It's News to Me

Janos Gereben on August 25, 2015
BBC Proms home Royal Albert Hall, where the S.F. Symphony is headed
BBC Proms home Royal Albert Hall, where the S.F. Symphony is headed

BBC-TV Vs. SFS

Out here in the colonies, we are lucky to get the daily bliss of broadcasts from the fabulous BBC Proms in Albert Hall, but BBC telecasts are something else: They are restricted to the U.K.

There are differences between what's scheduled on TV and on radio, and one (to us) glaring exception to the televised proms are this month's San Francisco Symphony concerts – both on Aug. 30 (Schoenberg, Cowell, Mahler) and Aug. 31 (Ives, Bartók, Beethoven). Live broadcasts on BBC-3 begin at 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time.

The intermission of the Aug. 31 concert will feature an interview with Michael Tilson Thomas and former SFS Director of Artistic Planning John Mangum.

Here are some other highlights of the Proms' BBC-3 broadcasts, now also available in 4.0 HD surround sound stream:

* The Aug. 24 concert is available in podcast: Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts The Miraculous Mandarin Suite, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 (with David Fray), and Shostakovich's Orango - Prologue, a 30-minute fragment from an unfinished opera, discovered in 2006, and first performed, also under Salonen, by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

* On Aug. 26, François-Xavier Roth conducts a concert celebrating Pierre Boulez's 90th birthday with the composer's ...explosante-fixe..., along with Ligeti’s Lontano, and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra.

* On Aug. 28, Bernard Haitink conducts the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, performing Schubert's Symphony No. 9 in C Major, and Maria João Pires as soloist in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major.

David Gockley taking the helm of S.F. Opera in 2006 - shown here at his first press conference, with then-music director Donald Runnicles
David Gockley taking the helm of S.F. Opera in 2006 - shown here at his first press conference, with then-music director Donald Runnicles

Fall 2015: There'll Be Some Changes Made

The 1921 pop song by Benton Overstreet and William Blackstone has a special meaning here as Sept. 23 is approaching. That's when the sun is crossing the celestial equator going southward, signaling the autumnal equinox, the end of summer, no more wearing white – and no more delay in filling numerous important positions in the art world.

* On the local music scene and beyond, watched by the global opera community, the most significant change is the succession to San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley. His retirement, effective at the end of the 2016 summer season, was first reported here last year. An announcement was expected this summer to give the new director time to prepare for the changeover, but it hasn't come yet.

* An important vacancy turned up just last week when Stanford Live's Executive Director Wiley Hausam, announced that he will be leaving the university to relocate to Los Angeles. He will take the position of artistic and executive director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Stage at the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, starting in October and taking up the position full-time on Nov. 1. Hausam came to Stanford in 2012 and oversaw the launch of Bing Concert Hall the next year. Search for a successor has just begun.

* Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Director Colin Bailey announced in April that after two years here he is leaving for the position of director at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York. Board of Trustees President Diane B. Wilsey is overseeing the lengthy selection process for a new leader of the country's fifth most visited museums, the de Young and the Legion of Honor. Wilsey herself managed the museums after the death of John Buchanan, and Bailey was her choice. Under Buchanan's leadership (2006-2012), both buildings – with splendid facilities – hosted music events frequently, but that contribution in a venue-poor city has decreased recently.

* At the S.F. Symphony, Director of Artistic Planning Nicholas Winter left the organization, and a search is on for a successor to the position which provides major assistance to Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas. Winter joined SFS last September, coming from from a similar position with the Chicago Symphony, where he served five years. Winter succeeded John Mangum, who came from the New York Philharmonic three years previous, and left to become president of the Orange County Philharmonic Society.

Lisa Shumate, general manager of KUHA, says selling the frequency will help "to focus on the best piece of technology" (Photo by Andrew Richardson/<em>Houston Chronicle</em>)
Lisa Shumate, general manager of KUHA, says selling the frequency will help "to focus on the best piece of technology" (Photo by Andrew Richardson/Houston Chronicle)

Will Classical Music Disappear from the FM Dial?

What caught my eye was the frequency: 91.7, but the story is not about San Francisco's KALW-FM. At least, not now – but it may yet happen and that's not good, not for listeners, self included, who mix the century-old over-the-air technology with online streaming and such.

The article in the Houston Chronicle is about KUHA, 91.7 FM, the University of Houston's classical-music station. The frequency and transmitter are up for sale, expected to bring in approximately the $9.5 million the university paid for it just five years ago. The station will switch to broadcasts over the 88.7-2 HD subchannel, and through applications such as iHeartRadio and TuneIn.

Lisa Shumate, general manager of Houston Public Media, which operates the university's broadcasting properties, gave the move a positive spin:

We are already in HD and are streaming. Why would you pay for another transmitter and tower when, if you take the time, you can tell the public how they can get better sound using (HD Radio) at 88.7? This was a strategy decision, not a "we don't have the money" decision.

Classical music lovers are very passionate and have been very supportive. It is expensive to keep an operation going 24/7. The best thing we can do is to keep classical music in the most efficient way possible.

Those who listen over the air still have about six months before another station broadcasts on the frequency. The station is licensed for 50,000 watts and transmits from a 500-foot tower.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, KDFC-FM, which has undergone many changes in recent years, both broadcasts and streams classical music, full-time. KALW, the oldest FM station west of the Mississippi (launched in 1939), provides a great deal of both NPR-originated and locally generated classical music programs.

The tenor during the operation
The tenor during the operation

Singing Schubert Under the Knife

As a stranger I arrived
As a stranger I shall leave
I remember a perfect day in May
How bright the flowers
How cool the breeze


As if Wilhelm Müller's poem in Schubert's sorrowful ostinato (foreshadowing the organ-grinder conclusion to the song cycle) were not hypnotic enough, here's a video that will haunt you by "Gute Nacht" for days. (I speak from experience, having gone to a concert after watching the Winterreise excerpt, and the live music mixed with the theme running around in my head.)

Certain kinds of brain surgery require the patient to be conscious and talk during the procedure. What makes the story of Slovenian tenor Ambroz Bajec-Lapajne unusual is that he was performing the Schubert song while undergoing craniotomy to remove a tumor from his brain.

He released a video of himself performing the couplets while lying on his side, as surgeons performed the surgery. The team at Utrecht University Medical Center asked him to perform the songs in two different keys so that they could ensure his cognitive functions were working properly.

At 2:50 of the video, the voice fades and then comes to a halt, but the tenor quickly recovers. "I believe they rewired my brain for a while and that was the result. I could not control my tongue anymore and could not stop phonating. It was a very weird feeling,” he said.

A year after the surgery, Bajec-Lapajne said he is "doing fine, continuing my professional singing career."