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IN Music News
Kleinmann to Berkeley Symphony
Jobin to
Old First Concerts on Podcasts
California Symphony's
Postelection Mass
S.F. Symphony's Chamber Music Series
Malcolm Arnold
On the Legion's Skinner Organ
San Francisco Opera: A Frustrating Experience
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Thomas Stewart in Memoriam
By Janos Gereben
Bass-baritone Thomas Stewart, 78, died suddenly on Sunday, collapsing on a golf course. He was with his wife, the soprano Evelyn Lear, the two being inseparable onstage and off for a half a century.
Recipient of the 1985 San Francisco Opera Medal for 25 years of distinguished performances with the company, Stewart left indelible memories with his Wotan in Ring cycles, in the title role of Reimann's Lear, and in many unforgettable Jean-Pierre Ponnelle productions. Besides San Francisco, opera companies in the U.S. and Europe also had the baritone as a treasured company member. His career ranged from the professional debut in 1954 to concert appearances and workshops half a century later.
Stewart's roles in San Francisco included Escamillo (Carmen), Posa (Don Carlo), Ford (Falstaff), Valentin (Faust), Count di Luna (Il Trovatore), Giorgio Germont (La Traviata), Yeletsky (Pikovaya Dama) — and that was just in 1962-'63.
Stewart and Lear joined Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1958, and the baritone went on to Wagnerian stardom, including 13 years in leading roles at the Bayreuth Festival, plus Ring cycles in such major cities as Vienna, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Hamburg, Paris, and Salzburg.
Stewart and Lear were artistic directors of the Emerging Singers Program, a partnership with the Wagner Society of Washington, D.C., that supported young singers. They led master classes in Washington, Chicago, at Juilliard, and elsewhere.
You can watch and listen to Stewart singing Wolfram's "Evening Star" aria from
Tannhäuser at San Francisco's 1989 Opera in the Park. Given the difficult outdoor venue, some of the nuances of the voice are lost in this video, but it's still indicative of what we were privileged to hear in the War Memorial for 25 years. You can also hear audio excerpts from a 1964 Flying Dutchman.
Thomas Stewart in the '60s (left)and with Lawrence Brownlee at Kennedy Center two weeks ago Photo by Karen Kriendler Nelson
Kleinmann to Berkeley Symphony James A. Kleinmann has been named executive director of the Berkeley Symphony, succeeding Gary Ginstling, who is now director of communications for the San Francisco Symphony. Kleinmann's previous arts administration work includes executive positions with Smuin Ballet, the Marin Theater Company, and A Traveling Jewish Theater. He is founder and artistic director of the Bay Area's PlayGround, a support program for emerging playwrights. A graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama, Kleinmann began his arts management career in the development office of the New York Philharmonic. Berkeley Symphony’s season, led by Music Director Kent Nagano, opens Dec. 14 in Zellerbach Hall, with three miniatures by Arvo Pärt and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 ("Leningrad"). Associate Conductor George Thomson heads the Dec. 10 free "Under Construction" open rehearsal/performance of new works by composers Joowan Kim, Curt Veeneman, and Brian Kane, in Berkeley's St. John’s Presbyterian Church.
Jobin to Conduct Macbeth San Francisco Opera's young maestro Sara Jobin, who has already broken the glass ceiling in the War Memorial (conducting Tosca and The Flying Dutchman), is moving south during October, to lead West Bay Opera performances of Verdi's Macbeth. The Palo Alto company is opening its 51st season, now under the leadership of José Luis Moscovich, a conductor himself. He is starting his run as general director by "giving away" a choice assignment to Jobin — wait until NBC's new showbiz-insider shocker, Studio 60, gets hold of that story line! The production, running Oct. 13-22 in the Lucie Stern Theater, is directed by Daniel Helfgot. Double-cast performances feature Jason Detwiler, Michael Morris, Helena Janzen, Teresa Brown, Kevin Nakatani, John Minagro, David Robinson, Adam Flowers, Claudio Santomé, Kirsten Allegri, and Jennifer Cowgill.
Teresa Brown sings Lady Macbeth
Old First Concerts on Podcasts Rick Bahto has been curating a series of podcasts that feature recordings of live performances in Old First Church, along with some studio recordings. They are available free from the Web site and can also be subscribed to through iTunes by entering the following address into the "subscribe to podcast" feature: http://www.oldfirstconcerts.org/podcast/oldfirstconcerts.rss Emphasis is on new and lesser-known works, including world or U.S. premieres of works by Elena Kats-Chernin, Kui Dong, and Hyejin Yoon. Some lesser-known pieces include miniatures for string quartet by Nikolai Sokolov, Felix Blumenfeld, and Anatoly Liadov; a piano suite by Karol Szymanovski; and a song cycle by John Harbison.
California Symphony's Young Stars Barry Jekowsky's California Symphony, which has often featured teenage — or even preteen — soloists, opens its 20th season in style, with pianists Conrad Tao, 11, and Peng Peng, 13. The two Juilliard students will make their Bay Area debut in Walnut Creek's Dean Lesher Center on Oct. 15 and 17, with Mozart's 1779 Concerto in E-flat Major for Two Pianos (K. 365). The program also includes Brahms' Symphony No. 1 and the world premiere of the first movement of a work by Kevin Beavers, part of the Symphony-commissioned Young American Composer-in-Residence Program. Among the Symphony's past debut coups: Kyoko Takezawa (in 1987, at age 16); Leila Josefowicz (in 1990, at 12); Sarah Chang (first of three appearances in 1991, at 9); Hilary Hahn (in 1998, at 18); Helen Huang (in 1993, at 10); Joyce Yang (in 1999, at 13); Chloe Pang (in 2005, at 13); and Alisa Weilerstein (in 1996, at 14).
 Peng Peng (left) and Conrad Tao Photo at left by Howard L. Kessler
Postelection Mass UC Santa Cruz music professor (and Classical Voice contributor) Frederic Lieberman will lead the UCSC Chamber Singers in performances of Rossini's final "sins of my old age" work, the Petit Messe Solenelle on Nov. 18 and 19, in the school's concert hall.
S.F. Symphony's Chamber Music Series It's always exciting to witness members of the San Francisco Symphony shine as soloists and as members of small ensembles. The Symphony's 2006-2007 Chamber Music Series offers such opportunities, beginning next month. Concerts take place in Davies Hall on Sundays, starting at 2 p.m.
Malcolm Arnold in Memoriam The same day that Robert Greenberg was lecturing at the San Francisco Performances' Shostakovich centennial celebration about the composer being relegated to the writing of film scores during Stalin's campaign against him, news came that "film composer" Sir Malcolm Arnold died at age 84. Shostakovich wasn't the only one "reduced in rank" to film scores — Hollywood had a (glorious) generation of European refugee composers making a (good) living. But Sir Malcolm was different. He made his mark equally in the symphonic and film worlds. Hours after his death in a Norfolk hospital, his latest work, a ballet version of The Three Musketeers, premiered in West Yorkshire, after a special dedication ceremony. The composer of the scores for The Bridge on the River Kwai, Whistle Down the Wind, Hobson's Choice, The Belles of St. Trinian's, and 130 other films, also wrote nine symphonies, 20 concertos, seven ballets, and two operas. However, Sir Malcolm led a deeply troubled life, plagued by severe depression, chronic alcoholism, and attempts at suicide. He repeatedly ended up in the hospital for insulin treatments and electric shock therapy. Cellist Julian Lloyd Webber has commented that the composer never received the credit he deserved: "I think he was a very, very great composer but uneven in his output. Because he had humor in his music, he was never fully appreciated by the classical establishment. He was a total genius, but a very badly behaved genius — but then so was Mozart."
On the Legion's Skinner Organ Keep in mind the free organ concerts at the Legion of Honor on Saturdays and Sundays, beginning at 4 p.m. (Admission to the museum is required, but if you stand in the courtyard or lobby, you don't pay for that either.) Upcoming programs on the Legion's splendid Skinner organ: Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, Benjamin Bachmann plays Vierne, Walton, and Mendelssohn; Oct. 7-8, David Hegarty plays the music of Hollywood and Broadway; Oct. 14-15, Robert Gurney plays Beach, Purvis, and Gigout; Oct. 21-22, John Karl Hirten plays Campra, Buxtehude, Saint-Saëns, Ketelbey, and Guilmant.
San Francisco Opera: A Frustrating Experience After a few months of a mostly no-comment posture following her departure, former San Francisco General Director Pamela Rosenberg is now giving interviews and lectures about her experience on the Left Coast of Amerika. Last Friday, Munich's Süddeutsche Zeitung reported her remarks at Berlin's American Academy on Sept. 19. Rosenberg, who spent most of her career in Germany, is now intendant of the Berlin Philharmonic and the orchestra's first American-born administrative director (Wolfgang Stresemann, preceding her, was a German-born U.S. citizen). Dealing with the financing of cultural institutions in the U.S., based on her San Francisco experience, is "fatiguing, disappointing, nerve-racking," Rosenberg said. Negotiating with eight trade unions was especially troublesome, as the unions have the power to jeopardize the very existence of an organization. This and other factors, Rosenberg told her Berlin audience, mean that European opera houses can be run more "efficiently" than those in the U.S. An example she has used before: The Metropolitan Opera offers 190 performances on a budget of $205 million, while Munich's Bavarian State Opera [now headed by Kent Nagano] has 380 performances and spends only $110 million. (San Francisco Opera's current season has 75 performances, using a budget of $57 million.) American "cultural financing," Rosenberg says, may in the long run lead to the "death of art." Opera companies, accordinging to her, may not thrive on almost exclusively private financing. "For the San Francisco Opera, only 1 percent of our budget came from the government, and there is a constant struggle for them with universities and hospitals ... and 'entertainment' wins out" [instead of culture]. "In Germany, [government] subsidies enable theaters to take risks. Audiences are being educated by the many possibilities of various interpretations. Only a secured livelihood and security in the planning process create the 'space' needed by the arts," Rosenberg is quoted by Süddeutsche Zeitung. The reporter comments, "This should be inscribed in golden letters on every opera house."
(Janos Gereben is a regular contributor to San Francisco Classical Voice. His e-mail address is janosg@gmail.com.)
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