Heartwarming Boheme

I just heard an ad for the SF Opera's La Boheme on KQED radio. The opera is described as a "heartwarming story" of young artists falling in & out of love & as something for the holidays. Since when did dying young, in poverty, of tuberculosis become heartwarming holiday fare?

Marwood & Adès Play Stravinsky

Anthony Marwood, violin & Thomas Adès, piano
Saturday, November 8, 8pm
Herbst Theatre

STRAVINSKY:
- Suite Italienne (arr. Pulcinella)
- Pastorale
- Song of the Nightingale and Chinese March from The Nightingale
- Duo Concertant
- Berceuse, Scherzo and Prelude et Ronde des Princesses from The Firebird
- Chanson Russe (Russian Maiden’s Song)
- Divertimento
-Danse Russe from Petrushka

Encore: Tango

This was a fun recital of show pieces & miniatures that Stravinsky arranged for himself & violinist Samuel Dushkin to play on tour.

It took me a while to get used to Marwood's style & sound. I'm still not sure what it is about his playing, but there is something idiosyncratic about it. He doesn't always make the most beautiful string sound, but he communicates the music well & is something of a showman. He knows how to end a piece with a flourish. At the end of the Scherzo of the Firebird, he nearly jumped back into the wings.

Adès is an intense pianist with a liking for hard, staccato phrasing. I liked the communication between the players. Adès often turned around to look at Marwood. They did a great job expressing the humor of many of the pieces. Their playing of the loping Chanson Russe & the Divertimento made me laugh out loud.

Even though this was a diverse & audience-friendly program, Stravinsky still seems to scare people away. A correspondent told me that the balcony had many empty rows.

Dr. Atomic HD Broadcast

Doctor Atomic (Met Premiere) – Adams
Saturday, November 8, 2008 (1:00 pm ET)

Conductor
Alan Gilbert
Production
Penny Woolcock

Edward Teller - Richard Paul Fink
J. Robert Oppenheimer - Gerald Finley
Robert Wilson - Thomas Glenn
Kitty Oppenheimer - Sasha Cooke
General Leslie Groves - Eric Owens
Frank Hubbard - Earle Patriarco
Captain James Nolan - Roger Honeywell
Pasqualita - Meredith Arwady

I went to this broadcast to check out the production, which is different from the Peter Sellars one I saw here in San Francisco in 2005. The main scenic elements in the Met production are a 4-story wall of human-sized pigeon holes & a mountain range made from a huge suspended cloth. The wall is meant to remind us of the periodical table of elements. Chorus members representing workers at Los Alamos frequently appear in the compartments. At the end of the opera the walls lean forward dangerously, representing the destructive force of the atomic blast.

Both productions feature an accurate reproduction of the bomb itself which hangs ominously over the action. I find it amazing that the actual device looked so jury-rigged.

Gerald Finley is completely at home in the role of Oppenheimer. The highlight of the performance is his intense delivery of the soliloquy "Batter My Heart" at the end of Act I. I also liked Eric Owens in the comic role of the dieting General. Sasha Cooke looked beautiful & glamorous even in extreme close-up.

I still have my doubts about this opera. The libretto is a collage of documentary texts & poems, but it doesn't add up to a dramatic whole. I quickly tired of the weather reports. The Pasqualita character who wanders through Act II feels tacked on. The Act II scenario is thin, being a drawn-out count-down. I often hear Dr. Atomic referred to as a Faust story, but I'm not convinced. I don't know what the central conflict is supposed to be.

I still like much of the music, especially the lyrical Act I scene between Oppenheimer & Kitty, & of course the soliloquy that closes Act I. The music at the end of Act II builds palpable tension & suspense. The pre-recorded sound effects that begin each act make me listen in a different way, so that the entrance of the live orchestra comes as a shock. I was glad that the broadcast translated the recorded Japanese that closes the opera. Now I finally know how it ends!

It did seem like there were more younger people at this screening than usual. I hope that's a reflection of John Adam's popularity. It's impressive how quickly Dr. Atomic has gotten picked up by other houses. It has been done in San Francisco, Amsterdam, Chicago & New York, all within 4 years.

There was a hiccup in the transmission during Act II, when the picture froze & we lost sound for a couple of seconds. It was scarier than the final scene when the bomb goes off.

Blomstedt Conducts Brahms & Nielsen

Fri, Nov 7, 2008 8:00pm
Davies Symphony Hall

San Francisco Symphony
Herbert Blomstedt, conductor
Nikolaj Znaider, violin
Katherine Whyte, soprano
Eugene Chan, baritone

Brahms - Violin Concerto
Nielsen - Symphony No. 3, Sinfonia espansiva

I went to this concert mainly to see Blomstedt, who is now over 80. I was very happy to see that he looks healthy & moves freely on the podium. This is a great program for him, playing to his strengths in the late Romantic repertoire.

Blomstedt had a reduced string section for the Brahms, with only 2 stands of cellos & 4 double basses. This resulted in a thin but exceptionally clear orchestral texture. A friend of mine describes Blomstedt's sound as "attenuated".

Znaider is a technical monster. He has a strong, focused sound, & he rips through chords & parallel octaves with ease. I liked watching the rapid left-hand shifts he did in the cadenza. He's a flashy performer. The orchestra liked his playing too & gave him their own bow-waving ovation.

I'm not a Nielsen fan, but Blomstedt can make the hodge-podge of Nielsen's musical ideas flow together for me. The driving, accelerating chords of the opening of the Symphony No. 3 reminded me of the opening of John Adam's Harmonielehre. This gives way to something more lushly Romantic. Later in the movement a bouncy dance theme emerges. Blomstedt moved effortlessly & naturally between these disparate elements.

I didn't hear the soprano in the 2nd movement very well at all, though this may have been a problem with my position in the hall.

In the end, I thought William Bennett was the real star of the evening. He played gorgeous solos in the Brahms & the Nielsen, even summoning up a different oboe sound for each composer. During the final ovations, Blomstedt walked into the woodwind section to single Bennett out for a special bow.

During the evening I got to chat with some members of the San Francisco Classical Music and Opera Meetup. These people know their opinions, so be careful what you say about Mahler!

Transforming Kami at the SF Public Library

Today at lunch time I made it to the Main Public Library to see the other half of the Transforming Kami exhibition of origami sculptures. Again I was panting in disbelief at the models. The pleating technique of Goran Konjevod was completely new to me. I saw this incredible spinal column by Christine Edison & this very funny cartoon frog by Nicolas Terry, plus lots more marvels. These people are out of control!

Also, on the bottom floor of the library, there is a nice exhibit of original art work & pop-up books by children's book creator Robert Sabuda. There are beautiful illustrations in a variety of media & styles, & the exhibit is very colorful. I liked seeing the plain white mock-ups for the pop-up book mechanisms.

Idomeneo at SF Opera

Fri Oct 31 2008 8 pm
Conductor: Donald Runnicles
Director: John Copley

Idomeneo: Kurt Streit
Idamante: Daniela Mack
Ilia: Genia Kühmeier
Elettra: Iano Tamar
Arbace: Alek Shrader
The High Priest of Neptune: Robert MacNeil
The Voice of the Oracle: Kenneth Kellogg
Two Cretan Maidens: Mary Finch / Natasha Ramirez Leland
Two Trojan Men: Chester Pidduck / David Kekuewa

Instead of trick-or-treating on Halloween, I was at the Opera House for the last night of Idomeneo. Alice Coote did not make it back to the production, indisposed due to a back problem, according to a pre-curtain announcement.

Right from the start there was great playing from the orchestra under Runnicles. I continue to enjoy the big clear sound of the principal flutist. The string sections play with exemplary unanimity of phrasing. Some of the audience laughed during the overture, but I couldn't tell what the joke was.

The 1st aria belonged to Genia Kühmeier's Ilia, & I immediately liked her beautiful & smooth singing. By contrast, Daniela Mack had a warbling voice. Iano Tamar's Elettra had a hard-edge sound, appropriate to her angry character. One nice thing about the casting, actually, is that each of the principals has a completely different timbre to his or her voice. There was no chance of confusing them, even with your eyes closed!

Kurt Streit has a high, open voice that is maybe even a little raw. His singing was very even & therefore very Mozartian. Plus he looks pretty good in those heavy 18th century costumes, even though his robe got caught on the steps & delayed his exit after the Act III quartet.

The staging lacked ideas. Singers pace around during their arias, then walk off just before the orchestra stops playing. At the end of Act II, 4 giant horse heads rise into the sky. Then these warriors guys pull a big tarp over the steps, & Idomeneo pops up through a hole in it. It was nonsensical rather than dramatic.

Still, the evening was musically very satisfying. I enjoyed it most when I was just listening to the orchestra & the singing & focusing on Mozart's incredible music. Others apparently did not find it engaging. My section at the extreme side of the grand tier was sparsely populated, & by the last act I had a whole row to myself.

Before Act III, the orchestra honored Runnicles by remaining seated when he gestured for them to stand for the applause. I spotted several Halloween costumes, both in audience & in the orchestra pit. My favorites were the cat & the horned Dracula in the oboe section & Opera Tattler as a lovely Carmen.

APE 2008

I spent most of this rainy Saturday indoors at the Alternative Press Expo. I quickly felt overwhelmed by the number of exhibitors & attendees. People were saying that they might have to move venues again.

Local phenomenon Justin Hall's queer comics panel was a hoot. For a minute it looked like Mr. Hall was going to moderate the entire discussion in a lucha libra mask. I handled Kramers Ergot 7, which is a stunning object of desire & way too big to shoplift. I got the new issue of Boy Trouble from the hands of editor & cartoonist Robert Kirby (who once drew me before he ever met me).

Most fun at this show is buying from the creators themselves. How often these days do you buy something directly from the person who made it? John Marr sold me the latest edition of his Murder Can Be Fun, one of the great zines. I'm glad that Cathy Leamy waved me down so I could discover her wonderfully personal Geraniums & Bacon. I'm looking forward to reading Nick Mullin's wordless & macabre Kit Kaleidoscope. I'm not creative at all, so I'm in awe of all the exhibitors I met.

Transforming Kami: The Art of Origami

This afternoon I dropped into the storefront space of the National Japanese American Historical Society to see this exhibit of extraordinary origami figures. I've been doing origami as a hobby since I was a kid, but I just don't understand the techniques that make some of these elaborate figures possible. Satoshi Kamiya's dragon is covered with individually folded scales. Brian Chan figured out a way to render realistically Wall-E's tread belt.

Several origami artists were in attendance this afternoon, including Giang Dinh, Joseph Wu, Linda Mihara, Brian Chan, Robert Lang & Jeremy Shafer. I chatted with Mr. Lang for a bit, who was patient with my incomprehension of the advanced folding techniques on display. More models comprising this exhibition are at the SF Public Library. I hope to check these out soon.

More Alex Ross

I just heard Alex Ross on the opening segment of the radio show To the Best of Our Knowledge, talking about the influence of modern classical music on pop music. He's followed by a story about a rock band that covers operatic numbers. Their versions of Mozart, Wagner & Handel seem respectful & knowledgeable, but to me they still can't help sounding kitchy.

Alex Ross at JCC

Last night Alex Ross appeared in conversation with The Chronicle music critic Joshua Kosman at the JCC. The event took place in the smallish Fisher Hall, but it was a full house of close to 200 people. I guess I have little faith, since I was surprised at the size of the turn-out. Mr. Kosman asked questions for about 45 minutes, then people from the audience questioned Mr. Ross for another half-hour.

Kosman opened the discussion by acknowledging Mr. Ross's recent receipt of a MacArthur Grant, but Alex gave no hint as to what he'll do with the money. The discussion included a lot of rehashing of the book, but I was more interested in some of the other questions that were raised, even if we got no clear answers. When asked why the audience for classical music is so small, Mr. Ross wondered if it could realistically be any bigger. The New York Phil currently sells out 90% of its concerts, & there are plenty more well-attended concerts around.

Mr. Ross observed that the general public willingly cram themselves into museums to see modern masters & gladly read the latest literature, but they are not similarly engaged by modern music. He didn't really have an explanation for this but to note that listening to music is a physical response to moving air. Perhaps because of this it takes a certain amount of effort to perceive certain sounds as pleasant.

I was of course gratified to hear that he embraces blogs. He likes how blogs allow classical music fans to engage with each other socially. He contrasted this with the solitary experience of going into a record store back in the days of LPs & trying to choose a recording. He also likes the way music download services make it easy for people to find music.

Mr. Kosman noted that Andrew Porter, Mr. Ross's predecessor at the New Yorker, wrote weekly & created a comprehensive view of the music scene. By contrast, Mr. Ross has a column only every few weeks, so he has to be highly selective. He hopes that over time this gives some sort of over-all picture as well.

Because Mr. Ross is so obviously smart, it seemed that everyone at the event was taking great pains to be smart & earnest too. Fortunately at the end of the evening we got a glimpse of Mr. Ross's jokey side. He retold the anecdote on page 382 of his book about the premier of Aaron Copland's Connotations in Washington, complete with a practiced imitation of Jackie Kennedy's breathy voice.

P.S. I hope this isn't too much tattling on my part, but I got to witness what will surely go down as an historic meeting between Opera Tattler & Joshua Kosman, who immediately traded a recent story of bad behavior at the Symphony.

Keith Devlin at Stacey's

I saw Keith Devlin at Stacey's yesterday, talking about this new book The Unfinished Game. He said that this is the 1st book he wrote that wasn't his idea. He was approached by Basic Books to write a book about a math theory that changed the world. He came up with a letter written by Blaise Pascal to Pierre de Fermat that launched probability theory & the use of mathematics to predict future events. He thinks it's a great case study of how real math is done, starting from messy mistakes & misunderstandings before arriving at the what must be the right answer. I like how Devlin speaks with such enthusiasm & liveliness about math. We often wrongly think of math as being dry, esoteric & apart from real life.

Dilbert 2.0

Even though I like to sound like the cultured elite in this blog, up until recently my daily life was more like a Dilbert cartoon. I was at the bookstore yesterday & came across this massive Dilbert compilation that prints 20 years of strips. Scott Adams wrote an introduction containing glimpses of his pre-Dilbert work, & many of the strips have his commentary. Interestingly, Dilbert did not start out right away as a workplace strip. It also includes a DVD of all the strips. Pure joy.

Coming up: Alex Ross at JCC

On Thursday, October 30th, author & MacArthur Genius Grant winner Alex Ross is appearing at the JCC in conversation with Joshua Kosman. It's a promo for the paperback addition of The Rest Is Noise. I'm not a fan of the "in conversation with" format, but I'll probably turn up anyway. I'd rather see one of his audiovisual presentations.

Schiff Beethoven Cycle VI

András Schiff, piano
Beethoven Piano Sonatas Nos. 22, 23 (Appassionata), 24, 25, and 26 (Les Adieux)
Sun, Oct 19, 2008 7:00pm
Davies Symphony Hall

Far from tiring of Schiff & Beethoven, I'm anticipating these recitals. This particular program had a nice over-all shape, since each half could end with a major work. & of course the pieces themselves are becoming more deeply romantic. In this program, I really felt like we were approaching the heart of Beethoven's rage & torment.

One of things that makes Schiff's performances so effective is that he knows how to make a big impression at the beginning & at the end of each piece. He's a great showman in this regard. The Sonata No. 22 starts out quietly & leisurely but ends in a racing flurry of notes that culminates in Schiff leaping up from the keyboard at the final chord. The Sonata No. 23 start with a dark & mysterious statement & finishes with a wild coda that suddenly lurches into a higher gear, with Schiff holding on to the reins to keep it just under control.

After the intermission, he used his great variety of touch to craft little gems out of each movement of the shorter Nos. 24 & 25. He executed another stunning ending for the 1st movement of No. 25, having it suddenly flit away to nothing. Schiff did not leave the stage between the sonatas of the 2nd half, so it was all a lead-in to the heaving, almost anguished, No. 26.

Instead of a Bach encore, Schiff offered us the last movement of Robert Schumann's Fantasie in C. He explained that it is connected directly to Beethoven through a quote to the song cycle An die ferne Geliebte. It was a choice in keeping with a program that looked toward the Romantic era. His performance of this piece may have been the best playing of the evening. It was so lush & lovely that I listened completely rapt & without any desire to critique. I ran into an acquaintance on the way out, a musician himself, & he said of the encore, "It was yummy!"

Another of the great things about these recitals is that people are actually talking about the music & the playing. On my way out I overheard a piano nerd commenting that in the encore Schiff actually grafted an extended portion of the Fantasie's 1st movement onto the last movement. This was in order to include the Beethoven quote. He seemed taken aback by this lapse in Schiff's musical purity. I'm not knowledgeable enough to verify that this is what happened, but I'll take his word for it. This is one of those things that makes me feel inadequate. Should we have recognized this?

Max Raabe And Palast Orchester

SF Jazz Festival
Max Raabe And Palast Orchester
Saturday, Oct 18 8:00p
Paramount Theatre, Oakland, CA

Max Raabe & Palast Orchester, wearing tuxedos & slicked-back hair, perform spot-on renditions of comic & sentimental songs from the 20's & 30's. Think Weimar Era cabaret, Fred Astair musicals & the Comedy Harmonists. The Art Deco Paramount Theatre is a perfect setting architectually for this music. From the very 1st number I was transported to another time & place.

Raabe sings in German & English & gives brief introductions to each song in English. His delivery was droll, dead-pan & ironic. He introduced a dance number as, "A German waltz. The German waltz is not as elegant as one from Vienna, but is much louder." His singing is usually a combination of crooning & falsetto, though in the last number he let himself belt out spectacularly with his chest voice.

The band rocks. They are excellent musicians all, some of them doubling on unexpected combinations of instruments: tuba/upright bass, trombone/viola, guitar/banjo/violin/mandolin. There is only 1 female onstage, a young violinist wearing a sleek red dress. The orchestra always cued itself, & the ensemble was very tight. Raabe never led them. When not singing, he would retreat from the microphone & lean against the piano.

The entire program was superbly executed, with a few surprises thrown in by the band to keep things from becoming routine. The audience responded enthusiastically to every number. For encores we got San Francisco, then an absurd version of the already absurd Oops I Did it Again. Finally, the musicians came out, surrounded Raabe & his microphone, & sang a sweet choral number in German about a farewell kiss. I was a little sad to have to leave this elegant world.

Sarah Vowell at Stacey's

I arrived 5 minutes into Sarah Vowell's appearance at Stacey's Bookstore this afternoon. There were perhaps a hundred of her fans in attendance, as well as a babbling baby that I could hear but didn't see. She is plugging her new book The Wordy Shipmates. It seems to be a nerdy but conversational book about the Puritan sect during the Colonial period. I only know Ms. Vowell from her radio stories on This American Life, & it was hard to reconcile that voice of a 12-year-old with the businesslike woman reading from the podium.

During the question & answer section, people were anxious to get her to comment on the current political situation. When asked how she thought things might be different under an Obama presidency, she said that it might be nice if the man sworn in to defend the Constitution had actually read the Constitution. She also recommended that we read FDR's fireside chats, which offer a contrast to the fear-mongering rhetoric of the current administration.

At the end of the reading she thanked the big crowd for giving up their lunch hour & added, "I didn't know that so many people in San Francisco worked."

Double Threat

This is so outrageous it's almost funny: Melvin Chen is going to play 2 of the most difficult virtuoso concertos on the same program, as a violinist & as a pianist. It's this coming Sunday night in San Jose. If I wasn't already engaged for that evening, I'd probably be checking it out, just to see what he can do for an encore!

Melvin Chen plays Paganini and Rachmaninoff in California Philharmonic Youth Orchestra
1st Anniversary fundraising concert.

Salome in HD

10:00am is surely too early in the day for Strauss's gorgeous & sickening Salome, but I was at the Century Theater in the Westfield Mall early Saturday morning for the Met HD Broadcast starring Karita Mattila. The theater was nearly full. I took a seat at the top of the auditorium next a woman who industriously occupied her time before the show with a knitting project. There's no intermission for this opera, but the broadcast opened with a little gag featuring Deborah Voigt knocking on Mattila's dressing room door to see if she had any words for us before the show. We also got an interesting glimpse of Matilla on stage just before the curtain goes up, stretching her lower back like an athlete.

Mattila never convinced me she was a teenager, but she impressed with her strength, her forceful voice, & her total identification with the role. She's believable even when enacting the character's most outrageous behavior. The impact of her performance comes from its physicality as much as anything else. She can do the splits while trying to seduce Herod into her evil bargain. Her dance of the 7 veils is an uninhibited strip tease. A small group in the movie theater audience applauded when her 2 male partners pulled down her pants with their teeth. She even did pole dancing moves.

However, the broadcast cheated us out of her nude scene. At the climax of the dance, we saw Mattila remove her top & then turn around with only her arms covering her breasts, but the camera immediately cut away so that we did not see her topless as the Met audience did. I thought this was unnecessarily prudish. I can't see how the sight of Mattila's breasts for 1 second can be deemed more inappropriate than the sight of her smooching a decapitated head.

The Met orchestra led by Patrick Summers sounded brilliant. All the other performers gave excellent singing/acting performances. I liked Kim Begley's middle-aged, sybaritic Herod & Ildikó Komlósi's cynical Herodias.

The action takes place in a fancy lobby where a non-stop cocktail party seems to be taking place. Jochanaan's cistern is in a crack running through the floor. Sinister looking angels appear at the end, overlooking the action, but I wasn't clear what was going on with them. The costumes were all over the place. Salome is a platinum blond in a Marilyn Monroe dress. The page looks like a soldier from the Middle East. The executioner was a sleek & muscular African warrior. The two Nazarenes were black southern evangelists, dressed in white suits. One of them seems to possess a powerful bass voice.

Strauss is not a favorite composer of mine, but I was glad to have the chance to see that the stir caused by Karita in this role is indeed well-deserved.

P.S. Before the broadcast, they showed previews of the Dr. Atomic broadcast. The production looks very different & more visually interesting than the one that premiered here in 2005.

Schiff Beethoven Cycle V

Sun, Oct 12, 2008 7:00pm
Davies Symphony Hall
Beethoven
Piano Sonatas Nos. 16, 17, (Tempest), 18, and 21 (Waldstein)
Encore: Bach Italian Concerto

András Schiff is now halfway through his complete Beethoven Piano Sonata cycle that began a year ago. From his comments in the program notes, it's clear he works hard to give each sonata its own character & to place it in context with the others. Indeed, his detailed interpretations make me feel that I am inadequate to understand all the nuances. Fortunately he plays a clear intent, & it is easy to follow the musical character of everything. I have been enjoying & admiring these recitals a great deal.

He played the 1st 3 sonatas all before intermission, leaving the stage briefly between each one. This made for a 1st half lasting 1 hour & 25 minutes, but Schiff never showed any signs of fatigue. Sonata No. 16 was humorous & joking. Schiff got a laugh out of the audience in the coda to the last movement, teasing us with what might or might not be the last chord.

The Tempest Sonata was the dark heart of the 1st half. In the middle movement, Schiff created mysterious & impressionist effects, plucking out notes with the sustain pedal down while previous harmonies lingered. It makes me want to know more about Beethoven's pedal markings. Schiff took the last movement significantly slower than my reference for the piece, a recording by Schnabel. It was as if his hands were slowed down by some viscous fluid.

No. 18 was lively & virtuosic, so much so that some miscued applause broke out after the 2nd movement. Schiff looked up momentarily towards the terrace, as if to say, "Wait, there's more!" This got a brief laugh as well.

Schiff pulled out the stops technically for the Waldenstein. In previous recitals, I sat at the back of the 1st tier, but this time I was closer to the stage, so I could really hear how much variety he has in his touch. His playing can be bouncy or he can get deep into the keys. He sometimes tries to add vibrato by shaking a key after he's struck it. I think his technique is expanding with the character of the pieces. There were moments in the program that sounded like Chopin.

The audience gave him an immediate standing ovation at the end. By now we know to expect a substantial encore, so nobody moved during the calls back to the stage. I let out a little "Wow!" when Schiff announced "Bach Italian Concerto" as the encore. He was about to turn to the keyboard, then he stopped and added, "3 movements." I don't think anyone was insulted, there was more laughter, & the evening ended with a terrifically fun encore.

Free Chamber Music Marathon on Sunday

Chamber Music Day
October 19, 2008 3-10 pm
Temple Emanu-El . 2 Lake Street . San Francisco

Looks like a fun event to drop in on & hear some local professional ensembles.