Music News: May 15, 2012

'Fair and Balanced' Reporting on What's NEW at SFS

Given the critical reference in the item above to the S.F. Symphony's modest support for contemporary music, here is a quick list of some evidence to the contrary during the rest of the current season and in Season No. 101:

• May 16-19 concerts include Schnittke's Violin Concerto No. 4, with Alexander Barantschik as soloist
• May 24-27 programs are special, featuring Kalevi Aho's Minea, Prokofiev's 1917 Violin Concerto No. 1 (with Hilary Hahn), and Shostakovich's 1939 Symphony No. 6
• The concert performance of Béla Bartók's magnificent 1911 opera, Bluebeard's Castle, is scheduled for June 21-23.

Of the next season, Jeff Dunn writes:

"Seems to be an average year for SFS, five-six works written in the last 10-15 years, which is pathetic, but in the larger scheme of things, typical, and not exceptionally bad."

• Samuel Carl Adams, Drift and Providence, in September
• World premiere of the commission by SFS assistant concertmaster Mark Volkert's Pandora, in Oct.
• Jörg Widmann's Piano Concerto, in Dec.
• Magnus Lindberg's EXPO, in Feb. 2013
• John Adams' Absolute Jest (repeated from the centennial season), in May
• Ivan Fedele's Scena, in June (paired with Schubert and Schumann)

S.F. Boys Chorus' Big Day: June 16

The program includes Guido Hazan's Missa Luba, a Congolese song-inspired Mass setting, with African drum accompaniment and tribal chants.

SFBC director Ian Robertson welcomes the dancers who will perform excerpts from a recent collaboration, Fable and Faith, which "uses children's fables to explore issues of imagination, creativity and identity.

It's been a great experience for the boys whose young imaginations have been whetted by their close on-stage experiences with these superb modern dancers."

Robertson, also director of the San Francisco Opera Chorus, says the voices — 40 trebles and 12 older boys — "sound so ethereal and heavenly in that beautiful space." As before, the dance company's Crystaldawn Bell will perform a solo.

Activities in the Cathedral begin at 11 a.m.; at noon, children will dance along an African drumming workshop. The concert starts at 2 p.m.

During the school year, the the Grammy award-winning Boys Chorus holds practices and rehearsals twice a week in three Bay Area locations: San Francisco's Kanbar Center on Page Street, in the Oakland Cathedral, and San Rafael's St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.

The 64-year-old group tours far and wide, to Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming, and in 2009, sang at the inauguration of President Barack Obama. FBC's next auditions will be held on June 9.

Conservatory President to Retire

Under Murdoch’s leadership, enrollment has grown, the endowment tripled $11 million to $33 million. "Colin’s presidency has been extraordinary," says Timothy Foo, chair of the Conservatory’s Board of Trustees. "Under his inspired leadership, the school has grown in size, quality and stature. His forward vision and tireless advocacy led to the 2006 relocation of the Conservatory to the marvelous facilities at 50 Oak Street, without doubt the most significant transformation of the Conservatory in the last 50 years."

Announcing his retirement, Murdoch said:

When I was appointed president in 1992, I made a 10-year internal commitment to serve. When 50 Oak Street became a possibility, I made a second 10-year commitment. Now, with the Conservatory’s Centennial on the horizon in 2017, it too deserves a 10-year commitment from the Conservatory’s president. Grateful and proud as I am for having been part of the Conservatory’s first century, I know that the Conservatory’s finest hours are yet to be heard in its second century.

The Glory That Was the Philharmonic

They are gone now, defeated utterly on the softball field (see next item), but triumphant in two concerts at Davies Hall, where the New York Philharmonic spread some magic, under the Bernsteinesquely ultra-dynamic baton of Alan Gilbert. See SFCV review by Georgia Rowe of the concerts. But first, I'd like to gush briefly about two unforgettable experiences:

The quiet middle section of Dvořák's otherwise big, bombastic Carnival Overture provided a heavenly resting place, with layers of subtle sound piled on one another, creating something startlingly beautiful.

More, there was a fabulous performance of the Bartók First Violin Concerto, with concertmaster Glenn Dicterow (no showman he, just a giant of a fiddler) the soloist.

However many times I heard it, I never figured out the rest of the work, but the first movement — with its endless melodic line — is one of the most cherished in the concerto literature. Don't have the Dicterow performance handy, but check out 15-year-old Antal Zalai's stab at it.

As for the NYPO, please come back soon.

Our Symphomaniacs Crush Their Penguins

Older, bigger, richer, the New York Philharmonic couldn't field a softball team Sunday to stand up against the San Francisco Symphony Symphomaniacs. Even with Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert and Executive Director Zarin Mehta in the lineup, the New York visitors were anniliated 34:4 — and MTT didn't even have to get up from the bench.

This old rivalry for the Davies Cup turned into a rout as the San Franciscans employed a number of ringers. Team captain and major scorer Mark Inouye, for example, stressed his position as principal trumpet to qualify, not mentioning his vast athletic experience. Winning pitcher Robert Ward is known as principal horn, but his high school pitching record was kept a secret.

This was the first rematch since 1983 when San Francisco beat New York on their home territory, 11:6. The first Davies Cup game, two years before then is not something talked about in polite Barbary Coast company; it was a reverse wipeout (16:24), although not nearly as bad as on Sunday.

Inouye was humble in victory: "That is an incredible feat for a slow pitch softball game of nine innings. Equally impressive is the 34 runs scored – our team was an offensive machine. It was complete domination in all facets — pitching, defense, offense, and even uniforms! Those jerseys looked great on everyone!" A team player, Inouye acknowledged that Ward "pitching a great game," allowing only four runs.

On Such a Night

Says the forwarding friend: "unspeakably quaint and corny, but ..." and that is correct. Do not miss, and pass the cucumber sandwich on Pullman loaf.

Quick! Get Ready for Rapido! Composition Contest

Composers of all ages are invited to submit original chamber compositions between four and six minutes in length using classical instrumentation and traditional form. The deadline for competition registration is June 1, 2012. Registration is divided into five geographic regions and limited to the first 100 applicants per region who submit their entry anonymously and electronically with a $35 registration fee.

The competition will begin on June 11, and last only 14 days. Musical form and instrumentation will be specified at the start of the 14-day competition period of June 11-25. Fifteen semi-finalists will be chosen — three from each of five geographic regions — by an anonymous panel of musicians, composers, and musical dignitaries. One finalist from each region will be chosen to compete in a National Finals Concert to be judged by Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Music Director Robert Spano.

Bellini from Munich in Free Webcast

Beginning at 10 a.m. on May 19, West Coast opera fans can watch a free live webcast of Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi (to be produced in San Francisco in the fall as The Capulets and the Montagues). This will be the fifth such HD cast, following Fidelio, L’elisir d’amore, Don Carlo and Eugene Onegin.

This is a new production of the Bellini opera by Vincent Boussard, from 2011. The performance will feature soprano Anna Netrebko as Giulietta and Vesselina Kasarova as Romeo. The cast is costumed by French couturier Christian Lacroix. The Bavarian State Orchestra will be led by Yves Abel.

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First Position Only the Latest Among Contest Films

Bess Kargman's First Position, a film about Youth America Grand Prix, now in Bay Area theaters, is the latest entry in a flood of documentaries and features about music and dance competitions.

From Masayuki Suo's superb Shall We Dance to its hapless American remake, to best-of-genre The Audition, about the Metropolitan Opera; to Strictly Ballroom, and the moving and hilarious They Came to Play about contestants at the Van Cliburn Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs; to Every Little Step, which portrays the audition for roles in the revival of A Chorus Line, the musical, yes, about auditions — it goes on and on.

Even without taking into consideration the millions watching TV hits about competition in music, dance, modeling, and so on, clearly there is a fascination with all the little human trains that could, or heartbreakingly, couldn't.

The best audition films combine scenes from the competition with the offstage stories of the contestants, and show backstage and onstage action. First Position does that very well, following just a handful of the youngsters on their way to — and eventually in — the Grand Prix, a major dance competition in New York for young, promising artists between age 8 and 19. (Apparently, when the film was made, the range was 9-19, but the organization's website now says the earliest eligibility is age 8, which does seem too young.)

We meet and come to care about a 10-year-old Californian boy, who puts ballet in a mature perspective; a 16-year-old Colombian, who sacrifices everything for a career; super-talented, smart Aran Bell, 11, my favorite character in the film; Michaela DePrince, 14, an adopted orphan from Sierra Leone; and little Gaya Bomer from Israel, whose performance of a Don Quixote selection is worthy of a seasoned professional.

These youth, their parents, and teachers create a busy — if at times slow-moving — miniseries of true-life adventures, separated by dance scenes I wish would last longer.

No spoilers here, so I won't say what the results were, but the awards ceremony and the film's epilogue are fascinating.

Kargman's stated purpose was "to shatter stereotypes — not all skinny ballerinas are anorexic, not all male ballet dancers are gay, not all stage mothers are psycho, and so on." She also wanted to show "that a competition that awards scholarships to elite ballet schools can pave the way to making it as a dancer, but that the steep climb to get there is daunting, as ballet training is extremely expensive and injuries often ruin careers."

To the credit of producer/writer/director/editor Kargman, she has met her goal and in the process came up with a realistic, believable film, showing — if not dwelling on — warts and all. For balletomanes, it's unalloyed pleasure.

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Winners' Concert a Free Event on May 20

Performances by the first-place winners of the 2012 Pacific Musical Society contest will be heard at a free concert, at 2 p.m. on May 20, in the S.F. Conservatory of Music Concert Hall. These are the performers:

INSTRUMENTAL CATEGORY

Ages 8-10 — Sean Mori

Ages 11-13 — (tied) Elena Ariza and James Poe

Ages 14-17 — Sean Keegan

Ages 18-21 — Yu Gong

PIANO CATEGORY

Ages 8-10 — Sarah Tuan

Ages 11-13 — Elliot Wuu

Ages 14-17 — Agata Sorotokin

Ages 18-21 — Rebecca Wuu

VOCAL CATEGORY

Ages 16-18 — Laura Sanders

Ages 19-25 — Julia Metzler

COMPOSITION CATEGORY

Ages 17-22 — Thomas Feng

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Einstein Maligned

Philip Glass' Einstein on the Beach, coming to Cal Performances, Oct. 26-28, has made its debut in London, to some savage reviews.

Paul Driver writes in The Sunday Times:

Since it was unveiled in Avignon in 1976, then staged at the New York Met, of all places, this monumental music-theatre piece (there is virtually nothing in it of traditional "operatic" singing) has been an icon of modern art in the widest sense of the word.

Wilson's giant, marmoreal, almost wittily deadpan decor and slo-mo direction, the hieratic, gestic­ulative choreography of Lucinda Childs and the mechanical austerities of Glass's score combine in a novel synthesis that seems to open our minds even as it freezes our perceptual faculties.

The work's nine static scenes and five framing or interludial "knee plays" are performed without a break, totalling close on five hours. The audience is invited to come and go (not very practicable, given the Barbican seating); and to attempt an active engagement with what is presented, to try to know precisely what's going on and follow the music in the ordinary way, doesn't get us far.

Richard Fairman, in The Financial Times:

It has taken over 35 years for Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach to arrive in London and the long wait was surely right for an opera, five hours in duration and devoid of a story or anything resembling "action," that seeks to challenge conventional notions of time in the theatre.

It clearly challenged Friday night's audience. Telling people they were free to come and go during the performance encouraged some unexpected behaviour. Although few took up the invitation, others chatted over the music and the A-list celebrity in front of me spent the evening taking flash photos on her phone (except when she was asleep).

At its best Glass's opera brings these various arts into perfect alignment: words and music are fused and find their visual counterpart in Lucinda Childs's pure choreography and Wilson's stylish modern stage pictures. But there are also long passages that are stultifyingly boring – like being an eight-year-old again, hammering D major arpeggios on the piano and wondering why life (and art) has to be such a chore.

Cordellia Lynn, in Cease Fire Magazine:

As well as being musically and visually repetitive, the libretto consists of apparently random phrases, speeches and numbers said over and over again. It is at its best when it becomes almost boring, when it seems appropriate to take advantage of being allowed to leave the auditorium for a break... Most of the production is slow, incredibly slow, slow to the point of testing one's sanity and patience.

Andrew Morris, in Classical Source:

At its frequent worst — such as in the aptly named "Trial" scenes — it holds all the dramatic and musical appeal of someone continually clicking a pen... hugely uneven and, for long stretches, very boring. It has the feel of an experiment perpetrated by people who didn't really know what they were doing.

Rupert Christiansen, in The Telegraph:

The chanted text, scripted by three authors, contains banal reflections, odd stories, obsessive babble and mere rant... With no attempt to present real emotion, movement is executed in a robotic trance by individuals drained of all personality, gurning and pointing... such stuff is flatulently pretentious in its wilful opacity and without aesthetic, intellectual or spiritual substance. It is also asphyxiatingly tedious and left me wanting to scream.

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Heggie Holocaust Work Premiere in Seattle

The world premiere of Jake Heggie's Another Sunrise, with libretto by Gene Scheer, took place last night in Seattle's Benaroya Hall, under the auspieces of Music of Remembrance. The concert also included works by Pavel Haas and Szymon Laks, with the Northwest Boychoir performing Yiddish and Hebrew folk songs, arranged by Viktor Ullman at the Terezín concentration camp.

Heggie's work is based on the memoir I Survived Auschwitz by Krystyna Zwyulska, a Polish resistance fighter who was captured and sent to Auschwitz in 1942. Heggie learned of the book from her son, and later got a commission for this song cycle from Music of Remembrance. The organization had earlier commissioned Heggie's and Scheer's For a Look and a Touch for baritone and actor. Heggie has said:

I’m particularly inspired by stories of social justice and the inequities of life, and how we are all connected as human beings despite those inequities. The full breadth of Krystyna Zywulska’s work as a memoirist, poet and satirist is still being revealed and given new appreciation. Her story cries out to be told through theater and poetry.

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