Saturday Matinee

Last Friday night, I finally got a chance to attend my first San Francisco Symphony’s Summer & the Symphony series this year for an all-Mozart program conducted by James Gaffigan. The sunflowers were in full bloom in the lobby, and the gentle stylings of a lobby piano player added to the festive atmosphere. When I picked up my tickets at the box office, a really nice ticket office guy gave me a sponataneous serenade of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”. Who knew that a serenade was included in the price of a ticket?

Look, Mozart came! We couldn't decide if he was hired by the symphony or if he dressed up by his own free will.

It was an artful experience to watch conductor James Gaffigan lead an all-Mozart program. Gentility and delight abounds in Mozart’s music, where even in its maelstrom, stormy moments, you always know that the sun will shine again very soon. Gaffigan was the night’s master sculptor, lovingly shaping every lilting phrase with care and consideration. Unexpected charm lurked around every corner, giving Mozart’s overplayed music new life and a current freshness.

The opening overture to The Magic Flute had a cultivated yet buttery suaveness, interspersed with reverent, hymnic overtones. Mozart’s Elvira Madigan Concerto No. 21 followed, with pianist Jeremy Denk as Gaffigan’s perfect partner-in-crime. Every mindful detail in this concerto took off in meticulous flights of fancy in Denk’s thoughtful hands. I admit this has never been my favorite piano concerto, especially the second movement which I usually find painfully static. This performance miraculously made it my favorite for the night – Gaffigan coaxed a gently propelling bass line which gave movement to the impossibly slow melody. Denk made the piano sing like a wind instrument, with never ending phrases and notes that seemed to hang in mid air, and the melody weaved a slow yet mesmerizing spell.

Being the summer however, lots of familiar faces in the symphony were missing especially amongst the principals. The tightness of the group suffered a little bit, especially in the beginning moments of the final selection for the night, Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in g minor. However the evening ended on a high note, with a spontaneous encore with Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, as Gaffigan introduced, to end the evening not in a minor key but with “musical champagne”. This surprise encore seemed to disarm the audience of their “good concert behavior”, as people behind me hummed to the familiar melody and the audience clapped along. Rather than being annoyed as I usually might, I found myself wanting to sing along as well. To everyone’s delight, Gaffigan walked off the podium in the middle of the piece and let the orchestra play by themselves, as he sat behind the orchestra on the floor to enjoy the music. This move even had the fidgeting children in the center terrace to sit up and pay attention, and Gaffigan even gave them an affable wave. It was a fun moment that had everyone smiling as they left the auditorium, and a perfect end to a warm San Francisco summer evening.

San Francisco Symphony

There’s a new principal dancer in town at the San Francisco Ballet!

Recently I ran into two eye-catching ads at a local Bart station, one for the Smuin Ballet and another for Company C Contemporary Ballet. Company C Contemporary Ballet’s season seems to be over, but the Smuin Ballet’s spring season recently started up so be sure to check them out and report back! (Yes, that’s an order.)

Other upcoming events – San Francisco Symphony’s last Davies After Hours for the year is on May 22, with DJ/composer Mason Bates and SFS resident conductor Benjamin Schwartz team up to present Mercury Lounge: Mercury Soul comes to Davies. Click here to find out more about it. I can’t make it this time, but I’ll be catching the concert on Thursday. Mason Bates first caught my attention with his work played by the Youtube Symphony, where they previewed an excerpt of The B-Sides. I always cringe a bit when I hear about electronica merging with classical music (it’s done so poorly way too often), but his piece really surprised me, and I’m looking forward to hearing more. Bates’ The B-Sides will premiere at the SF Symphony preceding Davies After Hours, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. 

Also remember to check out their amazing summer schedule, titled Summer & the Symphony. It’s always a little more casual, breezier, and a great opportunity to try something new. My picks are James Gaffigan’s “my classic Mozart” program and “my classic Russian composers” with the amazing Orion Weiss, who was one of the best things I heard last year. And he’s playing the Rach 2, which I prefer over the serious suicide-by-drowning Rach 3. Rach 2 is the still serious yet discretely sensitive and passionate younger brother (sister? Not sure why I picked the male gender over female, but Rachmaninoff is so masculine) of Rach 3. Anyways. Look out for Jeremy Denk and Chris Botti as well.

Check out the video below for a preview of Mason Bates’ The B-Sides, performing with the Youtube Symphony, with the earnestly charming composer himself in the midst of the action.

Picking a program to attend can be a tricky thing. It’s usually a balance of who’s performing as well as what’s being performed (what other factors are there in a concert?). The San Francisco Symphony’s program on Friday night wasn’t particularly screaming my name, yet it proved to be a night of new revelations.

The evening was under the tight direction of Yan Pascal Tortelier, and his collaboration with the symphony proved to be a luminous one. In the opening selection of George Bizet’s Music from L’Arlesienne, the symphony almost sounded like a completely different orchestra. Tortelier took a rather cliched piece and brought out a range of ravishing colors. From its confident start to a transparent sound brimming with crisp, articulated details, the orchestra came alive under his direction. The result was captivating, with Tortelier visibly encouraging the orchestra and seemed to have music spilling out of his very being that he had memorized, directing without a score. 

Organ soloist Paul Jacobs

The Poulenc Organ Concerto in g minor followed, a piece unabashed in its innovation and dense ideas. The Poulenc showcases different facets of the instrument, including sounds that I’ve never thought the organ could do in my limited experience with this instrument. Poulenc seemed to play into the organ’s stereotypical sound of blaring dissonance sounding like the awesome angry voice of God, as well as openly flaunting its reputation by sounding like the flute or a stringed instrument in witty conversation with the orchestra. Soloist Paul Jacobs played with admirable authority, expertly commanding the complicated instrument. It was intriguing watching him at work, pulling out stops and watching his feet at work. I felt like I was discovering a completely new instrument, and a unique and even a little offbeat one at that. 

The second half of the concert featured works by British composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, a composer not often featured other than his ubiquitous rendition of “Greensleeves”. The Lark Ascending is a beautiful yet simple symphonic poem, reminiscent of a leaf blowing with the wind over stark moors in its plaintive melodies. Violin soloist Nadya Tichman’s gently musical style was a lovely and perfect fit for this piece. Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 4 in f minor was an elegant mess of a piece. Even in its most chaotic moments that maneuvered deftly over different keys and offbeats, there was a sense of dignity. Maybe this is a stereotypical British quality, but it was a complicated, intriguing mess that begs for a second experience.

This concert reminded me that the San Francisco Symphony is one of the city’s most precious treasures. It brings in interesting soloists and interesting works and creates masterpieces out of them, even in the most overplayed pieces. And, most of all, I forgot at how fun a concert can be. This was definitely one of the most fun I’d had at the symphony in a while.

San Francisco Symphony’s website

Other links:

• sfmike’s amusing take
• SF Chronicle review
• Paul Jacobs trumpets passion for organ music

When did Friday nights become the night for young professionals to be spend at the theater? More than one company has picked up on the fact that young people (er, people under age 60) actually want to attend the theater, but for one reason or another, never go. It’s a great idea that’s definitely taken off by making theater more like places where young people actually hang out. 

From the companies that I’m aware of, Berkeley Rep started first with their 30-Below parties with appropriately themed parties before or after a play (and 50% off the ticket price). San Francisco Ballet started their Fridays at the Ballet. I attended a few weeks ago, and it was a classy event that had a welcome atmosphere for mingling, including dancers. And San Francisco Symphony pulled out all the stops with a post-performance party with live music that connects to the symphony performance. And, it’s free! Friday April 24 will be their second Davies After Hours event, with power rock band NTL made up of SFS musicians playing instruments like electric bass and electric violin.

It’s a nice direction without compromising the quality of theater being presented. I do wish there were more dates available, but with SFB and SFS programs just started this year and hopefully next year will bring newer ideas (and more dates).

Friday night, I attended the San Francisco Symphony’s program in a performance I labeled as one of the most anticipated for 2009. In a completely sold out house, it was a rather hodgepodge program with pieces that were wildly different from each other. The draw for most of the audience was to see Martha Argerich perform in all her glory, including a friend of mine who had flown in from southern California just to see her perform. And perform gloriously she did.

To say that Argerich is a master of her craft is a gross understatement. I’ve heard Martha Argerich in her most startling and piercing (her Bach, for example). But this was more of a performance of quiet understated beauty, yet not without its dynamic contrasts. In a brilliantly whimsical Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major, Argerich takes the audience on a gratifying journey that she knows very well. She showers us with flashes of sparkling wit and fire in the fast first and third movements, and lush watery colors and exquisite beauty in the second movement. In one section in the second movement, the piano weaves a hypnotic counterpoint to songs sung by woodwind solos, with a particularly lovely one by Russ deLuna on English horn. The piece was sensitively accompanied by the highly attuned San Francisco Symphony under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas. Despite multiple curtain calls, Argerich looked genuinely apologetic by taking her leave without an encore. In all, it was a refreshing take of an artist at her peak, truly honoring the music rather than putting the spotlight on herself. Her performance is so satisfying with a soaring and complete narrative. She makes performing look so easy, I can’t help but to wonder why everyone can’t play like she does. I’m reminded at how rare a performance like hers is; she truly is a true master of her craft, unlike any other. This is why she is my favorite piano player.

The other most talked about piece on this program was Ligeti’s Requiem, featuring the San Francisco Symphony Chorus and conducted by director Ragnar Bohlin. Written in 1965, it is the type of modern music that usually makes me want to claw my eyes out – cacophanous, challenging, irritating, tedious. My friend who’s equally not used to modern music, claimed that the experience was like trying to eat razorblades through his ears. And yet. I found something extremely profound despite my certainty to not like it. There is an undeniable truth to a piece that encompasses the emotions of a true funeral song, with visions of mourning, pleading, and unspeakable grief, rather than the traditional requiems where the chorus sings valliantly of honorable prayers of faith. It starts out in a low rumble that’s more a vibration than a sound. Scary outbursts intersperse the song at merciless volumes, in a cacophany of screaming sopranos and general dissonance. The second “Kyrie” is an ascent of horror, with the third “De die judicii sequentia” dissolving into utter chaos, with extremes in both registers and volume. The first “Introitus” embodies a disturbing emotion of a cry of someone that’s been crying for days – still deep in grief, yet too exhausted for a cry. The effect is deeply haunting. 

The soloists for Ligeti’s Requiem, soprano Hannah Holgersson and mezzo-soprano Annika Hudak, sang with admirable commitment in parts that otherwise may veer into the arena of “very silly”. Perhaps not the best showcases for their voices, yet a praiseworthy performance nonetheless in difficult music.

The concert opened with an 16th century choral piece, Gabrieli’s In ecclesiis. A majority of the chorus filed in two single files down the side aisles, reminiscent of a scene in The Sound of Music where the Nazis infiltrate the theater to take away the Von Trapp family. The song was appropriately church-y, with the added excitement of being surrounded by the tossing of melodies from one side of the hall to the other. Standouts included the two tenor soloists, Joel Jay Baluyot and Thomas Busse, who sang with bell-like clarity. The concert ended with Liszt’s Tasso: Lamento e Trionfo. A standard of romanticism yet fairly nondescript from its romantic counterparts, this piece was at the very least, an excellent showcase for the symphony’s acoustic range and richness of sound and heart. 

San Francisco Symphony’s website

• Kosman’s review in the SF Chronicle
• San Francisco Classical Voice
• sfmike’s amusing take
• A series of haikus, inspired by Ligeti’s Requiem. Reverberate Hills
• Oboeinsight’s non-review
• Buy Martha Argerich’s CD of Ravel, along with Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto, here
• Ligeti’s Requiem, here

A video of Martha Argerich playing the third movement of the Ravel Piano Concerto.

And… I’m back! Apologies for the long absence, but I hope everyone had a great holiday like I did. I did a bit of shuttling back and forth from home (HOME home) and work, but it was all worth it and I managed to keep things up at work at the same time. Can everyone believe it’s already 2009?? It’s hard not to look ahead to the next year without being optimistic. But last year was a good one. On a personal and professional (i.e. non-blogging) level, 2008 was filled with a lot of frustration and struggle, but I ended up a much happier and stronger person. Last year was truly a year I can say that I really grew. That much strife is never fun, but if this year brings the same, I hope I’m ready for it! And what a great year this was for theater! Below are things that impressed me deeply. Let’s get on with it.

Biggest event of the year: San Francisco Ballet’s New Works Festival. Hands down, this event was probably the most widely written about event of the year. I attended opening night which was a blast being surrounded by critics I’ve read so much about. As advertised, it was an over-the-top, stupendous event that sent reverberations throughout the dance world, all of the world, with its 10 world premieres in three days by the greatest choreographers alive today. In another sense however, it was difficult to ignore a disappointment that no matter what, this festival could not live up to its hype. Crammed into three days, the pieces looked much more alive and urgently present when I saw the company later in the year, on tour. Despite the harriedness and the hype, the festival was simply awesome.

Best performance of the year: Yuan Yuan Tan and Tiit Helimet’s Giselle, especially the second act. Heartbreaking, heavenly, transporting, it was a performance that transcended this world. Tan and Helimets seemed to melt into each other, and it’s a performance I’ll never forget.

Yuan Yuan Tan and Tiit Helimets in Tomasson’s Giselle. © Erik Tomasson

Honorable mentions:

• Jared Angle and Yvonne Borree in Balanchine’s Duo Concertant
• the snap and crackle of San Francisco Symphony performing Bernstein’s West Side Story Suite 
• the generous spirit of Alvin Ailey’s Revelations
• Possohkov’s Sagalobeli as the dancers of the State Ballet of Georgia danced with deep heart and loyalty
• Peter Wyrick’s solo in Lindberg’s Seht die Sonne in a slightly technically unwieldy yet resonating outpour of song
• the intellectual yet hilarious and musically thoughtful Julia Adam’s A rose by any other name. 

Breakout stars of the year: two performers that unexpectedly floored me this year (which, as I see more and more great performers, is getting harder to do but these performers are phenomenal) – a tie between pianist Orion Weiss‘ vibrant rendition of Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto with the Marin Symphony, and Isaac Hernandez‘s explosive yet brief solo as the Russian in San Francisco Ballet’s Nutcracker who will be one to watch for the upcoming year.

A common theme for this year: the merging of science and art. From opera (John Adams’ Dr. Atomic), to ballet (Wayne McGregor’s Eden/Eden about cloning), and classical music (Turnage’s Three Asteroids) and even a choreographed piece of my own. None of these pieces were even created this year, but I’m slowly starting to see science’s influence emerge repeatedly in the arts.

Best non-ballet, non-classical musical event: Berkeley Rep’s Figaro. Yes, I realize my biases and preferences for ballet and classical music are clear, but there were other events that I thoroughly enjoyed as well, such as the genre-defying play at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, a company that continues to take risks and always presents something surprising, innovative, and relevant.

A special shoutout to: A great year for TV, especially PBS’ Great Performances. From the startingly poignant performance of Raul Esparza in the revival of Sondheim’s Company, to the magical broadcast of SF Ballet’s Nutcracker, to SF Symphony’s opening performance of Carnegie Hall’s season, I’m duly impressed with the arts that are made accessible to audiences all over the US.

Most popular blog entry: Sascha Radetsky’s Last Performance with ABT by FAR - either he’s the most googled ballet dancer or he’s googling himself a million times, with my review of San Francisco Ballet’s Nutcracker the next popular blog entry with so many people googling it during Nutcracker season that it broke the record on my blog for the most number of hits in one day.

Most anticipated events for 2009:

• Martha Argerich performs Ravel’s piano concerto with MTT and the San Francisco Symphony
• the entire 2009 season for San Francisco Ballet which is, believe it or not, better than last year’s (especially the full length Balanchine’s Jewels, Swan Lake, and an evening of Mark Morris) and let’s not forget to savor the final year for Tina LeBlanc with the SF Ballet
• Julia Adam’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Diablo Ballet.

Martha Argerich

My advice for 2009:

• Support theater!! Buy tickets, drag friends with you, comment and discuss what you see either on this blog or other blogs, and don’t forget about smaller, local companies that are struggling in this dismal, arts-unfriendly economy
• Do not buy pre-sale tickets for Wicked but wait it out until the hype dies down (and it will!).

What were your favorite performances for 2008? Anyone think I left something out?

Here’s to a year of innovative theater, unspeakly beautiful dance, and soul-touching music!

Riding high on a wave of international acclaim after the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony and being chosen as one of People Magazine‘s 2008 Sexiest Men Alive, pianist Lang Lang breezed into San Francisco last week in a versatile series of performances. Ranging from a solo piano recital, to Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Lang Lang ended the week with a chamber music concert with violinist Nadya Tichman and cellist Peter Wyrick. I caught his chamber music concert with San Francisco Symphony musicians on Sunday night at the Davies Symphony Hall.

Anyone who is even a little familiar with the classical music world knows fair well that despite sold out houses and household name status, Lang Lang is an easy target ridiculed by both the press and the public. With an over-the-top animated style where his hands fly a good two feet off of the piano and flourishes are common, he is admittedly really fun to watch but can catch the audience off guard as familiar piano pieces can sound unrecognizable peppered with aggressive personal stylings.  A critic from London’s Telegraph declares, “he needs a mentor to tell him to grow up and not be so silly” in an article titled, “Lang Lang: A bravura display of preening”. In a NY Times article, he is the poster child for an article titled, “When Histrionics Undermine the Music and the Pianist”. Out of the three concerts he put on (solo piano recital, concerto, or chamber music), the concerto is best suited to showcase Lang Lang’s brazen showmanship; the recital and chamber music require subtle transparency that Lang Lang isn’t well known for. But because I could only make the Sunday night concert, I was unexpectedly but pleasantly surprised when I found the chamber music setting to offset Lang Lang’s melodramatic style in an advantageous way.

Granted, Lang Lang is still most comfortable when left to his own devices and free will, but if forced to be a team player, Lang Lang can do it to an admirable degree. Tempo and volume were more controlled as he had to match the two other players, and his virtuosic technical abilities were able to shine through. Despite muddy pedaling at the beginning of the concert, at times Lang Lang seemed to fly when playing a shower of notes with clarity and lightness. As a group, Tichman, Wyrick, and Lang Lang made a unified trio because stylistically, all three are musicians that perform with stirring lyricism rather than being exact technicians. As a result, moments of true poetry emerged. However, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this concert was a tad under rehearsed with one too many technical fumbles and pitchy moments. Things never strayed into the precarious however and stayed solid all the way through. The concert opened with the sunny Schubert Trio No. 1 in B flat major, a world in which the music evolved seamlessly over time. The third movement Scherzo flit in and out of major and minor keys. The smokier Tchaikovsky Trio in A minor fit the character of this trio better as the players were able to let go a little and dig deeper into the drama and suspense of the music. But this freedom made Lang Lang sound like a different musician from the Schubert trio – more confident, more soloistic, and less careful. This confidence also affected the tempo of the piece, as moments in the first movement got faster and faster with the strings trying to keep up. The second movement was a theme and variations, a smorgasbord of segments strung together with breaks that gave it a disjointed yet monotonously repetitive feel without enough logic to fully engage. It still possessed the melodies that Tchaikovsky is famous for, including a moment where the piano sets the tempo with a funeral march-like strictness with the strings pulling the melody forward with heartrending emotion. The third movement ended on a typical Lang Lang way on a self indulgent note, where he drew out the quiet ending to an extreme to the point where the audience didn’t quite know when the piece was over as he dramatically held his hands over the piano for what seemed like minutes. Sounds of eyerolls echoed around the symphony hall – or maybe it was just in my own head.

The audience went crazy the entire concert, applauding after every single movement and even in between variations in the second movement of the Tchaikovsky trio. Whatever reservations I had seemed to be completely lost on the almost completely sold out house. Overall, the concert on Sunday night demonstrated the quality of professionalism of all three musicians, in spite of sufficient rehearsal time or not at the end of a busy week for Lang Lang in which he presented three different concerts in a very short period of time. Anyone who’s played in a chamber music group knows how difficult it is to be in such a transparent and collaborative environment. I still can’t help but to wonder if playing with Lang Lang is like playing with a bomb that might unpredictably go off at any minute, but the musicians kept it together and even managed to squeeze in moments of really great music. Violinist Nadya Tichman played with a lovely quiet solidarity and sensitivity. Cellist Peter Wyrick is a gem, performing with genuine heart and musicality pouring from every pore, showcasing the rich sounds of the cello to the highest degree. It was a unique setting that showcased individual talents more than I would ever see in a San Francisco Symphony concert and a great opportunity to see Lang Lang in a more collaborative and unique chamber music setting.

San Francisco Symphony

Other links:

• Kosman’s reviews in the SF Chronicle, of LL’s solo recital (“Lang Lang batters the piano“) and his concert with the SF Symphony (“Wigglesworth, Lang Lang a Hit at Symphony“). You can sense the polarizing effect LL has by reading the comments.
• You can pedal like Lang Lang with Lang Lang Adidas sneakers for a mere $125! He really is a marketing machine.
• Lang Lang: His Life So Far – NY Times by Tommasini

All photos © Erik Tomasson

Lorena Feijoo and Joan Boada in Possohkov’s Fusion. © Erik Tomasson

After too long of a hiatus, I finally got a chance to see my beloved San Francisco Ballet on their American Tour in Orange County this weekend. After hearing all the rave reviews in the other stops on their tour, I was curious to see how the company looked after the summer. It was fun to see many of the men sporting spiffy new haircuts, and even though it’s late in the tour with only one more stop after Orange County, the company showed no signs of wear or tear and looked absolutely phenomenal.

I had previously seen Possohkov’s Fusion and Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour at the opening night of their world premiere back in April, and in the few months that have passed, the pieces looked like completely new pieces. For both dances, the choreography had seeped more into the dancers’ pores, where the movements looked more instinctual and were performed with more of a natural flair compared to opening night. In Fusion, resident choreographer Possohkov has his finger on the pulse of the company, where the dancers looked like they were born to dance this piece. Despite some structural issues I still have with this piece with the two groups of opposing dancers (the whirling dervishes and the contemporary costumed dancers) integrating cohesively into one dance, with every whirling turn to every sensuous hip wiggle, each movement was sold to the eager and captivated audience. The overall effect was hauntingly mystical, yet complexly modern.

Yuan Yuan Tan and Benjamin Stewart in Fusion

Vanessa Zahorian in Fusion

Bathed in a warm glow, Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour was especially breathtaking. You can almost hear Wheeldon working the steps, trying new things, and reinventing movements and poses. But rather than spiralling into an esoteric multilayered analytical mess, Wheeldon as a master sculptor shapes the steps into something more than the sum of its parts. There’s delight at every corner. Lilting quirks punctuate the gently nimble music by Vivaldi and Ezio Bosso. Wheeldon’s invention worked especially well in the ensemble dancing, where different groups are set up against each other, each group quickly melting into the next and culminating in a triumph with the dancers swirling around each other in a circle. There’s a pas de deux with the lead couple, danced by Katita Waldo and Damian Smith that tripped along charmingly, with Waldo’s leggy glamour and Smith’s unwavering strength. A recurring motif with two male dancers, Garen Scribner and Martyn Garside, burst with lithe agility and vivid sensuality. Scribner was his usual self with his clean lines and striking stage presence. I had to look up Garside, a dancer I didn’t initially recognize, as he stepped up to match Scribner’s presence with his eye-catching dramatic authority and fiery abandon. Some of the pas de deux (what is plural of pas de deux?) especially in the slower ones had the drawn out feeling of a measured awakening that evolved over time but never resolved, still maintaining Wheeldon’s inventiveness. The overall effect was a joyful and richly layered enchanting journey of a sunny, warm world that was winningly the audience favorite of the night.

Maria Kochetkova and Joan Boada in Within the Golden Hour

The program ended with an about face with Balanchine’s Four Temperaments. Set in a stark setting with severe black leotards and simple background, the atonal pulsing music by Paul Hindemith propelled the physicality and the sharp angles of this piece. The overall effect is cool, detached, and a “better than you” distance that makes this piece in my personal opinion, a piece to be respected and admired but difficult to love. There’s lots to think about however, as the evening’s theme of invention continues. The Four Temperaments which premiered in 1946 is so forward thinking that one could easily guess that this piece was made this year. Loosely based on a theme and variations with each variation based on the four humors of the body (black bile, blood, phlegm, and yellow bile whatever that is), these associations with the human body are hard to visualize. A group of four girls (representing the four temperaments?) repeatedly make an appearance as an aloof and unrelentless army of Fembots in leotards, pushing forward with razor sharp pointed feet. My favorite variation was Phlegmatic, with Pierre-Francois Vilanoba in the foreground of these four girls, carving out his presence in space and time with his long sinuous limbs. Pascal Molat flew as the soloist in the Melancholic variation, and Lorena Feijoo and Tiit Helimets created a whirlwind of energy in the Sanguinic variation. In terms of audience response, this 180 degree turn in the mood seemed to catch everyone off guard as the ready applause died down a bit, but perhaps everyone was deep in thought rather than on reflex emotional response. The evening ended with an overwhelming presence of the entire ensemble dancing with hard edged precision, led by the polished Sofiane Sylve.

San Francisco Ballet with Pierre-Francois Vilanoba in Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments.

In all, this was a very long way of saying that San Francisco Ballet overwhelmingly succeeded in showing the audience that ballet is not merely a showcase of tricks, but a complete intellectual and emotional experience that is as diverse as it is deep. It was in a series of Pascal Molat’s entrechats near the end of the night that I realized that I hadn’t seen a fouette or the usual ballet applause-generators, but all the steps were seamlessly incorporated artistically into generating a mood, an emotion, a thought. This is a huge testament to the skill of the company and their ability to completely transport the audience into worlds unseen, and I can’t remember the last time that I found a ballet performance so complete and thrillingly satisfying. It’s also to San Francisco Ballet’s credit that they seem to send their best dancers out on tour, which is a different approach from some ballet companies, leaving a trail of obsessive fans in its wake. The dancers have never looked better; there was a moment in the Wheeldon piece where Damian Smith, Pierre-Francois Vilanoba, and Joan Boada were merely standing in a line in an easy fourth position. There was something about their similar build and jaw-dropping stage presence that was simply awe-inspiring. I’m also sure that pride in my hometown ballet company and the long hiatus added to my enjoyment as well. What a perfect way to officially end San Francisco Ballet’s 75th anniversary with a national tour that sets its stamp on the dance world as a pioneer and leader in the world of contemporary ballet.

San Francisco Ballet stops in Washington D.C. next, November 25-30 as the last stop of their American Tour. Be sure to catch their Giselle!! Here’s my review of SFB’s Giselle.

Other reviews:

• LA Times

UPDATE: In the spirit of innovation and as a result of a conversation I had with a friend, I decided to write up reviews for Fusion and Within the Golden Hour in haiku (in the loosest syllable definition of the word). For what it’s worth, enjoy.

A Celebration of Leonard Bernstein

Michael Tilson Thomas leads the San Francisco Symphony with Hampson, Upshaw, Ma, and Ebersole at Carnegie Hall’s 2008-09 season opening night, 9/24/08. Photo by Chris Lee.

I almost forgot about this until reminded by Patty - San Francisco Symphony opened Carnegie Hall this year, and it will be broadcast on PBS Great Performances on October 29 (check your local listings here) with guests soloists baritone Thomas Hampson, soprano Dawn Upshaw, cellist Yo Yo Ma, and Broadway star Christine Ebersole. A DVD will also be released. It’s a great chance to see my favorite San Francisco Symphony led by the very animated Michael Tilson Thomas, and a slew of stars in this sold out concert. And, in this economy, it’s free!

A very funny clip from the Colbert Report with Yo Yo Ma – fun to watch them as they try to keep from cracking each other up.

Colbert: You are a superstar cellist. What does that mean?
Ma: Nothing.

Joshua Bell

Apparently Joshua Bell is the antidote to lagging symphony ticket sales in this abysmal economy. You couldn’t tell that the country was in any state of economic crisis by looking around at the completely sold out concert on Saturday night at the Davies Symphony Concert Hall, with the San Francisco Symphony. He didn’t even need to be playing the Mendelssohn, or Tchaikovsky, or Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. It was amazing, and a testament to the commitment of his wonderfully diverse (in ages, especially) and enthusiastic fans to celebrate his artistry. As always, Bell gave a clear performance balancing both detailed thought and emotion. It’s never about the fireworks, but every moment serves the music admirably. Bell also has the uncanny way of making the cliche sound fresh and new. Saint-Saens’ “Introduction and Rondo capriccioso Op. 28″ was as light as a feather, with a wide emotional range and a delightful lesson on contrasts, in both volume and sudden tempo changes. This was followed by Ravel’s Tzigane (French for “gypsy” as I was told by a passerby during intermission), a free form gypsy melody, with interesting eerie sounds emerging from the violin, from high whisper-soft harmonics to a smattering of wide ranging pizzicatos. If listeners were disappointed with the technical and artistic demands of these pieces compared to cornerstone violin warhorse fare, it at least served as a brilliant vehicle for Bell’s showmanship in quirky pieces with high but specific demands, which Bell met brilliantly. In addition, whoever did the programming seemed hellbent on picking two pieces that were as difficult as possible to accompany; both pieces had vast sudden tempo changes and exact transparent entrances. Conducted admirably by Fabio Luisi, the orchestra never sounded more unified with the soloist despite the difficult demands of the material, with precise timing and visibly avid communication between both conductor and soloist.

Joshua Bell was clearly the draw for audiences for this program, and the rest of the program was a bit of a let down, programming-wise especially. Despite this, the San Francisco Symphony rose above its programming and still charmed. The performance opened with R. Strauss’ Don Juan, Op. 20. Conductor Luisi coaxed an exultant full sound from the orchestra. The layered complexity of lingering dissonance caught my interest until it got smothered in the simplicity of an overwhelming emotion reminiscent of movie music. The performance closed with Franz Schmidt’s Symphony No. 4 in C major. I’d never heard of Schmidt until this performance, but he is an early 1900′s composer who wrote this symphony after the death of his young daughter, Emma. The sadness is evident in this symphony, opening with a mournful, meandering trumpet solo by Mark Inouye. Yet it’s not all sad, starting with the fact that it’s set in the key of C major, usually a warmly sunny key. The piece alternates repeatedly between the distantly alien and a comforting familiarity, broken up briefly by a scherzo that gives way to a march-like procession. The movements melt together into one long piece with no breaks between movements, as a long, tonal poem rather than a normal symphony, with a result that failed to engage. Apparently I wasn’t the only one thought that way; the orchestra seats showed more empty seats than were there before intermission, and the guy next to me was either examining his bellybutton pretty closely, or had fallen asleep. With all this though, the soloists in this symphony stood out. Standouts were Carey Bell, principal clarinet, and an exceptionally musical performance by English horn player Russ deLuna whose made the melody sing with stirring clarity.

In all, it was a great opportunity to see Joshua Bell again, who has consistently given impressive performances that are as unexpected as they are varied. Despite being under the baton of a different conductor, the symphony sounded wonderfully confident.

Check out one of my favorite performances of all time, Joshua Bell’s Vivaldi: The Four Seasons with Academy St. Martins in the Fields, which I caught live last year.

San Francisco Symphony