A brief national tour will take Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony on the road for four concerts in three U.S. cities, and it should come as no surprise that the traveling program includes a number of very safe and actually rather predictable choices: a Beethoven overture, a Mozart piano concerto, and a Mahler symphony, plus two pieces by American composers and MTT favorites, Aaron Copland and Steven Mackey.
The last pretour subscription concerts at home usually function as dress rehearsals, or as a preview for San Francisco audiences. Last weekend’s concerts at Davies Symphony Hall featured Beethoven’s “Leonore” Overture No. 3, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 in C Major, K. 503, with soloist Jeremy Denk, Eating Greens by Mackey, and Copland’s Symphonic Ode, just like the first New York performance (Nov. 13) and the one in Champaign-Urbana, Il. (Nov. 15). Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 will only be heard at the second performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall (Nov. 14) and in Ann Arbor (Nov. 16).
When Thomas took to the stage at the Friday evening concert that I attended, I came to the somewhat unnerving realization that it had been quite a while since I had seen the maestro conduct his orchestra. MTT started at the Symphony the same year I moved to San Francisco, and I have seen him perform regularly over the years, though this Friday I realized that it had been too long. It felt a bit like running into a dear old friend.
MTT is still youthful in his charisma and gestures, but definitely looks a bit older and grayer than most of his publicity pictures. He seemed to move a little more slowly toward the podium, but that may have been due to the number of musicians and amount of equipment he had to navigate on stage, since both the Copland and the Mackey piece require an enormous orchestra apparatus, including an entire battery of percussion.
Seeing MTT conduct the San Francisco Symphony reminded me what a wonderful combination this conductor and this orchestra make. He plays the orchestra as the fantastic instrument that it is, and he never seems to overprepare the program with his musicians; there’s always room to just wait and see how things work out during a concert.
And, predictable as it may be, the current program includes everything to impress, or at the very least to please, the audiences back East — as well as at home, judging from the enthusiastic cheers and applause Friday. MTT knows how to make a crowd feel good.
Seeing MTT conduct the San Francisco Symphony reminded me what a wonderful combination this conductor and this orchestra make.
Not that there is nothing to remark about the concert I heard. “Leonore” had character, but lacked gravitas and drama, and Mackey’s crazy piece Eating Greens was most entertaining, especially after MTT aligned expectations in one of his trademark introductory chats, yet this odd concoction of sound effects and random quotes from all over music history ultimately didn’t rise much above the level of vapid gimmick.
By contrast, Jeremy Denk’s initially somewhat distant reading of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 had considerably more substance, but didn’t grab me until the third movement, the Allegretto, which was nice and crisp and altogether quite lovely.
But the grand finale that the concert needed came in the form of Copland’s Symphonic Ode. This vast American soundscape is one of Copland’s early works and his first foray into writing for orchestra alone. The piece, which dates from 1927, was initially nearly unplayable — and remained unplayed — until Copland revised it in 1955, after he wrote famous and popular ballets and pieces like Billy the Kid (1938), Lincoln Portrait (1942), Appalachian Spring (1944), and his Third Symphony (1944–46).
MTT conducting the San Francisco Symphony in a Copland masterpiece: It simply doesn’t get much better than that. I am sure audiences in New York, Ann Arbor, and Champaign-Urbana will agree.