San Francisco Symphony Free Concert at Justin Herman Plaza
Fri, Sep 11, 2009 12:00pm
Justin Herman Plaza
San Francisco Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
Liszt
Mephisto Waltz No. 1
Ravel
La Valse
Rodgers
Carousel Waltz
There was quite a crowd of music lovers in Justin Herman Plaza for the San Francisco Symphony's free noontime concert. The weather was ridiculously beautiful, not to say hot, & even many orchestra members were wearing sunglasses. I enjoyed the performance while eating my to-go lunch of Thai curry.
The Symphony offered what was the 1st half of their opening night gala program, so all we were missing was Lang Lang. MTT gave a brief introduction to each piece, pointing out that the entire program is in 3/4 time, including our national anthem, which opened the proceedings. Despite all that dance music, it turned out to be a pretty dark & moody program. La Valse in particular felt like a strange thing to be hearing outdoors & in the bright sunshine. During the piece, the orchestra had to contend with the Ferry Building clock tower marking the half-hour, which raised smiles among the musicians. MTT seemed genuinely unprepared when the appreciative crowd demanded an encore. After taking a few moments to give instructions to the orchestra, he reprised a portion of the Carousel Waltz.
At the beginning of the program, a spokesman from corporate sponsor PG&E announced that the concert was being powered by solar panels parked just behind the stage. This also got huge applause.
2 comments:
F--- PG&E and the gangsters who own it. Glad you enjoyed the concert.
Gee, is that my cue to explain that items in the comments section of this blog do not necessarily represent the views of the management?
PG&E was definitely all over the place that afternoon. They even had someone dressed as that mascot that looks like a miner's helmet with skinny legs. To ensure it did not get into trouble, it was always holding the hand of another employee.
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