The San Francisco Symphony strike was over almost before it seriously began, and I am not sure who is more relieved: the musicians, the support staff and management, or the listening public. (Editor's note: In fact, the musicians have not yet ratified their new contract, so this may be a temporary bit of good news.) Their first concerts this weekend since their three-week work stoppage began was a serendipitous bit of programming, starting with Ave verum corpus, a three-minute prayer for chorus, strings and organ that Mozart wrote in the last months of his life in 1791. It was a gift for Anton Stoll, the choirmaster and organist at Baden where Mozart's wife Constanze was taking the waters at the local spa.
This was followed by Mozart's Symphony #39, in a beautiful performance conducted by the French Canadian Bernard Labadie. If you are an artist and not feeling particularly appreciated, consider the case of Mozart's last three symphonies, which he whipped out in succession during the summer of 1788 in the hope of performing them at a new casino, a concert series that probably never materialized if his letters of the period confessing total monetary indebtedness are any indication. In other words, the three works that are the linchpin symphonies in Western musical history between Haydn, who created the form, and Beethoven, were probably never heard live by their own composer.
Mozart is tricky, in that you either understand him instinctively as a listener and musician, or you don't. His music is deceptively simple, simultaneously breezy and deep, and it requires a sympathetic performer to bring out both sides at the same time. Labadie fulfilled that description, and even more excitingly, so did the reduced orchestra, who don't often work under great Mozart conductors. (As much as I admire music directors Tilson Thomas and Blomstedt before him, Mozart was never one of their strengths.) Most of Symphony #39 sounds like Haydn or early Beethoven, but the second slow movement is both so simple and so unearthly beautiful that it reminds you in a good performance why Mozart is in a special category of his own.
The second half of the concert was Handel's hour-long, 1739 Ode for Saint Cecilia's Day for orchestra, organ, large chorus, and a tenor and soprano soloist. Saint Cecilia was a local cult among English poets who competed with each other in writing odes to the Patron Saint of Music in lyrics that were meant to be sung. John Dryden's version is the one that Handel used. It's almost an Adult's Guide to the Orchestra in that the vocal soloists interact explicitly with different individual instruments as they extol their particular powers, punctuated by exciting moments for the chorus and full orchestra.
It was joyful hearing the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus in action again because in my 40 years of listening to this ensemble, they have never sounded better, and their possible long absence felt like a serious loss. (Above is Ragnar Bohlin, chorus director.)
Saint Cecilia wasn't blessing everything about the performance because the soprano soloist Lydia Teuscher, who has the most to sing in this cantata, cancelled at the last minute with unspecified illness and was replaced by Cyndia Sieden. Though Ms. Sieden deserves every thanks for rushing in and saving the day, her performance was seriously inadequate next to the excellence of the orchestra, chorus and the tenor Nicholas Phan above. He was so good, and filled Davies Hall so easily with his small frame and huge voice, that we didn't want him to stop singing. He'll be performing as Fenton in Falstaff at the Portland Opera in May along with Susannah Biller and Thomas Glenn, two of my favorite former Adler artists, so if you're the Northwest, don't miss it.
The Switchboard Music Festival held its sixth annual daylong marathon of young, experimental composers and performers at the Brava Theatre on 24th Street a couple of weekends ago. The theatre is a perfect venue for this event, comfy and cozy and with lovely acoustics. I arrived at about 2:30 in the afternoon for the Areon Flutes trio (Jill Heinke, Sasha Launer, and Kassey Piaha above) who were playing the world premiere of Chthonic Suite by the local composer Cornelius Boots
They were quickly followed by the Addleds, an improvisatory "Grind" noise quartet with Kyle Bruckman on oboe and English horn, Tony Dryer on bass, Kanoko Nishi on koto, and Jacob Felix Huele on percussion. Bruckman announced that "there needs to be a little pain before beautiful sounds emerge," which sounded forbidding, but the music was more interesting than painful.
Most of the sets by the various groups were about thirty minutes long, and one of the best stage/tech crews imaginable created lightning fast setups for each performing ensemble. This was even more remarkable because there were often complex requirements for computers, projection screens, sound systems, and a wide range of instruments. They were so skillful that if the crew's names were in the program, I'd be listing them here. Instead, I'll mention that every other ensemble seemed to be featuring a hunky percussionist, and the Addleds' above was Mr. Heule.
The next group, Ava Mendoza's Unnatural Ways, with Ava on guitar and vocals, Dominique Leone on synthesizers and Nick Tamburro on drums, was way too loud for my old ears, so I went outside and watched the crazy street scene on 24th Street for a half hour. The writer/vocalist/artistic administrator Sid Chen, who braved the audio assault, assured me that yes, it was too loud, but nevertheless "it was a great set."
They were followed by the jazzy New York duo futureCities, consisting of Anne Rainwater on piano and Jude Traxler on percussion. They played a pair of pieces by Wally Gunn and Kevin Volans that were sweet and absorbing.
Another New Yorker, Michael Lowenstern above, was probably my favorite performer of the afternoon. The variations he could wring out of a bass clarinet and looping electronics was astonishing, and there was a lovely mixture of humor and soulfness in his performance.
The festival seems to be have grown by leaps and bounds in quality since I last attended back in 2009 when it was at the Mission Dance Theatre down the street. It's still a delightfully homespun affair, though, with one of the head ushers above turning out to be the mother of festival President Ryan Brown.
The music was too rich and intense to think about spending any longer than three hours there, but my friend Charlie Lichtman arrived as I was leaving, and sent me the following report:
"Also featured was the Oakland Active Orchestra, an 11 piece chamber orchestra, who presented ‘The Days are the Same’, by Aram Shelton (clarinets, alto sax). Avant-garde and jazzy, the 25 minute piece was technical as well as entertaining. The orchestra was founded in 2009, and features works composed by members of the ensemble.
The next musicians were Jeff Anderle and Jonathan Russell (collectively known as Sqwonk). Also co-directors of the festival, the two bass clarinet musicians performed the world premiere of ‘As It Goes Along’, by Staten Island born composer Moe! Staiano. Pianists Eva-Maria Zimmermann and Keisuke Nakagoshi (ZOFO), then joined Sqwonk to perform Jonathan Russell’s piece ‘Sqwonkzoforus Rex’.
Billygoat (David Klein and Nick Woolley) was up next. Originally from Los Angeles, but currently from Portland (Oregon), the duo has been producing animated art films and live original scores since 2006. The films have been described as ‘stop-motion shorts of staggering complexity’, and the Brava Theater, once a movie house, was as perfect a venue as possible to show their art. They performed two pieces, ‘Lyric’, and ‘Sophia’,
and their talent was astounding."
I boarded a Muni bus Easter Sunday afternoon headed for the Mission District when a vigorous torrential downpour started. After a fifteen minute soaking, the rain stopped and it was possible to walk to the 2nd Floor Projects gallery on 25th Street to see a photograph of the writer Michael Nava above right that was taken as part of an art project by writer Kevin Killian above left. The show is called Eyes on the Prize, the prize in this case being a crudely drawn set of genitals that various nude men are holding in front of their real family jewels.
The gallery is actually an apartment space, and it was amusing to walk around the small hallway looking at young, old, beautiful and ugly men holding the same drawing at the same strategic place. In a room off the hallway, there was a conceptual art piece by Mariah Garnett called Encounters I May Or May Not Have Had With Peter Berlin, where 16mm film of the artist channeling the 1970s porno star was being projected around a large disco ball.
After a few minutes with the curator, Ms. Tedesco, who attempted to explain it all to me, I hiked across a steep hill to Dolores Park. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were holding their annual Easter celebration capped off with a Hunky Jesus Contest, which this year was canceled due to the sudden monsoon.
There were still a few straggling Jesuses at the park, including the gent above with a working electric guitar/cross in one hand and a bottle of Jim Beam in the other.
The Pilsner Inn at Church and Market about five blocks away was many revelers' sanctuary of choice during the storm...
...and the suddenly sunny backyard was filled with Easter color.
