YUJA WANG, PROKOFIEV, AND A WORLD PREMIERE
                        Plus a Symphony to Jump Off Bridges By  
                                              By Paul Hertelendy 
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of May 22-29, 2009
                                                                  Vol. 11, No. 102
         One of the most bizarre symphonic programs ever achieved a measure of success at the San Francisco Symphony May 20, though on paper it had looked like a total set of misfits juxtaposed.
            The customary “ear candy” masterwork was omitted. Instead, came a world premiere, a truly dour romantic piece, and a knuckle-breaker of a brutal concerto with the hottest new pianist from China, Yuja Wang. The result? It got rousing standing ovations. Just goes to show. you can’t judge a program booklet by its cover.
            The audience was extraordinarily responsive to the tiny, shy 23-year-old  with the slender arms and shoulders taking on the fearsome Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2. It was a classic mismatch---she was the David, the concerto was the Goliath. “I think this is the most difficult of all the concertos,” she confessed to us matter-of-factly afterwards. We are used to powerful pianists of the Gutierrez-Bronfman-Ohlsson mold taking on this work---but a diminutive young artist who weighs perhaps 100 pounds dripping wet?
            The four movements are laced with beefy chords, rapid runs and a lot of percussive piano-playing, plus moderate dissonance, much chromaticism and scant melody. The Russian composer wrote this early-20th-century opus to harness his own prodigious pianistic talents (and in the process scared off practically every one else; a half a century went by before it began to enter American programs). Wang was not in a position to wade into this tour de force with a weight-lifter’s gusto. However she could be vehement when needed, rarely drowned out by the orchestra, and supremely lyrical with her singing tone; at times, her touch was dowsnright feathery. She played the very long second-movement cadenza (solo) flawlessly.
            So she met the test of this electrically charge concerto; clearly her multinational background of training in China as well as at Curtis have prepared her well; clearly the SFS will invite her back often, with or without the impromptu bowing lessons in response to ovations that Michael Tilson Thomas gave her at the end.
            Mason Bates’ new work “B Sides” was notable---I can’t recall the SFS ever doing a work with live-electronics and a DJ (Bates himself) abetting the orchestra. But the concept brings the SFS forcefully into the 21st century and shows the way that others (who can afford it) should follow, incorporating the fast-evolving world of high-tech into work of new creative artists. Like many others of his generation, Oakland resident Bates, 32, moves freely back and forth between media, between pop and jazz and classical, between instrumental and computer-driven. The hybridization makes as good sense in music as it does in automobiles today.
            “B-Sides” is an eclectic mix of five contrasting movements having little to do with one another: one with a broom as soloist and time-keeper; another a slow cha-cha-like languor inspired by Kauai, Hawaii; Snippets of NASA space-talk from astronauts; and some laid-back jazz. The orchestral parts are not terribly interesting, often suggesting every-day film background music. But Bates produced an attention-getting 21-minute mixed-media opus that will surely get added plays.
            Much as I love Sibelius, that grand Finnish romantic master, I’d call his Symphony No. 4 the one to jump off bridges by. It is an unremittently dour, frowning  work, with scarcely a cadence anywhere, and constant interjection-shifts into other thoughts. There are a wealth of low strings (stellar contrabasses!) and stopped horns. Conductor MTT was reminded of “an iceberg birthed from a glacier.” The piece is ghostly and enigmatic, perhaps an attempt to emulate the darkest of the symphonies of Gustav Mahler, who died the same year this work was completed.
            COMING UP IN JUNE---The SFS is presenting a bold, ambitious Schubert-Berg festival May 27-June 13, four different programs at Davies Hall.

        These San Francisco Symphony concerts continue through May 23 at 8 p.m., Davies Hall, S.F. 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 2009
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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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