The San Francisco Symphony season is speeding right along to the finale next month with the crowning Beethoven festival, but that doesn't mean there are no other exciting concerts in the meantime. The one-night-only American Maverick: John Cage program this coming Sat., May 16, will feature the composer's rarely heard Renga (with video and an appearance by actor Tim Robbins). Veteran guest conductor Charles Dutoit returns for a two-week run at Davies Symphony Hall later in the month, and SFS principal musicians Alexander Barantschik and Jonathan Vinocour are soloists in Mozart's Sinfonia concertante starting May 20.
The past two weeks have been just as interesting, and if the results have been mixed, the programs have been characteristically well-conceived and executed. Most recently, SFS Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas tackled two seemingly incongruent symphonies, and curiously enough, didn't make a very convincing statement with either one.
He has already performed and recorded the sunlit Mahler Fourth to great acclaim, and his understanding and probing analysis of the composer's works have earned him a place in the pantheon of great interpreters, but performances last week seemed overthought and carefully manicured to the point of occasional inertia.
Soprano soloist Susanna Phillips has a beautiful, crystalline tone, and her voice was able to gleam without a trace of harshness in the sweet song about life in heaven sung in the Fourth Symphony's finale. Her German is unidiomatic, but that was a minor flaw. Her lovely contribution and MTT's exquisite framing with his totally sympathetic orchestral musicians elevated the performance to the expected level of excellence.
The first half of the bill was devoted to another work of which MTT is an obvious champion, Leonard Bernstein's unconventional and typically theatrical The Age of Anxiety, Symphony No. 2. The difficult-to-interpret work was taken on the road 16 years ago with SFS principal keyboardist Robin Sutherland brilliantly essaying the important piano role. I remember the original performances here at DSH as exhilarating, with MTT and Sutherland in fabulous synch, emphasizing the rapturous jazziness that enlivens the center of the score.
This time, acclaimed French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet took the bench, and while he has his own admired jazz chops, the results were simply unconvincing. The more ponderous aspects of the narrative (the Symphony is based on an epic poem by W.H. Auden) were just that. The anxiety was damped down to something more like manic depression, and Thibaudet's expert navigation of the jazz was perfect but didn't swing.
MTT has said Bernstein will ultimately be remembered more for his music than for his conducting, and I agree. I also remember Bernstein saying all his works were basically theatre music, and I agree with him, too. This was a good try that disappointed, staying stubbornly earthbound when we know from experience MTT has made a convincing case in years past.
The week before, Finnish (by way of L.A.) guest conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen came to DSH for a beautifully constructed program that included one of his own compositions. In the pre-concert lecture, Salonen made an appearance to talk about his own conducting-composing career, and to explain his inspiration for the programmed first SFS performances of Nyx (2010).
Charmingly self-effacing and aging well (he's looking a lot like a Nordic Christian Bale these days), Salonen joked he had been tempted to frame his own piece with two mediocre works that would make him look better, but he just couldn't do it to his audience or to the dedicated musicians onstage. So Nyx got Ravel's Ma Mere l'Oye for a curtain-raiser, and the performance was really as perfect as Salonen said of the score and its orchestration.
It was also a great intro for the conductor's brief (17 minutes) and glittering display of orchestral ingenuity. Based on the character of the obscure and nebulous daughter of Greek earth mother Gaia, Nyx offers a spectacular opportunity for the orchestra to revel in huge sonorities, mysterious moods and fascinating textures.
The evening ended with another highly complementary score. The full Stravinsky ballet The Firebird (1910) sounded intellectualized as pure music more than music for the theatre, but Salonen still elicited a wonderful, rich sound from the orchestra. This was Stravinsky in the Pierre Boulez mold (another composer/conductor) more than the feverish Bernstein interpretations. It gave further insight into what we may be hearing from Salonen the composer in future. Will he, like Bernstein or even Boulez, ultimately be remembered more for his music than for his conducting? The jury hasn't convened yet, and it is too early to hazard a guess. We do know we will follow his path enthusiastically.