Happy Birthday Robert Commanday (updated)
Robert Commanday
Here’s to the Memories
We have many good memories of you and those tumultuous Adler years at San Francisco Opera. You were always honest and thoroughly candid. We suffered those annual luncheons together when Mr. A. had to make his “surprise” announcements of the forthcoming season. I recall your exasperation at the formality of the occasion, wondering, “Why can’t we just get an announcement and forgo all of this bull*?” It was a pleasure to work with you, recalling the glories of Sutherland and Sills, Domingo and Pavarotti, the big Ring Cycle (whose casting seems a dream now), and even that ill-fated Aida when anything could have happened … and, in fact, did. Many Happy Returns, Bob, from Lenox, Mass. I remember and honor you on your day. Peggy sends her greetings, as well.
Truth and Discovery
I recall my audition for Treble Clef in 1950. Millicent Hansen (Tomkins) and I sang the solo parts from L’Invitation d’uune Voyage of Duparc. You discovered me!! And then there were the years of reviewing my performances, sometimes favorable, sometimes not. But always honest.
I am glad that you are doing well. Making Music at the Bohemian Grove this year? Hi to Mary.
A Guiding Force
It’s a pleasure to comment on Bob’s birthday, and I would like to spotlight his rock solid musical criticism at The San Francisco Chronicle, and for his creation of an independent, wide-ranging San Francisco Bay Area musical criticism vehicle (SFCV) following the demise of comprehensive musical newspaper criticism. Bob’s stature is surely equal to two of my friends, Albert Goldberg of The Los Angeles Times, and Harold Schonberg of the The New York Times. Bob always said in print what needed to be said, including supporting Frankenstein and detailing the foibles of the S.F. Symphony and S.F. Opera with their bloated budgets and husky endowments. I do not know the choral conducting that others describe below, but I know from numerous musicians that they particularly respected his expertise in choral music, solo cello, chamber music, and, of course, the rich treasures of the symphonic repertoire.
Bob’s establishing the SFCV was an exhilarating accomplishment, leading the way to continuing serious classical musical criticism from Monterey to Santa Rosa to Sacramento, outside of the conventional media. What a concept, and how well it has worked! In the North Bay, we have copied Bob’s groundbreaking work, and www.nbcm.org and currently www.classicalsonoma.org mirror his achievement for an online service to music.
Warm wishes to Robert Commanday for many more happy years.
An Inspiration
We go back a long way in each other’s lives, don’t we, Bob? I was four or five months pregnant when I auditioned with you for the Oakland Chorus many decades ago, singing “Bist du bei mir.” You accepted me, and the rest is history.
Thank you for nudging me to write for the then newly formed SFCV, when I told you I wasn’t singing any more. I told you I wanted to try other things.
“What things?” you asked.
“Oh, maybe writing,” I said.
You told me how to write reviews, guided me through my many mistakes, and made me a better writer. So today, I send you abundant heartfelt wishes for your birthday and for many happy returns of same. May you enjoy them in good health and good spirits.
Dressed for the Opera, with Jemmie
Quick Wishes
Congratulations on the day and here’s to many more! Your contributions to San Francisco’s musical scene are numerous and much appreciated by all.
WOW!!! 86. Happy happy. You beat me by 2 years. Nice to know that neither of us feel it and wonderful to feel like we are real contributors to this world, one way or another. Mostly, nice to know we are such good people — at least we all we know you are!
Bravissimo, Maestro.
Musical Gifts
Happy Birthday Robert Commanday! What would you like? The Stravinsky version of the standard greeting, or one, I believe, by Nicholas Slonimsky? Myself, I’d prefer the Bruckner 3rd Symphony played by the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra under the baton of Kurt Masur.
P.S. I am really enjoying volunteering in the Opera’s communications department on Monday afternoons with your delightful granddaughter Elisabeth Swim; I attended a concert in Davies Hall and it was fascinating because you look so much alike!
Toasting You From Turkey
Greetings from sunny Istanbul, Turkey, where I am a music journalist with Time Out magazine. I’m also teaching music at the Conservatoire inside the French Consulate here. Believe me, at a time when arts journalists are getting the axe in the U.S., I feel very fortunate to have an editor here who says, literally, “write whatever you want.” And I do.
I see on SFCV it’s your B-Day, so I take this occasion to renew my contact with you and let you know I still read the Web site every week. It’s a wonderful service to the Bay Area’s rich performing arts world, the artists, and a model for arts journalism around the world.
I hope your birthday today is wonderful, full of friends, and some great music!
Best wishes.
Counducting on a Japan reunion tour
To 86 More …
I wanted to add my birthday greetings and good wishes to all the others that will no doubt come flooding in for your 86th! Not only are you fondly remembered by those of us who “knew you when,” but it is delightful having your granddaughter working at San Francisco Opera. Elisabeth’s work-space, and that of her colleague, Micah, are one of the many places in the WMOH where I worked when I was producing the radio broadcasts during the 1970’s.
Be well, and enjoy your longevity!
Thanks for Writing
Happy Birthday, and may you have many more healthy years of listening to and writing about music!
And a belated thank you, for letting me write for SFCV.
Yours gratefully,
Singing Your Praises
I sang in the Oakland Symphony Chorus in 1997 (or 1998?) when you directed us for two movements of the Mozart Requiem. OSC was commemorating its 40th anniversary and had invited all previous directors to attend and you showed up! I recall talking to you at the reception after and you mentioning this new endeavor, the San Francisco Classical Voice, an attempt to bring professional-level music criticism to cyberspace (still quite new then).
And you succeeded! I still cannot miss each weekly edition and am so impressed with the stable of critics and how much I learn about classical music and musicians from SFCV.
And for those of you SFCV‘ers out there who would like to perform (again?) under Bob’s baton, the OSC will feature him July 29 at the Summer Sing-ins for the Brahms Requiem. NOT to be missed!
Thanks again, Bob, for your continued support of Bay Area classical music. And Happy Birthday!
Writing Muse
Congratulations on your birthday from an old frend and admirer. I’ve been out of music criticism quite a while, and only recently returned to arts writing after a long stint in new media management. It was at the MCANA convention recently in Denver that I learned your birthday was coming up. You were president of the MCA when I first began working as a critic and you were helpful in so many different ways — getting me into an early writers’ workshop at Ravinia was important early on.
What I now see on your site is indeed impressive, obviously the result of steady nurturing over many years, and I can see that you are continuing to cultivate writers. Congratulations to a life well managed and many good choices.
All the best to you always,
Want to write a tribute?
Send an e-mail to editor@sfcv.org.