Lifelong symphony choristers expect annual requiems, Masses, and (in San Francisco) a healthy diet of Gustav Mahler. But as symphony administrations court new audiences, classical warhorses have been joined on the schedule by live performances of film soundtracks.
Just before the official opening of the San Francisco Symphony’s 2024–2025 season, 89 choristers (32 paid, unionized singers and 57 auditioned volunteers) dove into a sound world that was unfamiliar to many of us. Joe Hisaishi — jazz pianist, Japanese musical icon, and house composer for the Studio Ghibli animated films by the great director Hayao Miyazaki — was coming to conduct and collaborate with the SF Symphony and Chorus during the first week of September.
That meant learning his new concert arrangements for eight-part mixed chorus and full orchestra of music from the Miyazaki films Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Princess Mononoke (1997), Ponyo (2008), and the joyous, childlike My Neighbor Totoro (1988).
These arrangements didn’t require a children’s chorus and a marching band (unlike other versions of the same music). This felt like the “luxury” score, evoking and sometimes quoting ideas from the orchestral works of Maurice Ravel, Leonard Bernstein, and Claude Debussy. Benjamin Liupaogo, a lecturer in voice studies at Stanford University and tenor in the SFS Chorus, described the music as “stunningly beautiful, thrilling, and captivating both singing in the chorus and for the audience.” He continued, “Joe Hisaishi is not only a sweet and kind man but also very energetic and musical.”
Nausicaä has a short, turgid chorale incorporating quotes from Beethoven’s Third Equali for four trombones and an interior section of Bernstein’s “Somewhere” melody from West Side Story, overlaid with the Latin text of the “Dies irae.” Princess Mononoke predates and clearly inspired the powerful orcs music from Howard Shore’s score for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, which the SFS Chorus just sang in spring 2024. Hisaishi’s orchestration includes taiko drums, mallet instruments, and metal objects: These evoke the industrial cacophony of Irontown from the film. Ponyo builds evocative tidal swells and undulating kelp forests from Debussy’s and Ravel’s best sea effects, while conjuring the crashing waves of Hokusai’s prints.
Tim Salaver, a longtime baritone in the SFS Chorus and graduate of the San Francisco Boys Chorus, reminisced, “We’ve been on an extraordinary journey, and I’m really proud of our [SF] Symphony and Chorus. While Joe’s English was limited, his music is universal, and he guided everyone onstage with precision and nuance. As the composer, he knows what he wants out of the artists onstage, who gave their very best performance for this genius of a man. I grew to admire his artistry and joy that he brings to the world.”
Yuri Sebata-Dempster, an alto in the SFS Chorus, provided the singers with her own translation of the Japanese lyrics, allowing us to engage with Hisaishi’s choral music on a more nuanced level. His multipart writing was challenging and required flexibility and carefully centered intonation.
The second half of the concert began with the strings absent from the stage. There were two expansive scenes from Castle in the Sky (1986) that featured a French horn quartet and trumpet trio, positioned at the front corners of the choir balcony. Hisashi led the remainer of the winds and percussion from the piano. They played “Doves and the Boy” and then were joined by the SFS Chorus for the beautiful “Carrying You.” Vocalists Janet Todd, an operatic soprano who has appeared in Hisaishi’s live concerts in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and New York City, and Mai Fujisawa, the composer’s daughter, who has been singing this music since age 4, added poignancy and nostalgia to four selections in Japanese and English.
Additional selections not featuring chorus included highlights from Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989), notably a haunting extended violin solo, “Mother’s Broom,” played by concertmaster Alexander Barantschik; a concerto for mandolinist Kyle Pudenz, developed from themes in The Wind Rises (2013); and a sultry cabaret arrangement for low brass and Hisaishi himself on piano of the early bar scenes in Porco Rosso (1992). The instrumental highlight of the program was the virtuosic tone poem Hisaishi has developed from Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), titled “Symphonic Variation: Merry-Go-Round and Cave of Mind,” a wild jaunt through Viennese waltzes that features austere wind solos.
Some musicians were skeptical, but a few in the know had been looking forward to this set of four concerts all year. Chung-Wai Soong, a longtime bass in the SFS Chorus, remarked that he was surprised that he had sung in Elvish before singing in Japanese in Davies Symphony Hall. Chorus Director Jenny Wong inspired the singers during nine three-hour rehearsals with her enthusiastic introductions to the highly nuanced choral settings, mentioning that this may be the first time she (as a Hong Kong native) has had the opportunity to prepare a major work for an Asian conductor.
All four concerts sold out almost instantly, and the KQED review and special SF Classical Voice compilation of audience interviews give a sense of the heightened level of patron engagement that is typical of the SF Symphony’s recent collaborations with film composers. Worth noting is the dramatically different audience that attended these concerts: It is likely that many had never been to Davies before and possibly never seen a live orchestra play until now. Audiences were drawn to the concerts by their love of Miyazaki’s movies and Hisaishi’s scores but ended up feeling the power that only live performance can bring, and this was clearly reflected in the euphoric (and very loud) rock-star response to the composer every time he emerged from backstage.
Chorister Corty Fengler, a 32-year veteran of the SFS Chorus and former director of development for the SF Symphony, remarked, “Even though we in the chorus were sitting behind the screen and couldn’t see the animated images, we felt the deep warmth and changes of mood as the evening progressed. Hisaishi is a first-class orchestrator. He dives deep into sounds from individual instruments, small groups, and the amazing whole of the orchestra. And weren’t we lucky to be sitting right behind the percussion! I was glad to be able to experience this incredible evening four times as we sang our hearts out.”
The Future?
What is in store for the storied SFS Chorus? The 32 union singers in the ensemble (four per voice part, forming the professional core of the SFS Chorus’s signature sound), represented by the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) and supported by most volunteer members, called a strike that shut down three performances of Verdi’s Requiem, Sept. 19–21. Former SFS Chorus Director Vance George wrote a letter to the administration in support of the AGMA singers, who are currently working without a contract.
Elliott Encarnación, an AGMA governor and tenor in the SFS Chorus, reflected, “Cinematic music like this really highlights the flexibility and breadth of talent in the [SF] Symphony Chorus. We are at times the lead character delivering hopeful lyrics and at others a unique textural element characterizing the orchestral colors in these amazing scores. When you consider how massive their return on investment is for such a powerhouse ensemble, the intention to reduce our collective salaries by more than 70 percent and reduce the use of the [SFS] Chorus overall by more than 40 percent starting in 2025 is unconscionable. We embody the human experience, model excellent singing and artistry, and model equitable working conditions for all artists in the Bay Area.”
All choristers have been given a pair of free tickets to each SF Symphony subscription concert, coupons for free local parking during rehearsals and concerts, and a new 50 percent discount code for four of the SF Symphony and Chorus concerts.
For more insight into the SF Symphony’s current priorities and successes, check out this April 2024 interview with Jenny Wong and Corty Fengler, recorded for a virtual event for legacy donors. If the strike is resolved, the SFS Chorus is currently scheduled to contribute to Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem in November and to masterworks including Carmina Burana, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, and Handel’s Messiah later in the season. And of course, more film scores: Amadeus in November and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in May 2025.
Michael Prichard contributed to this article.
