ArtsSF

ROHNERT PARK, CA—-A petite figure from New Zealand brought down the house at the Santa Rosa Symphony, playing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with an irresistible engaging spirit. Disavowing the powerhouse approach to this concerto, Geneva Lewis set out spinning themes in soft, poetic terms. Her silky play grew in momentum and force through the imposing first movement, ever more climactic, in her congenial collaboration with the orchestra and conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong. In a rare show of enthusiasm prior to the…

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Back in the 20th century, we acquired television. And in the 21st, we have now moved on to smellevision, fulfilling suppressed aspirations of 19th century composer Alexander Scriabin. It was a long time coming. Bathing in choreographed fragrances for the first time in memory, the S.F. Symphony treated its patrons to a multi-sensory extravaganza of Scriabin’s 20-minute “Prometheus: Poem of Fire” music, with brilliant colored lights, and pleasant smells on cue piped into Davies Hall. This was as much a…

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Charging out of the symphony starting gates was a tumultuous burlesque-theater from Stravinsky. Fasten seat belts NOW! The SF Symphony spotlighted a pair of composing bedfellows, separated by a canyon of musical evolution and comportment. Stravinsky, OK. But it was the veteran German soloist Julia Fischer in the great Brahms Violin Concerto that brought about the sold-out house. Our misfortune it is that she rarely ventures this far west from her home bailiwick. Stravinsky’s complete “Pulcinella” (1920), also rarely heard…

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     The end of an era, it was, but a very sweet one, with well-wishing from countless admirers and nosegays you could almost smell in an inordinately long round of plaudits.           This was a sendoff (at least from subscription concerts) for beloved maestro Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor laureate, leading the San Francisco Symphony in a signature work, Gustav Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 5.            By the end, with the 6-minute standing ovation, there were not many dry eyes…

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The weekend’s S.F. Symphony programs were downbeat more than upbeat leaving little to cheer about except the robust SFS Chorus under Jenny Wong. Well, maybe not that either. “Yes, they sang in Russian, but you couldn’t understand much of it,” a patron fluent in Russian divulged. This was the masterful oratorio of a Russian celebration by Igor Stravinsky, “Les Noces” (the Wedding), telling his century-old tale in his staunch neoclassical way, with soprano Lauren Snouffer playing the lead role of…

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BERKELEY—-With some 100 groups participating, the California Festival: A Celebration of New Music  sprang to life with a bang as the San Francisco Symphony visited the Berkeley with all-modern music that was well-attended—a daring concert venture indeed. When it came to the world premiere, the students in the house were vociferous in their enthusiasm, perhaps most responsive to the rock-music blended into the orchestra by the black composer Jens Ibsen with his “Drowned in Light.” In his stimulating quarter-hour two-movement…

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It was a night all will recall, dripping with nostalgia and sentiment as the semi-retired MTT returned to conduct Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. With the elderly, ailing podium laureate back, the tributes by the full house were never more pronounced. Yes, a love-in, by any measure. And with not one but two wars raging on the far side of Earth, never were Beethoven’s choral messages of hope, “All men will be brothers,” with the following “Be embraced, ye millions,” more needed….

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The whirlwind known as the Swedish composer Anders Hillborg sprang his world-premiere “MAX” Concerto (No. 2, if you’re keeping count) on the world Oct. 12. It’s a curious piece, just 21 minutes long, in a single movement. By today’s standards, that might be identified as a mini-concerto for piano, offering subsections entitled Toy Piano, Soft Piano, Hard Piano, Ascending Piano, Mists and “Chorales and Echo Chamber,” with quasi-baroque segments. It’s like a salad containing delectable components from all over the…

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In presenting a rare and bold all-contemporary program, the SF Symphony attracted (in addition to a number of empty seats) a noticeably younger clientele, including a tattooed, T-shirted contingent usually encountered at rock concerts. The “sweet and spicy” program led off with the sharp Nordic spice of a world premiere—–a very bold, adventurous “Convergence” violin concerto by the Swede Jesper Nordin, which proved to be a triple-threat achievement involving at least four technicians to control the piece: In addition to…

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Instead of performing Haydn or Handel, the symphony gala this time leaned toward heterogeneity and chutzpah. And yes, even hip-hop made a resounding entry into hallowed Davies Symphony Hall. Unorthodox to say the least. Instead of rows of chaste flowers, the S.F. Symphony this time tried to please everybody: Some classics, some wild-and-woolly rappers, myriad colored lights, and a hugely distracting mid-concert light show. Projected on a giant screen above the orchestra, it offered various French impressionist scenes, fashion models,…

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