Conductor Kurt Masur looked thin & frail as he walked to the podium to conduct this all-Mendelssohn program with the San Francisco Symphony. His movements were minimal, & his left hand often dangled at his side, shaking with a tremor. Yet he was very much in control of the music & always well ahead of the orchestra. The Italian Symphony felt taut, transparent & sun-lit, & ensemble was very tight. The orchestra was re-arranged so that the woodwinds, brass & timpani were all on the right side. The violins, filling the left side, predominated, & their sound was shimmering & bright. Oboist Bill Bennett made the most gorgeous sound of the evening with his slow crescendo on a single note at the end of the development. The performance clearly pleased, & the audience applauded for the 1st & 2nd movements.
After intermission, we got Mendelssohn's complete music for A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was nice to hear the familiar Overture & Wedding March, but this experience did not convince me that it makes sense to perform all the music in concert. There is a lot of repetition &, since Mendelssohn focuses on the play's fey elements, not much variety of mood. Everyone did a good job of sounding airy, but I tired of admiring how well Mendelssohn depicts insects in flight. The San Francisco Girls Chorus, around 50 strong, was well-prepared & made a smooth, floaty sound. The vocal soloists participate only briefly, so Susannah Biller & Maya Lahyani had an assignment that consisted mostly of sitting at the back & smiling.
Interspersed with the music, & sometimes over it, narrator Itay Tiran performed speeches from the play, though the selected texts did not convey a narrative. He used different voices for each character. His Puck was a leprechaun. The audience gave the performance a standing ovation & responded warmly to the SF Girls Chorus, Mr. Tiran & Maestro Masur.
§ Kurt Masur conducts Mendelssohn
San Francisco Symphony
Kurt Masur, conductor
Susannah Biller, soprano
Maya Lahyani, mezzo-soprano
Itay Tiran, narrator
San Francisco Girls Chorus; Susan McMane, Director
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4, Italian
Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (complete, sung in English)
Fri, Mar 11, 2011 8:00pm
Davies Symphony Hall
2 comments:
So leprechaun is what he was aiming at with Puck? I thought he was going for nouveau Borscht Belt schtick, but your guess makes more sense. Gosh, that was painful. I kept reorchestrating his narration with Britten's music in my head, which of course got in the way of Felix's music.
Maybe because St. Patrick's Day is coming up, I had leprechauns on my mind, but I think Borsch Belt works just as well. I don't know Britten's version, so I don't have that comparison, but I do not think that this evening made a good case for doing all of Mendelssohn's version.
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