Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Up coming at the SF Symphony

The San Francisco Symphony has their free outdoor concert at Justin Herman Plaza coming up Friday, September 11 at noon. It look like a pops concert: Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No. 1, Ravel’s La Valse and Richard Rodgers’ waltz from Carousel.

The next Keeping Score program, featuring the Symphonie fantastique, will be broadcast nationally on PBS Thursday, October 15 at 10 p.m. I was in the audience, quite near the stage, when they filmed this, so I wonder if I will be on TV.

2 comments:

Gavin Plumley said...

Oooh... there's NOTHING 'pops' about the Ravel (or the Liszt). Ravel’s dance spectacle teeters between the traditional waltz and something more dangerous, toying with nostalgia, but ultimately moving towards a nightmare. Ravel described the piece himself perfectly when he said that it was ‘a kind of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz, with which is mingled in my mind the idea of the fantastic whirl of destiny’. That fatalism comes through in the drama of Carousel, which is Rodgers masterpiece (albeit at the pops end of the spectrum).

Axel Feldheim said...

I can see that the well-informed Mr. Plumley has grasped the intent of MTT's programming for this event. I do plan on being there & will try to approach it with less skepticism.

Yes, blogging has made me such an exhibitionist. Watch for the guy in the purple hoodie in the front rows waving desperately to the cameras.