Saturday Matinee

This weekend, I attended four performances (and I loved every minute of it!), so bear with me as I’ll get through to each one in addition to having a more-than-usual crazy week at work.

This Saturday, I stopped by to attend a performance of the San Francisco Symphony. I admit I haven’t been back since I got invited last summer – this year’s offerings were good, but next year’s is going to be even better (more on that below) and so I know I’ll be back more next year. It was great to be back; the house was full, and the symphony is sounding great. I’m more apt in my impatience to surround myself with ballet or Broadway or more auditory arts that are supplemented with the visual, but with a great performance, I forgot how engrossing and how satisfying a classical music concert can be. The symphony was in preparation for their tour to Carnegie Hall in New York in a few days, and if they sound like this there, they’ll be fine shape.

The matinee started with the performance of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, with superstar violinist Gil Shaham. Gil Shaham’s playing was solidly confident, not overly obsequious or indulgent as Mendelssohn is often tempted to sound like, with restrained emotion that burst through in critical moments and in refreshingly modest doses. His interpretation didn’t milk vibrato into every note of its opening sequence, but was delivered clean and matter of factly with the emotion of the music speaking for itself. The fear here is that the emotional climax is reached too soon in this heartwrenching bittersweet melody, where there is nowhere to go from there and the result is that it stays at that emotional climax, which leads to things sounding the same. He was adorably charming to watch, with his earnestness and his interaction with the first violins and the Michael Tilson Thomas, the conductor, while he was playing. The Apollonian versus Dionysian argument kept on ringing in my head as I continued to watch, but he strayed into neither extreme territory. If anything, he is more Apollonian, but that didn’t stop him from getting down low and even jumping in its more emotional moments. It was a well balanced performance. The orchestra supported him well; there were a few dangerous offbeat moments in the third movement, but overall, it was great to hear how well the orchestra balanced the soloist. Usually the orchestra takes a back seat in a concerto, but in one section where the cellos had the melody, it was great to hear that melody instead of the accompaniment by the soloist. At its conclusion, the audience was on its feet, demanding an encore, which I thought was odd in the middle of the performance with the “Eroica” still left to go. I know the encore piece he played, but I don’t know the title. If you want me to sing it to you, call me and I’ll sing it for you. He played this mystery piece with lovely detail and interest. Does anyone know if Shaham is going with the SFS to NY as well?

The monstrosity that is Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony closed out the program. It was great that I had learned a lot about this symphony – a symphony I don’t know too well since it wasn’t one of the Beethoven symphonies I’ve played in my short flute career – with San Francisco Symphony’s multimedia program at reaching out to younger audiences, Keeping Score. This new multimedia program is a blog entry in itself, with the intention to demystify a piece, such as the Eroica, and gives you information about the history, musicology, and gives you ways to listen to a piece, narrated by the charismatic Michael Tilson Thomas, who often illustrates his examples with his piano playing. It also airs on PBS in certain areas, so try to catch it if you can. Thomas is definitely a great spokesperson for the symphony, and he speaks in a language that is accessible to newbies and classical music lovers alike, sprinkling his analogies with references to Chuck Berry and Elvis. After having seen this DVD, I knew that Thomas’ version of the Eroica wasn’t always so heavy and majestic, as it’s often played, with moments of lightness and humor. It was a sweeping rendition. The aerobic horns French were mighty and impressive, and the flute principal Tim Day was brilliant like a sparkling diamond in his incredibly hard solo in the last movement.

The concert was a great reminder at how satisfying a great classical concert can be. The trouble is finding these concerts, which can be difficult to find with time and financial constraints. I seem to have a more dependable positive experience at ballets and carefully researched musicals than classical music concerts. But taking a risk and attending a show such as Saturday was a well-rewarded risk.

In other exciting news, San Francisco Symphony has released its schedule for next year. It is going to be a really exciting year for the SFS, with a myriad of premieres and a generous sprinkling of great artists including the two I’m really excited about, Joshua Bell and Martha Argerich. There are some concerts I will definitely be buying tickets for the first day the box office opens. Click here for the official press release.

San Francisco Symphony

I was amused by this fortune cookie that came with my meal yesterday. Along with working, I will be watching a marathon of shows. What’s life if you don’t play hard and work hard?

Last night, my friend (a local TV news anchor) got a pair of tickets to see Spelling Bee again after my rave recommendation of the show, and she invited me to join her. In the audience, I was sitting next to a very tight lipped woman who was not amused – the only time she laughed was during Barfee’s “poscyiatry” comment. It’s amazing how the audience can color someone’s experience of the show, and it must be frustrating for the actors as well.

Have a great weekend everyone! Support your local arts scene by seeing a show this weekend, or multiple shows, like I am.

Review coming soon. It was the most fun I’ve had in theater in a long time – my coworker John was picked to be a speller where I got to see him shake it (pictured above, glowing, with my head on the left), and a friend of mine got to be the object of Chip’s desire.

Found on a bulleting board in the orchestra lounge of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA.
© Saturday Matinee – http://saturdaymatinee.wordpress.com

There was an interesting article in the NY Times about piano playing and mannerisms, in an article titled, “When Histrionics Undermine the Music and the Pianist“. It was an article about how watching a piano player in the rapt throes of his/her own music can often detract from the music that is being played if the player is overly demonstrative. The poster child for this “Dionysian” playing (as opposed to “Apollonian”) is Lang Lang – a very expressive piano player known for his showmanship in addition to his technical wildfire playing. For this, he has received a lot of criticism with adjectives such as “self-indulgent”, usually accompanied by a begrudging acknowledgment that he plays a lot of the right notes. A review in the London Telegraph called him a “pianist who camouflages his interpretative immaturity by displays of blatant showmanship and a compendium of party tricks”, with a musing that perhaps he practices in front of a mirror. There are also websites dedicated to hating him for his individual flamboyant style and “bastardization” of music that is used to be playing a certain way.

In my mind, the bigger question is more about what classical music should be like, in order for it to be taken seriously. The NY Times article asks, “At the end of the day, whom do we take more seriously, Rubinstein or Lang Lang?”

I saw Lang Lang play a recital last year. If you take him for what he is, it was a good concert. Not a lot of it was memorable or sensational, but I remember one encore where his playing was so fast that I found that my jaw had dropped without me consciously noticing. If you don’t expect Martha Argerich when he plays, he is a fine piano player, and a great ambassador for younger generations. He won’t be the end all and the be all of classical music, but still a wonder to watch.

With this intro, I’m going to let my friend (the same person who took that photo above) take over the conversation with a series of random musings in a back and forth email banter that spawned from this NY Times article.

“Interesting article. I wonder how Lang Lang would do with a fellow Dionysian conductor? Would it be too much? That article got me thinking about pianists all day.

I get a digest from a Yahoo groups devoted to classical pianists and they constantly rag on Lang Lang. I read some of their reviews and it can be so subjective and arbitrary. What’s good Schumann? Is there such a thing? What constitutes a good interpretation? Who determines the standard? Is mere technical proficiency adequate? Is musical proficiency without emotion even detectable?

Maybe that what all the posturing and facial expressions is about? Trying to convey emotion into a song. I remember a documentary where Cordot told someone not every note played is emotionally significant. Who is he to say? Would you rather play the perfect notes or capture perfect feeling or timing? Some pianists are known for playing globs of wrong notes but conveying the proper feeling of the song. What the hell does that mean?

There was a documentary about Glenn Gould where he describes a futuristic audio technology which would play the some songs to match your feelings or preferences. If you wanted something more dramatic or pensive, all you had to do was flip the switch. Which hints at the idea that music itself is objective, but our ideas are not. Much as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, music is in the ear of the listener. In that sense, all are right and all are wrong. Music is music, and music well played is just that. Is one interpretation better an another? No, but a reviewer might have a better argument why it is.

There’s the argument of Apollonian and Dionysian playing, and there’s the posturing of an Apollonian or Dionysian performer.

I think a Dionysian performer gets credited for being moved by the music, or giving a more lush or emotional performance, and an Apollonian performer gets credited for a cerebral interpretation of the music, and giving a more harsh and analytical performance.

Can you separate out a person posing as Dionysian or Apollonian just by their motions. What if an Apollonian has sloppy peddling? If he was Dionysian, they would say he was trying to convey a dreamy mystical aura? Or what if an Dionysian plays a series of trills perfectly balanced and articulated? Then the critics would say that the performance was trite and he played without fire?

I still think a good performance is a good performance. There are only a few ways you can vary from perfection. But to distinguish yourself from other people who can play equally well is to offer a different look, or play into the audiences impression or stereotypes of the performer. It’s almost comical how they generalize.

For example:

Independent brave open……Grimaud…..Beethoven Piano Concertos
Sensitive shy reclusive……Kissin……Chopin, Schumann
Grandiose proud……Lang Lang…..Liszt
Cerebral sensitive……Yundi Li…..Chopin Scherzo

I think a lot of what people generalize as great playing is when the performer matches up with our impressions of them. If you look like a nerd, you better be Apollonian. If you have long hair, you better be Dionysian. Any piano player from South America is automatically going to be considered Dionysian. Because the audience believes all South Americans are spicy and passionate, and they can’t be intellectual or analytical.

Sometimes it gets a bit more complex: if you’re hot or good looking, you better be Dionysian. But if you’re hot and good looking and German, you better be Apollonian, because there’s no such thing as a passionate German according to audience perception. Or think about that muscle bound pianist Gen (video below, check out those chaps!). Not only is he Asian, but he’s buff. Pianists can’t be buff, and he shouldn’t be playing the pieces he’s playing, so he’s wrong on so many levels. If Uchida or Brendel recorded Rachmaninov, their CD’s won’t sell. The thought of Richter playing the Chopin Preludes, or Gould playing the Beethoven Sonatas is frightening. Not because they can’t, but because it conflicts with what we think of them and what they should play.”

“When I envision a great performance of a Bach Fugue, the person playing the piano is usually wearing pants and a shirt. What’s the headband for? Is he working at the sushi bar? His appoggiatura are as well defined as his delts, but his acciaccatura are as saggy as his triceps.”

I admit, I feel like I’ve been hard on Helgi Tomasson, artistic director of San Francisco Ballet. So far on this blog, I have only spoken of his choreography, which I find limiting. But reading Rachel Howard’s in-depth article on him really opened my eyes to more of him.

After all, he is the director of my favorite ballet company, which says a lot. One of my favorite things about him is that he has a great eye for a diversity of dancers, of picking dancers ranging in size (from tiny Tina LeBlanc to the recently retired towering Muriel Maffre) and styles (from spitfire Lorena Feijoo to demure Maria Kochetkova). He also has a great knack for showing off the best features of his dancers, from his extravagant galas to the pieces he picks and even choreographs. (For example, his “7 to Eight” wasn’t the most interesting, but it showcased Nutnaree Pipit-Suksun and its other dancers so well that my friends enjoyed this piece the most in Program 1 this year.) Another thing that I respect about him is what happened during an open Q&A before a performance last year. An audience member asked about his thoughts in dancers and eating disorder issues and the ballet standard for having thin and unhealthy dancers. This is always slippery territory for an artistic director of a ballet company to defend to the general public, but I was impressed at how he he handled the question with care and thought. He even mentioned that the San Francisco Ballet dancers have actually been lauded as one of the healthier dance companies, and this is refreshingly true.

Here’s my nod to Helgi Tomasson. He has been integral in pushing San Francisco Ballet to where it is today, and the future looks even brighter from here.

The SFB’s season feels like it’s almost over because of the New Works Festival and the extra program with the guest artists from the visiting companies (National Ballet of Canada, NYCB, and Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo). These special programs are great additions, but it feels like it cuts the season a bit shorter than usual, and I’m missing some of SFB’s usual fare, such as Mark Morris’ charming Sandpaper Ballet. SFB presents its “A Tribute to Jerome Robbins” starting later this week.

SF Ballet’s A Tribute to Jerome Robbins: Program 5

I’ve been fairly quiet on the topic of NY Phil’s performance in North Korea, for many different reasons. North Korea is a deeply personal issue for me. I have no direct connections there, but every time I see a picture, a face, I see a sister and a brother and a possibility that I could have been born at the wrong time and place, and be one of those suffering in a totalitarian regime. I’ve heard one too many stories to have hope that one music concert is going to make any difference in a regime that is, hopefully, standing on its last legs.

And to be honest, I have no clear stance if NY Phil should have gone or not gone. Mostly it seems harmless, and much better than a war. My thoughts are that especially in the face of nothing else, music and art can trascend bad history, even for a brief moment, and allow North Koreans a glimpse of America as represented by the NY Phil. Of course things are going to be hidden, such as poverty and the lack of energy for its people – as reported as every room that the NY Phil members were in, the heat was blasting. Food was abundant for the musicians, however in a poignant moment, someone caught sight of the N. Korean waiters and waitresses taking pictures of the food. And we all know that Americans will be paraded in front of Kim Jong Il as monkeys entertaining a scary leader, that’s to be assumed. But care must be taken in order to be diplomatic and polite, instead of freely endorsing North Korea’s totalitarian behavior.

But there is always room for inappropriate behavior. Lorin Maazel, NY Phil’s conductor, made a major misstep in defending his stance in going to North Korea by saying,

“People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw bricks, should they?” Mr. Maazel said in the wire story. “Is our standing as a country — the United States — is our reputation all that clean when it comes to prisoners and the way they are treated?”

It’s shocking to even compare the two countries in terms of human rights violations, and most of all, it just showcases Maazel’s ignorance or perhaps his too clear intentions on pleasing North Korea. Perhaps he was afraid they wouldn’t let him leave the country, and so he was trying to stay on good terms with them.

A carefully controlled visit was expected. Maazel stated that he wished that this concert was a concert for “the average citizen” – we know that KJI would never let starving people into the theater to be shown to Americans in their malnourished glory. Another sad story – a NY Phil member, Valentin Hirsu, wanted to look for two childhood friends who came from North Korea. Sadly, Mr. Hirsu would most likely never meet his childhood friends again unless they were successful and doing well. Despite a controlled visit, some pictures couldn’t hide the evidence of a restrictive regime.

It was completely heartbreaking to read the North Koreans’ audience response to the NY Phil. There are many pictures of them waving like children to the musicians, and a moving and tearful response to the NY Phil’s rendition of the old Korean folk song, “Arirang”. Perhaps the visit was a success if people got to enjoy a memorable experience apart from political ugliness that’s usually characterized the relationship between the two countries.

I can never imagine what it’s like to live in a totalitarian regime, so I will let someone who does know, have the final word. This was found on Greg Sandow’s blog, where a reader contributed his thoughts in response to a Wall Street Journal article on the topic.

“I was a bit unsettled by your article on New York Philharmonic visit to North Korea, 10/27/2007, on WSJ. You never lived in such a society (“Darkness at Noon”, nothing less) and culture, how do you evaluate the impact of classic music to people “not familiar with Western composers”? I was first exposed to Mozart at a time when one of my school teachers beaten to death on the street like a wild dog. I didn’t quite understand what was going on, but through his Serenade I said to myself, “there are got to be a better world”. I was timely punished and sent away to a camp for scavenging these Columbia 33 1/2 records and listening to them.

After Philadelphia Philharmonic came to China (the audience was highly controlled and not telecasted), nobody over there thought it was a support to Mao, knowing you wouldn’t be raided on anymore if you listen to Duke Ellington, and knowing the more good stuff were coming. I surmise the viewpoints like yours must be more belligerent before Philadelphia Orch. did China. Alas, look at what happened.”

Hopefully “more good stuff” will be coming in North Korea’s near future.

For more information, read Daniel Wakin’s coverage in the NY Times, filled with lots of personal accounts and encounters that speak volumes. More revealing pictures, here.