Macworld 2010

On Friday I did a fast tour of the Macworld 2010 expo at Moscone Center. With Apple no longer attending, it was much smaller than in previous years. & it was as if the iPad did not even exist. The most visible vendors sold accessories for the iPhone, iPods & MacBooks or offered computing services that were not necessarily Mac-specific. Among the objects of desire on display were brightly colored portable batteries from HyperMac that are irresistible to handle & look like 21st century versions of cigarette cases & lighters. From the Bone Collection were ridiculously cute USB flash drives shaped like cartoon animals. The pandas sold out at the show. I love their tag line, “BONE makes you different”. In the Wiley booth, the stetson-wearing Andy Ihnatko was impossible to ignore. He was a funny & uninhibited pitchman for his book iPhone Fully Loaded & made me want to buy his book even though I don't have an iPhone.

NT Live: Nation

NT Live: Nation
Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 7:00 PM
Rialto Cinemas Elmwood

The National Theatre in London has movie house screenings of their plays now, along the lines of the Met's Live in HD broadcasts. However, this was not a live broadcast but a re-broadcast of a live performance. Going in, I knew nothing about Nation or the Terry Pratchett novel on which it is based. As it was, I could not make sense of this story about shipwrecked Victorians clashing with Polynesian natives. This is the National Theatre's family show, & it looks like a politically incorrect version of the Lion King. When I wasn't offended by the show's inexplicable presentation of race, I was simply embarrassed. The 2nd half opens with the cast dancing the hula while singing happy birthday to a puppet.

I can at least say that the filming was well executed. This can't have been an easy show to film live, as it is a very complicated production, with a rotating stage, underwater effects & video projections. & I was totally convinced by Emily Taaffe as Daphne, a Victorian teenager gone native. At the beginning of our screening, there was a technical glitch with the projection, & we found ourselves looking at the video player interface for a minute while the program was re-cued. There were also occasional audio drop-outs.

The next broadcast is Alan Bennett's The Habit of Art, which features Benjamin Britten & W.H. Auden as 2 of its characters. Obviously a different kind of show.

Trio Cavatina

Trio Cavatina
Tuesday, February 9, 8pm
Herbst Theatre

SCHUMANN: Piano Trio, Opus 110 in G minor
CHOPIN: Piano Trio, Opus 8 in G minor
BRAHMS: Piano Trio No. 2 in C Major, Opus 87

SF Performances presented this unapologetically Romantic program at Herbst Theatre last night in appreciation of their donors & subscribers. Trio Cavatina are the 2009 Naumburg Competition winners & are quite a sleek-looking group, being 3 young woman in shoulder-baring dresses. I could not help but think that they must be a classical music publicist's dream.

As one would expect from competition winners, all 3 members of the trio play with great technical proficiency, & they were no doubt note-perfect this evening. They make an attractive, lustrous sound. I liked how violinist Harumi Rhodes consistently used the full length of the bow. Cellist Priscilla Lee has a similarly fluid style of playing, & her cello sound is exceptionally clean & even. Pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute plays with great refinement &, with her long slender arms, looks quite elegant at the piano.

As this concert was general seating, the downstairs filled quickly, & I ended up in the balcony, which was itself at least a 3rd full. The trio seems averse to tuning on stage. At the end of the intermission, the page turner came on & hit the A on the piano, at which point we heard the strings tuning just off stage. The page turner may have a had a difficult night herself, as she missed at least 2 cues during the Chopin, forcing the pianist to flip a couple of her own pages.

Earplay 25: Ear and There

Earplay 25: Ear and There
Monday, February 8, 2010 7:30 PM
Herbst Theatre

The Earplay Ensemble
Mary Chun, conductor
Tod Brody, flutes
Peter Josheff, clarinets
Terrie Baune, violin
Ellen Ruth- Rose, viola
Thalia Moore, cello
Karen Rosenak, piano

Guest Artists
Michael Seth Orland, piano
Chris Froh, percussion

PROGRAM
Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez
and of course Henry the Horse (2006)

Sam Nichols
Unnamed, Jr. (2009)

Kaija Saariaho
Je sens un deuxième coeur (2006)

Seymour Shifrin
The Modern Temper (1959)

Bruce Bennett
From the Ashes (2005)

A committed audience filled just a portion of Herbst Theatre last night for this program of contemporary chamber music presented by Earplay. I have never been to one of their concerts before, though they are now in their 25th year. Conductor Mary Chun introduced each half of the program with a description of the pieces, including their duration. Sanchez-Gutierrez's and of course Henry the Horse is for clarinet, violin & piano 4 hands. It was often fast, jumpy & chirpy. The slow second movement made me think of the inexorable ticking of a clock.

Sam Nichols's Unnamed, Jr., for viola, clarinet & piano, is a moody piece in which the instruments seem to pursue independent but interweaving lines of thought. Mr. Nichols was in attendance & made a surprisingly swift leap onto the stage to take a bow with the musicians. His piece was a perfect lead in to Saariaho's trio for viola, cello & piano, Je sens un deuxième coeur. This is a set of 5 deeply serious mood pieces, ranging from brooding to rough.

After intermission Karen Rosenak & Michael Seth Orland played Seymour Shifrin's The Modern Temper for piano 4 hands, a busy piece with bouncy passages of dance music. The program ended with Bruce Bennett's From the Ashes, a 20 minute work for violin, viola, cello, piano, clarinet, flute & percussion. It's a colorful work in which a lot happens. At the center is a tam-tam solo in which percussionist Chris Froh enthusiastically attacked the instrument with brushes, sticks & his elbow, inevitably leading up to a rattling crescendo. Also notable was a passage in which the bass clarinet made a barking sound which was taken up by the strings. I liked the playing of flutist Tod Brody, whose piccolo sound is impressively solid & not a bit shrill. The composer was also in attendance, though Mr. Bennett was not quite as sprightly as Mr. Nichols in getting onto the stage.

The audience was invited to a wine & cheese reception afterward, where we could mingle with the performers & composers.

Morrison Artists Series: Afiara String Quartet

Morrison Artists Series: Afiara String Quartet
February 7, 2010 3:00pm
San Francisco State University
McKenna Theatre, Creative Arts Building

Mozart: Quartet No. 19 in C, K. 465 Dissonance
Berg: Lyric Suite
Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13

Despite, or maybe because of, Super Bowl 2010, there was such a big turn out for the Afiara String Quartet this afternoon that the house ran out of printed programs. I was attracted by the substantive & balanced program on offer. I was especially glad of the chance to hear Berg's Lyric Suite. I own 2 CDs of this piece, but hearing it live I realized that it creates a lot of timbres that just do not come across well in a recording. The Afiara Quartet may even have an affinity for this work, & they brought a lot of concentration to their performance.

The young members of the quartet play with an easy technical facility & with perfect ensemble, yet they are also 4 distinct musical personalities. Cellist Adrian Fung has a big, sometimes booming, sound which is quite prominent. 1st violinist Valerie Li has a sweet sound on her higher strings which changes to a warm tone lower down. She often sounds like she is about to take flight. I was always aware of hearing individual voices assert themselves.

Members of OLLI were welcomed during the introductory remarks. SFSU sponsors a local chapter. This is a social group for people 50 & up who are interested in cultural programming. As a privilege of membership, they attended a champagne reception during the intermission. Before the Mendelssohn, violist David Samuel thanked the Alexander String Quartet, who had coached them during a residency at SFSU. I had spotted the Alexander's 2 violinists during the intermission.

Audiences for the Morrison Artists Series are eager, & I especially enjoyed the performance of an elderly woman who carefully took her time finding a seat in the front of the hall. We were past the eerie introduction of the Mozart & well into the exposition before she was settled in.

Midori Performs Music of Her Time

Midori Performs Music of Her Time
Midori, violin
Charles Abramovic, piano
Saturday, February 6, 8pm
Herbst Theatre

Huw Watkins: Coruscation and Reflection
Kryzsztof Penderecki: Violin Sonata No. 2
Toshio Hosokawa: Vertical Time Study III
James Macmillan: After the Tryst
Adams: Road Movies

To me Midori is a performer with exceptional powers of communication. Through a lot of hard work, she made this program of contemporary music as accessible as any evening of standard works. Midori executed the many abrupt shifts in Huw Watkins's Coruscation with startling efficiency. The companion piece Reflections had her playing perilously high on the E string, the sound strong & loud yet not strained. I enjoyed the often mordant outer movements of the Penderecki Sonata for Violin & Piano, especially when Midori demonstrated that she can be as expressive with pizzicato as when she uses a bow. She sustained a mood of even calm in the drawn-out central slow movement. Pianist Charles Abramovic plays crisply & cleanly & is a very supportive accompanist. His playing, & even his appearance, remind me of Robert McDonald, Midori's previous collaborator.

When the pair returned after intermission, there was an electronic hum in the hall, & we had a delay as Mr. Abramovic left the stage to get assistance. Toshio Hosokawa's Vertical Time Study III is a set of 3 fragmentary pieces exploring various timbres. Midori sometimes let the bow slide over the fingerboard, & I was left wondering whether or not I was still hearing the violin sound. The piece left me with a sickening feeling. James Macmillan's After the Tryst was a complete contrast. It's an achingly beautiful pastoral show piece, only a few minutes long. Midori started with the fastest trill I have ever heard, & she made the piece sing in one long, unbroken line. It really did make me think of a field of flowers in bloom & was a highlight of my evening.

Without leaving the stage, the pair launched into the frenetic opening movement of John Adams's Road Movies. It's a wonderfully pictorial piece, & the audience applauded spontaneously after the vigorous & focused performance of the 1st movement. A lot of fun was had in the final 40% Swing movement, with the violin & piano jauntily sliding in & out of sync. John Adams was in the house & came on stage to take a bow with the performers at the end. We recalled Midori & Mr. Abramovic to the stage at least 4 times & continued clapping even when the house lights came up, but we were offered no encore. It is hard to know what could cap this, though.

Oakland Art Murmur; Rebecca at the Paramount

I spent last Friday evening in Oakland, starting off with the Art Murmur open galleries art walk. We were lucky to have a break in the rain, & the galleries were filled with a young, artsy crowd, enjoying the buzz & free wine. There were too many people for me to actually enjoy the art, but it is a fun & busy atmosphere in a colorful neighborhood. The show spills out into the street. With great fanfare, a man on the sidewalk uncovered big boxes of donuts with organic ingredients.

I cut my art walk short in order to attend movie night at the nearby Paramount Theater. This was another well-attended event, & that huge theater was almost full. The line to get in was a little like going through airport security, as the theater staff confiscates customers' water bottles. I was a guest of John Marcher, but the evening is a recession-busting $5. Besides a classic movie, you get entrance into that plush art deco setting, live organ music, a newsreel, a cartoon & the Dec-O-Win, an audience favorite in which we all get a chance to win valuable prizes from local businesses. That's at least 3 hours of fun!

I had never seen Hitchcock's Rebecca before, so I had the pleasure of experiencing the gothic twists & turns of the plot along with the characters. I was never convinced of any romantic passion between Laurence Olivier & Joan Fontaine. I suppose we're supposed to look to the malevolent Mrs. Danvers for that aspect of the story. I see that the Paramount will be showing The Lady from Shanghai later in the month, & I'm tempted to return for that.

MTT's Perfect Weekend

In this weekend's How To Spend It, the luxury spending insert in the Financial Times, MTT describes his perfect weekend in San Francisco. Besides rehearsals & concerts, this includes congee at The Slanted Door, walking the dogs at Crissy Field, a visit to the Walt Disney Family Museum, & an overnight stay at an undisclosed location in the North Bay ("I use this time to think about the music in my head, the music I want to write."). The article is illustrated with a photo of the maestro at the Ferry Building farmers' market, radishes & brussels sprouts spilling out of his shoulder bag.

Update: I'm finding the How To Spend It Web site difficult to navigate, but the article now seems to be online here.

Mostly British Party & Tati's Trafic

Last night I somehow found myself at the opening night party for the Mostly British Film Festival, even though I was not on the guest list & I had no intention of attending the actual opening night film. Nonetheless, I chatted with a film buff, ate some appetizers, drank a British beer, & had my picture taken with my companion in the posh premises of the Thomas Pink shirt shop.

A little later in the evening we made it to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts screening room for Jacques Tati's Trafic. I had only seen this once before many years ago, & I remember thinking it a sad come-down from Playtime. I had forgotten much of it, as it turns out, &, while I still don't think it a good film, it is very much a Tati film. The choreographed car pile-up scene is a slow-motion ballet. The 5-year-old in me loved the montage of drivers caught picking their noses in the supposed privacy of their cars. I even liked the strange plaster busts being given away as premiums at a gas station. So not a total failure, & I am glad to have seen it again as part of this series.

Between events I experienced a classic demonstration of how small San Francisco is. Stopping to get something to eat at a place halfway between the opening night party & the movie, I sat down & found myself right next to beastly blogger John Marcher, who, despite a week reporting from Sundance, regretted missing Ensemble Parallèle's Wozzeck.

Afiara String Quartet at UCSF

Chancellor's Concert Series
4-Feb-10 noon
Cole Hall, 513 Parnassus Avenue

Afiara String Quartet

Briseno: El Sinaloense
Puccini: Crisantemi
Beethoven: Grosse Fugue, Op. 133

As is the practice for these free Thursday lunchtime concerts on the UCSF campus, David Watts, M.D. began with a short poetry reading, this time the love poem "Song" by Allen Ginsberg. Then the young members of the Afiara String Quartet played a tight half hour of music, & we were all out of there by 12:45.

The concert began with Briseno's El Sinaloense, a punchy mariachi number, complete with a rolled R shout by the cellist. This was followed by Puccini's totally contrasting Chrysanthemums, with its gentle heaving. We finished with Beethoven's strange & prickly Grosse Fuge. The Afiara quartet plays very cleanly & with a youthful ease. They have perfect ensemble, & yet I always had the sense of hearing 4 individual voices. I found myself listening a lot to the cellist, whose playing has a bright personality. The cellist is also the spokesman for the group, & he talked briefly between pieces.

This short appearance totally encourages me to check out the quartet's pleasing program of Mozart, Berg & Mendelssohn at SF State on Sunday afternoon as part of the Morrison Artists Series. Apparently they already have fans. As I was reading the program posted outside the hall, an old man came up to me, told me all about the quartet's residency at SF State with the Alexander String Quartet, & assured me that I would like the show.

Animals Out of Paper

Animals Out of Paper
by Rajiv Joseph
directed by Amy Glazer
West Coast Premiere
The SF Playhouse
February 2, 2010 7pm

Lorri Holt, Ilana
David Deblinger, Andy
Aly Mawji, Suresh

Having an interest in origami, I bought a ticket to this show on the strength of the title alone. & indeed the play is set in the studio of an origami artist who is in the midst of an emotional & creative block. A high school math teacher brings her a gifted student to mentor, & a messy relationship between the 3 ensues.

I appreciated that the origami terminology used by the characters is correct. I was delighted by the set, which is full of folded animals, & wished I could go onstage to get a closer look. I quickly recognized Bernie Peyton's cacti, Linda Mihara's connected cranes & Jeremy Shafer's anatomically accurate heart. I even spotted real-life origami expert Robert Lang in the audience. His flying hawk figures importantly in the 1st scene.

The play itself contains many charged moments, but I found it lacking in over-all structure. During the 1st scene of the 2nd act it became clear where the situation was heading, yet the big encounter in the last scene, the only time all 3 characters are on stage, was left completely unresolved. I felt like the play needed at least one more scene.

All 3 actors were wonderful to spend time with. David Deblinger is especially convincing & sympathetic as a sweetly nerdy high school teacher. I would almost see this show again just for his warm performance. Aly Mawji is charismatic as your classic confused-yet-big-hearted teenager.

The theater has an informal atmosphere, & members of the staff & the audience seemed to know each other. Many people brought drinks with them to their seats. I was seated next to a gentlemen in a stiff leather jacket that creaked whenever he shifted in his seat. A new kind of theater distraction.

Listen to Alex

I'm excited to know that Alex Ross has a new book coming out in September called Listen to This, though, having followed him in the New Yorker, it appears I will already be familiar with much of the content. But I am even more excited by the one word topic of his next project: Wagnerism.

ABS: Monteverdi Vespers

Monteverdi Vespers of 1610
American Bach Soloists
American Bach Choir
Jeffrey Thomas, conductor

Jennifer Ellis soprano
Abigail Haynes Lennox soprano
Derek Chester tenor

Sunday 31 January 2010 at 7:00 pm
St. Mark's Lutheran Church

Less than 4 hours after hearing those ambivalent, see-sawing notes that close Berg's Wozzeck, I was blasted by the blazingly confident fanfare that opens Monteverdi's Vespers. Monteverdi & Berg are both favorites with me, but I won't even try to imagine how they might be linked.

Conductor Jeffrey Thomas, standing at a harpsichord, led an incredibly clean & in-tune performance by the American Bach Soloists. Every vocal line was clear, balance between voices & orchestra was ideal, & those often unreliable Baroque wind instruments were played with virtuosic agility. No odd squawks or questionable tuning here. Tempos & dynamic levels were very uniform. The performance had the technical perfection of a CD recording.

In a crowd of very even soloists, the reliable Derek Chester stood out. His tenor sound is ideal for this music: smooth, pure & bright, especially in its middle range.

After intermission, the Magnificat for 6 voices was performed before the Sonata sopra Sancta Maria instead of at the end. This shuffled order may have been to done to give the Sonata's showy instrumental solos a central position in the 2nd half.

Before the performance, we were encouraged to a enter a raffle to win Monteverdi's Vespa, in the winner's choice of color. For some reason the announcer thought that people might not know what to do with a Vespa, so he suggested that the winner might want to donate it back to ABS or another organization.

Ensemble Parallèle's Wozzeck

Ensemble Parallèle
Wozzeck
John Rea's Orchestration
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
January 31 at 2:00 p.m.

Nicole Paiement, conductor
Brian Staufenbiel, stage director

Bojan Knezevic, Wozzeck
John Duykers, Captain
Patricia Green,Marie
Kai Nau, Marie & Wozzeck's Child
Phillip Skinner, Doctor
AJ Glueckert, Drum Major
J. Raymond Meyers, Andres
Erin Neff, Margret
John Bischoff, First Apprentice
Torlef Borsting, Second Apprentice
Michael Desnoyers, Madman/Soldier

Ensemble Parallèle ambitiously presented this chamber version of Wozzeck in 2 performances at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts this weekend. The slimmed down orchestration required less than 30 musicians in the pit, but the orchestra made plenty of sound & played quite alertly for an intense 90 minutes. Nicole Paiement's conducting was fluid & responsive to the constantly shifting demands of the music. She obviously prepared well.

The singing was uniformly fine. Bojan Knezevic has a powerful & beautiful voice, & his Wozzeck is noble & intelligent. This Wozzeck is not stupid or unaware but rather overwhelmed by circumstances. John Duykers gave a wonderfully grotesque performance as the Captain. I was impressed by his acting & his narrowly focused voice. Phillip Skinner also gave an excellent singing/acting performance as the cartoonish Doctor. The production cleverly exaggerates the menace of these tormentors by projecting live video of their faces at a huge size during their Act I scenes with Wozzeck.

Video projections are put to good use throughout the production. The videos are made to look like 1920's silent film, complete with scratches & skips. As the murder scene progresses, an image of the moon grows larger & redder. The climactic orchestral interlude following the death of Wozzeck is accompanied by slow motion shots of Mr. Knezevic sinking underwater with his eyes & mouth open in horror.

The audience on Sunday seemed to be completely absorbed by the drama, & we might have sat in silence for a long while after the final, tentative notes of the opera, if a title had not come up announcing "Ende".

At a reception after the performance, SF Opera General Director David Gockley was spotted, as well as ACT Artistic Director Carey Perloff. As we entered the theater, my concert companion also recognized actor Liam Vincent, whom we had both seen recently in She Stoops to Comedy.

MTT Plays Mozart

San Francisco Symphony
Sat, Jan 30, 2010 8:00pm
Davies Symphony Hall

Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor and piano
Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano
Bruce Sledge, tenor
Eric Owens, bass-baritone

Stravinsky, Octet
Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major (K. 488)
Stravinsky, Pulcinella

I found this a playful SF Symphony program: Mozart sandwiched between Stravinsky in a classical mood. The Stravinsky wind Octet was performed crisply & without a conductor. The piece made me think of film music for a silent comedy.

After the orchestra was assembled on stage for the Mozart concerto, there was a long pause as we awaited MTT's entrance. As the wait lengthened, orchestra members & then the audience became amused & were just short of laughing as MTT came on. MTT led without a score & seated at the piano, which was surrounded by the orchestra. To make sure we were watching, he sometimes turned & mugged for the audience. He extended the 1st movement cadenza with his own improvisations, wandering off into snippets of other pieces. Several times the orchestra prepared to enter, but then put down their instruments as he mischievously continued to improvise. He finished the movement by pulling out a handkerchief & mopping his brow, to the delighted applause of the audience. He addressed something to us during the pause, but I didn't hear what he said. He continued to improvise freely around the long, spare melody of the 2nd movement.

In the 2nd half we got a bright & vibrant performance of the Pulcinella suite, which I somehow got the idea was about sexual frustration. There were many wonderful instrumental solos, especially by oboist William Bennett, concertmaster Alexander Barantschik & bassoonists Steven Dibner & Rob Weir. In her brief role, soprano Sasha Cook had a meaty sound, & I especially liked her lower register. Bass Eric Owens had an even shorter part, but his solid, dense sound was very welcome. Leaving the hall, I had the inapt sensation that I had just seen a Broadway show instead of the symphony.

Mr. Hulot's Holiday at YBCA

I'm continuing to enjoy the Jacques Tati retrospective at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Last night's program began with a 1936 short, Soigne ton gauche by René Clément. Tati plays a witless country farmhand who becomes a sparring partner for a boxer in training. It looks just like a silent movie & is a poor man's version of the boxing match from City Lights. It gives us a good sample of Tati's sports mime, though.

This was followed by the classic 1953 Mr. Hulot's Holiday. The print is billed as a restoration. Apparently Tati tinkered with the film for decades, & this version represents his last revision from the 1970s. His style still comes across as peculiar. There is no plot, only anecdotes & characters. Sometimes the jokes are just situations without punch lines. One doesn't watch the movie so much as observe what's going on it in. One headless gag consists of nothing but a very small boy opening a door handle while holding ice cream cones in each hand.

The photography is beautiful, with details that need to be sought out placed in every corner of the frame. And some of the satire is instantly recognizable, such as the business man who spends his vacation taking telephone calls from the office & reading stock quotes. For me the movie hasn't dated, & I happily laughed through it.

Readying for the Apple Tablet

Walking through Yerba Buena Gardens this afternoon, I saw a crew putting the finishing touches on this wall-sized version of the Apple logo. The media has already started camping out. I spotted a CNN satellite truck, as well as police cars parked on the corners. The world awaits.

Classical at the Freight

Classical at the Freight: Mozart's Birthday
Monday, January 25, 8:00 pm
Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse

San Francisco Chamber Orchestra All-Stars
Eugene Sor & Garrett McLean, violin
Benjamin Simon & Darcy Rindt, viola
Kris Yenney, cello
Alicia Telford, French horn

Mozart, Horn Quintet in E flat major, K 407
Mozart, String Quintet in E flat major, K 614

Monday night I attended this breezy Mozart-themed event, which is part of a once-a-month classical music night at the Freight & Salvage. There seems to be a solid audience of regulars at these concerts. Violist Benjamin Simon came on stage dressed in a t-shirt & a messy 18th century wig. He acted as host for the evening, introducing the program & the players with light & humorous banter.

Attending the performance was like sitting in on a chamber music party. I liked the tempos for the Horn Quintet, which were not too fast. Alicia Telford's mellow horn sound combined well with the string players. As a joke, she stood up during one of her solos. After the 1st movement, Mr. Simon told us they wouldn't mind if we applauded between movements, & the audience did just that for the entire program. Halfway through the final movement of the String Quintet, I thought they had switched to the Grosse Fuge, but instead the ensemble had become derailed during a rapid fugal passage. Mr. Simon raised his bow to stop them, & 1st violinst Eugene Sor smoothly restarted.

During the break between pieces, Mr. Simon subjected a member of the audience to a Mozart trivia quiz which included a question containing bizarre Glenn Gould quotes disparaging the composer. All this friendly chat with the audience made the event feel like a radio show.

The Magnificent Tati

The Magnificent Tati
By Michael House
Sun, Jan 24, 2 Pm
YBCA Screening Room

I felt like Charlie Brown when I stepped up to the box office window & was informed that the lady in front of me just got the last ticket. I never thought a documentary about Jacques Tati would sell out! Fortunately I soon obtained a ticket from someone who had an extra one to dispose of.

This was the U.S. premiere of The Magnificent Tati, Michael House's affectionate introduction to the films of Tati. It's a 1 hour documentary, consisting mostly of brief film clips & interviews with Tati admirers. The documentary's main goal is simply to whet people's appetites for the films themselves. It presents Tati as an artistic genius who achieved his full creative vision in Playtime, & yet this turned out to be something of a misfortune.

Mr. House was present at the screening & cheerfully took questions from the audience afterward. While he frequently referred to a wealth of material he was not able to fit into his film, he was pointedly not interested in discussions about Tati's personal life or his activities during WWII.

I found that I liked Mr. House's own back story, which is that he is a film composer who has happily switched to making movies. He's apparently a one-man production company, pitching ideas, researching, writing, getting financial backers, even doing all the editing & post-production on his laptop.

The Jacques Tati series continues at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts & the Pacific Film Archive.

Jour de Fête

Jacques Tati: Genius Of French Comedy
Jour de Fête (1949)
Preceded by the short L'ecole des facteurs (1947)
Thu, Jan 21, 7:30 pm
YBCA Screening Room

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts has just begun a comprehensive series of the films of Jacques Tati. I went to the 1st program this evening, in the upstairs screening room. There was an audience of about 40, some of them French-speaking. I was a big fan of these movies back in my student days, but I haven't seen most of these in a decade or more. I was pleased to discover that I'm still sympathetic to Tati's slapstick humor & social commentary. Indeed, I think that 60 years has not blunted Tati's warmth or his satirical take on modernity. The audience laughed pretty hard at the fake newsreel demonstrating a pumped American postal service.

Jour de Fête was shown in a reconstructed color version which departs in some important details from the hand-colored black & white version I was familiar with. This was proceeded by a short in which Tati also plays a dutiful rural postman. This ordering spoiled the end of Jour de Fête, however, as it turns out that the speedy delivery routine at the climax of Jour de Fête is lifted wholesale from L'ecole des facteurs. I guess it's a demonstration of Tati's meticulous way of working. I'd like to take in as many of these screenings as I can.

Cypress String Quartet at the Rex Hotel

San Francisco Performances
Salons at the Rex
Wednesday, January 20 6:30pm
Hotel Rex

Cypress String Quartet
Cecily Ward, violin
Tom Stone, violin
Ethan Filner, viola
Jennifer Kloetzel, cello

Claude Debussy: String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 10
Jennifer Higdon: Impressions
Erwin Schulhoff: Five Pieces for String Quartet

I like the setting of these short chamber recitals in the salon at the Hotel Rex. It's like being at a private event in someone's living room. The Cypress String Quartet covered a lot of ground in just one hour. They began with a vigorous peformance of the 1st 2 movements of the Debussy quartet. This was followed by the 2 inner movements of the Jennifer Higden quartet: an elegaic slow movement that builds to a lump-in-the-throat climax & a scherzo of pizzicatos & nervous energy. This is a major work, & I was left wanting to hear the whole thing.

They concluded with a suite of 5 contrasting dance pieces by Erwin Schulhoff, who is new name to me. Though short, the pieces are meaty, & their earthy, foot-stomping rhythms are catchy. There's an Eastern European feeling about them. These pieces are a favorite of the quartet, & their lively performance made me want to hear more of his music. Schulhoff himself seems to have been an intense character: a Czech Jew living in Prague, a communist who took on Russian citizenship, a jazz performer & ultimately a victim of a Nazi concentration camp.

As is their practice, members of the quartet took turns talking to the audience, providing background information or discussing their relationship to the repertoire as performers. The quartet has mellow, smooth sound. I like the large, effortless sound of the cello & the bite of violist's playing. They play with a strong sense of investment, as if their primarily role is to be advocates for the music. They succeeded with me, as I left wanting to hear more Higdon & Schulhoff.

Viola da Gamba at Old Saint Mary's

Noontime Concerts at Old Saint Mary's
French Music Festival
Tuesday, January 19 12:30 p.m.

Farley Pearce / Amy Brodo, violas da gamba
Jonathan Salzedo, harpsichord

Louis de Caix d’Hervelois: Suite from Book I
Marin Marais: La Badinage, from Book IV
Antoine Forqueray: Ciaconne, from Suite II
Antoine Forqueray: Suite V

I did not recognize any of the composers on this program, so it turned out to be an introduction for me to an instrument & a repertoire. Before beginning, viola da gamba player (violist da gamba? viola da gambist? gamba player?) Farley Pearce explained that they would be playing on modern copies of French instruments from the late 1600s. The viola da gamba has 7 strings, is fretted, & is more akin to a guitar than to a modern cello. The sound is very soft. One imagines it being played ideally in a small room for an intimate gathering. I also got the impression that it can be a difficult instrument.

The dance suite by Louis de Caix d’Hervelois of course reminded me of Bach suites, though it was more moody & melancholy. The Badinage by Marin Marais was even more pensive & brooding. The final suite by Forqueray is plainly virtuosic, & Mr. Pearce executed a neat double-stop trill in one movement. Harpsichordist Jonathan Salzedo described Forqueray's music as being dense & dark, "like eating a lot of dark chocolate."

Amy Brodo invited us to look at her manuscript score after the concert. The 3 musicians did not have separate parts but were reading the same music, which is in 2 staves. Mr. Pearce & Ms. Brodo alternated playing the top line for viola da gamba while the others played the bass line continuo. I think this was a nice way to involve all 3, & it gave the concert the simple feel of friends getting together to play music.

George Benjamin conducts SFS

George Benjamin conducts the San Francisco Symphony
Sat, Jan 16, 2010 8:00pm
Davies Symphony Hall

George Benjamin, conductor
Nicolas Hodges, piano

Ravel: Ma Mère l’oye (Mother Goose Suite)
George Benjamin: Duet (2008)
Messiaen: Oiseaux exotiques
George Benjamin: Ringed by the Flat Horizon (1980)
Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole

Over the weekend I caught the last concert of English composer George Benjamin's 2 week residency with the SF Symphony. Mr. Benjamin opened with a smooth & even performance of the Mother Goose Suite. He often looked like he was moving in slow motion or underwater.

Duet is Benjamin's version of a piano concerto, though it did not feature the piano in opposition to the orchestra, as in a traditional concerto. Instead the piano seemed to be an integral part of the ensemble. The piece uses no violins, & the piano was placed directly to the left of the podium, facing into the orchestra. Pianist Nicolas Hodges thus had his back to us. Mr. Hodges had a lot of notes to cover, & he played with a percussive, spiky attack. During the Off the Podium talk, Mr. Benjamin revealed that he had premiered a new ending for these concerts. The piece ends with a loud clap, as if a heavy lid had been slammed shut. Mr. Hodges was also featured in Messiaen's Oiseaux exotiques which followed. He is a confident player, & he executed a sort of cadenza near the end with astonishing clarity & speed.

After intermission we had a full orchestra back on stage for Mr. Benjamin's large & splashy tone poem Ringed by the Flat Horizon. It starts with the rumbling of distant thunder. Sustained slow passages periodically gather up into noisy & chaotic climaxes, sometimes piercingly loud. In one of the lulls, principal cellist Amos Yang played an extended singing solo, after which he inserted plugs into his ears. The piece ends in silence.

Despite bookending the program with audience-friendly Ravel pieces, the hall looked barely half full. After the intermission, I sat in a 1st tier box by myself. At the Off the Podium event, I may have found Mr. Benjamin & Mr. Hodges more engaging as conversationalists than as performers. An elderly gentleman from the audience told us he was moved to tears by the concert & was curious about Mr. Benjamin's experience as a student of Messiaen. A small girl wished Mr. Benjamin a happy birthday & asked if he had received her card.

Daniel Pink in Conversation

San Francisco Waldorf High School Lecture Series presents
Daniel Pink in conversation with Michael Krasny
21st Century Education:
Motivation, Creativity and Achievement
Saturday, January 16, 2PM
Kanbar Hall, JCC

When I read Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind a couple of years ago, I had the bad feeling that he was right on about a major shift in the information age economy. & indeed, as an old-school, left-brained tech worker, I seem to be screwed. Anyway, I was interested in this chance to see this prophet of my professional doom in person. Mr. Pink's topic was motivation, the subject of his latest book, Drive. As advertised, the event was a true conversation as opposed to an interview. The professorial Michael Krasny offered as many ideas, personal anecdotes & opinions as Mr. Pink.

Mr. Pink himself was lively, quick & humorous. The audience responded warmly to him, & it was as if we were all friends of his. We never got a précis of his book, but I think all he is saying is that we need to move beyond the traditional system of rewards & punishments in order to motivate people. So instead of just money, people are better motivated by AMP, meaning Autonomy, Mastery & Purpose. This argument seems to be addressed specifically to business people.

The event was full, & the audience was predominately middle-aged women, most of whom I took to be educators. 2 local high school students were among those posing questions to Mr. Pink, one of whom turned out to be his nephew, a student at Berkeley High. I recognized Ingrid Nystrom, of the sadly defunct Stacey's, selling books for the signing afterward.

Classical Spectacular

Gotham Chamber Opera's planetarium performance sounds like a splendid idea, but it is tame in comparison to the Classical Spectacular that lands in Royal Albert Hall in March. Excerpts from popular classics such as The Planets & Carmina Burana are accompanied by lasers, lights & even indoor fireworks. Special guest artists include Charlie Siem, "the UK's hottest Violin sensation" & "Muskets and Cannons of the Moscow Militia." The producers have posted a frightening video preview.

NJAHS Thursday Night at the Movies

National Japanese American Historical Society
Thursday Night at the Movies
Thursdays, November 19, 2009 to January 28, 2010, at the Officer's Club in the Presidio of San Francisco.

In conjunction with an exhibit about Japanese Americans serving in WWII, NJAHS has been hosting screenings of relevant movies in the Presidio Officer's Club. I attended this Thursday night & was part of a small gathering of about 25 people. We saw 2 documentaries. The 1st was Conscience and the Constitution, about 63 young men interned in Heart Mountain who went to prison for refusing to be drafted into the US military. Both the US government & Japanese Americans like to make heroes of the 442nd, but to me these men who resisted the draft had true courage. I like that the film is frank about the split within the Japanese American community over the question of loyalty during WWII. Also, I had thought that photography was banned in the camps, so I was quite moved to see footage of camp life, especially what looks like a home movie of an obon celebration.

The 2nd movie screened was From a Silk Cocoon, a beautiful documentary following the complicated story of a kibei couple who answer "No" on the infamous loyalty questionnaire & end up in Tule Lake. The wife gives birth to 2 children while interned, & the couple's experience in the camps leads them to renounce their American citizenship. The film creates a great deal of suspense as we wait to find out whether or not their family will stay together after the war, as the US prepares to deport the father. Kim Ina, a granddaughter of the subjects of the film & one of its co-producers, was on hand to discuss the film & answer questions afterward.

It pleases me to know that both documentaries were funded with government grants that came out of the Reparation Act. Giving out money to make history movies is government spending I can really get behind.

Diane Arbus at the Fraenkel Gallery

Fraenkel Gallery
Diane Arbus: Christ in a lobby and Other Unknown or Almost Known Works
Selected by Robert Gober
7 January - 6 March 2010

This excellent show of photographs by Diane Arbus cleverly opens with a drawing by curator Robert Gober, in which we can just make out the famous twins cover of her Aperture monograph. That twins photo is too well known to be here, but there is another photograph of two women in curlers standing on a New York sidewalk & looking oddly identical. Many of the photos on display similarly remind me of canonical Diane Arbus images: children in the park, nudists, circus performers, babies in terrifying closeup. I can even recognize subjects from other photographs, such as the Young woman with her child, camera, coat & handbag, Bronx, N.Y. (1965).

Thematically similar photos seem to be scattered throughout the galleries instead of being grouped. This results in some shocking juxtapositions, such as the deathbed photo sandwiched between 2 pictures of circus performers. I loved the humor of many of the works, such as one showing the winners of a muscle man contest posing in victory, apparently for an audience of one little boy. The Woman in Floppy Hat (1970), standing on a curb in headgear that is both large & shapeless, manages to be both funny & a bit unsettling. The Peace Marchers, N.J. (1962), striding across the horizon, silhouetted against a cloudy sky, look like the final shot from The Seventh Seal.

It's a treat to learn that most of the prints were done by Arbus herself. It's surprising that most are also unpublished, as they seem in no way inferior or unrepresentative. The exhibit checklist does not include prices, so one imagines that these images are indeed special.

The Fraenkel Gallery felt like a happening place when I visited at lunch time today. I'm pretty sure that the eponymous Mr. Fraenkel acknowledged me with a quick "hi" on his way through the gallery, & I overheard the receptionist announce a call from Lee Friedlander.

Haydn at the Hayden

Events like this make me wonder why I'm not trying harder to relocate to New York. This month Gotham Chamber Opera, "Taking advantage of breakthroughs in laser and light technology," performs Haydn's Il Mondo Della Luna in The Hayden Planetarium. Opera under the stars with a laser light show. Wow. The production is "directed by Diane Paulus, director of the Tony-award winning revival of 'Hair.'"

Raj Patel at The Commonwealth Club

I was in the audience at The Commonwealth Club this evening to hear Raj Patel talk about his new book, The Value of Nothing. As far as I can tell, the book is a critique of free market capitalism. Mr. Patel is interested in how externalities like pollution, human rights & health costs distort the difference between price & value. His solution is more regulation of markets.

The excitable Mr. Patel seemed to be speaking off the top of his head, & he wandered from topic to topic, often stuttering & blustering in his posh British accent. He can be bluntly plain-spoken as well as funny. Citing the struggles of tomato pickers in Florida, he informed us that "slavery is alive & well." He acted out a Monty Python sketch about commie-hating Americans, then added, "I'm not a communist; I'm just open-minded." Perhaps because he knew the event was being recorded for radio, he was considerably less foul-mouthed than when I heard him on a previous occasion.

I find Mr. Patel to be a charismatic & even inspiring character. His admiration when speaking about the shack dwellers of Durban was genuine. Tomorrow he becomes an American citizen, a political compliment to us in its own way. Broadcaster Sandip Roy, the program's moderator, may have had it right after all when he said, "You may disagree with what he says, but you'll like him saying it in a British accent."

The Commonwealth Club members are very well-behaved & make an effort to submit intelligent questions for the Q & A. On January 27th, John Yoo, the Bush administration lawyer, appears at The Club. The program announcement advises that "Attendees are subject to search."

Noontime Concerts: Schola Cantorum

Noontime Concerts
Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 12:30pm
Old St. Mary's Cathedral

Schola Cantorum San Francisco
Paul Flight, artistic director

Choral Music for the Holiday Season

At today's Noontime Concert in Old St. Mary's, 11 members of Schola Cantorum, led by artistic director Paul Flight, presented this seasonal program of mostly 16th century Spanish songs about the nativity. Besides the 16th century works, they performed a Besançon Carol (People Look East) & 2 songs by Peter Warlock (Where Riches is Everlasting & Benedicamus Domino). Schola Cantorum's sound is straight-toned & clear. Their performance was restrained & measured rather than merry. The program was well-attended, & the audience gave the group a warm ovation. Schola Cantorum responded by encoring Benedicamus Domino, "since it's short". I continue to be impressed by the appreciative audience that turns out for these concerts.

She Stoops To Comedy

The SF Playhouse
She Stoops To Comedy
By David Greenspan
Directed by Mark Rucker

Liam Vincent: Alexandra Page
Amy Resnick: Kay Fein/Jayne Summerhouse
Sally Clawson: Alison Rose
Cole Alexander Smith: Hal Stewart
Carly Cioffi: Eve Addaman
Scott Capurro: Simon Lanquish

Saturday, 19 December 2009, 8:00pm

She Stoops To Comedy is an odd little production. The play is a 90 minute post-modern farce. The main action concerns an actress disguising herself as a man in order to play opposite her ex-lover in As You Like It. The actress is played by a male actor, in this case the watchable Liam Vincent. His version of the character seems to be a flamboyant gay man rather than an impersonation of a woman. I suspect that this, like many elements of the play, is simply meant to be out of whack. The cast seems to be performing several mutually exclusive drafts of a play simultaneously. A scene may jump in time & place, with the action continuing in a manner inconsistent with what just happened before. Often the actors merely narrate a scene instead of acting it out. Characters can be confused as to their own identifies. The comedy arises out of these deliberately half-assed situations.

There is a steady stream of lightly amusing jokes, though no huge laughs. A highlight is a set piece in which actress Amy Resnick ends up having to portray both sides in a 2-character scene. It's as if the playwright forgot that he was doubling roles. I liked Carly Cioffi's pitch-perfect embodiment of an intelligent young woman caught up in an unfulfilling relationship. This subplot, as well as a sad & bitter monologue delivered by Scott Capurro, keeps the play from being entirely fluff. In the last scene, one of the characters tells us that the plot is modeled after The Guardsman, which of course I have never seen. It's entirely possible, therefore, that the entire thing is going straight over my pointy head.

There were many empty seats, even though the venue is small. I think the play is just strange enough that it is having problems finding an audience. & the play wasn't the only thing off-kilter that night. I held a ticket for a seat A12, which did not exist. I sat in seat A14 instead, with no ill effects.

Turkish Classical Music

Asian Art Museum
The Many Worlds of Turkish Classical Music
A Talk and Musical Demonstration with Three Turkish Masters
Saturday, December 19, 1:00 pm
Samsung Hall

Necati Çelik, oud
Yavuz Akalin, ney
Tumuçin Cevikoğlu, bendir, vocalist

So many people showed up for this opportunity to hear Turkish music that the start was delayed for 15 minutes while museum staff retrieved more chairs for the SRO audience. This was followed by a 30-minute content-free talk, followed by a break. It was close to 2:00pm before the musicians got to do their thing.

We heard 2 sets of classical pieces, largely from the 19th century. The musicians played continuously for each set, bridging the different pieces with short improvisations. The long & sinuous melodic lines evoked the human voice. The oud & ney almost always played in parallel. The tempos all had an unhurried, pulse-slowing gait, even in the dance that concluded the 1st set. There is a sense of high seriousness about this music. Mr. Cevikoğlu sang Sufi songs in the 2nd set. I enjoyed hearing the way he sustained syllables with an elongated wobble of the voice.

This musical tradition is very much an unexplored landscape to me. The performance often felt inward & meditative & perhaps even a bit sad. The audience was patient & appreciative. Afterward, I took a peek at the music left on the stands. It looked like typical western-style sheet music.

Blythe sounds the part

A Latecomer to the Opera
by DAVID MERMELSTEIN

"I know there are other girls who look more like Carmen than I do, but I'll tell you something: I sound more like her. The voice is what chooses the role."

Stephanie Blythe, interviewed by The Wall Street Journal

Left Coast Chamber Ensemble

Left Coast Chamber Ensemble
Fugue, Fantasy and New Companions
December 14, 8pm
The Green Room
San Francisco War Memorial

Anna Presler, artistic director, violin
Thomas Nugent, oboe
Phyllis Kamrin violin
Kurt Rohde, viola
Leighton Fong, cello

Benjamin Britten: Phantasy Quartet for oboe and strings
Beethoven: Grosse Fuge in Bb, Op. 133
Sam Nichols: Refuge for String Quartet
Kristin Kuster: Midnight Mirror

Even though we were gathered for a program of new music for string quartet, the pre-concert chatter was all about Lady Gaga's concurrent appearance at the nearby Bill Graham Auditorium. Our own show began with an early Britten piece with oboe that made me think of a jaunty walk through the English countryside. The members of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble had obvious fun playing together, & there is good communication among them. Their Grosse Fuge was tight & rattling. I liked the playing of 1st violin Anna Presler, whose sound has a nice bite & whose phrasing decisions are very clear.

The 2 string quartets in the 2nd half were specifically commissioned for this program & intended as companion pieces for the Grosse Fuge. Both works were about 15 minutes long, & so on the same scale as their model. Composer Sam Nichols was present & spoke a few amusing words about his work, referencing a story line from The Sopranos when explaining his take on the meaning of "companion." His piece was akin to the Grosse Fuge in its many abrupt shifts of mood, some of them quite violent. I liked the funny ending, with its pizzicato notes getting quieter & quieter as they sneak in from different instruments. Kristin Kuster's contribution similarly used fragments of chords & intervals from the Grosse Fuge & mostly had the instruments playing vigorously in parallel. It made for a finale that was loud & full of exertion.

As well as their CDs, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble had a light-weight tote bag for sale. We were invited to join members of the ensemble at Momi Toby's Revolution Cafe after the concert.

SFSFF: Sherlock Jr. and The Goat

San Francisco Silent Film Festival
The 5th Annual Winter Event
Sherlock Jr. and The Goat
Dennis James on the Mighty Wurlitzer, aided by foley artist Todd Manley with special sound effects.
December 12, 2009 7:00PM
Castro Theatre

I would have been interested in seeing every film shown at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival's one-day Winter Event, especially the Abel Gance WWI story J'accuse. Instead I ended up at the 2 Keaton comedies, which was fine. First up was the The Goat, which I may have never seen before. Keaton looks like he's breaking his neck with every pratfall. I was surprised by an athletic gag where Keaton escapes from a locked room by vaulting over a table & his foe's head before diving through the transom. Also stunning is a shot of a train barreling directly toward the camera. Just before it is about to run us over, it halts, & we see Keaton sitting impassively on the cow-catcher. This stunt is especially peculiar, as it has no connection to the story.

The films were introduced by Frank Buxton. Between the movies, Mr. Buxton chatted briefly on stage with Melissa Talmadge Cox, Buster Keaton's granddaughter. This was a curious bit of actuality, as she could only tell us a few stories about visiting her grandfather's home as a child. She never saw Keaton's movies until she was an adult, & she has no connection with the movie industry.

Sherlock Jr. is one of my favorite silent comedies. I still find the best stunts, such as the 2 trucks that momentarily close a gap in a bridge, to be inventive, suspenseful & funny. The movie-within-a-movie gags are post-modern meta-jokes. As always, the savvy Castro Theater audiences go a long toward making these events work. It was also a pleasure to hear a little girl seated behind me laugh delightedly every time Keaton took a spill. In addition to Dennis James at the organ, Todd Manley provided cartoony sound effects.

Formenti Plays Lang & Haydn

Marino Formenti, Piano
Aspects of the Divine
Friday, December 11, 8pm
St. Mark's Lutheran Church

Seven Last Words:
Bernhard Lang: Monadologie V - 7 Last Words of Hasan (US Premiere)
Haydn: The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross

When I entered the church venue for Marino Formenti's unusual program of Lang & Haydn, I became aware of an ambient electronic drone. Every few minutes the sound changed. By the time the program was about to start, it sounded like the hum of a UFO about to land nearby. After the lights dimmed, the hum began to fade. After a few moments of silence, Mr. Formenti & his poker-faced page turner walked to the piano. Ignoring our applause, Mr. Formenti immediately sat down & started pounding out tone clusters. These were followed by rapid runs & more fierce hammering. This introductory movement of the Lang ended with a clear, isolated statement of a theme from the Haydn to come.

The Lang appeared inhumanly difficult to play, but Mr. Formenti attacked each movement fearlessly, often snorting & grunting. I liked the way he made the low chords in Sonata 2 sound like breathing. I let out a little laugh at the way he spit out the left hand notes in Sonata 3 as if he were having trouble lighting a match. At the close, his hands jumped away from the piano as if the keyboard were suddenly too hot to touch. Afterward, I walked up to the piano, trying to peer at the music. Others were just as curious & even bolder, & soon the piano was surrounded by curious audience members leafing through the score. They had to be chased away by the management.

The electronic drone resumed at the intermission, so when the lights dimmed & the sound again faded, we knew not to clap & allowed Mr. Formenti to sit at the piano in silence. Instead of being classical, balanced & even, his interpretation was introspective, inward & meditative. His rhythm could be a bit halting, & he often sounded like he was pushing through molasses. He allowed notes to blur, & he winced when playing soft passages. A few of the more intense moments recalled the Lang piece. The last, thundering earthquake movement linked the end of the recital directly to its abrupt start. There was a long pause before the audience felt it was safe to applaud.

Wozzeck Sneak Preview

Last night at the SFCM, I attended Ensemble Parallèle's preview of their up-coming Wozzeck. Artistic Director Nicole Paiement talked about the opera's rigorous formal structure & its expressionistic techniques. She obviously enjoys studying this score, & her love & admiration for it shine through in her speaking. I was impressed by her clear ideas about how the score relates to the drama. She pointed out how Margaret's vocal line switches from tonal to atonal in the scene in the tavern, reflecting Wozzeck's increasing paranoia. The opening scene's musical structure is based on the Baroque dance suite, because the Captain is an older establishment figure dominating Wozzeck.

Live musical examples were performed by Bojan Knezevic (Wozzeck), Erin Neff (Margret), & Michael Desnoyers (Fool), accompanied by Keisuke Nakagoshi on the piano. Mr. Knezevic sang Berg's very modern vocal lines with surprising lyricism. His big voice was a little frightening in that small studio space. I expect him to be very effective in the actual production. Ms. Neff, though suffering from a bad cold, immediately dropped into character as the slatternly Margaret.

John Rea's chamber orchestration reduces the orchestra to 20 players. Ms. Paiement explained that he combines timbres to make us think we hear instruments, such as the tuba, that are not there. She played us an excerpt with a full orchestra followed by Mr. Rea's reduction of the same music to demonstrate that none of the complex texture has been lost. The reduction sounds crisper & less weighty.

This production will incorporate large video projections, both pre-recorded & live. Stage Director Brian Staufenbiel was on hand, & we got a preview of a prerecorded sequence showing Wozzeck's nightmare. Even the cast was seeing this for the 1st time. It's deliberately designed to look like an expressionist silent film, with a grainy, jumpy image quality & an iris shot. Mr. Knezevic would have been a great silent-movie actor. Underwater scenes will be shot next week.

This production seems to be in good hands. Though innovative in some ways, the production looks like it will sacrifice none of the beauty of the score. Ensemble Parallèle's Wozzeck will be presented January 30 and 31, 2010, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Nathan Gunn's Workout

For those of us wondering how baritone Nathan Gunn keeps looking so fit on stage, The Wall Street Journal today has an article describing his workout. The article is very comprehensive (Mr. Gunn & I favor the same brand of running shoes). There are more pictures of him being athletic in the on-line summary of the article. I've seen Mr. Gunn a few times at the SF Opera but never in any of the shirtless roles for which he is famous.

PBO: Gloria!

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra
Gloria! A Holiday Celebration
Bruce Lamott, conductor and director
Elizabeth Blumenstock, leader and violin
Philharmonia Chorale
Sat, Dec 5, 8:00 pm
First Congregational Church, Berkeley

Vivaldi: Magnificat In G Minor, Rv 610
Torelli: Concerto Grosso In G Minor, Op. 8, No. 6,"Christmas Concerto"
Vivaldi: Credo In Unum Deum, Rv 591
Vivaldi: Concerto In F Minor, "Winter," Rv 297, From The Four Seasons
Sammartini: Concerto Grosso In G Minor, Op. 5, No. 6, "Christmas Concerto"
Vivaldi: Gloria In D Major, Rv 589

Somehow I got talked into attending this concert, even though it started a mere hour after Marino Formenti's fiendish Messiaen recital. At least the 2 venues were a walkable distance apart. But after the Messiaen, it was difficult for anything else to make an impression on me. Fortunately the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra program was light & undemanding. It had a Christmas feel without resorting to usual seasonal repertoire such as the Corelli Christmas Concerto or excerpts from The Messiah or Weihnachtsoratorium. With a chorus of 24 & an orchestra of about 20, the balance between voices & instruments was perfect. In addition, the acoustic of the First Congregational Church is very live. It was especially easy to pick out the tenors.

The tempos were swift & bouncy, especially when orchestra leader Elizabeth Blumenstock led the instrumental works. She played even faster as soloist in the Vivaldi concerto. I just wish she had not been so shy & had stood in front of the orchestra instead of behind a music stand amidst the principal strings. The audience enjoyed her solo turn & gave her a standing ovation.

When Ms. Blumenstock was leading the instrumental numbers, she sat several inches above the rest of the orchestra, as if she were in a tall barber chair. I thought it looked a little odd. She seems to be a good leader, so why not just stand proudly? I like that they have a theorbo in the continuo, though I had a hard time convincing myself that I was hearing it.

Formenti Plays Messiaen

Aspects of the Divine
Messiaen: Vingt Regards Sur L’enfant-Jésus
Marino Formenti, Piano
Saturday, December 5, 5pm
St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Berkeley

I found the setting for this particular recital to be severe. My concert companion looked up at the plain crucifix hung on a concrete column & pronounced it "brutal." When the lights came down, it became very dark except for a bright spot on the piano. Marino Formenti, followed by the page turner, entered down the aisle, sat at the piano & fidgeted as he adjusted the bench several times. For the next 2 hours I could not take my eyes off his large head or allow my attention to wander. Mr. Formenti is as much a performance artist as a pianist. Each Regard was an exploration of a state of mind, & his playing went to extremes. He made me think of both demons & saintly ascetics. He could be quiet, calm & measured, playing with even, legato chords. In the next moment he would explode into cascades of pounding runs that pushed me back in my pew & made me grit my teeth. He wailed on that piano, often snorting like a bull. I would have been terrified to be his page turner. Sometimes he threatened to end up in her lap. About a third of the way through, I started worrying about his hands. Does he put them in ice after each performance?

I'm not especially a fan a Messiaen, but Mr. Formenti sold me on this music completely. Highlights included X. Regard de l'Espirit de joie, full of joyous singing & sounding like an explosion in Gershwin's head. I liked that Mr. Formenti let it be schmaltzy. I also liked the soothing & meditative XIX. Je dors, mais non coeur veille, played with effusive romantic gestures. Mr. Formenti ended his recital with a flourish at the low end of the keyboard that brought him right up to his feet. It was impossible not to want to cheer. Mr. Formenti is disarmingly modest, though, & he held up Messiaen's score to us when he returned for another bow.

The Little Match Girl Passion

The Little Match Girl Passion
Pacific Mozart Ensemble
Lynne Morrow, Music Director
Friday December 4, 7:30 pm
The Green Room
War Memorial Veterans Building

Ave Maria
Sanford Dole

Excerpts from Vespa Rjad (Vespian Paths)
Veljo Tormis

Dance
Ilya Demutsky

The Little Match Girl Passion
David Lang

Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child
Traditional Spiritual

Cast Thy Bread Upon the Waters
Michael T. Roberts

Veni, Veni Emmanuel (A Christmas Prayer)
Cary Boyce

Hymn to St. Cecilia
Benjamin Britten

Psalm 21
Dave Brubeck

Rise Up Shepherds and Follow, trad. Spiritual
Go, Tell it on the Mountain, trad. Spiritual
Adeste Fideles
Angels We Have Heard On High

The Pacific Mozart Ensemble, an a cappella community chorus of around 45 voices, offered a diverse holiday program in the Green Room on Friday night. They are well-rehearsed & produce a beautiful, blended sound. They sing with great pride. Their director Lynne Morrow leads with a clear beat & gives hints rather than dictates. The centerpiece of the 1st half was the West Coast Premier of David Lang's The Little Match Girl Passion. It is a 40 minute series of lugubrious numbers interspersed with the text of the story, intoned in short, halting phrases. The atmosphere is one of unrelieved yet ethereal suffering. The chorus did a fine job sustaining the mood & made a silky, wafting sound. Everett Q. Tilden provided the discrete percussion accompaniment, playing bass drum, xylophone, crotales, chimes & at one point a rusty bucket. One of the sopranos had a dizzy spell at the end of the final narrative. A colleague helped to her to the floor, though this did not impede the progress of the piece.

Bass Dale Engle opened the 2nd half by singing the spiritual Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child from one end of the room. Mr. Engle has a way with low notes. The major work of the 2nd half was a clean, well-prepared rendition of Britten's Hymn to St. Cecilia. The audience joined in the program's final 2 Christmas carols, & Ms. Morrow complimented us on our singing. The attendees seemed to be largely friends & family of the choristers, giving the event a warm, community feeling. Cookies & punch were served afterwards, & I was personally encouraged to come back for their next concert featuring Bach.

Is the Book Dead?

Is the Book Dead?
High Tech and the Written Word

Moderated By Alan Kaufman
Oscar Villalon
Daniel Handler
Brenda Knight
John Mcmurtrie
Annalee Newitz
Scott Rosenberg

Mechanics' Institute Library
Thur 3 Dec 2009 6:30pm

Following the members' meeting at the Mechanics' Institute on Thursday evening, Alan Kaufman led a panel discussion about the future of the book. This panel was similar to a previous one I attended at Books Inc. but with a better mix of speakers. When Mr. Kaufman mentioned Nazis & the Holocaust in his opening remarks, I was afraid that we were in trouble. Fortunately the panelists were less paranoid & were in fact often puzzled by Mr. Kaufman's remarks, such as his suggestion for an international body to enforce ethical behavior from the high tech industry.

A fear of technology dominated the discussion. This obscured what I think should have been the real topic. Scott Rosenberg came closest to stating it when he observed that the Internet threatens industries based on the scarcity of information or on the control of access to information. As the Web removes these barriers, what happens to writers' & publishers' economic incentives? No one seemed to have any special insights here.

I enjoyed Daniel Handler, who is a bit of a performer & whom I had never seen before. He told us how trying to read William Vollmann's 1300 page Imperial on Muni made a good case for the electronic book. I loved Annalee Newitz's story of using a Kaypro back in the 1980s to connect with other book lovers on-line. She also told us about Noisebridge, which she described as a high-tech version of the Mechanics' Institute.

The Mechanics' Institute members, as one would expect, are a well-informed crowd, though their questions sometimes got off-topic. Next time I will arrive earlier. They knew no shame when it came to the food table.

Ji Young Yang & Gerald Thompson

San Francisco Performances
Salons at the Rex
Ji Young Yang & Gerald Thompson
Wednesday, December 2, 6:30pm
Hotel Rex

Ji Young Yang, Soprano
Gerald Thompson, Countertenor
John Parr, Piano
Steve Lin, Guitar

PURCELL: Sound the trumpet; Lost is my quiet
HANDEL: "Da tempeste il legno" and "Caro, Bella" from Giulio Cesare
MOZART: "S'io non moro a questi accenti" from Idomeneo; "Ah perdona al primo affetto" from La Clemenza di Tito
HANDEL:"Rompo i lacci" from Flavio; "Bramo aver mille vite" from Ariodante

ARR. TARRAGO: Canciones Populares Espanõlas
Campanas de Belen (Córdoba)
Tengo que subir (Asturias)
Jaeneras que yo canto (Andalucia)

ARLEN: Stormy Weather
DELUGG & STEIN: Orange Colored Sky
HOWARD: Fly Me to the Moon

MONTEVERDI:"Pur ti miro" from L'incoronazione di Poppea

Encore: Alleluia from Mozart's Exultate, Jubilate

It's a great treat to hear operatic voices close up. I'm so glad that San Francisco Performances gives us these opportunities in their Salons at the Rex series. About 70 of us, a sold-out crowd, in closely-spaced chairs, jammed the salon at the Hotel Rex. It was clearly an opera audience. Many people brought in drinks from the bar. Both the singers are former Adler Fellows at the beginning of their careers. Soprano Ji Young Yang has a bright, youthful sound that she produces with seeming ease. Countertenor Gerald Thompson has a surprisingly big, concentrated sound & performs all those Baroque runs very cleanly. He improvised a startling run up to a big high note in the Handel aria Rompo i lacci.

I was never in doubt as to the meaning of the songs. Sound the Trumpet was indeed celebratory. Bramo aver mille vite felt like ardent passion. Ms. Yang & Mr. Thompson, with their well-matched sounds, made a good case for the Baroque convention of combing high voices in a love duet. They also did a modest amount of acting with their glances & gestures.

Ms. Yang sang the Spanish songs, which are special favorites of hers. She told us that when she came across the music in the New England Conservatory library, she wanted to steal it. She expressed the emotions of the songs so clearly that the printed translations were unnecessary. As an added bonus, she was accompanied by Steve Lin on the guitar.

Mr. Thompson, also accompanied by the guitar, sang the 3 jazz standards. These countertenor covers were so unexpected that I was on the verge of chuckling the whole time. Sadly, I'll probably never again hear a countertenor declare, "Wham! Bam! Alakazam!"

The musical program lasted no more than 65 minutes. Afterward the singers stayed on to answer questions from the audience. We learned about some of their early musical experiences & about life after the Adler program. Ms. Yang was frank about her worries getting engagements before she got a green card.