ArtsSF

At its best, a symphony concert is transformative, sharpening senses, raising one’s spirits, stimulating the mind and body. That was the reaction here on attending the San Francisco Symphony’s latest live-and-vibrant venture despite some repertory I’m rarely wild about. The brass section, dormant for some 15 months of pandemic, was resplendent in playing Giovanni Gabrieli’s brass chorales as adapted from his four-century-old “Sacrae Symphoniae.” Playing antiphonally from the Davies Hall terrace seats, the octet simulated the origins in San Marco…

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Euphoria reigned Thursday with the first of substantial massed ensembles performing in more than 15 months. To say that the audience was euphoric is an understatement. It was like raising the curtain after a long and painful closure. For the first time, Davies Hall had opened to a full symphony orchestra, including both brass and woodwinds, heretofore banned by the pandemic. The performance of Brahms’ Violin Concerto marked the downbeat on a very promising resumption and new era for all…

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LATE NEWS—The logjam in the performing arts caused by the pandemic is loosening up as the S.F. Symphony is putting a full complement live on stage, complete with brass and woodwinds, starting with the June 17-18 concerts, after a much regrettable, unavoidable interruption of 15 months. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – REVIEW—Agony and ecstasy were the implicit emotions of the…

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A minority conductor on the way up and a provocative modern program of novelties were the hallmarks of this week’s bracing San Francisco Symphony concerts. I’m happy to look past their bizarre whack-a-mole adaptation of “Carmen” music, as the night’s positives outweighed that musical aberration. The musical gem of the night was Carlos Simon’s six-minute “An Elegy: A Cry from the Grave” (2015). This is a thoroughly moving, aphoristic and harmonious statement emphasizing the low strings. Simon had been motivated…

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