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LISTENING AHEAD
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March 14-27
By Janos Gereben,
Mickey Butts, and
Michelle Dulak Thomson
News
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S.F. Symphony Heads East ...
And More
By Janos Gereben
By Rebekah Ahrendt
Hespèrion XXI
Jordi Savall
(3/9/06 & 3/11/06)
By David Bratman
Takács Quartet
(3/12/06)
By Alexander Kahn
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Sergey Khachatryan
Roberto Minczuk
(3/12/06)
By James Keolker
North Bay Opera
Macbeth
(3/11/06)
By Heuwell Tircuit
San Francisco
Symphony & Chorus
Martin Haselböck
(3/10/06)
By David Bratman
Haydn Singers
(3/10/06)
Mickey Butts
Executive Director, Editor, and Publisher
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Programming is an art, no doubt about that. Every musician, every ensemble, faces the challenge. Most difficult is the building of song recitals and choral programs, because those repertories consist primarily of short pieces.
But the task is daunting for the music directors and managements of symphony orchestras, even though it would seem simpler to build programs comprised of only three or four works. Imagine the factors that go into programming a season. With repertory works, consideration has to be given to their freshness, how often and how recently they have been played. The succession of keys has to be thought through, as well as contrast of styles and mood. And, of course, one needs to consider the placement of works in order to produce an artistic shape, to give the listener the sense of having had a complete, satisfying experience. And the stakes are higher for orchestras than for smaller groups, given the greater financial pressures, the consideration of subscription and ticket sales, the greater exposure, and the prestige factor.
Those who critically scrutinize the season menus — musical colleagues with a professional interest in the matter, discerning and experienced members of the public, music critics and reviewers — likely raised approving eyebrows at the 2006-2007 season announced by the San Francisco Symphony on March 1. It was a significant step up from the current season, with its generally conventional layout and moderate interest level, program by program.
In this new prospectus, most programs are individually attractive. Different styles are represented. (Never mind being comprehensive — being varied is enough.) There is a decent offering of new works, not to quibble over preferences and dislikes in that regard. After all, Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas can only be expected to advocate and choose music that speaks to him.
In previous years, even the Opening Gala had become a joke, a pops concert for diehard regulars, board members, and partygoers who were never to be seen at a subsequent symphony concert. All of a sudden, next fall's opener is a real program, worthy to launch the season: Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila Overture, Stravinsky's D Major Violin Concerto with a major soloist, Christian Tetzlaff, and Dvorák's Eighth Symphony. The Symphony is pulling itself erect at the starting gate and saying, "This is what we do." Will there be a shortfall in the Gala's ticket sales for want of something popsy and splashy? I doubt it.
The Symphony has never been more successful or secure. It has a devoted, capacity audience that, to the eye, appears to be demographically healthy, and that includes the generational span. We read of "aging audiences" in other communities (and I am not so sure that providing great music for our increasing numbers of elder citizens should be considered a minus), but that is not the case here.
I like the look and promise of the 2006-2007 prospectus. On almost every program, there is a piece that engages attention, is worthy of anticipation, and is balanced fairly with great works from the repertory.
This is an elusive but important element: the effect each piece has on the one that succeeds it, not only for the audience, but also for the players. In setting up each program, once one or two pieces are chosen, then begins the mind game of deciding what else is needed, how to set off the pieces, how to relieve and balance them. A contemporary work, or a highly demanding piece from the repertory — say Stravinsky, Bartók, or Ives — can crank up the musicians' energies and focus them more intensely. After that, attacking a repertory work in that mindset can result in a more highly energized and detailed performance.
Now, having read all this about the impressiveness and high interest factor in the coming season's programs, you might be curious to see them. Well, you can — but with some difficulty, because while the Symphony seems to have turned a page in its programming, it still hasn't stretched beyond conventionality as far as its Web site is concerned. If you go to the Symphony's Web site, then click on "Calendar of Events" and then on "2006-2007 Season Calendar," you will not get a clear overview of the entire season, one week's program after another, with dates and cast, as the press received on March 1.
You get a calendar, one month at a time, with a program title on each day in that month that the Symphony is playing: "8 p.m., Brahms' Fourth Symphony." That title is a live link that brings up the information you really want: "Berlioz's Overture to Benvenuto Cellini, Lukas Foss' Time Cycle, Brahms' Symphony No. 4, Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor, Dawn Upshaw, soprano." It also lists the 10 different series that include that particular program, with individual links so that you can read descriptions of all programs in each series. But for an overview that will really help you decide among the subscription groupings, you'll have to bypass all of this and go directly to the link for the S.F. Symphony Season, a choice not offered clearly on the Web site, which will bring up the full-season brochure. Or write and request the brochure in printed form.
Symphonies do follow others' leads. Any number of orchestra Web sites have the same procedure as San Francisco's, showing a calendar for one month at a time, the programs on given dates identified as titles that link to the desired detailed descriptions. Curiously and gratuitously, the previous months' calendars are expunged, so no overview is possible on the Web site. You still need that full prospectus for a complete picture. The print medium is not out of date after all.
Web site issues aside, however, the picture is inviting for the coming year, as stated earlier. As examples, I can cite the Petrassi Second Concerto for Orchestra, Britten Violin Concerto, and Schumann Fourth Symphony, all on a program scheduled for late October; the little-known Borisova-Olas Kingdom of Silence, Rachmaninoff Paganini Rhapsody, and Tchaikovsky Third Symphony program at the end of November; and the Stravinsky Orpheus with the Mozart C Minor Mass in mid-January (I hope conductor Ingo Metzmacher does the work without the earlier, stylistically unsuited Mozart movements that are traditionally inserted).
Then there will be the Haydn Symphony No. 95, Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, Roberto Gerhard Concerto for Orchestra, and Manuel de Falla Second Suite from The Three-Cornered Hat in late January 2007. Roberto Gerhard was an outstanding Spanish (Catalonian) composer who emigrated to England because of the Spanish Civil War, and he was highly regarded among those who drew on Schoenberg's principles. For all his reputation, he has never been performed here before, to my knowledge, at least not by an orchestra, and he seems almost a forgotten composer.
Those are just four programs, picked almost at random. A list of new works (a promising selection that includes John Adams' semistaged opera A Flowering Tree, cocommissioned by the Symphony) and other details of the season are available in SFCV's Music News on March 7, 2006, by Janos Gereben. The Adams work is in the forefront of the works that are either brand-new or simply new here, to the Symphony and its audience. Of the six works by American composers, it is the single new one. The fact that Adams has written his own libretto this time is good news.
To this positive appreciation of the next season must be added two criticisms. One that, sadly, applies to a high percentage (if not all) of American orchestras today, is a failure to recognize American music of the 20th century. That was the American Century, in history, the arts, literature, science, technology, and many other fields and disciplines, including music. The significant musical repertory composed in that century includes distinguished major works by Americans — symphonies, concertos, and music in other large forms. Of the two American works on the schedule, only Foss' Time Cycle and Copland's Second Symphony represent that legacy. The San Francisco Symphony's programming, like the programming of American orchestras generally, celebrates the 20th as the Soviet Century.
The second shortcoming is an old story, true year after year. Michael Tilson Thomas dismisses music written by composers who live or have lived in the Bay Area. Many of them are distinguished. John Adams, gifted as he is, and important and successful as he has become, does not by himself represent all of them. The breadth and richness of this group reaches from Ernest Bloch, Darius Milhaud, and Roger Sessions to a group of active, original, and productive composers living and working here today. Adams would be the first to agree. If the major performing organization in the region does not acknowledge that music, can the region be said to have a legacy at all?
A positive explanation of Tilson Thomas' seeming diffidence is that he is not personally interested in those scores he has seen — they don't speak to him. In such a case, music that he recognizes as worthy might be conducted by one of the guests, such as David Robertson, whose appearances this year and next do not call on his special interest in contemporary music. If it is simply a question of Tilson Thomas' not having the time to go over the many new or unfamiliar scores waiting to be examined, it would be relatively easy for the Symphony to engage a New Music advisor, a role John Adams played effectively for it 25 years ago, to screen this music and recommend the most promising works.
The present situation, and what appears to be exclusionary selectivity, place greater expectations on the works that have been chosen, and on the Symphony to realize that performance. In other words, "Show us. Justify the criteria and judgment." The odds for doing that are in the Symphony's favor, because of its high performance standards and the audience confidence it has earned. I keep returning to a conviction that the music America produces — and this is nowhere better represented than by the San Francisco Symphony — is a constant that serves as a major reassurance and uplifting force during an era when the country is sorely troubled in so many areas of its performance. What better affirmation of life can we turn to than to music?
(Robert P. Commanday, founding editor of San Francisco Classical Voice, was the music critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, 1965-93, and before that a conductor and lecturer at UC Berkeley.)
©2006 Robert P. Commanday, all rights reserved.
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From September 1, 1998 to September 13, 2005, SFCV has published, in addition to the Music News, feature pieces, and weekly editorials, 2,182 reviews of Bay Area performances by: 52 symphony orchestras (459 reviews), 89 chamber groups (267), 36 new-music ensembles and programs (234), 39 opera companies (306), 29 choral groups (133), 15 music festivals (101), 33 early-music ensembles (170), 24 chamber orchestras (88), 6 musical theater groups (14), as well as numerous world music groups (14), recital presenters (374), youth music ensembles (10), and other organizations (12).
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Michelle Dulak Thomson, Senior Editor
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Both Mickey Butts and Michelle Dulak Thomson read all e-mails sent to editor@sfcv.org. Mickey oversees the overall quality of the site and manages operations- and business-related issues; Michelle assigns and edits reviews; and Mary assigns and edits features and columns like Music News and Listening Ahead. (Richard assists with editing and production.) To e-mail Mickey, Michelle, or Mary individually, click on our names in the list above. (To reach SFCV founder and emeritus editor Robert Commanday, send e-mail only to bob@sfcv.org.) Items relevant to the Music News column should also be directed to Janos Gereben at janosg@gmail.com.
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