The final weeks of the 2015-16 San Francisco Symphony season are counting down to a glorious finale in late June, when Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas conducts Mahler's radiant Symphony No. 2, Resurrection . There will be plenty of action in Davies Symphony Hall until then, including the highly anticipated semi-staged production of Bernstein, Comden & Green's joyous WWII musical On the Town this week. Performers from the hit Broadway revival of 2014 are joining MTT and the SFS Chorus to re-create the exciting and hopeful New York, New York of 1944.
The last two weeks have included the welcome return visit of guest conductor Juraj Valcuha in an evening mostly devoted to the music of Richard Strauss, and most recently, a concert featuring fabulous mezzo-soprano Susan Graham singing Berlioz and MTT recording Schumann's Symphony No. 4 for the projected SFS Media complete set.
La Graham obviously dressed for the part, as she made her entrance to sing La Mort de Cleopatre in regal gear. The capacity crowd took audibly appreciative notice of her costume as she settled in for a fine performance. She managed to convey focused emotion without histrionics, and the power and beauty of her tone encouraged a standing ovation and a charming encore, "L'ile inconnue" from Les nuits d'ete , also by Berlioz.
I was a little surprised by Graham's generic French pronunciation; I don't think I've ever noticed it so clearly before. She is well-known for her excellence in the French repertoire, and I have witnessed her convincingly portray Queen Dido at the San Francisco Opera in Berlioz's Les Troyens. Her acting ability certainly helps, so the plain accent didn't detract from enjoyment. Her diction is still superb, and it highlighted a believable interpretation.
The season-long Schumann symphony cycle was crowned by a brisk and beautifully rehearsed rendition of the turbulent Fourth after the intermission. Exquisite solo contributions from concertmaster Alexander Barantschik and Michael Grebanier, Principal Cello, added pinpoints of beautiful detail to a sweeping and satisfying project finish.
DSH felt rather Viennese the week before, as guest conductor Juraj Valcuha tore through Don Juan and the Suite from Der Rosenkavalier by R. Strauss. It was hard to discern much of the conductor's personality in the measured and controlled interpretations, though the nefarious anti-hero was brilliantly evoked in the remarkably concise (for Strauss) tone poem.
An early work by Anton Webern, Im Sommerwind, opened the second half of the program, surprising listeners who were expecting something more typically spare from the composer known for his rigorous 12-tone technique. It was a good introduction to the whipped cream Suite from Rosenkavalier that followed.
Curious Flights goes 'Airborne'
May is ending with a veritable traffic jam of tempting musical events as the Memorial Day weekend offers listeners some exceptionally varied concerts and productions. San Francisco Opera's bold staging of Carmen opens Friday, and there is the aforementioned On the Town at Davies, but I wouldn't want to miss Curious Flights' West Coast premiere of The Airborne Symphony by Marc Blitzstein.
Marin Symphony Music Director Alasdair Neale will lead the combined forces of the Curious Flights Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Merola Opera graduates Brian Thorsett (tenor) and Efrain Solis (baritone), with narrator David Latulippe in performance on Sat., May 28, 8 p.m. at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The program is aptly titled The Age of Flight, and coincidentally leads us into June's LGBT Pride month quite nicely with the inclusion of works by three gay composers. Selections by Aaron Copland and Samuel Barber are on a bill that features the thrilling Blitzstein score.
Marc Blitzstein was out and unapologetic in an era that was hardly friendly to homosexuals or leftist activists, but oppression didn't keep him from military service in WWII, or from bold and imaginative statements postwar and later during the Red Scare 1950s. The Airborne Symphony is best described as a cantata, mixing stirring poetry with rousing choruses, touching vocal solos, evocative orchestral interludes and some occasionally jingoistic wartime propaganda. Think thoroughly American Kurt Weill, and you will have an idea of Blitzstein's sound.
It has the same kind of youthful testosterone coursing through its pages as Leonard Bernstein's score for On the Town, and it isn't surprising to learn that Lenny was an early champion of the work. Unsurprising, too, that Blitzstein worked with Weill and Bertolt Brecht during a career that ended in 1964, when the composer died from injuries sustained in a gay-bashing attack in France.
There is no hint of impending doom or ultimate tragedy in The Airborne Symphony, however, as it covers the history of flight and the human aching to soar to the heavens from Icarus to the ace pilots of the American Air Force. In support of this project, Curious Flights was recently awarded a $10,000 grant by the Kurt Weill Foundation, and Artistic Director and Founder Brenden Guy is obviously putting the money to good use. The edgy and innovative Curious Flights ends the 2016 season with characteristic ambition. For more information: curiousflights.com.