The first month of the San Francisco Symphony's new season ends this week with Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas conducting a world premiere commission and exciting works by Igor Stravinsky. Pianist Yuja Wang plays Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 1 with gifted SFS trumpeter Mark Inouye adding his own diamond bright solos. It's a chance for locals to catch works and artists to be included on the orchestra's upcoming tour of Asia, featuring 10 concerts in six cities, Nov. 9-22.
Chinese-American composer Bright Sheng's Overture to Dream of the Red Chamber is a stand-alone piece not intended for use with the new opera. His music is an intriguing blend of East and West. Sheng will probably be jaywalking between Davies Symphony Hall and the War Memorial Opera House to observe both premieres of his SFS and SFO commissions.
DSH has been jam-packed with excitement all September. Last week, an especially attractive program featured some operatic delights starring a singer who is building a huge Bay Area fan base. Tenor Michael Fabiano, notably admired from his appearances at SFO, tore the roof off DSH with Italian arias and songs. His performance in the second half of the all-Italian program ended with the thrilling call-to-arms from Verdi's Il corsaro . Ragnar Bohlin's sonorous SFS Chorus joined in the exciting charge to end an evening that stimulated one of the biggest audience ovations in recent memory.
The Chorus started the second portion of the bill with a beautifully molded rendition of Verdi's Te Deum from Quattro pezzi sacri. One wouldn't have guessed the beloved composer never really considered himself a man of god; MTT either, as he led the orchestra (most notably the brass) to an almost unbearably bright level of exaltation.
The first half of the big night celebrating Italian composers began with SFS Principal Oboe Eugene Izotov beautifully leading and playing Marcello's delightful Oboe Concerto in C minor. It was a wonderful if cleverly calculated introduction to what followed. We were in a mellow mood to receive Luciano Berio's fabulous Sinfonia for Eight Solo Voices and Orchestra (1969). It was planned to "rock your world," as MTT predicted, and for the next half-hour the auditorium was filled with a babel of languages, singing and declaiming poetry ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime.
The legendary Swingle Singers, in their latest incarnation, navigated the dauntingly virtuosic terrain with breathtaking and often quite beautiful results. The section devoted to the name and memory of Martin Luther King still resonates today, especially in the context and turmoil of current national events. The sound of the Swingle Singers remains uncannily close to the group's original membership, and hearing them work with MTT, as their elders once collaborated with Leonard Bernstein in the early days of the Sinfonia, was electrifying.
The orchestral musicians also had plenty of work to do. The fourth part, with its references to Mahler and great works of the repertoire, anchored Berio's breathtaking invention with swift and haunting flashes of familiar symphonic scores. The Sinfonia still sounds freshly minted. The avant-garde cry of the late 60s continues to ignite an amazing response today.
The previous week MTT presented another fabled symphonic work in a concert of discovery that started with an engaging lecture and ended with a full performance of Beethoven's game-changing Symphony No. 5 in C minor. It was a Sunday matinee, separate from the week's subscription concerts that also featured the Fifth.
The regular programs also gave us a first half devoted to works in the key of C: C Major, that is. Haydn's Symphony No. 69, Laudon (1779) finally got its first SFS performances, and the Sibelius Third (1907) was sandwiched in but still managed to shine in MTT's typically impassioned and intelligent reading.
The Beethoven Fifth is in C minor, and a world apart from any other Symphony before it. MTT's absorbing lecture, with musical examples provided by members of the SFS Chorus and Orchestra, helped even jaded listeners to a renewed appreciation. His charming wit and congenial, infectious enthusiasm guided us to the full performance. Aficionados and neophytes spontaneously rose to applaud. It seemed a wonderful way for newcomers to become accustomed to the pleasures and challenges of classical music, and a way for old-timers to recharge their batteries.
October approaches and brings welcome return visits from conductor Pablo Heras-Casado and young cellist Alisa Weilerstein. MTT also gets back on the podium at DSH one more time, with the Brahms Symphony No. 2, before heading off to Asian halls and the ambitious November tour.