San Francisco Classical Voice

LISTENERS' BOX

Responses to Recent Issues

Caesar Realized

Wow! Thanks for Brett Campbell's article "Hail Caesar! Harrison Opera's Epic Quest" on Feb. 13: It is so cool that Lou Harrison's opera is being performed. I attended San Jose State when he was a professor there and got to know him a little. I remember seeing the miniature puppets in his office area and reading about the production. I thought at that time that it would have been an opera I would have liked to performed in someday — although, then I would have played Young Cesar, but now I'd be Nicodemus.

— Norm DeVol

The Point of Preconcert Talks

I have been increasingly upset by the low quality of the San Francisco Symphony's preconcert talks. A few have been extremely useful in preparing to hear the works to be played. Last Saturday night, Camille Crittenden did a wonderful job of giving us information about the four works on the program: two by Berlioz, Debussy's Nocturnes, and Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice. In a half hour she discussed all four and I left my seat feeling that my understanding had been strengthened.

On the other hand, too often the person presenting appears to have gone to his file cabinet, extracted notes for his university class lectures, and proceeded to give to his layperson audience the same presentation he gives to his music majors. A couple of examples: Last Wednesday morning at the open rehearsal, James M. Keller, the Symphony's program annotator, noted at the start of his lecture that there were the unusual number of six compositions on the program. He then spent the next half hour explaining in great depth the history and importance of the Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 2. The other five works, many of which were little[-known] or unknown to the audience, were totally ignored. We found out about the differences between the unvalved trumpet of Bach's time and the instrument Mr. Williams would be playing later in the morning.

Another example of this same technique has been twice exhibited by John Palmer. Back in 2005 your reviewer, Jeff Dunn, wrote about the talk prior to a concert that included the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and the Shostakovich Symphony No. 8. Palmer chose not to even mention the Shostakovich in his talk and spent half his time explaining why the Mendelssohn concerto was not like a Vivaldi violin concerto. More recently, Palmer again showed his unawareness of his audience when he lectured us on the Handel Messiah. In a half hour he described the Prelude, the first aria, and the first chorus. In passing, in the last two minutes, he did mention a chorus from Part Two. I talked to six audience members who heard him and the verdict was unanimous: "worthless" and "terrible."

I wrote what I thought was a thoughful letter to the marketing department of the Symphony pointing out my objections after the Messiah presentation. I spelled out Mr. Palmer's inadequacies and what I thought a prepresentation talk on Messiah might contain. I have received no response or even acknowledgment from the Symphony. I left a phone voice message after last Wednesday's talk by Mr. Keller. Again, the powers that be at Davies Hall have been silent. Clearly criticisms are handled with a Dick Cheney attitude: "So?"

My point in writing is to raise the question of the purpose of the "Inside Music" talks. Is it to prepare the audience for the full program to be heard or is it to demonstrate the intellectual depth of the presenter as he discusses the most popular/well-known work on the program?

Thanks very much. I appreciate the fine work you do keeping us informed about the Bay Area music scene.

— Don McKay