the violin and piano, leaving the cello in a lesser role. Although Mozart originally wrote “Sonata” on the work, he changed it to Terzett/Trio. This Trio was one of two which Mozart created in 1786. The first movement, Allegro, was led by the piano. The music was written to keep a lovely melody with a theme that builds as it offers new harmonies and lets the instruments weave the music through taking turns like a jump rope competition. The second and third movements are not shy. The Larghetto is quiet but does not hold back until it excites the finale Allegretto into new emotions and adornments.

Cecile Chaminade, composer, pianist (1857 – 1944)

After the Mozart trio, Anton Nel took the stage. Through the medium of the piano, he brought French composer, Cecile Chaminade, to life. Her music is full of rhythm, melody, well rounded sound that seemed to travel through the audience as though she was reaching every listener. Although she was gifted with musical talent, her father refused to let her attend the Paris Conservatory. She found a composer, Benjamin Godard, who would teach her privately. She wrote 400 pieces including symphonies, piano works, a concertino for flute, songs. Some critics, then and now, state that she could only produce minor works, small affairs that were popular. She sold her music on sheet music and piano rolls. She was popular in England and the USA. The criticism of her work was on her consistent creations that were Romantic, melodic, and in the groove of Faure and Saint-Saens. That she did not try to “advance” to Schoenberg or Stravinsky troubled some, but there already were Schoenberg and Stravinsky. Nel played two Chaminade works: Automne, Etude de concert, Opus 35, no. 2, and Theme varie, Opus 89. They were wonderful, making music that had energy, movement, and hidden, unspoken songs. It made this listener feel there was a drama within the music. It stirred the audience, all full of surprise. If anyone tells you it is not significant music, tell that person that President Theodore Roosevelt invited her to lunch, and they did lunch. Significant. A lot of Americans and the English were swept away by her. Listen.

Johannes Brahms, composer (1833 – 1897)

Brahms had a very successful vacation of three, summer months of 1886. He did not go there to hang out. He wrote the F-major Cello Sonata, A-major Violin Sonata, C-minor Piano Trio, C-minor Violin Sonata, and some songs. He used his time well. There was no TV. No movies. No baseball. He had a vacation which left him needing a vacation. The Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor, Opus 101 is big, dense, powerful music. He begins it with power. We are not easing into this experience. Boom; this Piano Trio is more like a symphony than chamber music. These three great musicians let the audience hear it like a symphony . He introduces a second theme featuring the violin and cello. It is balancing both the instruments and the themes; balance is important. Like a fine dancer, he does it because he can. At some point in his composing, he might have chosen to keep nothing extraneous out in the open. Instead, it is felt that there is more than one sees or hears. The second movement, Presto non assai, is light, transparent, a spider web in weight or movement in a direction impossible to know. Its delicacy is its strength. Then, he moves into an Andante grazioso. It could rub your nerves a bit the wrong way. It is lovely, but it makes the audience wonder why it makes one anxious. Is this grazioso as the name suggests? There is something about Brahms’ rhythms. There are three measures of 3/4 time and then two measures of 2/4 time. Brahms scholars observe that he engages his enjoyment of Hungarian rhythms in the music, and also that of a Serbian folk song. As he took his fascinating rhythm to the open air of Hofstetten, near Lake Thun in Switzerland, he might just try stepping in the rhythms on the edge of the mountains. That alone could be why he succeeds in mixing and matching these rhythms and then, having stayed upright, he gives us a happy ending. He dances on the edge.

SF Ballet Makes History: Raymonda & Frankenstein

Saturday, March 8, 2025, San Francisco War Memorial Opera House — The full house audience applauded through out the performance. They witnessed exciting, innovative, and challenging ballet in the North American Premiere of Raymonda, choreographed by Tamara Rojo, after Marius Petipa. The World Premiere of Rojo’s work was presented by the English National Ballet, London Coliseum, London, England, January 13, 2022. Rojo was the Artistic Director and Lead Principal of the English National Ballet. She was appointed Artistic Director of SFB, December, 2022. Marius Petipa’s technique and choreography could be said to have invented classical ballet. His Raymonda was made for the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, 1898, set to music by Glazunov. In Petipa’s work, the ballet was set in the medieval ages during the Crusades. Since Petipa’s time, this is the first Raymonda that presented the ballet and music in their entirety. That was a major step in ballet history,

Rojo believes that companies and dancers must hold on to their legacy, the history of ballet and its choreography. She chose to set her new Raymonda in the Crimean War. One of England’s Prime Ministers said that if anyone tells you that he knows the reason for the war, he’s lying because it is impossible to figure out. England was on one side; Russia on the other. There were devastating diseases which killed at least so many as the guns killed. Rojo took advantage of the international character of the war. She incorporated classical dance with folk dance and dances of national identities. Vadim Sirotin directed the Character Dancing. I am certain that Rojo has endless variations of steps, combinations of large and small groups, the men dancing on their own, the women with the men or not; it was magical except that we knew Tamara Rojo was tapping into her bottomless mine of precious dances. She noted for all of us the importance of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing and of keeping records of statistics. During the war she was called “the lady of the lamp.” Rojo used lanterns as effective props for the Nurses’ dancing. The Crimean War was a sad prologue for the American Civil War, 1861 – 1865. Nursing was developed on the battle grounds and in tents by Clara Barton who also created a movement for better nursing. Yet another historical event: the Crimean War was the first time battles, places, and people were photographed. The Civil War also picked up the significant record of the horrors.

Max Cauthorn presented another star performance. it was a gift to watch him again after his remarkable presence in Manon. Frances Chung danced Raymonda beautifully. She had a complicated character. She was a young lady from an upper class background who planned to marry John de Bryan. He joins the English army; she ponders the idea that she, too, should help her country. Then, Abdur Rahman, in photo above danced by Fernando Carratala Coloma, comes on the scene. John asks him to look out for Raymonda. What will she do? Both men would like to marry her, but she was promised to John. After battles and much marvelous dancing, the families gather for a wedding. Raymonda exerts her independence and leaves the wedding to find her own future. The SFB danced so well they lived up to the fabulous dances Rojo made for them.

FRANKENSTEIN: Runs March 20 – 26 Frankenstein was choreographed by Liam Scarlett with music by Lowell Liebermann. It was last performed by SFB in 2018. “Haunting music, pyrotechnics,” and a powerful story make this another outstanding offering by SFB. Tamara Rojo wrote that it “explores humanity and hubris, amplifying the existential, gothic drama in a way only ballet can go.” It is still Women’s History month. If one thinks that there may be only one female character, please remember that the author was Mary Shelley. She published it in 1818. She was married to Percy Bysshe Shelley, the great Romantic, English poet. Her mother was Mary Wollstonecraft, the author of the Vindication of the Rights for Women. Mary Shelley was with Shelley and Lord Bryon near Geneva. They decided they each would make a ghostly story to read to each other. Of the creative stories, it is Mary’s which has stayed in our culture. They had to stay inside because the air was dark with ashes from a volcano across the world. They called it the year with no summer. That era was a time of electricity experiments and experiments with life. Mary had a deep understanding of new science and how it was changing everything. The SF Ballet will present an ENCORE! of FRANKENSTEIN, April 26-May 4.

Beethoven & Rachmaninoff: Breathtaking

Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, Sunday, March 2 — Experiencing this performance took the audience into the world and the center of human life. Not magic, as someone might say, but the beauty and energy of real life swept us away. The music: Piano Concerto No.4 in G Major, Opus 58, by Ludwig Van Beethoven; Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Opus 27, by Sergei Rachmaninoff. The beauty would make one tingle. Another note about the music is how much each composer knows about being alive.

Ludwig Van Beethoven, pianist and composer (1770 – 1827)

The soloist, Francesco Piemontesi, brought the music’s soul to Davies Hall. I have a recording of this Piano Concerto and listen to it frequently. A recording can never match being there and hearing the live music in person, but now I cannot imagine another pianist playing with the same understanding, delicacy, and power. Piemontesi demonstrated that a soft sound can be powerful. Robin Ticciati was the conductor. He and Piemontesi were on the same wave length with regard to both the feeling and technique. The orchestra performed well on all levels. The musicians were perfect partners in this strange and beautiful concerto. The piano sounded like water running smoothly over polished rocks. The key to this concerto is the very first note. The soloist begins. The pianist played that first note in a way that said, “This is what I am, what I will be, what you can feel. One note.” I felt it touched me, made my throat close, my eyes momentarily almost in tears. No reason why, except that Beethoven created a unique Piano Concerto that offers a journey through lush sounds in the quietest way he could. He let the Concerto tell us the message.

Francesco Piemontesi, pianist The audience went appropriately wild after more bows. His encore was gorgeous. J.S. Bach’s Chorale Prelude, Sleepers, Awake/Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme 645, transcribed for piano by Ferruccio Busoni, 1898. Piemontesi played the piece so that it sounded like he had two more hands. Some of that is thanks to Busoni, but it could only been played that way by a great pianist. Francesco Piemontesi is a great pianist. These performances are his first at San Francisco. This season, he will perform with the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic. He will perform with Robin Ticciati with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and tours with the London Philharmonic. And more.

Robin Ticciati, Conductor has been music director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, since 2017. He is also the Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera since 2014. He has conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, London Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and many more in Europe and the US. His San Francisco debut was January, 2023. I admired his conducting tremendously. His directions are clear and strong. His arms open high and wide to include the sound world, and he uses his natural grace, going into a grande plie or on his toes, to signal where the music should go. I liked to see his movements as they confirm that music is something real that can move mountains and human hearts, too.

Sergei Rachmaninoff pianist and composer ( 1873 – 1943)

The Symphony No.2 in E minor, Opus 27 is so beautiful that the self-appointed Modernists could not admit it is great music, but it is. They called it new or semi or whatever before Romantic. Rachmaninoff’s music is original. He has his own voice and style; expansively it includes the fullest experience and ideas. It is sensual and magnificent. When the first movement began, I thought, “Oh, he is taking us into a mystery.” Later, I read that Michael Steinberg commented that it begins “in mystery, with pianissimo low strings.” The Symphony No. 2 is about 55 minutes long. It has to be big to be so full of all its love and life. The composer leads us through the Symphony’s world. The first movement is marked Largo-Allegro moderato, and it covers slow and rhythmic, melodies in motion. The second movement, Allegro molto, is wilder. There are tunes that Rachmaninoff, also a composer of songs, flies through. There is a fugue in the second violins and then a scherzo-like drama that Rachmaninoff lets loose. Steinberg knew that the composer liked to enter notes of the Dies irae from the Gregorian Mass for the Dead. But that is not the idea of the Adagio that comes next. It is about love. “Now hear this;” The music tells the story of love; it does not need to speak. There is still more mystery in the next movement. Each instrument plays: English horn and oboe and then each of the others. The clarinet returns to the melody at the beginning. Having begun the Finale with the Symphony’s quiet, now it turns on the music rushing like a water fall. Rachmaninoff ‘s lyricism thrills the ending with wide world embraces.