SF Symphony's Free Concert in Civic Center

Thursday at noon in Civic Center Plaza, the San Francisco Symphony played a free, hour-long concert.



It was part of their continuing 100th birthday celebrations that started with the previous evening's Opening Gala that went late into the night.



I asked Symphony staff member Jeffrey Davis above how much sleep he'd gotten, and he admitted that it wasn't much more than a few hours.



When I asked the two gentlemen in white dinner jackets if they were musicians or on the garbage detail, they answered "Both!"



KDFC announcer Rik Malone was the pre-concert emcee and announced that The Sustainable Partner was PG&E, which was handing out metallic water bottles at a booth which you could fill with Hetch Hetchy tap water from a truck on Larkin Street.



Like La Boulange and Ghirardelli Chocolates, who were both giving away treats, PG&E ran out of their freebies rather quickly and the people in line above were turned away.



The concert started with a singalong "Star Spangled Banner" again, just in time for the arrival of two friends above from the weekly Quaker Peace Vigil a block away. They sang lustily as if to demonstrate that peaceniks are both patriotic and musical.



The concert continued with John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine and Axel Feldheim (above left) along with his very funny Symphony chorister friend arrived on cue.



Lang Lang repeated his performance of Liszt's First Piano Concerto, and the chorister asked, "Wouldn't it be marvelous if K.D. Lang married Lang Lang? Then she'd be K.D. Lang Lang Lang."



For a fuller description of the concert and Mayor Ed Lee's arrival, click here for "Not For Fun Only."