Kathak Extravaganza! Shambhavi Dandekar’s DARPAN

Guru Shambhavi Dandekar presented DARPAN, in the Mission City Center for the Performing Arts, Santa Clara, CA. Oct. 20. Darpan, in English, means mirror. This is a wise title for the magnificent Kathak performances she choreographs and dances. It allows her students from beginners to professional to look at their progress in their art. It also shows the audience to themselves. Do they feel immersed in the dance and music? Do they lose themselves in the beauty of thought, movement, and music combined? Can they bring themselves closer to that place where one loses self-awareness? The same time their being is engulfed by time and space, time and space disappear. That is how the audience participates in the dance. It can happen if one is ready.

This year is the 10th anniversary of S.I.S.K. the arts center started by Guru Shambhavi: Shambhavi’s International School of Kathak. S.I.S.K. produces a Darpan ever two years. This year’s program was sensational. It was hard to believe but true; it was even on a higher level than the previous one. The program was varied, but all of the selections were performed perfectly. Guru Shambhavi choreographs dances which can be performed with the skills of the dancers. And, they rehearse! This made each dance and dancer successful and beautiful.

Guru Shambhavi Dandekar, in DARPAN concert, October 20, 2024.

Mr. Vineet Mishra was the emcee. He gave brief introductions to each dance. That was very helpful to me as I do not always recognize names of masters of dance and music.

Dancers who had begun their study at the beginning of this year were excellent at their assignment. They danced to pure musical notes that form Indian classical music: SA, RA, GA, MA, PA, DHA, NI. Their dance celebrated melody through their rhythmic footwork, hand movements, and graceful body movement making a design in space. Their study included speed, precision, strength, and endurance. As I quoted that list I remembered a poster that said, “Dance is work.” The audience sees the result but not the effort.

The next level of dancers also shone in their dance, Trivat. The focus shifted from melody to rhythm and from music notes to syllables of the PAKHAWAJ, a drum of classical Indian music. It has a barrel shape, open sides, and thin, leather straps. It was a pure, technical dance; the dancers more than met their challenge. It was presented as an Ode to Nritta, pure dance movement and footwork. The dancers showed incredible footwork and fine stage presence.

Nritya Keli was a dance of nostalgia inspired by movements of childhood play. It was a charming dance that suggested happy, playful times. It took the audience away from the technological world to the fun and beauty of being outdoors with friends, a rope, and maybe a ball, too.

HORI is a dramatic and moving solo dance for Guru Shambhavi Dandekar. This was its premiere performance. A young woman has lost her sight. Her sweetheart comes on the day of Hori. He tells her that this year, the holiday will be special for them; they are alone together. Despite her disability, she has a strong spirit. He has brought her a plate covered with many colors. Gently, he describes the colors as he paints them onto her face.

They celebrate Holi, the festive holiday of colors and the spiritual treasure of playfulness. Hori is a genre of semi-classical singing, especially sung during Holi. The songs of Hori/Dhamar are related to Radha-Krishna Leela. Krishna’s Leelas are Divine Play. I read that Karma is for the self, but Leela benefits the whole world.

When it is the young woman’s turn to paint colors onto his face, she chooses the most powerful color, love. It means that love is not seen but felt in the heart.

Guru Shambhavi revealed her acting abilities in Hori. In fact, she did not seem to be acting at all. She lived in the character and became the other person: her challenges, spirit, and love. I still see her turning around to sit in a chair. She reaches out with her arm to give a gift. Her smile out shined the stage lights. I did not know the story, but suddenly knew my eyes were full of tears, and I felt happy.

In her DARPAN productions, Guru Shambhavi finds ways to present both the traditional dance movements and contemporary art. To open the second half of the program, she presented GURU, a music video. It pays homage to the Guru-Shishya Parampara, the ongoing flow of knowledge from the Guru to the student. The setting was a beach with the ocean just yards away

Guru Shambhavi salutes her Guru- her mother

And honors Guru Maneesha ji with gifts and gratitude.

A woman, played by Guru Shambhavi, is practicing her arm movements. She cannot get it right. As she become more frustrated, she feels the movements get worse. She falls to the sand. Another woman, played by Guru Maneesha ji, Guru Shambhavi’s mother and guru, walks in the sand to encourage the dancer. The dancer works to get the movements precise; the Guru is helpful but strict. When the dancer is moving well, the Guru walks away. The dancer continues moving, sees another dancer having the same problems, and becomes the guru for that next dancer. This was a wonderful way to experience the Guru relationship. The director is Ashay Javdekar, also Unni and Priyanka.

S.I.S.K. has an innovative training program, Global Distance Learning for adult beginners. It began in 2021 and now has 200 students in 12 countries. Using a split screen on the back and live dancers performing on stage in their dance, Rhythm Scape, executed footwork, body movements, and formations in a surprising, delightful multi-dimension dance

Barkha, is a dance celebrating the monsoon; “the longing of the earth to unite with the sky. Peacocks “dance in bliss,” unfurling their feathers. It is set in a cycle of 12 beats. A beautiful concept and the dance fulfilled it.

Mrignayan is a dance to project the sweetness of romance, as demonstrated by Radha and Krishna. In this dance, Krishna is called Rasiya, and Radha is the protagonist. Mrignayani means “the doe eyed beauty,” referring to Radha. The accompanying composition is from the medieval saint Purushottamdas. The dance incorporates North Indian folk dance. All aspects of the dance honor the love of Radha and Krishana

The grand finale was Taalmala. It offers the essence of Indian music and means “a garland of Taal –s.” Taal is rhythm. The choreography is also an expression of higher math. The rhythms are cyclical and accent the first beat of each rhythm which is called SAM.

Taalmala is a waterfall of rhythms. It has great energy but never breaks away from the restraints of each beat pattern. There are 6 distinct Taal –s, and each has its own number of beats. Of course, it is not enough to tap or clap or nod the beats, the performers must keep dancing and making designs in space. I particularly admire Guru Shambhavi’s ability to have her dancers use all of the stage. It makes the dances alive in three – maybe four – dimensions. Watching this dance is exciting, especially if one tries to keep the counts! Here are the rhythms: Tritaal – 16 beats; Jhaptaal – 10 beats; Dhamaar – 14 beats; Chautaal – 12 beats; Roopak – 7 beats; Ashtamangal – 11 beats.

All dancers are on the stage, keeping their rhythms, working their feet and bodies, looking fabulous, and then, they make a V shaped form on the stage floor with their Guru Shambhavi standing at the up stage point of the V with her arms up in parallel. This program was a magnificent work of art. We must wait two years for the next Darpan. The line forms now.

All photos by Yamini Mitter.

ALL MOZART ALL THE TIME

November 23, Davies Symphony Hall:  The audience had the honor and pleasure to hear a concert of Mozart’s work. Several of the pieces were new to us. The excitement of discovery matched the beauty of the music.  Bernard Labadie conducted. He is internationally recognized as a master of Mozart, Baroque, and Classical music. Lucy Crowe, soprano, sang four of the seven selections. Her voice is pure, clear as glass, expressing delicacy, loving, and power. This program was her debut with the SF Symphony.

Bernard Labadie, conductor          Lucy Crowe, soprano

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer (1756 -1791)

The Overture to La clemenza di Tito, K.621 was composed in 1791, Mozart’s last year. it was a good year for his music. There was a celebration of Leopold II. They needed to commission a new opera. The likely contenders were Antonio Salieri and Domenico Cimarosa. Fortunately for Mozart and his audience, including us, those other composers did not have the time. Mozart was ready and created La clemenza di Tito/ The Clemency of Titus. It was successful enough at its premiere in Prague, but over a month it became a great hit. The premiere of The Magic Flute/Die Zauberflote was premiered in Vienna. He wrote to his wife:

“It’s the strangest thing, but the same evening that my new opera was given here for the first time with such applause, Tito had its final performance in Prague, also with extraordinary applause.”

Two months and a week later, Mozart was gone.

Rondo, Al desio di chi t’adora, K. 577    The aria was composed in 1789. In this era, the music of an opera could make changes or add on extra arias, especially to please a singer. In Le Nozze di Figaro/The Marriage of Figaro, in 1786 Vienna, Susanna was performed by Mozart’s friend, Nancy Storace. He appreciated her comic presence on stage and wrote specifically for her voice and character. In 1789, The Marriage of Figaro was produced again in Vienna, but with a new Susanna. She was the mistress of Da Ponte, the lyricist. She wanted her role to be equal to that of the Countess Almaviva. This aria replaced two others from the original score. Susanna shows her virtuoso singing. The scene is outside. The music reflects the breeze and birds. This aria was our introduction to Lucy Crowe. She was splendid: At the wish of one who adores you, /Come, fly hither, my hope!/ I shall die if you make me sigh/in  vain any longer.

Ruhe sanft, mein holdes Leben, From Zaide, K. 344   This aria has lyrics that are unusual and beautiful. Which is the “best” aria? Impossible to decide. Crowe was absolutely on top of the challenging music. Her voice was on a journey making lovely sounds going up and down and stopping to repeat a sound especially pleasing but difficult to make. The lyric is something different.  Rest gently, my dear life,/sleep until your joy awakes./Here, I give you my portrait./See how it smiles at you./ Sweet dreams, rock him to sleep,/and finally grant his wish,/so that his desire/will become reality.

Masonic Funeral Music, K.477   Composed in 1785, it was originally written for the ceremony of two Masons being promoted to a higher level of the hierarchy and of their studies. Soon, two Masons died. Mozart changed the title of the work from Meistermusik to Maurerische Trauermusik/Masonic Funeral Musik. It is stately and sad as funeral music would be. Mozart changes the instruments for this piece. He adds 3 basset horns to the 2 oboes, clarinet, contrabasson, 2 horns and strings.  Mozart was a Mason going to meetings twice a week. He became a Master Mason; Masonic symbols and experiences show up in The Magic Flute.

“Schon lacht der holde Fruhling,” K.580     This aria was never performed as planned. It was to be in a German version of Giovanni Paisiello’s opera, Il barbiere di Siviglia/ The Barber of Seville. It was tremendously popular at that time, but Rossini’s version took over in 1816. The production never happened, but Mozart had composed an aria that would have been added in order to give Josepha Hofer, Mozart’s sister-in-law neé Weber, something special. Mozart knew her vocal skills for extremely high tessitura. The song may not have been inserted into the German Barber of Seville, but Josepha’s voice was perfect for the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute. The aria became an orphan until other composers completed it. No basset horns in this one, but it was a Mozart aria sung by Ms Crowe. It was lovely, a lost treasure found. “I sit here and weep,/ alone on the field,/ not for my lost little sheep/but only for the shepherd Lindor.”

“Venga la morte…Non temer, amato bene,” K.490     This aria adds a solo violin accompanying and playing with the orchestra and the soprano. A special treat: SF Symphony’s Concertmaster, Alexander Barantschik, was the soloist. The aria was written to be inserted into Mozart’s opera, Idomeneo. Its premiere was in Munich. After only a short run for the opera, Mozart returned to Vienna. While there, he was fired from his job in Salzburg. His boss, Archbishop-Prince Colloredo and Mozart did not get along; Mozart stayed in Vienna. The son of Idomeneo, Idamante, has a predicatment. He cannot marry the woman he loves; he decides death would be better. This is opera. It is not real. Repeat. This is opera. It is not real. The music was ravishing. It is Mozart’s opera, after all.

This amazing program ended with Symphony No. 39 in E-flat major, K. 543. His last three Symphonies, No. 39, No. 40 ( Great G minor), No. 41 (Jupiter) were all written in nine weeks. The 40th and 41st have been more popular than No. 39. Benjamin Pesetsky suggests that might be because it does not have a catchy name. It is still Mozart’s work. The Symphony projects conflicts between a pleasing 3/4 time and a powerful response. In the Andante, once again there are two messages presenting a love and maybe an end of love. Even in the Finale which features some of Mozart’s wonderfully playful sounds, one might consider if there is a warning in the end of the music. It has mystery; Mozart certainly is allowed to put forth a mystery which we cannot solve.

 

 

 

 

Itzhak Perlman & Friends, Nov. 10, 2024

Itzhak Perlman & Friends: It was the Top of musical performance. Itzhak Perlman is the great violinist who is also the Great Human. He clearly loves to make each note, they are always perfect, and loving the music is the same as his love of the audience. The audience feels that in each note that they hear and absorb. If you are Itzhak Perlman, your friends are breath taking artists, too. In this phenomenal performance his friends were two of the world’s greatest pianists, Emanuel Ax and Jean-Ives Thibaudet, and the Juilliard String Quartet. This is a new generation Juilliard String Quartet. Bringing these gifted musicians onto the stage to make music with Perlman expands his repertory possibilities.

Itzhak Perlman, Violinist, humanitarian, mentor, founder of the Perlman Music Program which mentors “gifted young string players.”

The program presented two works from the 18th century: Sonata for Two Violins in E minor, Opus 3, no. 5, by Jean-Marie Leclair, written ca. 1734; and Piano Quartet inE-flat major, K.493, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, written 1786. A 19th century masterpiece filled the second half of the program: Concert in D major, Opus 21, by Ernest Chausson, written in 1889-91. What is the main thing these three compositions have in common? Each piece is amongst the most difficult of its kind.

Areta Zhulla, Violinist, first violin of the Juilliard String Quartet

Jean-Marie Leclair, composer (1697 – 1764)*

Leclair left his home in Lyon to publish his compositions of violin sonatas. In Lyon, he became a master of the violin, dancing, and lace-making, a thorough artist. In Paris, his violin compositions were praised with one slight problem; they were so hard to play. A writer of Leclair’s time called them “a sort of musical algebra capable of rebuffing the most courageous of musicians.” The duet performance by Areta Zhulla and Itzhak Perlman was dazzling. I especially admired the way the music weaved between each violin. There would be a place where one violin would find a place to enter and play into, with, or around the other one.  !8th century dances had intricate patterns; sometimes it is the music that follows the dance. As a dance master, he would have the music in his body. Now that I know he was a lace-maker, I feel sure that the design of the music and the playing of the violins were tracing movements of the needle and thread in and out to make a challenging, mathematical, beauty. It is there physical to touch in lace, audible and seen in the playing of the music.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer (1756 – 1791)*

Emanuel Ax, pianist

Mozart’s Piano Quartet in E-flat major, K. 493 was a stunning marvel. The musicians are perfection, a word I rarely use. I have loved this particular quartet for a long time. I went to Tower Records – I did say a long time ago – in North Beach and read through album covers. I chose a record  (stop laughing) of Mozart’s quartets. When I heard the opening notes of this performance, I felt myself smile all over. The performers were truly perfection: Itzhak Perlman, violin; Molly Carr, viola; Astrid Schween, ‘cello; Emanuel Ax, piano. When Mozart had a publishing deal for three quartets, the publisher paid Mozart not to compose more. In fact, the publisher thought the first piano quartet was not well received. Fortunately for Mozart and all of us, he had finished the second Piano Quartet. It must have been a very good time for Mozart’s composing as this work entered Mozart’s catalogue just after the Marriage of Figaro. Although its brilliance was obvious, this Quartet was too difficult. A writer for a German journal wrote this: “Many another piece keeps some countenance, even when indifferently performed; but, in truth one can hardly bear listening to this product of Mozart’s when it falls into mediocre amateurish hands and is negligently played.” The performance I heard kept me on the edge of the seat. It is lush, sometimes mysterious with changing rhythms, and a fascinating exchange among the players. Is it possible to translate musical talk to spoken English? No, that is why it is music. The final movement features the pianist and first violin. What an experience to hear this from them.

Jean-Ives Thibaudet, Pianist

Ernest Chausson, composer (1855 – 1899)*

Chausson’s  Concert in D major, Opus 21 is powerful and full of wonders. Concert is not a typo; it is a name for chamber music in the late 18th c. I knew his name, may have heard other pieces and may have not. Surely, I had never heard this. It is a gigantic and altogether successful creation performed by Itzhak Perlman, violin; Jean-Ives Thibaudet, piano; and the Juilliard Quartet. The music pays attention to the combinations that are well knit for all six instruments becoming one while each is heard. James M. Keller cites Chausson’s mentoring by Caesar Franck, and yet this work is still Chausson’s. Each of the four movements – Decide, Sicillienne, Grave, and Finale – added drama and character with their strong presence. The Sicillienne is beautiful in its sweeping lyricism. Grave lowers one’s feelings to a mysterious sense of loss. The energetic Finale reminds the listener of the themes of all three that came before. This listener felt her eyes open wide at the sensational Thibaudet playing precisely and powerfully. He was brilliant; Perlman was brilliant. Having both together made me want to jump up and down, but I only stood and applauded like the entire audience kept doing for many curtain calls. Many. I thought I would count, but I gave up. All six of the performers joined in an extraordinary encore and more bows and applause. Someone turned the lights back on, and, reluctantly we got the message that we had to go home.

*These composers share dreadful and inexplicable deaths. I am inserting this here so that it will not be the sad subject at the end of this post. No interpretation of the deaths from me. Jean-Marie Leclair was murdered. He lived in a bad neighborhood. He had been stabbed three times and was found in a pool of blood. It is still an open case in Paris. Three suspects: his gardener found the body; his nephew wanted Leclair to help him become a violinist but Leclair did not; Louise, an ex-wife who inherited his estate and sold off his property. Mozart died of illness; there are more than 100 theories of how he died. Chausson was trying out the new gizmo: a bicycle. He lost control of the bike, ran into a brick wall, cracked his skull. Imagine that each one would have composed more wonderful music; I am grateful for what I heard.

 

EMANUEL AX: A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

The great pianist, Emanuel Ax, performed a great program at San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall. The audience was completely packed with music lovers, and Ax has dedicated classical groupies. He certainly made more on October 27. The program contained wonderful music by Beethoven and Schumann, pieces many in the audience thought they knew, and two pieces by Arnold Schoenberg, which Ax helped the audience to know better and enjoy them.

Emanuel Ax, Piano

Ax opened with Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 13 in E-flat major, Opus 27, no. 1, Quasi una fantasia. In his first 11 sonatas, Beethoven presented sonatas which adhere to the Classical form: 3 or 4 movements which are made of exposition, development, and recapitulation. Beethoven broke the form in Sonatas 12, 13, and 14. The Sonatas number 13 and 14 are put together as Opus 27; both were written in 1801. They are different from each other except for the freedom of composition they share. Ax’s approach to Sonata No. 13 was masterful. This Sonata is seldom given great attention because its sibling, The Moonlight Sonata, is bigger, beautiful in different way, and toweringly difficult. No. 13 could be heard as a sonata with breaks between the movements or played with each running through the next, in fantasia style. It is a bright musical experience which I treasure for exactly the way program author James M. Keller describes it: “this is such a willfully eccentric piece that one may reasonably prefer to consider it a single onrushing conception, more fantasy than sonata.” I choreographed this music as a solo dance and felt that in the final movements the dance would need to just keep going up; so I flew before an eccentric, rhythmic, somewhat folkish finale. It is Beethoven’s imaginative fantasy: playful, joyful, shining a serious light on the sonata.

Ludwig van Beethoven, composer ( 1770 – 1827)

The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Opus 27, no. 2, Moonlight brought us into another musical world. This sonata begins with nature at dusk. We hear the night fall into the music, the branches sway, the spirits float above a lake. Through decades after Beethoven’s death, writers wrote that the sonata is about night near a lake with moonlight shimmering on the water. It is nearly impossible to shake the 19th century writers’ impression, now in the 21st. It is emotional while the sounds touch on the clarity of moonlight. This sonata also uses the fantasia style for breaks between movements; that style being not to have a break between movements. That happens between the first movement, Adagio sostenuto,  and the second one, Allegretto. Mr. Keller quoted Liszt that the Allegretto is a “flower between two chasms.” There is a normal break before the Presto agitato ending. We are not left Romantically alone by a lake, perhaps feeling just a little glum, aware of the beauty around us, but realizing one can feel the spirits floating around the dark pines only so long. The final movement picks up the rhythms with force. It dances to the quickly rising and falling music as moonlight beams. Emanuel Ax played the delicate, powerful, gorgeous music with perfection. He seems to understand what is in the depths of the music.

Arnold Shoenberg, composer, (1874 – 1951)

Fortunately for the audience, Emanuel Ax spoke to us to explain what happens in the two selections by Schoenberg. The first one, Drei Klavierstucke, Opus 11 (1909), was played between the two Beethoven sonatas. The second opened the second half of the concert. Ax played Sechs kleine Klavierstuck, Opus 19 (1911)  before Schumann’s Fantasy in C major, Opus 17. He advised the audience that one does not need to think these approaches to music require mathematical brilliance. Instead, Schoenberg lets expression, emotion, even the concept of free association into the tightly composed sounds. That changed everything about listening to Schoenberg. In both pieces, I tried to hear the single musical sound and imagine what it was. Both of the pieces were intensely packed with memories, visions, experience. Schoenberg’s thoughts and attitudes were there for us to look at from every direction and begin to understand that sound can be real atoms of life.

Emanuel Ax, 2015

Robert Schumann, composer, (1810 – 1856)

It made me happy to know that Schumann’s Fantasy in C major, Opus 17 was the anchor of the program. It is a big work. Passionate, poetic, inventive music rolls forward and embraces its creator. He is forever the Romantic composer of the Romantic era and the romantic man who was in love with  Clara Wieck. Her father forbid her to see her dear Robert. She was widely recognized as the finest pianist of Europe. Her father sent her off on another tour to Dresden to keep her well known and away from her love. That was 1836. In 1838, he wrote to her about the Fantasy he was writing: “the first movement is the most passionate thing I have ever composed –a deep lament for you.” The next year he wrote, “In order to understand the Fantasie you will have to transport yourself into the unhappy summer of 1836, when I renounced you.” While their married life was a triumph for both of them, I was happy to hear this major work from Schumann because some classical music fans seem to be fascinated by Schumann more for the mysteries of his mental illness than the grand music he made. I think he is being championed by several artists and conductors now. Schumann described two imagined characters in his essays and compositions. Florestan is the more aggressive one, and Eusebius is often off in a dream or aligned with more tranquil music. In this Fantasy, the Florestan rules the first movement and Eusebius is also there for a section named The Sound of a Myth. The poetry of this music is not always dreamy and calm; poetry can be powerful, too. Schumann placed a poem by Friedrich Schlegel at the beginning of this score. “Through all the sounds in earth’s motley dream, one soft note can be heard by him who listens stealthily.” For the pianist, this Fantasy  is an extreme challenge to the best of technicians. Emanuel Ax played it as Schumann would want it to be. It was thrilling.

The audience went crazy for Emanuel Ax. He gave us two encores. After several curtain calls, he played Schubert’s Standchen, a song which Franz Liszt transcribed for the piano. Everyone continued applauding. Ax left again and came back to play Chopin’s Nocturne Opus 27, No. 1. It was beautiful. No one wanted to leave.

 

 

AMERICAN MUSIC AT DAVIES SYMPHONY HALL & Rhapsody in Blue’s 100th Year

October 25 and 26 were spectacular nights of music. Nights of what George Gershwin called “our undiluted national pep.” The San Francisco Symphony’s program included Suite from Candide, by Leonard Bernstein; Rhapsody in Blue, by George Gershwin (orch. Ferde Grofe); Wood Notes, by William Grant Still; and Porgy and Bess, A Symphonic Picture, by George Gershwin (arr. Robert Russell Bennett). Each piece was thrilling and innovative. Each one came out of a different decade: Candide, written in 1956 (arr. Charlie Harmon 1998); Rhapsody in Blue, composed in 1924 (rev. 1926); Wood Notes, composed in 1947; Porgy and Bess, A Symphonic Picture, written in 1935 (arr. 1943).

The pianist for Rhapsody in Blue was Michelle Cann. She is an astounding soloist who gave us all the rhythm, excitement, and gorgeous music possible in this heroic composition.

The conductor was Thomas Wilkins. In addition to being handsome with an elegant presence, he absolutely kept the SF Symphony at their best throughout the concert. It is easy to visualize each composer nodding his head in gratitude for Maestro Wilkins’ loyalty to exactly what each one wanted his music to be. A conductor par excellence: the principal conductor at the Hollywood Bowl, artistic advisor to the Boston Symphony, principal guest conductor of the Virginia Symphony, and the Henry A. Upper Chair of orchestral conducting at Indiana. There is more. He was the director of the Omaha Symphony until 2021. And more. We hope the SFS will bring him back soon.

Leonard Bernstein, composer, (1918 – 1990)

Bernstein must have studied Voltaire’s 18th century book or at least knew what it was about. There was a popular philosophy at that time that this is “the best of all possible worlds.” Candide was a young man who was relentlessly optimistic. His reward was being beat up by a huge flood and mean humans. Since it was an operetta, I have wondered why I had only heard a section of the music on the radio but not a single lyric. The Broadway show was a flop. A major problem was the lyrics. The playwright, Lilian Hellman, was the source of the concept, but it did not work. When it was being written, the McCarthyism of the early 1950s cast a long and scary shadow. Other outstanding authors contributed lyrics for the songs. It died by Hellman’s seriousness. Bernstein thought he would have a comic operetta. After years, one could applaud Bernstein’s optimism and determination. Candide came back to life in 1973 with new librettist and director. Bernstein himself created a concert version of his Candide. The music is 100% Bernstein: touching, satirical, rhythmically complex, with salutes to the international dance styles of Tango and waltz. It has jazz bones and tips its hat to moments of Rossini, Gounod (which I did not hear), and Gilbert and Sullivan. I am eager to hear the whole operetta.

Rhapsody in Blue. A few years ago, Rhapsody in Blue won as the number one most favorite music when SF’s classical music station ran its California play list competition. Oh, there was a lot of complaining: Why not Beethoven’s 5th? Why not Beethoven’s 9th? Why this beloved American music which is still exciting and fascinating? It is now celebrating its 100th anniversary. It is possible that Beethoven’s 5th and 9th supporters duked it out and that led them out of the top. It is also possible that the Rhapsody in Blue will thrill you and move you each time you hear it. In about 7th or 8th grade my friend Michelle and I would sit in my parents’ den and listen to that music. I realized on Oct. 26, that I probably had never heard it live. Definitely be there in person next time there is an opportunity. There is so much life in the music. I waited for that sliding clarinet glissando that gave me a chill down my back at the same time it gave me a feeling that the music was not describing sitting quietly. Gershwin said that while on a train the music came to him. “And there I suddenly heard — and even saw on paper — the complete construction of the Rhapsody, from beginning to end…. I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America – of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our blues, our metropolitan madness.” It is exactly all of that. There is not a moment when one loses interest. I was eager to know what was next, how the music went from one sensation to another. Michelle Cann just owned the Rhapsody. From the moment she appeared at the piano, took hold of her translucent, yellow, floor length cape, and flicked it over her shoulders to let it drape over the piano bench everyone in the full house had glued their eyes on Ms Cann. The dress was great, the playing was powerful and full of the Rhapsody music. The audience would not stop applauding and shouting. Ms Cann rewarded us with an encore: Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C-sharp minor – that’s how it started – and then she played it in Hazel Scott’s jazz improvisation on that piece. It was dazzling.  Thank you, Georgiana Du, for telling me it was Hazel Scott’s improv.

William Grant Still, composer, (1895 – 1978)

William Grant Still did not take lessons to play a violin until he was 14 years old. He then taught himself the viola, ‘cello, double bass, clarinet, oboe, and saxophone. He attended Wilberforce University, and while there he directed the band. From there he attended the Oberlin Conservatory. He had received a scholarship, but he had to leave for military service in the Navy. After that, he was a sideman for W.C. Handy who took him onward to Memphis and New York. He never wasted time; somehow he also studied with Edgard Varese, the avant garde composer. Wood Notes is thrilling in its own way. It is tranquil but moving. The first movement , Singing River, lets the listener see and feel the river. Slightly, it meanders and the onlooker feels as though part of the river. The music focuses on strings and muted trumpets. Floating and still in motion, this first movement musically lets one know what a river is. The second movement, Autumn Night is a storm, but a gentle storm. There is enough wind to make the tree limbs sway back and forth, but not enough to bother anyone. It is like spending a night outside. There is a breeze and some rain to remind one that there is weather that can be a soothing story. Moon Dusk stars an oboe solo and more strings. The instruments are beautiful in their balance. Balance is an essence in the entire work. It ends with Whippoorwill’s Shoes. Syncopated rhythms and quick changes of the melodies make a surprising scene jump and dance. It is a bit of folk music, but not entirely. William Grant Still gives us a peaceful scene but that does not mean its music is immobile. It touches natural gifts. Still wrote more than 150 works, including 8 operas, and 5 symphonies. He was the first African American to write a symphony that was performed by a major orchestra and first to conduct a major orchestra. This was the first performance of Wood Notes by the SF Symphony. In program notes for Wood Notes’ premiere at the Chicago Symphony with Artur Rodzinski, Still declares his position: “Wood Notes has a social significance because it is a collaboration between a Southern white man and a Southern-born Negro composer, in which both of the participants were enthused over the project.” He dedicated Wood Notes to Friedrich J. Lehmann, his composition professor at Oberlin.

George Gershwin, composer, (1898 – 1937)

The opera, Porgy and Bess, Gershwin described as  an “American folk opera.” It was based on a novel by DuBose Heyward. Heyward became the librettist. Ira Gershwin, the endlessly original lyricist for his brother’s songs, supplied some of the lyrics for this opera. George Gershwin moved to an island off of Charlestown, South Carolina, to write in order to keep the accent of the place. Gershwin and DuBose insisted that all the major roles would be filled by African American actors/singers. The opera opens with “Summertime,” considered to be the most recognizable tune in all of 20th century music theater. The story is about a tragic love between Porgy, a disabled, impoverished, and good hearted man; Bess, an abused woman who was addicted to cocaine; and Crown, a violent dockworker who drops her when he murders a man and decides to run. Bess begs Porgy to protect her, but when Crown returns to take Bess with him, Porgy kills Crown. Then, Bess goes to New York with Sporting Life, a dope dealer. Ever true to his love, Porgy follows them to New York. Five years after George Gershwin’s death, Robert Russell Bennett, a friend and colleague to Gershwin, arranged a medley of Porgy and Bess music for the Pittsburgh Symphony’s conductor, Fritz Reiner. As I listened to the  “Symphonic Picture,” I felt the deep emotion and pain painted by the music. Even the satirical “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” sung by Sporting Life, has a heart full of blues. There are various commentaries about a white composer writing about a community of African Americans. I feel that Gershwin wanted to include not only the actors/singers but their community. The opera Carmen, focused on impoverished women and bullfighters, was written by a Frenchman. Curiously, Gershwin was thrown to the hungry lions on at least two sides. Writers of the ’20s and ’30s called him an ape from the jungles and denigrated his music; to them it was jazz, music from Africa. In addition to the antisemitism targeted at him, the bigots against African Americans added him to their list of hatreds. To them, he was just another low life African American. Gershwin died young, only 39. His music? It will not die.

 

 

 

 

 

Shostakovich & Brahms: Amazing Performance

The San Francisco Symphony performed the Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1, in A minor, Opus 77(99) and the Brahms Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Opus 98, October 5, at the Davies Symphony Hall. This listener is still standing to applaud it was such great music performed majestically. Music Director, Esa-Pekka Salonen, conducted with strength and understanding of masterpieces of two great composers

Dmitri Shostakovich, composer (1906 – 1975)
From the very first sound from the violin, my whole being straightened up in attention to the exquisite music made by one draw of bow across instrument. Sayaka Shoji, the soloist, plays the “Recamier” Stradivarius violin, ca. 1729, loaned to her by Ueno Fine Chemicals Industry, Ltd. The violin may have been played by other outstanding musicians, but I believe it had been waiting four centuries for its ideal partner, Ms Shoji. Shostakovich made this concerto a marathon challenge for the violinist. She performs continuously. She must run a rocky path and up a steep mountain, something like climbing Half Dome. There is a small sign requiring the violinist to meditate; she climbs high enough to bring the music to stillness but never to a stop. There are moments she shares with a flute and a clarinet both supporting her pilgrimage. If you love Shostakovich’s music, and I do, this is a profound message. It is alive with the philosophical melody of the first movement, Nocturne. The Scherzo contains the composer’s laughs at a dictator’s cruelty. Folk dance is suggested, but it is not for jolly folk. It is rough and creepy. The third movement, Passacaglia, blossoms into nine variations led by the horns and more wind instruments. Their wind blows through each variation turning into a funeral call. Ms Shoji’s cadenza has a wild sadness and brings more of the folk dance back onto the stage as though the energetic dancers are crazed by loss. From the cadenza the music pours into rousing bagpipe sounds and a non-stop party of all the musicians, folks, and roaming strangers, a revel of jumping, running, and celebrating joy in this moment.

Johannes Brahms, composer, (1833 – 1897)

Brahms. The long wait for him to produce his first symphony is a familiar story. He terrorized himself thinking of Beethoven following him, intimidating his writing. He began making notes and sketches in 1850, but the tremendous, glorious Symphony No. 1 debuted in 1876. His Symphony No. 4 was a triumph and the last of his symphonies. The performance by SF Symphony, October 5, led by Esa-Pekka Salonen, affected the listener’s heart while emotion was spoken by beautiful, quiet, lyrical passages, Allegro non troppo. Behind the first movement, and behind each movement, there is always something that cannot be named: a texture, interactions of instruments, a thought for the world. Brahms was a great intellect as well as a great musician. His writing found ways to allow us to hear the music with all our attention and yet be aware that there is something we will never see. In his writing, he broke some classical ways. In the program’s essay,, the late, wonderful writer Michael Steinberg explains how a seemingly small step changed every thing. “Almost everyone was upset over what appears now one of the most wonderful strokes in the work, the place where Brahms seems to make the conventional, classical repeat of the exposition but changes one chord after eight measures, thereby opening undreamed-of harmonic horizons….” This must be what a master of the technique as well as of the sound can do. “One small step” could change everything. Then, it is like breathing, something also easy, complicated, and brilliant. Brahms mines the Baroque and Renaissance music for something new, inspired by Bach’s Cantata No. 150. He did not try to do “authentic” ancient music; he discovered how he could understand it and then do it but differently. The entire symphony is full of energy even when the music is quiet. Passion drives the music, but it never colors outside the lines. Great and true passion lets us learn many possibilities and unifies the world.

 

 

JASMINE JIMISON: Lovely Person, Fabulous Dancer

Talking with Jasmine Jimison was a treat. I have seen her dance with the San Francisco Ballet in roles in The Nutcracker (Helgi Tomasson: choreographer) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (George Balanchine: choreographer). Her onstage presence is a delight as she is able to embody roles as different as The Snow Queen and a wandering, love lorn lady lost in an enchanted forest in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Jasmine Jimison: Principal Dancer, San Francisco Ballet

She selected her life’s direction, stuck with it, worked hard, and now has arrived at the top of the top. Ms Jimison told me that she started out as a figure skater and began to study dance to help with her skating. Her skating teacher advised her to add the ballet movements, especially the arms, for her work on the ice. That was when she was “around 10 or 12.” The dancing gradually took over the skating. At 12 years old, she entered the SF Ballet School. She had started taking summer intensive programs at San Francisco Ballet and School of American Ballet, in New York, and others, but she stayed with the SFB school. A native of Palo Alto, she was happy to be near home.

Her family had no other dancers or artists of other kinds, but they were supportive in her training and career. I asked if her family was surprised by her dedication. The answer was no; they were “very supportive

Jasmine Jimison being promoted to Principal Dancer on stage after a performance of Ashton’s Marguerite and Armand // © San Francisco Ballet, photo by Lindsey Rallo

She loved figure skating and was very good at it, but even at the young age of making big decisions, her decision was practical. Jasmine said that figure skating is a short career, skaters stop at 15 or, if lucky, maybe 20. Compared to that, ballet, notorious for the brevity of a dancer’s career, seems like a long, life time career.

Ms Jimison has helpful suggestions for young dancers and not so young dancers. She said that “Everyone has a unique time line for training and dancing. The old rules that a person cannot start to dance seriously after 12 years old are no longer in place. So much depends on the individual’s efforts and the quality of training.” In addition to studying at the SFB, Jasmine studied privately with Kristine Elliot – a beautiful dancer, soloist in the American Ballet Theater. Ms Elliot gave Jasmine significant training. Jasmine feels certain that being in one on one classes with Ms. Elliot gave her a significant boost in learning.

A recent thrill for SF audiences and for Ms Jimison was her role as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake. Jasmine said being cast in the double role is usually set on “veteran” ballerinas with great experience. However, the new Principal Dancer was given the role. Odette, the good princess, was turned into a swan by the evil wizard, Von Rothbart. Odile, the bad “princess,” daughter of Von Rothbart, puts a spell on Prince Siegfried. The Prince had fallen in love with Odette by the romantic Swan Lake. In the picture below, she is Odette.

Jasmine Jimison in Tomasson’s Swan Lake // © San Francisco Ballet, photo by Lindsey Rallo

I asked Jasmine if she preferred one of the parts. She thought that Odette’s personality was closer to hers, it felt more natural, but it is exciting to delve into characteristics that are completely different.

She has appeared in many different roles but she said that Juliet is her favorite, so far. She likes knowing that the audience understands the feelings of the characters. That means that they are with Juliet as she goes through so many challenges. Also, the music is wonderful. It is the “most important in shaping the quality of the movement.”

Jasmine Jimison and Mingxuan Wang in Tomasson’s Nutcracker // © Reneff-Olson Productions

She will not know what ballets or roles she will be in until much closer to the season. She is now learning Grosse Fugue and will learn Clemence in Raymonda. The San Francisco Ballet will go on tour to Madrid, October 1st. Ms Jasmine Jimison, Principal Dancer, is excited about the company’s first international tour with her. I asked her what it is about dance that drew her in to make it the center of her life. She answered that she loves the physical aspect of it, but it also gives her a way of expressing herself and the feelings from the music and characters. She said that these were things she could not express verbally. However, she expressed herself clearly and articulately in our conversation just like the clarity and meaning she puts into her dance.

Photographs compliments of the San Francisco Ballet. 

 

 

 

A Romantic Program: Schumann & Bruckner

June 21, 2024:  Do not be upset. I know that Bruckner is not labelled a Romantic composer, but he gave his Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major, Romantic. the name “the Romantic” after he completed it. Schumann, was a Romantic in his music and his life.  His Piano Concerto in A minor, Opus 54 was his only piano concerto, but it is a perfect one. Why are these two composers on the same program? Each one created a change in the art. Schumann’s significant change is a new way to make a concerto. Bruckner made lasting changes in the development of symphonic movements. There are stories behind each innovation.

Robert Schumann, composer (1810 -1856)

THE COMPOSER

He looks so troubled in this picture. For a long time I have felt that Schumann did not get enough attention in our modern and/or post-modern era. Very unfair. As you see in his dates, he lived only 46 years. Mozart and Mendelssohn both died before they reached 40. Sadly, that is one of the facts people will note. Surely, Mozart and Mendelssohn deserve every possible praise, but the brevity of their lives, and of Schumann’s, should be on some kind of celestial list. And Schumann spent the last part of his life in an asylum. He fell in love with Clara Wieck, widely recognized as the great concert pianist of Europe. To complete the romantic story, her father would not allow them to marry. However, they married anyway. She continued to perform, to teach, and to compose. Her work supported the family. She had eight children. She performed her husband’s music and would listen to the new works. Schumann was very intelligent in other arenas, too. He founded a journal, the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik, in 1834, and wrote for it and edited it for ten years. He had studied law at Leipzig and Heidelberg, but he was a musician. Music and Clara were his life.

His Piano Concerto in A minor, Opus 54 was something new. He began a work he called Phantasie, in 1827. In 1839, he published an essay about piano concertos in the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik. He did not like the existing concerto form of the orchestra and soloist being separated mainly to show off the virtuoso piano performance. He imagined more interaction of the orchestra and soloist making the music together.

Clara Schumann, pianist, composer, wife of Robert Schumann (1819 – 1896).

THE CONCERTO

Schumann wrote that “the orchestra, no longer a mere spectator, may interweave its manifold facets into the scene.”  He wrote four more attempts at the new concerto, but they were only attempts. Clara played the piece and declared the Phantasie good. “The piano is most skillfully interwoven with the orchestra; it is impossible to think of one without the other.” Schumann was not there yet. It did not get published; Schumann felt something was missing. Schumann revised the Phantasie in 1845, making it a three  movement concerto. It may not be the most challenging concerto, but he brought together orchestra and soloist together to make music. It is an act of beauty. The “interwoven” sources of the music also weave a spell for the listener.

Yefim Bronfman, Pianist

The San Francisco Symphony, led by Music Director, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and the soloist, Yefim Bronfman, made the music play above merely wonderful. Schumann would be happy to know how seamlessly the music came through the team work of all. When the piano introduces itself at the beginning, the oboe and bassoon present the theme. Schumann made the work without the usual orchestra and soloist’s separate excitement. The idea of connecting the roles of soloist and orchestra is present throughout. Schumann himself wrote the piano’s cadenza, and it is  glorious. None of the orchestra’s instruments is lost. The first violins swell as the piano presents a second theme. A solo clarinet is heard clearly over the quiet playing of the strings. This concerto shows what is created when every instrument’s character plays itself and is part of the company as well as having its own, individual, musical life. There is little one might write about Yefim Bronfman. His performance was beyond extravagant superlatives. He plays the soul of the music. There are places in the Concerto when the piano is delicate, almost quiet, small. Those moments were some of the biggest experiences of the Concerto. The audience could not let him go. There were, maybe, six encores. After the first two or three, Bronfman played a Rachmaninoff piece, Prelude in G minor (op. 23  no. 5), it had unique rhythms and a changing pattern. Fascinating and strange. The audience carried on applauding and shouting bravos until a few at a time gradually trickled to the exits.

Anton Bruckner, composer, organist 1824-1996

THE SYMPHONY

The SF Symphony led by Music Director, Esa-Pekka Salonen, gave a powerful and insightful performance of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major, Romantic. The orchestra represented Bruckner’s unique approach to every note. This is a great symphony in every sense of the word; the music is marvelous and the symphony is a long one. Bruckner gives the listener new sounds and new roles for particular instruments. There are dissonant notes and momentary rests. They are surprising. Then, the listener realizes that these novel aspects are part of Bruckner’s mystery. Here is a master of orchestration and counterpoint who knows the use of an out of the way path wins the music lover’s attention. The Symphony No. 4 has musical references to hunting in its Scherzo and other movements. The horns are the stars of this Symphony. One can picture the “nobility” riding through a forest. This is part of the Romanticism that was sweeping across Europe. Movements develop slowly; there  will be a change to lively dance music; then a wistful encounter of characters. Bruckner must have surprised himself so much as his audiences were surprised when, long after the Symphony’s debut, he wrote a note of what images could float before one’s eyes:

“Medieval city- dawn-morning calls sound from the towers-the gates open-on proud steeds the knights ride into the open-woodland magic embraces them-forest murmurs-bird songs-and thuse the Romantic picture unfolds.”*

There are more wind instruments playing music that does suggest the natural world awakening, and, through the grandeur of the Symphony, there are suggestions of folk music. Bruckner’s view is broad as though he looks across all directions for the vast earth, brooks, and trees and stretches his musical vision to encompass the living world and even beyond. He takes our breaths away in a dazzling finale that draws together darkness and distant light.

THE COMPOSER

Bruckner’s life could have followed his father’s and grandfather’s paths as a schoolmaster and organist in the Austrian village of Ansfelden When his father died, his mother took him to St. Florian’s, a monastery-school. Bruckner’s attachment to St. Florian’s lasted throughout his life. He began teaching music at St. Florian’s soon after his education there ended. Before St. Florian’s he had music education through his father and, when his father was ill, Anton played the organ in the church. He spent ten years on St. Florian’s music faculty. He left to live in Linz, 1856, and began to write seriously. There was a popular song for male-voice chorus, “Germanenzug,” 1863; Psalm LX11, for soloists, chorus, and orchestra, 1863; Symphony in F minor, his first symphony, 1863; a great Mass in D major, his first mass, 1864. Beginning in 1855, he studied counterpoint and harmony with Simon Sechter. Bruckner felt he was not sufficiently prepared for composing. Sechter was considered the best teacher, and Bruckner spent six years studying with him although Sechter was in Vienna and Bruckner in Linz. Then, he took up the study of orchestration and musical form from Otto Kitzler, also considered the best teacher in these areas. Assigning himself to these studies reveals Bruckner’s hunger for learning and perfectionist tendencies.

Life in Linz was obviously more stimulating for Bruckner than his previous home. In Linz, he wrote two more symphonies; one in D minor -called Zero Symphony – and Symphony #1 in C minor. He wrote two great Masses: one in E minor, 1866; and one in F minor, 1867-1868. The E minor mass kept to strict polyphonic style for an 8 part chorus and brass instruments. The F minor established a new kind of “symphonic mass,” for orchestra and chorus.

If Linz was a helpful atmosphere for him, when Bruckner moved to Vienna, 1868, he began a period of creative production. He had been studying his music theory lessons and still taught music and played the organ. It was a hard working life. When he arrived in Vienna, he was able to succeed Sechter’s position as professor of harmony and counterpoint at the Vienna Conservatory and had private students. The University of Vienna gave him a position in their faculty, too. Before Vienna, he had had a nervous breakdown. Overwork or something physical? There is no answer, except that Vienna gave him so much more. All his training and work opened the door to important positions. Starting in 1868, he was the court chapel organist, and from 1875 onward he was Vice Librarian and Second Singing Master for the choristers. These positions lack lofty names, but they added to his financial security and visibility.

Bruckner saw Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman and Tannhauser, in Linz, and traveled to Munich to see Tristan and Isolde. He met Wagner in 1865 and became a Wagnerian. This placed him in the midst of battles between followers of Wagner and those who preferred Brahms. Some leading critics, especially Eduard Hanslick, made it difficult for Bruckner’s work to get the approval and attention needed to move his work forward.HNe toured as an organist. He performed in Paris and Nancy, 1869, and London, 1871, performing at the Crystal Palace  exhibiton five times. His virtuoso organ playing and his improvisation on the organ fascinated audiences. It is said that his improvisations were spectacular. Later he made journeys within Germany: Leipzig, Munich, and Berlin were frequent venues. There were also conductors who were enthusiastic about his music. These were Nikisch, Levi, Mottl, Mahler, and Ochs. His symphonies and masses were greeted with admiration or dislike, again because of the politics of Wagner vs. Brahms. Mahler especially supported Bruckner’s work. He made the first pianoforte arrangement of Symphony No. 3 and conducted the first performance of Symphony No. 6, in 1899.

Anton Bruckner’s made changes that contributed to the development of symphonies. As he was a dedicated student of orchestration, harmony, counterpoint, the changes will mean the most to musicians and students, but the changes affect what an audience hears. (A) he introduced a third subject in the exposition. (B) A tendency to telescope development and recapitulation which make the movement split into 2 main parts. This is most noticeable in the first and fourth movements of his Symphony No. 9. (C) shifting the power center to a finale which can end with repetition of the main themes of early movements (D) linking movements by shared themes as in Adagio and Scherzo in Symphony No. 5 and Scherzo and Finale of Symphony No. 4.

These innovations stepped away from the classical forms of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Bruckner broadened the possibilities of great symphonies.

*Quotation taken from SFS program note by james M. Keller.

San Francisco Symphony Explores New Music from 1861-2023

May 16, San Francisco Symphony presented a concert that showed delight in the new and even in the older new music. Each excursion into a different world of sound let the audience enter surprising terrain. The program itself was innovative as its mixture of instruments and completely different ways of composing allowed all of us to realize there are countless approaches to music.

Conductor Ryan Bancroft led the SFS through centuries of music with care and enthusiasm for his program and fellow artists. He grew up in Los Angeles and gained international attention when he won the first prize and audience prize at the Malko Competition in Copenhagen, 2018.

Unsuk Chin wrote Alaraph ‘Ritus des Herzschlags’ (Alaraph: Rite of the Heartbeat) in 2022. She was fascinated to learn about “heartbeat stars.” They have regular pulsations. Alaraph is a “heartbeat star” “in a binary star systems in eccentric orbits with vibrations caused by tidal forces.” The composer has said that she “cannot and I do not need to describe my music..You have to listen to it and everybody has to understand it in their own way.” Despite that desire, it is a big help to have a couple of her hints. Curiously, the “star’s light curve is similar to what a heartbeat looks like through an electrocardiogram when its brightness is mapped over time.” The heartbeat stars therefore have both the pulsating force and their light curve to match the heartbeat concept. While there are traditional orchestral instruments – flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, contrabassoons, horns, trumpets, trombones, tuba, contrabass tuba, and timpani, the percussion list is long. In fact, the list of the instruments is nearly two inches tall. Some of these are familiar: the cowbell, the tam tam, piano strings, for example. There are a lot of drums: wood drum, bongos, snare drum, tom toms, tenor drum, bass drum, but there are also stranger percussion resources, like bamboo tree and binzasara. This was not meant to be something one would hum on the way to the garage. It is sound for the stars, planets, and space. Ms Chin also notes that traditional Korean music is knit into this universe. Having heard Korean music for traditional dance, it is a powerful presence. I was told that one must be careful when such things are playing as the sounds bring out spirits which could rock the chair one had assumed was not going to move or jump, and it might.

As the program had opened with a composition of 2022, the next performance was Violin Concerto No. 5 in A minor, Opus 37, by Henri Vieuxtemps, written in 1861. Vieuxtemps was Belgian and performed his first concert at age six. Throughout his life he was celebrated by the elite of violinists and music critics. This Concerto shows why. In addition to his extraordinary greatness as a violinist, he was also a remarkable composer. Fortunately for the San Francisco audience, Joshua Bell was the soloist. The performance was astounding. One could not compare this performance with any other; it was only played by the SFS  once before, in 1932. The virtuosity required by the soloist is not easy to describe; everything about the piece was designed to keep the mind and fingers moving more and more quickly with more and more brilliance. Berlioz reviewed Vieuxtemps’ Concerto No. 5 in A minor and found it “grand and new;” the “whole is admirably combined to let the solo instrument shine, without its domination ever becoming oppressive.” There was nothing oppressive about it. Seeing and hearing Bell with the SFS lifted us up. Being a witness to the best can do that and also can expand one’s life in the best way.

Thanks go to Joshua Bell for the third selection. He had commissioned a group of new works called the Elements project. “They all have something in common, said Bell: “They all have a tendency toward tonality and melody, which I like.” He wanted to commission “something about the natural world.” On this program, the element was Earth, a ten minute performance with Joshua Bell’s solo violin and flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings. The composer, Kevin Puts, wrote Earth in 2023. The music had a natural sound though did not imitate the sounds of nature. It was calming and steady. This was Earth without volcanoes or tsunami or hurricanes. This earth endures. While experiencing the music, I thought about our earth. Toward the closing minute, I felt closer to earth but, suddenly, also afraid for Earth.

Claude Debussy composed La Mer from 1903-1905. It sounded like new music, musical, imagistic, gorgeous, and also understated music. The wonderful writer, Michael Steinberg, called La Mer “this not-quite-symphony.” There are three movements or one might call them pictures:  De l’Aube a midi sur la mer (From Dawn Till Noon on the Sea); Jeux de vagues (Play of the Waves); Dialogue du vent et de la mer (Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea). Actually, calling them pictures cannot work. While the visual world of the sea comes forward, the rhythm and movement which Debussy creates feels like the real movement of the sea and the wind. Debussy contributed so much to music; a listener now hears his music as a natural phenomenon. It is entirely his own originality like an element of nature that has lasted and always will. It is different from any other work. Michael Steinberg mentions “the swell and retreat” of the cellos’ theme “echoed” quietly in the timpani and horns. All of us breathe in swell and retreat. Being near the sea, one’s breath synchronizes with the waves and then yearns to be in the water to float on the surface which will lift one and let one down while moving forward. La Mer does present tempestuous conditions, but Debussy loves all of the sea’s movement and rhythm. This is new music.

#Quotations from artists are quoted from SF Symphony program.

 

Gemma New Conducts SF Symphony Brilliantly

Conductor Gemma New brought her musical brilliance and personable presence to Davies Symphony Hall, May 10 & 12. On May 11th, she led the SFS in the same program at UC, Davis. It was a program of music with distant origins. Overture, was created in Poland by Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz while Poland was occupied by Germany, 1943. Englishman Edward Elgar wrote his beautiful, tragic ‘Cello Concerto in E minor, Opus 85, in 1919. Where did that music come from? Elgar had suspended his composing from the beginning of World War I. The horrors of the war kept his writing to brief, minor pieces. This music came from England but also from the fields and trenches of Belgium. Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Opus 56, Scottish, 1842. While Mendelssohn’s music was inspired by his visit to Scotland, its history, impressions of its dramatic seascape, and dances, Mendelssohn’s music was about music. It is a great symphony.

Gemma New, Principal Conductor of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Conductor Gemma New was called to replace Conductor Marta Gardolinska who had to withdraw due to a serious family illness.

A successful Polish conductor, Ms Gardolinska champions Polish composers. For that reason, Grazyna Bacewicz’s Overture opened the program. The music did not have its premiere until 1945. Bacewicz began as a violinist at the Warsaw Conservatory. In the 1930s she studied with the famous teacher, Nadia Boulanger, in Paris. This overture has so much great music in such a short time; it runs only 6 minutes. It is stunning to realize this and other works came forth from a terrible historic time. Warsaw began its rebellion to try to shake off the German hold, August 1, 1944. The Soviet Union’s Red Army did not bring the expected aide. The soldiers parked outside Warsaw, allowing the Germans to kill another quarter of a million Poles. As they left, the Germans set off the dynamite and wiring to explode and destroy all of Warsaw. In the midst of this, Bacewicz’s mind was active. The timpani opens and playful strings join in. She uses dissonance and some abrasive sounds, but it is always a musical language that one believes. There is a lovely and strong flute and then an exciting, delightful forward charge for the orchestra. I hope we may hear more of Grazyna Bacewicz

Sir Edward Elgar, 1857-1934

Pablo Ferrandez, ‘cellist

Elgar’s ‘Cello Concerto in E minor is one of my favorite pieces of music. I am a choreographer and chose the last two movements of this work to choreograph and perform as part of a dance concert on the program of Britain Meets the Bay, sponsored by the British Council. To choreograph this music, I listened to it maybe more often than the composer and also studied the war. On this program, the ‘cellist was Pablo Ferrandez. He has a unique approach to the music, playing it in his own interpretation. He occasionally bows very slowly across the ‘cello producing a disappearing sound. His touring this season includes major orchestras across the US: Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Seattle. In Europe he will perform in London, Rotterdam, Dusseldorf and more. Conductor Gemma New led Ferrandez and the SFS engaging them in the strength and agony of the music.

Felix Mendelssohn, 1809-1847, composer and accomplished painter, linguist, poet. This is a watercolor of Lucerne by Mendelssohn.

Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony #3 was dedicated to Queen Victoria. Mendelssohn, the Queen, and Prince Albert would gather and play new pieces by Mendelssohn. They formed a true friendship. In his program note, Larry Rothe mentions that Mendelssohn dropped the “Scottish” part of the title. There are sounds that can remind one of the winds sweeping around the islands and the mist that clings to buildings and people walking. The opening of the Symphony may recall the murder of Mary, Queen of Scots’ probable lover. However, no story line appears. One may identify sounds that could be developed from the wind itself. This is also about relationships between disparate sounds, how they oppose other sounds, and demonstrate they are alive by the motion of the rhythms. The music travels through moments when one could imagine folk dancers out doors, but an adagio appears after that mode to a contemplative, mysterious movement beyond specific thoughts. Once more, the music leads ahead of any “ideas” to label it. The quiet of the symphony changes to a sense of victory leaving behind any mysteries or cold winds. It reassembles itself and carries on. This is a great symphony. Oh, I wrote that at the beginning. It bears repetition. Listen to Mendelssohn’s Symphony #3, again.

Please note: A post about conductors who are women will follow this tomorrow.