Two recent and very different concerts with the San Francisco Symphony turned out to have more in common than we first expected, both meeting their artistic goals with an easy confidence that charmed listeners. The return visit of dynamic conductor Pablo Heras-Casado to Davies Symphony Hall at the start of a two-week stint, and the closing concert of the second season of popular SoundBox, around the corner and down the ramp, might have seemed worlds apart, but they shared a common denominator: a passionate involvement with the music being played.
Heras-Casado is no stranger to DSH, and his latest visit underlines his collegial relationship with the orchestra and regular patrons. His programming for the first week of concerts was a little startling, but we were pleased to see him venturing into the baroque and classical repertoire with such obvious determination.
The more sinewy approach worked very well, especially with the opening Music from Pygmalion (1748) by Rameau. It took a long time for this delightful suite to make an SFS debut, but Heras-Casado made sure we didn't write it off as some mere divertissement for the ghosts of Versailles. The use of modern instruments gave additional weight to the sound, and the musicians scaled their playing down to seem more authentic. It wasn't hard to imagine real flesh-and-blood dancers moving to Rameau's elegant rhythms.
Argentine pianist Ingrid Fliter made her SFS debut in 2007 and has appeared locally since as she widened her international reputation with expert performances and recordings of Chopin. I'm not sure where that lands her stylistically with Franz Joseph Haydn, but we got a fairly convincing idea when she joined with Heras-Casado to essay his Piano Concerto in D Major (1784). I include the date of composition to show its closeness in age, but very different flavor, to the earlier Rameau. Haydn was the wittiest and surely one of the most inventive composers ever to gift the world, and his wonderful ability to surprise and gently poke the listener remains undimmed.
That probably was what Fliter had in mind when she gave such a sonorous and occasionally overheated rendition of the evergreen concerto. There was no withholding of emotion, and she certainly got through the cadenzas with pinpoint accuracy, but I couldn't help wishing for just a little bit more tenderness. It still fit the general tone of the concert, and after intermission, selected members of the orchestra literally stomped their way through Biber's Battalia a 9. A fairly friendly battle is depicted in the piece, and the results took the audience by pleasant surprise.
Heras-Casado closed with a riveting reading of the still too infrequently performed Beethoven Symphony No. 2. I always think my favorite Beethoven is what I'm currently listening to, and the energetic young conductor made a major case for the Second.
Heras-Casado is back at DSH this week with another intriguing bill that includes some favorite Bartok, Ravel and Shostakovich on a bill that will also showcase the world premiere SFS-commissioned Auditorium by composer du jour Mason Bates. Auditorium intriguingly describes bringing the ghosts of a baroque ensemble to possess the spirit of a modern orchestra via electronica. There will even be a live webcast of the premiere via Facebook.
This news dovetails rather nicely into the last night of the second season at SoundBox, where tweeting and posting on Instagram is actually encouraged �" though discreetly and infrequently done, thank god! Christopher Rountree, conductor; James Darrah, director; Peabody Southwell, production designer; Adam Larsen, video designer; and Seth Reiser, lighting designer joined to curate with production company CHROMATIC an evening dubbed Obsession & Creation.
Entering the warehouse club space (get there early to ensure a seat), the diverse crowd is there to share an unusual experience of music. Everyone seems to care less about what is on the program than how it will be performed. That's a fair expectation, and SoundBox has the winning formula to delight both classical and new music devotees. The demographic pitches young, but includes a heartening span of ages. The mood is festive, friendly, and there's a full-service bar. What's not to like?
Obsession & Creation started strong with Ted Hearne's For the Love of Charles Mingus, co-commissioned by the New World Symphony and the SFS for six amplified violins. Taking the highest frequencies of the strings to yield an almost etheric essence of Mingus proved mesmerizing.
Arguably, the biggest success of the night followed, with another SFS commission, Nathaniel Stookey's YTTE (Yield to Total Elation) for mixed large ensemble and OOVE (kinetic sound sculpture designed by Oliver DiCicco). The score lives up to its name, cresting and flowing melodically with thrilling immediacy. The visuals added to the exhilarating effect, but YTTE would probably raise goosebumps even in the dark.
Dancers Christopher Bordenave, Nicholas Korkos, and Sam Shapiro were present throughout the evening's performance, a little distracting at first, but ultimately a welcome addition, especially after the first intermission when they supported soprano Marnie Breckenridge in a lovely rendition of Stradella's "Queste Lagrime e Sospire" from San Giovanni Battista. Frederic Rzewski's far more radical but surprisingly lyrical Attica for instrumental ensemble and solo vocalist followed. It had most of the enthusiastic audience begging for more.
More is what they got as the evening ended with three selections by the late lamented genius Frank Zappa from Yellow Shark . Be-Bop Tango and Outrage at Valdez were played by the expanded orchestra with funny, clever and slightly disturbing images flashing on the walls and ceiling. The concluding The Dog Breath Variations/Uncle Meat, with its feverish mixture of Burt Bacharach and Hollywood Golden Age movie composers on Ecstasy, reminds us how influential Zappa himself was. Maybe it's only rock and roll, but I like it.
It was good to see members of the SFS (hey, violinist Nadya Tichman!) and Heras-Casado drifting in after their gig next door, and it only underlined the easy feeling and excitement of the night. A song by Prince was played as exit music. SoundBox has got its heart in the right place.