San Francisco Classical Voice

Tristan Switch

San Francisco Classical Voice has learned that San Francisco Opera changed plans for its fall production of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. The company Web site still refers to Seattle Opera's Francesca Zambello-Alison Chitty realization of the opera for the October performances in the War Memorial, but in fact, David Hockney's production will be used, the one originally designed for Los Angeles some 20 years ago. The reason: "technical difficulties concerning the physical size of the Zambello production," which is to say the Seattle sets wouldn't fit in San Francisco.

There is a bit of a puzzlement here. Seattle Opera information for the Tristan rental ($75,000) calls for a minimum of 100 feet in width, 50 feet in depth, and 46 feet in height. The figures for the War Memorial Opera stage: 134 x 84 x 140, so what is there not to fit? Still, the response to the question about switching productions refers to "production problems that would be extremely difficult to surmount." One possible, if unstated, reason is that scene changes for this production are so complicated that each of the two intermissions would run 40 minutes or longer, creating an even worse overtime situation than Tristan itself already poses, regardless of breaks, with acts of 83, 78, and 80 minutes (or even with contemporary cuts reducing those times to 73, 60, and 62 minutes).

Kahane's Farewell to Santa Rosa

Reports SFCV's Robert Commanday from the North Country: "A regular love-fest took place Friday last in Santa Rosa as the patrons of that city's symphony honored Jeffrey Kahane, leaving after holding the post of music director for the past 11 years. Kahane honored them right back. The event began in a large festival tent erected on the parking lot of the Wells Fargo (formerly Luther Burbank) Center for the Arts, where at a dinner gala, Kahane was acclaimed as music director-laureate by his predecessor, Corrick Brown, music director-emeritus.

"Clearly moved by the tributes, Kahane spoke of the crucial need to continue treating art and classical music seriously, not allowing them to be reduced to mere 'entertainment.' Kahane is now music director of the Colorado Symphony, succeeding Marin Alsop. After the event, the audience repaired to the auditorium, filling all the seats, then rising to its feet at Kahane's appearance onstage. Kahane proceeded to give a splendid performance of Schubert's Sonata in B Flat, Op. posthumous, and works by Mendelssohn, Jalbert, and Chopin. It was a grand farewell."

Kahane's final concerts, featuring Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2, will take place May 13-15. Beginning with the next season, the Santa Rosa Symphony's music director will be Bruno Ferrandis.

Famed Composer, Student Musicians Mix at Crowden

Composer John Adams will conduct middle school students on May 25, when Berkeley's Crowden School has its Spring Celebration Concert. Motivated in part by two of his own children attending Crowden, Adams has long supported the school. The free concert will take place in Berkeley's First Congregational Church, beginning at 7 p.m. The event is dedicated to cello teacher and Crowden faculty member Milly Rosner on her 80th birthday. On the program: Vaughan Williams, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Mozart, and Dvorák.

Crowden is the only day school in the United States to combine an intensive music program with a full academic curriculum for grades four through eight. The school's Crowden Music Center is also home to the Center for Music in the Community, which provides a wide range of music and art classes in after-school, weekend, and summer programs.

Opera Leadership Changes

George Hume will succeed Karl O. Mills as president of the San Francisco Opera on August 1. Mills remains on the Opera's board of directors, serving as vice chairman; Franklin Pitch Johnson Jr. continues as chairman of the board. Mills had supported former General Director Pamela Rosenberg through thick and thin; Hume chaired the executive search committee, which chose David Gockley to succeed Rosenberg as artistic head of the company (and CEO as well). In other organization news, Paul Crane Dorfman was elected executive vice president.

Unbridled Passions at Summer Symphony

The San Francisco Symphony's summer festival is called "Romantic Visions: From Paradise to the Abyss," with echt-romantic music to back up that expansive title. The June 7-25 concerts, in Davies Hall, will bring back James Conlon to the city, after a lamentable absence of a quarter century.

Conlon — back in the U.S. after a long and distinguished European operatic/symphonic career, and on the way to the Los Angeles Opera, succeeding Kent Nagano there — will lead Liszt's Dante Symphony, Verdi's Requiem, and Zemlinsky's A Florentine Tragedy. The festival will explore, in music and lectures, themes of redemption and damnation in 19th and early 20th century musical works, inspired by writers including Dante, Manzoni, and Oscar Wilde.

The Verdi Requiem will be performed six times, featuring soprano Christine Brewer, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, tenor Frank Lopardo, and bass Vitalij Kowaljow as soloists. Of special interest are the festival-opening symposium and a "6.5" Friday concert, with Conlon taking the stage to speak about the music in the first part of the concert, starting at 6:30.

MTT, Nagano in Good Company

Chicago Symphony has begun the process to find a successor to Daniel Barenboim, stepping down next month, after 15 years as the CSO music director. Big names but no young blood are in evidence as Bernard Haitink, 77, becomes principal conductor, and Pierre Boulez, 81, is named conductor emeritus.

Meanwhile, a music director — probably of less advanced age — is still sought, with urgency, and these are the names in the hopper: Semyon Bychkov, Myung-Whun Chung, Christoph von Dohnányi, Charles Dutoit, Mark Elder, John Elliot Gardiner, Valery Gergiev, Alan Gilbert, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Riccardo Muti, Kent Nagano, Antonio Pappano, David Robertson, Mstislav Rostropovich, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Michael Tilson Thomas. The fact that MTT has repeatedly stated his plan to stay in San Francisco doesn't prevent the appearance of his name on every list. The same pro-forma "candidacy" applies to Nagano, who is starting two major new jobs (in Munich and Quebec), having given up posts in Los Angeles and Berlin, while remaining at the head of Berkeley Symphony. Salonen wants to compose and he is not even interested in staying in Los Angeles too long, never mind starting a new commitment in Chicago. But, as usual, nobody knows what will happen ... until it does.

Andsnes to Schubert: Excuse You!

At his recital in Davies Hall on Sunday, Leif Ove Andsnes took the microphone to explain the ground rules: "If these pieces just stop, please don't think that I forgot the music."

There were some puzzled snickers, but when D.900, D.346, and D.348 concluded, sort of, the laughter was knowing ... and warm. Andsnes' program included the three "Unfinished Pieces" (two Allegrettos and an Andantino), and wonderful as they are, they do just stop, midphrase. Kudos to Andsnes for playing them and for not "fixing them up" — no Alfano he.

Looking around the hall, almost all of its 2,800 seats occupied, one remembers the time when Ruth Felt brought Andsnes to San Francisco Performances for the first time, and 928-seat Herbst Theater was not quite full. It's not that the pianist "improved" that much, but rather the city — and the world — have come to see the light. Andsnes is one of the most consistently excellent musicians around.

His recital of the Schubert fragments, Schumann's Four Piano Pieces, Op. 32, Beethoven's Sonata No. 31, and the Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition showed Andsnes' fabulous range, absolute control of material — without the slightest hint of rigidity. In all, clean, beautiful notes stood by themselves and in vital, exhilarating context. Sitting close and above the piano, I also heard, for the first time, marvelous overtones, vastly enriching the music. The man is a magician; next time he returns, he'll sell out that waterfront baseball stadium ... whatever it may be called by then.