ArtsSF

During this hopscotch through Covid regulations, the San Francisco Symphony is producing an engrossing off-season of invention. It has not only presented live mini-concerts with new composers to watch, but also served up a smorgasbord of impressive visiting conductors on the way up. In the process of these scaled-down, in-person, string-orchestra evenings, it has broken the lamentable logjam of pandemic lockdowns reigning since March, 2020—far too long for comfort. Latest of these podium visitors is Ken-David Masur—part German, part Japanese,…

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Come, leave stark reality behind and enter the ethereal, a fantasy world of caves, shadowy figures, dreams, apparitions, spooky forests, plus clouds floating over you making you lose your bearings. Such is the world that the San Francisco Symphony guest conductor James Gaffigan calls “the journey….from magic to human magic and emotions.” His program for this nebulous world, all music unveiled since 1900, was exemplary, and he managed it without playing a note of Claude Debussy. It was followed by…

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It was like returning to Earth, after 14 months in viral space, floating isolated in great voids between Mars and Jupiter. The reentry into a real concert hall, in person, with live musicians on stage—-Bliss!! The reduced Davies Hall crowd applauded enthusiastically for 20 seconds at the start, so moved by a cautious return to real musical life. It was far from normal. Some two dozen San Francisco Symphony string players were on stage, all masked and separated, devoid of…

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