BRITISH COMPOSER TAKES US TO THE SEA AND STARS 
                                              By Paul Hertelendy 
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of Sept. 30-Oct. 6, 2011
                                                                  Vol. 14, No. 11
            Thomas Adès is emerging as the John Adams among elite composers across the Atlantic. The 40-year-old Briton has shown imagination, prowess and wit in a wide variety of assignments, from solo piano to opera, and enjoys multiple careers as conductor and pianist as well.
            Curiously, despite the very warm reception given him, Adès remains uncomfortable before the public, as he demonstrated once again at the San Francisco Symphony Sept. 29, taking reluctant bows for his latest (and most unorthodox) hit for film and orchestra called “Polaris: Voyage for Orchestra” (2010). However reticent, he is hugely popular as he now audibly moves away from his highly austere, complex-rhythm  style to a consonant area in tune with audiences.
            Moral: Consonance makes the heart grow fonder.
            “Polaris” is a shimmeringly beautiful 13-minute score, where once again Michael Tilson Thomas displays his adroit musician placement, deploying close to a dozen brass players---the essence of this opus---around the high terrace. The brass, arranged in five pods, plays subtle canons, all in traditional harmonies that resonate amiably through the hall, coming down as if from the heavens to us lay people below (Adès gives free rein to placement of the brass, ranging from remote to positions within the orchestral space).
            Adès sees a metaphor to his music in patterns of waves, which can cross and overlap. So, quite naturally Tal Rosner’s film of waves on a rocky shore complement the music, and perhaps forgive the overhead screen blocking the view of the brass players for much of the Davies Hall audience. Less successful were the images of women bundled up against the beach’s cold (what, Britain has chilly beaches, too??), gathering seaweed for no rhyme or reason.
            None of this has much to do with Polaris the North Star. But Adès visualizes a “magnetic force” drawing the music to a core tone (A), analogous to Polaris being seen as the central, focal star in the sky. He also uses counterpoint with considerable skill and supplements the soaring brass lines with percussion in a voluptuous mix. A pair of harps suggests metaphoric water droplets.
            Adès (rhymes with hottest) elaborated on his score in a pre-concert talk, and reappeared to make bows at the end.
            The large ensemble of the S.F. Symphony gathered to perform the ballet music to “Petrushka,” a Russian fairy tale from the pen of that eminent pictorial composer  Igor Stravinsky.  The performance was rousing, with memorable solos by Robin Sutherland (piano), Tim Day (flute), Mark Inouye (trumpet) and others. For all his great gifts with orchestration and rhythmic acuity, Stravinsky found himself borrowing themes right and left---here, in “The Rite of Spring,” and elsewhere. “Petrushka” features several Russian folk songs, a Lanner waltz-precursor, and even an organ-grinder theme that the composer heard playing in Switzerland---and ended up paying royalties for, after a law suit was filed.
            As has been his wont in recent seasons, MTT tossed away the baton, leading with just the hands. For many romantic works, like last week’s Mahler Third, that kind of flow is very effective. But “Petrushka,” so full of sharp rhythms, can well be approached with a baton, as did Pierre Monteux at the world premiere a century ago and in countless reprises thereafter. His long, precise baton was a trademark.
            Addendadès---Adès has conducted in the U.S., most notably as guest of the L.A. Philharmonic. In addition, he has played piano recitals of his own music next door at Herbst Theatre,  where he would casually carry off 5 beats against 7, or 9 against 11, and other tasks of mind-boggling complexity.<>
            These San Francisco Symphony concerts continue through Oct. 1 at 8 p.m. For info: (415) 864-6000, or go  online. Broadcasts on KDFC-FM (102.1) at 8 p.m. on the second Tuesday following.
        ©Paul Hertelendy 2011
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           Paul Hertelendy has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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