Mozart at the SF Symphony

An utterly delightful all-Mozart concert is taking place this weekend at the San Francisco Symphony. It was conducted crisply and with verve by Harry Bicket, who leads the early music group The English Consort and is also the longtime music director of the Santa Fe Opera. The program began with the 1776 Serenade No. 6, Serenata notturna for a small complement of strings and timpani. Coming onstage with Bicket as soloists were four members of the orchestra: violinists Alexander Barantschik and Dan Carlson, violist Yun Jie Liu, and bassist Scott Pingel, who all had amusing solo outings during the serenade.

I have heard enough deadly dull live Mozart performances over the years that it always feels like a small miracle when musicians perform him well. Bicket's conducting style was crisp and transparent, which worked well, and the musicians seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely while playing the 1780 Symphony No. 34, the last symphony Mozart wrote before ditching small-town Salzburg for big-city Vienna. (Pictured above are violinists Wyatt Underhill and Jason Issakson.)

After intermission the South African soprano Golda Schultz sang arias from the three famous operas with libretti by Lorenzo da Ponte: Deh,vieni, non tardar from Le nozze di Figaro (1786), Come scoglio from Cosi fan tutte, (1789), and Or sai chi l'onore from Don Giovanni (1789), with a Mozart concert aria as an encore. The arias proceeded from yearning to defiant to vengeful, and Schultz's glorious voice and presence was a pleasure to experience.

The concert ended with a wonderful rendering of the 1786 Symphony No. 38, Prague. I snagged a $30 Rush ticket at the box office on Thursday, and they are also available tonight (Friday). Considering that general admission Chris Stapleton tickets for a Super Bowl concert at Bill Graham Auditorium are currently selling for $810, the SF Symphony feels like one of the best deals in town.