Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado has just completed a two-week guest shot at Davies Symphony Hall that has managed not only to showcase the wonders of the San Francisco Symphony, but also to provide a provocative glimpse of the world of contemporary opera. His most recent program had a Shakespearean motif, with performances of Mendelssohn's evergreen Suite from A Midsummer Night's Dream opening for Scenes from The Tempest (2004) by red-hot British composer Thomas Ades. The concert closed with a full rendition of Mendelssohn's Die Erste Walpurgisnacht (The First Walpurgis Night), featuring rich and idiomatic singing by Ragnar Bohlin's SFS Chorus, a trio of vocal soloists (two borrowed from the earlier Tempest), and beautifully detailed playing by the orchestra.
Pleasing as that performance proved to be, and hearing mezzo-soprano Charlotte Hellekant again was a big part of it, the opening and closing Mendelssohn works went fairly in one ear and out the other compared to the blazing innovation and in-your-face uniqueness of Ades' take on The Tempest. Barihunk Rod Gilfry sang the role of Prospero with a burning intensity that is well-suited to the composer's rougher (and younger) conception of the character.
A previous time I saw Gilfry onstage, he was wearing an athletic T-shirt and ravishing Renee Fleming in Andre Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire at the San Francisco Opera. He cleans up well, but even white tie and tails can't cover a certain intensity of emotion. His moments during the carefully chosen excerpted scenes were too brief, and judging by the overwhelming (and frankly surprising) ovation he received with his fellow soloists, the enthusiastic audience agreed.
The cheekiest part of Ades' vocal writing is for Ariel, sung here by soprano Audrey Luna. Seemingly impossible high notes are shrieked and spit and blurted alongside moments of quite ethereal beauty. Of course, it renders the text unintelligible, but it sure makes for a bold and effective impression. Luna seemed unfazed, and she actually managed to give some character to the cruelly demanding musical requirements expected of her.
As the lovers Miranda and Ferdinand, mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard and tenor Alek Shrader were well-suited to the more conventionally appealing aspects of the score. They sang with personality and excellent technique, and they also looked just right for their parts. As a matter of fact, all the soloists flanking the darkly handsome Heras-Casado were every bit as physically appealing as their voices. That's not something you ordinarily expect from a classical concert, but it certainly added a nice dividend.
The previous week brought some more of Ades' first SFS performances to DSH, with another all-too-brief but thoroughly delightful Three Studies from Couperin. Flavored a bit like Gunther Schuller's interpretations of the baroque, Ades is less intrusive, and seems to be offering less in the way of commentary than some illuminating bits of orchestration. The results are predictably charming, and left us only wanting more.
The concert had opened with a clear and strong reading of Lully's Overture and Passacaille from Armide, alerting the audience to the conductor's focus and ability to lend passion to even the stateliest of music.
The first half of the bill brought violinist Leila Josefowicz center stage for an equally impassioned performance of Stravinsky's remarkable Violin Concerto in D Major. Talk about lookers in the concert hall. Sorry, but it isn't inappropriate to mention that two audience members sitting behind me referred to the young virtuoso as hot, as long as her performance proved transcendent. It did.
Josefowicz thrust and parried her way through the fast pages with dexterity and wit (not to mention strong and lustrous tone), and also showed a clear understanding and enjoyment of Stravinsky's infectious dance rhythms. Would her rendition have been as pleasing strictly as a listening experience? Maybe not, but that is hardly the point during a live performance. We are judging the entire package, and this was a thoroughly satisfying interpretation by any standard. The fellows who made the observation about the soloist's looks were later heard to remark that she was just as good as Kyung Wha Chung and Anne Sofie Mutter in the same repertoire, and they aren't exactly chopped liver themselves.
Pablo Heras-Casado has made his mark before at DSH, and if he continues with his intriguing programming and musical insights, we hope he will become a regular staple of future seasons.