Author Archives: Leslie

Higgins, Grieg, Tchaikovsky: Never Old

The San Francisco Symphony presented an extraordinary concert at Davies Symphony Hall, October 3-5. Is it possible that music lovers love to critique the music that we love? Maybe it is just Opera fans who talk about old war horses. The program sizzled opening with a new piece by Timothy Higgins, Principal Trombone in the SFS since 2008. He has left the SFS to become the Principal Trombone in the Chicago Symphony.

Market Street, 1920s, had its world premiere this weekend. It has two elements for the music. Higgins described the tone of the music fitting the black and white pictures of SF streets with cars traveling around Market Street. There is also an argument. Two individuals take up opposite sides in SF’s issues, especially about alcohol. SF police, it is said, were told to look away from speakeasies and bootleggers. San Francisco’s history includes resistance to the federal government’s decisions. The music also represents “academic” leaning music and the more popular. There are jazz passages that give the music a rhythmic kick. There is no solution to these arguments. Sometime arguing is an athletic sport. This eight minute piece was a happy introduction to the evening. Well done, Tim Higgins. Photo: Tim Higgins talks about his premiere work.

The San Francisco Symphony with Gustavo Gimeno, conductor, and Javier Perianes, piano, perform Timothy Higgins’ “Market Street, 1920s” a SF Symphony Commission and World Premiere, Edvard Grieg’s “Piano Concerto,” and Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No.5.” At Davies Symphony Hall on Friday night, October 3, 2025.Photo by Stefan Cohen

Edvard Grieg (1843 – 1907) He composed his magnificent Piano Concerto in A minor, Opus 16, in 1868. The first time I heard it, I was surprised that it was Grieg’s work. I had heard his music that was influenced by Norwegian folk music. This is something completely different. It is a wonderful Concerto. The opening of the music, Allegro molto moderato, seems so natural that every note is where it has to be. It shows its lyrical side as well as the strength of the music in its cadenza. The second movement, Adagio, has amazing delicacy. The notes have no weight. I hear them as though it is gentle snow falling. No clumps, no ice, just the lovely snow flakes. I know they are each made of unique designs even though I cannot see their always different presence. The final movement, Allegro moderato molto e marcato, is also something unusual but perfectly the right music. Grieg’s interest in Norwegian folk music shows its character. The movement has the music equivalent of a play within a play. The movement creates another concerto within this movement. Grieg plays on with another cadenza and a false exit. Very new and something to surprise one’s ears. The rest of this mini-me concerto begins slowly, but Grieg has other directions to fulfill this brilliant concert: lots of violins and trumpets. The musical marriage made with two so unlike instruments lifts the concerto and thrills the audience. The soloist was Javier Perianes. He has performed in most venues you can think of around the world. He records for Harmonia Mundi. His performance was exactly right just as every note was the right note. Perianes treated Grieg right just as he deserved. Pianist Javier Perianes photo below. Photo by Stefan Cohen

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 – 1893) The Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Opus 64, was created in 1888. This has been a beloved, moving symphony since it premiered. In the 1890s, it was attacked for being “ultra-modern” and even for Tchaikovsky’s ancestry. “while in the last movement, the composer’s Calmuck blood got the better of him, and slaughter, dire and bloody swept across the storm-driven score.” Tchaikovsky was not related to this ethnic group in Russia which was actually Buddhist. Fortunately, the composer overcame a depressive attitude toward the 5th Symphony which he had loved as much as its audiences loved it. There are several themes that appear more than once throughout the symphony. It begins with Andante-allegro con anima. It seems to be dark with its clarinets, but Tchaikovsky lets a lovely waltz interrupt the unhappy theme. The end of the first movement has a rough feeling. Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza, the second movement, truly moves onward with a charming attitude, but the theme in the first movement invades the second movement. The third movement, Valse: Allegro moderato, dances its way to sunshine and no dark clouds. The signal for the end is the theme from the first movement moving into the springy waltz. The closing movement seems to know how to tame the first movement’s theme. It takes away its threatening just when the finale begins a march rhythm that sets the music into a serious drama. The ending is triumphant. It is a sunny day. Photo below Conductor Gustavo Gimeno, photo by Stefan Cohen

Conductor Gustavo Gimeno led the orchestra to a great performance. He has a graceful way of conducting and is totally in the music. His presence in the music also helped produce excellent performances by all the musicians with solos or featuring of their sections. It was a magnificent evening.

HOFESH SHECHTER on the RED CARPET

There was great excitement for the Red Carpet, the new dance from choreographer Hofesh Shechter. “For me, a red carpet first evokes thoughts of glamour.” However, the movements and appearances of the dancers are not glamorous. The choreographer also describes it as “grotesque.” Both are fitting. The major patron of the Paris Opera is Chanel. The costume designs come from CHANEL, and the dancers are from the Paris Opera Ballet. Shechter juxtaposes glam and art; which does the audience want most? Is the glam a sham? The dancers roll their bodies, step over each other, drag themselves or others. They form a circle around the stage with arms stretched high or arms bent in running position. This is more like a mosh pit; dancers are on top of each other or using their arms to create a form. The music came from live musicians who were on the stage but not continually seen.

I wonder whether Shechter is ironic as he speaks about glam vs. art. Can they be the same? Is he noticing what it takes to achieve glam or art? One can certainly do what is claimed to be glam art. Shechter says, “In contemporary dance, the stage is filled with references and expectations…I don’t believe the role of dance is to provide solutions. A ballet must remain open, unresolved; that’s its beauty.”

Paris Opera Ballet’s North American Premiere of Red Carpet by Hofesh Shechter at Cal Performance Zellerbach Hall, photo credit: Chris Hardy

Shechter may have noticed the use of the arms in Alvin Ailey’s Company. In Revelations, the dancers are in a sunburst shape with different sets of arms opening with start-stop rhythm. Probably the first dancer/choreographer to gather dancers in that shape and set their arms opening was Anna Sokolow. “Her choreography of intertwining groups with reaching arms influenced Alvin Ailey (who danced in her Poem) and Jerome Robbins.” Poem was Sokolow’s taboo challenging dance in which dancers touched each other: “her dancers actually touched, sometimes in what could be homosexual embraces.”* I am not suggesting his movements were taken from other choreographers, but visual material lives on. In Red Carpet, the movements seem to be decadent folk dance or natural movements which are alien to technique, ballet or contemporary technique, yet it takes some training to let go. Crawl. Bend over with your back parallel to the floor. Curiously, there were no leaps. Occasionally sort of a hop on one foot with the other leg bent at the knee. There was also a certain version of belly dancing.

Paris Opera Ballet’s North American Premiere of Red Carpet by Hofesh Shechter at Cal Performance Zellerbach Hall, photo credit: Chris Hardy

Contemporary dance traditionally undid traditions, but there is danger in not doing, let’s say Cunningham work, when it reigned and earned grants for the followers. Shechter’s Red Carpet may introduce new ways to produce dance. The first part of Red Carpet showed the dancers in Chanel costumes; someone seated near me commented that they looked like outfits in a resale shop. Being supported by Chanel gives the event glam, but is that superficial pretending? I think that Shechter knew what he is doing. The dancers perform in groups; often it is all thirteen dancers or a group of four or five. I cannot remember more than one or two times when a dancer stood apart from the group, but he will soon be absorbed by the rest. There is also pas de deux dancing, but it happens within the entire group. The costumes make different presences in which the audience can see them, but they are still in the group. Sometimes they are doing the same movements as others or expose their different movements within the group. One costume was a lacy gown with one part of the skirt hanging like a short column half in front of the legs and the other half missing. There was a black dress which looks sequined from a distance. It also had missing spaces of dress.

Paris Opera Ballet’s North American Premiere of Red Carpet by Hofesh Shechter at Cal Performance Zellerbach Hall, photo credit: Chris Hardy

The second half of Red Carpet alters the vision. The dancers are in colored white-flesh tights and body covers more or less. Some have Bermuda shorts length; others more. In this part of the dance, a group of 5 work on the floor rolling and reaching. There seems to be communication through the bodies though they are not always connected to others. There were a few times when it seemed to me they looked like Grecian figures on their vases. Were these dancers armed or simply digging into life? As Shechter said, solutions are not to be found

Paris Opera Ballet’s North American Premiere of Red Carpet by Hofesh Shechter at Cal Performance Zellerbach Hall

One special performer was the giant chandelier. It went up very high and also lowered to just above the stage floor. It did not crash like its cousin the chandelier in The Phantom of the Opera, but it had character. The Phantom’s chandelier was a replica of the chandelier of the Paris Opera House. It would not dare to crash upon the thirteen dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet.

The excitement continued throughout the performance. Red Carpet will be remembered as we await the next Shechter production.

*The Hedgehog, The International Arts Review, Vol. 5, No. 1, November, 2010) pp 4-5.

Gershwin & Ellington: More Please!

September 18, Davies Symphony Hall – It was a night for great, new music. Each of the selections were new in their own way. Composer Carlos Simon’s piece The Block (2018) opened the program with tremendous energy. Simon’s inspiration was the series of six paintings by Romare Bearden (1911 – 1988). These paintings are in the Metropolitan Museum, NYC. I have seen these paintings. They present the variety of shops, church, nightclub all on the same block in Harlem. The sites in the paintings have unique atmosphere, architecture, sizes, shapes, and especially human interaction and emotion brought out by the way humans express themselves and the buildings. The Block is six minutes long; those minutes include music that comes from the lives and stories that reach out to us from the street of this very specific, although also universal, street. It wowed us. Simon is Composer in Residence at the Kennedy Center, and the inaugural Boston Symphony Composer Chair among other honors. I think The Block will lead all of the audience to seek more of Carlos Simon’s work.

George Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F ( composed 1928) is often described as his best of his major works, Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, Porgy and Bess, but it is not offered very often. I have heard bits of it, but never the whole Concerto and never in person. It was a Great Experience. Helene Grimaud is a fabulous soloist. Perhaps she was in touch with Gershwin himself, not imitating but surely she connected with every bit of her power and understanding — and even a bit of Grimaud is over the top masterful. The SF Symphony played brilliantly, and the guest conductor, James Gaffigan, made every note a thrill. It was an amazing performance. The first performance of the Concerto in F performed in San Francisco was January, 1937, the conductor was Pierre Monteux with Gershwin himself as the soloist. To grade Gershwin as a pianist, there is this quote from the conductor, Serge Koussevitzky, “As I watched him, I caught myself thinking, in a dream state, that this was a delusion, the enchantment of this extraordinary being was too great to be real.”

The San Francisco Symphony with James Gaffigan, Conductor, and Hélène Grimaud, Piano, in performance of Carlos Simon’s “The Block,” George Gershwin’s “Piano Concerto in F” and “An American in Paris,” and Duke Ellington’s “Harlem.” At Davies Symphony Hall on Thursday night, September 18, 2025. Photo: Stefan Cohen

The fantastic first movement of the Concerto begins with colors rising up with what was called a Charleston groove. The piano does not take time for its dreamy entrance until the snare drum introduces her. There is melody possessed by the symphony and the pianist. The pianist modifies the magic until it creates a blazing ending. The next movement was slow and bluesy. It has a pedestrian rhythm – pedestrian as in walking, not pedestrian as ordinary – and takes on a teasing, happy attitude. Through the Concerto I noticed tiny, blank moments, seeming like the white spaces of a Japanese print. The white spaces – very, very brief – are part of the rhythms. The concertmaster, Alexander Barantschik, sails into a playful, yet gentle solo. Gershwin describes the closing movement. “The final movement reverts to the style of the first. It is an orgy of rhythms, starting violently and keeping to the same pace throughout.” The movement allows the orchestra to trick the listeners with a fake exit, but it comes back with a mind-opening meeting of the world’s non-stoppable rhythms. Helene Grimaud gave the audience an encore: Brahms’ Intermezzo in Bflat minor, Op117, #2. It was gorgeous. If possible, the audience would still be applauding now.

An American in Paris, composed in 1928, has a joyful narration hidden in the various groups of instruments ranging from alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, percussion including small tom-tom, large tom-tom, wood block, xylophone, and taxi horns. Gershwin produced the rhythms of Paris as well as the sounds of Paris. The rhythms of walking, touring, maybe even gawking, keep “the American” absorbing and wondering at the City. Gershwin created his melodic theme on top of other themes. Some sound like the American has explored another neighborhood or he has slowed down because he found romance. Jazz informs the entire piece, especially the blues. This is the time for all the section leaders to play solos and then to pass along the story to the next instrument’s solo, like the trombone passes its melody to strings. Gershwin’s works are invigorated by the moods and rhythms of the varying musical sources. He keeps his life in classical way along with jazz and blues and sometimes the pop songs from Tin Pan Alley, his pop songs. The mixture becomes something else; it is Gershwin’s grasp that music is music.

Duke Ellington’s piece, Harlem (1950), is a central piece of his sound and his vision. His personal elegance and his big band success made him and his music one of the greatest American composers. He passed away, in 1974, too young, but his image lingers as an iconic, American artist. (Although in his lifetime, that “iconic” was not in use.) Arturo Toscanini commissioned the piece for the NBC Symphony. However, it was premiered at an NAACP benefit at the 39th Street Metropolitan Opera House. Ellington described it this way, “a concerto grosso for jazz band and symphony orchestra.” The Duke published the list of places and events of Harlem that appear in Harlem. The list of 20 things include: “1. Pronouncing the word “Harlem,” itemizing its many facets – from downtown to uptown, true and false; 2. 110th Street, heading north through the Spanish neighborhood; 4. Upbeat parade; 5. Jazz spoken in a thousand languages; 7. Girls out of step, but kicking like crazy; 10. Church – we’re even represented in Congress by our man of the church; 11. The sermon; 12. Funeral; 13. Counterpoint of tears. The music encounters the many tunes and types of jazz that Ellington celebrates. There is the saxophone solo that takes pizzicato strings out for a quiet walk, a rhumba that identifies the Spanish neighborhood, bebop calls out crazy particulars from all the sections. Most of all it swings, calmly and tear-it-down swings. He is the band leader and truly great composer who taught several generations that “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).” While jazz evolved through different ways to play, Duke Ellington got it all and gave us all of it.

Music@Menlo: “6 to 8” from Sextet to Octet

This is the 23rd season of the Music@Menlo, a festival of chamber music and institute for young musicians, Encounters for adults with deep thinking scholars whose talks are entertaining, performances, concerts – just about everything classical music. As an audience member, I began attending their wonderful events in 2003, the first of 23 years of excellence. The founders of the Festival, cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han, invented the whole kit-and-kaboodle. Each has stunning talent and expression that places the music somewhere between magic and humanity. Their statement in the season’s program book touches on the magic…” in search of explanations for the miracle of music. This summer is no different, as we focus our lens on a feature of chamber music rarely explored: the magic of chamber music’s rich variety of instrumental combinations, known as ensembles.” This season featured a duo, trios, quartets, a sextet, and an octet.

Johannes Brahms, composer (1833-1897)

Brahms’ String Sextet no. 1, in B-flat major, op. 18, began an era in which he created several chamber pieces which were warmly received. He had motivation to make chamber pieces. Musicians were going toward Liszt’s tendency to write music that had narrative characteristics. Brahms preferred music which was about music and did not suggest spoken thoughts. He decided that chamber music could be the vehicle to keep music musical. He and his friend, violinist Joseph Joachim, wrote a “manifesto” about two paths for composing. He wrote the String Sextet; he had found the key to more abstract and less programmatic compositions.

Violinists Arnaud Sussmann, Richard Lin play Brahms’ String Sextet no. 1 in B-flat major, op. 18

The six instruments were played by Arnaud Sussmann, Richard Lin, violins; David Finckel, Clive Greensmith, cellos; Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, Masumi Rostad, violas. The Allegro ma non troppo movement opens with a solo cello backed by the other cello and one viola. The Andante, ma moderato movement is a theme and variation style. Now, the viola moves into the music that had been the cello’s, and the theme comes back in the violin. In the Scherzo: Allegro molto, Brahms uses syncopation. The whole movement moves with rhythmic feats. The listener might begin hearing a “mild” rhythm that then speeds up the tempo. Brahms does not use hemiola, which shows up in other works. The accents in the music make it sound as though music is in twos and threes rhythms simultaneously. The music evolves into a proud and courtly dance that speeds up a lot, as though those proud and courtly dancers had put something in the punch. The Rondo: Poco allegretto e grazioso adopts much of the previous movements. The physical making of music is a visual performance letting loose energy and action. He uses pizzicato from the beginning to the end. The musicians are strumming the instruments. The viola goes faster and faster. The ensemble plucks the strings, and, one instrument at a time, returns to bowing. A fast, innovative, happy finale. It was a greatly satisfying experience created by Brahms and gifted to listeners by the six marvelous musicians.

Jorg Widmann, clarinet, composer (born 1973)

Widmann’s 180 beats per minute was written in 1993. He is quoted in the M@M program book. He said, “I don’t want to repeat myself, I don’t want to get bored with myself. That’s why my pieces are often very different aesthetically.” The variety of time signatures are challenging as he changes them, it seems to me, in every measure. He was experimenting the use of the metronome, and he certainly enjoyed the adventure. He also said that “The work makes no claims to be more than the sum of its parts — the sheer enjoyment of rhythm.” The musicians bringing life to the metronome: Julian Rhee, Kristin Lee, violins; Masumi Rosta, viola; Dmitri Atapine, Nicholas Canellakis, Clive Greensmith ; cellos.

Felix Mendelssohn, composer (1809-1847)

It is difficult to write about Mendelssohn’s Octet. It is an amazing work. I rarely use that word “amazing.” The Taj Mahal. A category 5 tornado. Seeing a bird fly. It is complicated. There are 8 musicians, twice so many as a string quartet, but the instruments play as individual musicians more than as the group or sub-group of violins or violas. Mendelssohn dedicated the work to Eduard Rietz, a violinist, who was the elder brother of Mendelssohn’s friend, cellist Julius Rietz. Eduard became very ill, could not continue his music, and passed away. Felix was sad at this loss, however, the Octet has a brilliant, happy existence. Of course, “Felix” is “happy.” In the Allegro Moderato ma con fuoco, the full ensemble is represented. The viola’s playing is syncopated. A violin takes a ride on a series of arpeggios. The music shakes its feathers and returns to the main theme but makes the transition quietly. There is a mystery. A sad Andante is the second movement. Only occasionally, the Octet moves itself into two separate groups, but there is no earthquake fault line between them. The Scherzo: Allegro leggierissimo introduces still another approach. The eight become one playing more quietly together. It could be like a play when everyone is talking. They say peas-and-carrots, peas-and-carrots repeatedly and it comes out sounding like they are sharing gossip or looking for parking. However, there is no narrative here. Every note has been just right. Each of the movements are nothing anyone else has done. This extraordinary, great, great piece closes with a Presto. The cello opens the movement with an extraordinarily difficult passage. The second cellist must move his arms like a quick athlete as the music reflects perpetual motion. It is a thrilling, memorable, happy ending. The cast played out their hearts and rhythms with precision. Wonderful. Violins: Benjamin Beilman, Jessica Lee, Erin Keefe, Julian Rhee. Violas: Masumi Rostad, Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu; Cellos: Nicholas Canellakis, Clive Greensmith.

Sibelius’ #7: Carries Us Away

Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, June 8, 2025 Sibelius and Salonen made a great combination. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 7 in C Major, Opus 105. It was Sibelius’ last symphony; he lived until 1957, but no longer composed symphonies. He had said what he wanted to say. Except one more great tone poem, Tapiola, he stopped. He had done it. The 7th Symphony is a strange and powerful voice. After listening to it, what came to my mind was love. Love in the broadest, most extensive, personal and universal reality added up to that. It was a unified love of which we are a part.

Jean Sibelius, composer (1865 – 1957) born and lived in Finland

Some time ago, Michael Steinberg, the glorious author of program notes, told me that Sibelius’ No. 7 was the great symphony of the 20th century, even though it was composed in 1924, very early for a century of music. This performance was my first time hearing it. When the music ended and the applause for the orchestra, the conductor, and especially the composer, I wanted them to play it all again. It is not an overwhelming, knock you out symphony. It opens with a quiet drum. Its music seems down to earth at the same time it is mysterious. Perhaps the mystery wraps around the down-to-earth part. Sibelius made plans for his final three symphonies beginning in spring of 1918. These symphonies form and continual thought through each one and all. That means that the 5th Symphony began this thought and breath that relates all three. In 1918, he wrote: “The Seventh Symphony. Joy of life, and vitalite with appassionata passages. In three movements-the last a ‘Hellenic Rondo.'” Quoting M. Steinberg, “intensely, frighteningly appassionata music, though not in any sense wild….a musical gesture that should leave a witness bereft of speech and to which one responds with concert-hall applause only in order not to explode.” At the end of the performance of the 7th, that was truly how I felt. Ka-boom!

Although he had planned on 3 movements, this symphony was one movement with different tempi changing without the listener noticing the change until after it happens. The time of the symphony constructs and moves on; Sibelius writes through and about Time. It surrounds us and it is us. That mystery we heard at the beginning became an all covering, all happening effect of our world. The beauty of this symphony is frightening and it is us. The love is bigger than one notices from moment to moment, here, down-to-earth, in sight and sound and time. Yes, please play it again.

Richard Strauss, composer (1864 – 1949) Germany/West Germany

New ways to compose came from early 19th century by Schubert, Liszt, and into the 20th with Richard Strauss. Strauss’ symphonic poems were in that tradition. He may have been inspired by Sibelius’ works. The concert opened with Strauss’ Don Juan, Opus 20; it was composed in 1888-1889. The music is not at all shy about hearing the adventures and disasters of Don Juan in the symphonic poem. Then, continuing the symphonic poem tradition, the program ended with Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, Opus 28. I have a memory of this music from 5th grade. The “music lady” came to Maryland Elementary School and played Till Eulenspiegel and later The Moldau, by Bedrich Smetana. She told the class the story of Till the naughty things he did and then the end when he is hanged. It is hard to like this story though the music is very vivid. She wanted us to see the story in the music; I did not want to see that. However, I have always loved The Moldau.

The orchestra played with power and grace. It was their Music Director’s second to last concert. He will lead the SF Symphony and the SF Symphony Chorus, Thursday through Saturday, this week playing Mahler Symphony No. 2. I felt fresh energy from the musicians, and I felt that Maestro Salonen was more relaxed in his directing but also in his own physical movements. The music was simultaneously in his own body as he conducted his orchestra. It is hard to say “good bye” to the Music Director. He made his mark in such a short time, 5 years, and much of that time was taken up with the pandemic. His performances have been memorable, and these recent programs, The Firebird and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 7 will stay in my mind played his way.

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.

THIRD COAST PERCUSSION @ Stanford

Third Coast Percussion plays Stanford’s Bing Concert Hall, May 7, 2025

Witnessing the Third Coast Percussion’s performance was a delight. The four musician-magicians, Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin, David Skidmore, play at a very high level. They demonstrate the serious art that they enjoy in collaboration with other artists. The Bing Concert audience was thrilled with creations by four composers and guest violin artist, Jessie Montgomery, who was also one of the composers.

The program opened with Please Be Still, by Jlin (2024). Third Coast Percussion commissioned the work to celebrate their 20^th anniversary. It was a good way to get a listener’s head into the world of rhythm. The musicians each, mostly, addressed different percussion instruments. They would walk around the collection of Things that make sounds out of soft bumps or sliding strokes and choose the marimba, look at it, and after a few nods or gestures in air by drum sticks (with large, soft looking heads) enter the particular rhythms’ realm. Composer Jlin reveals her inspiration for Please Be Still:

“When they asked me to compose a piece that was Bach-based I, of course, jumped right to it. The Bach piece I chose to derive from is “Kyrie Eleison,” the movement from Bach’s “Mass in B Minor.” That piece has so many rhythmic sections with endless possibilities. I’ve been a lover of Bach’s music since I was a kid, and always found his work complicated. The percussionist in me hears Bach’s keystrokes as if they were individual acoustic drums. I’m always trying to play against the rhythm, and this piece was not different.”

Musicians of TCP with Jessie Montgomery; the Third Coast is Chicago, of course.

Jessie Montgomery’s work, Lady Justice/Black Justice/The Song (2024) was powerful.The work does not hide what it expresses. A statue of “Lady Justice,” by Ori G. Carino inspired the composer; the Lady is a fount of Justice in a world of injustice, specifically toward Black people. The statue and a painting had been in a room with light cast through its layering of silk. As the composer wrote: “the silk layering, revealing her timelessness and multiple hues. The image is staggering, aspirational, and technically virtuosic.” Montgomery found deep feelings which met visual representations and turned that reality into music. It is a successful work of artistic alchemy. She salutes “Ori’s natural sense of beauty and grit,” which led her into ideas that spun textures, light, and “emotional qualities” into this major work. Collaboration can happen when the collaborator is not available for meetings. “The main melody that appears throughout (which harkens to a Brahms-inspired theme that I wrote years ago, inspired by a line in Langston Hughes’ epic poem, “Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz.”)

I was pleased to experience this new music. When I began to dance and choreograph full time, rhythm was taboo. Anything Brahms was simply dead. I had read Langston Hughes in 8^th grade and loved every line. A lot of people who could read, did not read or know about Hughes. I went ahead with rhythms because how else could I dance?

Tigran Hamasyan’s Sonata for Percussion (2024) is in sonata form of three movements. It could be fast, slow, fast, but those fast times are not identical. TCP found the piece required techniques not in their vocabulary. Hamasyan’s band plays exciting and challenging rhythms. It took TCP on a wild hike in hills, turning while moving forward. “The outer movements both explore different subdivisions of 23-beat rhythmic cycles, while the middle movement is in a (relatively) tame seven.” The movements have meaningful titles although there is no story: Memories from Childhood, Hymn, 23 for TCP.

Jessie Montgomery’s Suite from In Color has history. When working with TCP for her first foray in a percussion ensemble, she brought “excerpts from a number of existing works.” In Color was one of them. She used this exploration to develop musical sounds. The work she did make was different than what the original explorations would have made. Sean Connors, of the TCP, asked to arrange what they had been doing and made it a percussion quartet. It has a unique approach for the items making the sounds into “Red, The Poet, Purple” movements.

The program ended with Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra (1940/1959). The program says “Lou Harrison holds a particularly special place in the heart of percussionists.” Harrison and John Cage were among the earliest composers of classical style to write for percussion ensembles. Harrison also holds a special place in the SF Bay Area music world. He was a warm and welcoming human. While Cage avoided harmony or melody, Lou made Things and instruments sing when he tapped, knocked, or even slapped them. He made non-pitched items musical and helped Things get along with other instruments. In this performance the audience was able to see a full range of percussion music. Physical movement of the percussionists added theater to the program. Flower pots and other objects joined the orchestra. Harrison’s movement for the solo violin allowed us to hear the full range of Montgomery as violinist as well as composer. The audience jumped to applaud TCP and Montgomery.

Photo courtesy of Stanford Live. Quotations from composers courtesy of Stanford Live program book.

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.