A dozen picks from the SF Symphony Centennial

Single tickets went on sale this week for the San Francisco Symphony's Centennial Season, which means that I've waited way too long to write this preview, which I've been meaning to get to for a couple of months now. One reason for my procrastination is the sheer magnitude of the season- it's unlikely that any performing arts company is going to have programming on this scale for a long, long time. After examining the schedule a friend of mine described it as "overwhelming," and if that's not quite the adjective I would use, it certainly is a reasonable response to what's undeniably a season of incredible depth, scope and richness.

In years past, when I received a copy of the coming season I would look through it and usually conclude that I wanted to see about half of the programs, my selections based on the works to be performed, guest artists and then conductors, usually in that order.

This year, out of the 36 regularly scheduled programs (there are at least two dozen other programs as well), there are 27 I definitely want to attend. Add 9 of the 10 concerts by the visiting  American Orchestras to that list and the chamber music concert in the American Mavericks series, and that's an exhausting 37 different programs. Even then there are easily another half-dozen I wouldn't mind hearing but wouldn't feel remorseful about missing. It's an exciting prospect to have that much interesting music and talent coming to town this year, is it not?

It's hard to narrow a list of almost 40 concerts down to a select few, but if I had to choose a dozen "can't miss" concerts, these are the ones I'll definitely be attending (I'm omitting the visiting orchestras from inclusion, but consider those as not-to-be-missed as well):

MTT and Yo-Yo Ma performing Hindemith's Cello Concerto. Sept 14- 17
Needs no explanation.

Vasily Petrenko conducts, Joshua Bell Oct. 5,6,8,9
Bell solos in Glazunov's Violin Concerto, with Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky and Elgar also on the program. Though James Conlon, Alan Gilbert and Pablo Heras-Casado are all guest conductors leading programs I want to hear, Petrenko would be the choice if I had to choose just one.

Fabio Luisi conducting Verdi's Requiem  Oct. 19-22
with soloists Sondra Radvanovsky, Dolora Zajick, Frank Lopardo and Ain Anger. If you've never experienced this masterpiece live, here's your chance to with an absolutely fantastic group of soloists. This may be the program I anticipate the most.

MTT conducting a new work by Sofia Gubaidulina and Brahms' German Requiem  Nov. 17-20
with soloists Jane Archibald and Kyle Ketelsen. Any new work Gubaidulina is an event.

Essa-Pekka Salonen and Leila Josefowicz  Dec 8 -10
A program featuring Salonen's Violin Concerto written for Josefowicz, Sibelius' Pohjola's Daughter, and orchestral excerpts from the Ring. I saw Salonen and Josefowicz perform this in LA two years back and it was marvelous. On top of all that, Christine Brewer is also on this program and I relish the idea of Salonen conducting Wagner.

MTT with soloists Karina Gauvin, Sasha Cooke, Leah Wool and Frederica von Stade as the narrator in Debussey's Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien and Janacek's Sinfonietta. One of the most alluring programs on the schedule. Jan 12 - 14

MTT, Emanuel Ax, the ST. Lawrence String Quartet performing Mason Bates' Mass Transmission, John Adams' Absolute Jest (both SFS commissions) a Feldman work for piano and orchestra and Varese's Ameriques. Of course I'd like to hear all of the American Mavericks concerts, but this program edges out the others. March 15 - 17

Susanna Malkki conducts Horacio Gutierrez April 27, 28
in Prokofiev's 3rd Piano Concerto with Grisey's Modulations from Les Espaces acoustiques and Sibelius's first symphony. Women rarely take to the podium in San Francisco and this season two will. It will be interesting to see what Malkki does with the Grisey and Sibelius.

MTT and concertmaster Alexander Barantschik in Schnittke's Violin Concerto No. 4, Beethoven's 6th, and Mahler's Blumine. How often is Schnittke on a program? May 16 - 19

MTT and Yuja Wang perform the Rach 3rd, Sibelius' 3rd, and Faure's Pavane. The return of the amazing Yuja Wang. I look forward to what see what she's wearing as she performs one of my favorite works. June 14 - 17

MTT with soloists Michelle DeYoung, Alan Held and Jeremy Denk perform Lizst's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Bartok's Duke Bluebeard's Castle. Even though I promised myself not to ever see another Denk performance, the Bartok with DeYoung is an absolute must.  June 21-23

MTT conducts Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw and Beethoven's 9th. The soloists are Erin Wall, Kendall GladenWilliam Burden and Nathan Berg. This needs no explanation, but I will say as programming it's a fitting conclusion to what will no doubt be a magnificent year for Bay Area music fans. June 27 - 30

The complete, recently updated schedule is available here. Don't feel overwhelmed when you see what I've posted here is just a small fraction of everything coming next year. What have I left out? Oh, only Lang Lang, Hilary Hahn, Thomas Ades, Jessye Norman, Meredith Monk, Itzhak Perlman, Christian Tetzlaff, Juho Pohjonen, Garrick Ohlsson and Richard Goode to name a few;  10 commissions, premieres and first performances;  11 works by living composers, 4 semi-staged and multimedia productions; 20 guest conductors; 13 guest conductor and soloist debuts and more than 50 soloists.

Nicely done, SFS- and congratulations on this milestone season.

Schwabacher 2011

As we sat in the Herbst Theater on Friday night, waiting for the Schwabacher Summer Concert to begin, Rosine Stoltz stopped leafing through the program, leaned over and quietly said to me " I Capuleti e i Montecchi is going to be on the [San Francisco Opera] schedule next season."


"How do you know that? And who's going to be in it?" I replied.


She answered my first question, but I can't divulge the answer. She couldn't answer the second, nor did she have any further information on what else was coming. Her sources like to keep things to themselves.


 "Do you like Donizetti?" she queried upon further examination of the program.


"I used to think I didn't, but then I kept seeing his operas and I loved them every time- so I realized my supposed dislike of Donizetti had nothing to do with the works themselves, but rather was based on some sort of belief that I should dislike Donizetti. But I don't. In fact I like him a lot."


The lights went down and the conductor, Robert Wood strode onstage and led the orchestra through a somewhat limp, perhaps even flaccid, account of the overture to Rossini's masterpiece L'Italiana in Algeri.  This didn't bother me too much, as no one in attendance had really come to hear the music- tonight was all about the singers. This annual concert is a showcase for Merola Opera Program participants. We were there to get a glimpse of the next generation of opera stars early in their careers.


The format is extended scenes from operas, and the first was from Verdi's Don Carlo, with Scott Quinn in the title role, Guodong Feng as his trusty side-kick Rodrigo, and Joo Won Kang briefly onstage at the beginning to make the most from one or two lines as a monk. Kang's vocals left the greatest impression in this one, as the material seemed to be slightly just beyond the grasp of Quinn and Feng. They both returned for another segment of the same opera in the same roles later in the first half, this time joined by Deborah Nansteel as Princess Eboli. In this latter segment both fared better, with Quinn especially seeming to rise to the occasion with excellent diction, but Nansteel dominated the scene- she appears to be a serious contender to be the next Dolora Zajick, a Merola alum herself.

Between the two segments from Carlo came a scene from Act 1 of Bellini's  I Capuleti e i Montecchi, featuring Elizabeth Zharhoff as Giuletta and Laura Krumm as her Romeo. When Zharhoff, inexplicably listed in the program as a soprano, opened her mouth and began to sing, it was one of those moments you wait for but rarely encounter- I could feel her voice hit me with a physical sensation as if it were a caress. I've never felt something like that, even sitting 15 feet away from Heidi Melton belting it out in full voice. It made me want to see if she could break a glass. She possesses a huge, distinct tone that on repeated listenings would probably be instantly recognizable, despite less her less than perfect diction. She was thrilling. Krumm, inexplicably billed as a mezzo in the program, held her own against Zarhoff's much larger voice by singing in a crystal clear contralto that managed to pierce through Zarhoff's caress like a razor sharp knife. At the close, when they both ended the scene by singing the word amore, it was Krumm's voice that one heard distinctly chiming through. Theirs were the most impressive performances of the evening.

Elisabeth Zharhoff

Laura Krumm

Next was a scene from Donizetti's Lucia, with Cooper Nolan and Joo Wan Kang as the enemies Edgardo and Enrico. Nolan and Kang suffered a bit by comparison coming after Krumm and Zarhoff and I still recall seeing this scene so memorably done a couple of seasons back with Giuseppe Filianoti and Gabriele Viviani tearing it up in the same roles. Such is the peril of using the standard rep in situations such as this. Still, it made me and Rosine wonder how Sheri Greenawald programs the voices of the particpants to the content with such impressive results.


After the intermission came an extended segment of Rigoletto, with Xi Wang as Gilda, Cooper Nolan as the Duke, Joo Wan Kang back onstage in the title role, and Krumm returning as Giovanna.  I would have preferred to hear Krumm as Gilda, just to hear her sing "Caro Nome," but that's just selfishness on my part. Wang gave an impassioned, sincere account and Kang brought forth all of the jester's anguish. Yet the whole didn't quite gel and I'm not sure these major Verdi roles are a good fit for many of these obviously talented singers at this early stage of their career.


The final scene was from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin featuring Marina Boudart Harris as Tatiana and Suchan Kim as Onegin. Onegin sounded strange coming after all that Italian and the melodramatic stage direction was a bit distracting, but the singers gave it everything, especially Kim, whose performance of the cad Onegin was more emotionally vulnerable than I've witnessed before. It would be interesting to see what he would do with the role in its entirety, and I would also like to hear Harris sing the "letter scene" to get a better sense of her voice.


More Merola participants will be performing Rossini's Barber of Seville August 4th -7th at Herbst, and they all take the stage of the War Memorial Opera House  for the Merola Grand Finale on August 20th. You can find  more information about these events and the performers here.

Amy

What made Amy Winehouse such a marvelous singer had more to do than the fact that she possessed a great voice, perfectly suited for R&B, quite unlike anyone else's yet firmly within the tradition of great R&B singers, regardless of gender or race. As a white girl her only peer was Teena Marie, whom I  think she was better than, if for no other reason than Winehouse's persona was so much more her own, her presence so much larger. It wasn't just that she had great phrasing and an artist's intuition of how a song should sound. No, there was something more to it.

With her one classic album, Back to Black, Winehouse gave a ferocious update on the 60's pop/soul sound that is unlikely to be duplicated anytime soon with such equal impact. Her lyrics angrily rubbed out the false sheen of happiness and hope found on the records she so obviously admired and was influenced by. Winehouse's songs were about what really happened once the singer left the stage, the life behind the lights, the despair, the self-destruction and insecurity, the games people really play- with others and with themselves. She gave a real voice to all those women singers of the 50's and 60's who couldn't sing about what their lives were really like behind the careers controlled and manipulated by men. And she made it sound sexy, alluring, and fun, though danger lurked within every line and every beat pulled the listener forward even as her words said don't follow in her wake. Hers was a truly unique voice and vision. I'm sad there isn't going to be more to come.

Hardly Strictly so far

50 performers have been confirmed for this year's HSB festival, which takes place the weekend of 09/30-10/2/11::

Confirmed:

Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys

Southern Culture on the Skids

Alison Brown Quartet / The Low Anthem 

Conspiracy of Beards 

Greensky Bluegrass 

AllofaSudden

Blame Sally

Dry Branch Fire Squad 

Thurston Moore

Bill Kirchen 

The Belle Brigade

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit 

Nell Robinson & Jim Nunally with their All-Star Band 

Those Darlins 

DeVotchKa 

David Bromberg Quartet

Ollabelle 

Justin Townes Earle

The Wronglers with Jimmie Dale Gilmour

Dr. John
Punch Brothers
Gomez
Dark Star Orchestra
Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussein & Edgar Meyer
The Civil Wars
Bob Mould
The Devil Makes Three
John Prine
Emmylou Harris
Gillian Welch
Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses
Robert Plant
Fitz and the Tantrums
Robert Earl Keen
Abigail Washburn
The Jayhawks
Cass McCombs
The Del McCoury Band and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Patty Griffin
Old Crow Medicine Show
The Blind Boys of Alabama
Irma Thomas
Elbow
The Mekons
Earl Scruggs
The Flatlanders
Chris Isaak
Frank Fairfield
Buckethead

Uncomfirmed (but likely, according to Pollstar):
Merle Haggard
Reckless Kelly
Doc Watson

Sadly, no Hazel Dickens this year (RIP).

MOG vs Spotify

Spotify makes it official debut in the U.S. today (for awhile last year there was a way to bootleg it which was eventually shut down). The Swedish music service is immensely popular in Europe and I'm familiar with it from using the bootleged European version and via the Swede, at whose house we often have European Spotify playing the soundtrack to parties and get-togethers. When my bootleg access was shut down I came across MOG, and have been happily using it ever since- in fact this blog is a MOG affiliate (hence the ads), so I'm not unbiased about this (btw- you can sign up for your free 7 day, credit card free trial of MOG using the ad to the right).

MOG

Which is the better service? Putting my bias aside, I'm still opting for MOG, though Spotify has one distinct advantage- its free version (containing advertisements in a cheery British accent, at least in the Europe-based version, every two or three songs) is a better deal than MOG's free seven day trial (but MOG's trial is free from adverts and your credit card info). Spotify's free version has limits- 20 hours of playing time per month for the first six, then 10 hours after that, with a limit of 5 plays per track. I also read in the NY Times today that Spotify is supposed to load faster by utilizing a peer-to-peer network, but I haven't seen that one is really faster than the other. I do know that spotty wireless connections will cause MOG to pause while buffering, but any website has the same problem under those conditions.

Of paramount importance to me is that MOG is just a cleaner user experience. Its new player is streamlined and uncluttered, and smoother than Spotify's, which can become like Amazon when you're searching for something- too much of what you don't want, not enough of what you do. Who wants to wade through karaoke options when you really just want to hear "Who's Zooming Who?"

However with both companies offering subscription rates at $5 or $10 a month, either is a tremendous value and I can't see anyone not being willing to plunk down $5 a month to get all the music you want delivered to your computer- which hopefully you have hooked up to a real music delivery source.

Spotify

As far as catalogues go, both seem to be pretty equal (I'm basing this opinion on the European version of Spotify)- you won't find the Beatles, AC/DC and Ozzy-era Black Sabbath on either, but MOG has recently been beefing up its classical, opera and jazz catalogues to the point that what was once a huge gap for me is now a trivial issue- there are at least seven major recordings of complete Ring cycles (Bohm, Levine, Boulez, etc.); it looks like the entire Maria Callas catalogue from EMI classics is now available, along with most operas on RCA and EMI; the major works of Glass, Adams and Penderecki are there as well. You get the idea.

There are irksome quirks, no doubt due to these services being oriented toward the pop consumer. If you search on "Verdi" you'll bring up those crappy D'Oro recordings, but not see the Aida with Price or the Don Carlo with Domingo, both of which show up on a "Domingo" search. You can find Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre if you search for Esa-Pekka Salonen but it doesn't show up in a search by the composer. In other words, searching by specific performers or operas yields much better results than searching by composer. If anyone from MOG is reading this, I can be hired to help you out with this problem.

Updated 07/18/12: Additionally, there aren't ways to combine your existing library into MOG and you can't listen to anything offline without an IPhone, though a reader says you can do both on Spotify. Still, for most users these aren't big deals. However, since I just got my Spotify invitation today I'll check it out and compare the American version to MOG. Both services let you buy the music- Spotify from ITunes, MOG from Amazon (which is usually cheaper)- and you can create playlists (a shuffle for these is a missing feature in the beta player but it's in the original).

MOG has three other things going for it that will keep me in the fold: first, it has great customer service that has responded to any question I've asked with a real answer within 24 hours; second, the company is based in Berkeley and I'm going to root for the local team whenever possible. There also some social media capabilities like following other users, which I'm less involved with and may be stronger on Spotify (but you can follow this blog on MOG), which seems to have better integration with Facebook at the moment. Both are superior to Pandora, Last and the others, and being able to play an entire album in one click or make a playlist and then let it roll is a far better experience than calling up one track at a time on something like MySpace (I'm talking to you, FF). Also important, but dependent on so many factors dependent on the listener's environment and equipment, MOG has better sound quality than Spotify. The other day I was listening to the first Code Blue album and the force and quality was fantastic. I've also been listening to a lot of the remastered Stones albums lately and MOG has a depth of sound which Spotify doesn't equal.

Unless you're an audiophile (which means you aren't even actually considering listening to any recording originating from a stream in the first place) or feel the need to support artists (and major labels) by giving them your cash on principle (which means you're still living in the 70's), this is now the way to listen to music. So click that link to the right and hear what you've been missing. But be prepared- once you start searching for music you haven't heard in ages (Rubber City Rebels, anyone?) and finding all of it, as well as giving all that new stuff you've been reading about a try (Bon Iver just made me depressed), you'll suddenly wonder where all those hours went.

Maestro's Enchantment

Joan Baez and Voronin

My mother and I arrived early to see Teatro ZinZanni's latest incarnation, "Maestro's Enchantment." Too early actually, for the Spiegeltent hadn't even opened. Instead of waiting, we decided to walk down the Embarcadero for a drink at the place formerly known as Houston's, the current name of which I can never recall. Hillstone, perhaps. I used to frequent no-longer-Houston's with friends, but during the past couple of years it fell off my radar as that circle splintered and later it seemed that whenever I went there with just one person the night always ended poorly. Perhaps it sets off some strange metaphysical reaction in me when I walk through the door leading to ineluctable drama triggered by the smell of burning wood and roasting pork chops, which then combusts once the third Manhattan is served. The drinks there have always been excellent and still are.

The Reverend Brown once had an unforgettable birthday dinner there. I brought the woman from New Orleans with me and was surprised to see the Southern Belle arrive 10 minutes later for I'd only brought a date because I was under the impression the Belle wasn't coming (though it had been at least a year since we parted ways). Needless to say, the introductions were uncomfortable and we ended up sitting at opposite ends of the huge horseshoe-shaped booth, with the Belle seated next to my mother (naturally) on one side, the woman and I on the other.

Seated next to us were the General and his own Femme Fatale- whom I'll call Natasha- with the Elder Swede next to them. The Swede was in rare form that night, interrogating the General and Natasha about their most intimate relations, or lack of, fueling the already-present tension to the point where it finally erupted all over the table, which only encouraged him to further extremes. The Swede loves to provoke and beyond the pale is his natural starting point. I thought it was going to come to blows, but it didn't because while the General was obviously angry, he managed to maintain his temper if not quite his decorum. The two of them, both close friends, have never been at the same table since. Natasha eventually disappeared from the scene, as did the woman from New Orleans. As a group we have never returned and now that I think about it I can trace the beginning of the place as a site for ineluctable drama to that very night. GG and Penelope- I'm sorry, I hadn't realized the place is haunted.

And so it was on this night as well, as my mother and I sat at the bar having a conversation which led to an underlying tension lasting between us through the evening, and it was a long one. We made our way back to the Spiegeltent where we met some interesting people at the bar, chatted for a bit, then took our seats at a table where some lovely people whose interests and vocations are musical were already seated. The lights went down and the three hour show began.

I took my mother to see this because I knew she'd enjoy seeing Joan Baez perform. As Baez strode to the center of the tent, with a lone spotlight upon her, and began to sing, I watched her in profile, marvelling at her presence and grace. Her voice was slightly rough, but it added an air of mystery to her role as Madame ZinZanni, the lover of the Maestro (master magician Voronin) of the title.

Unlike the last two TZ productions I've seen (Caliente and A License to Kiss), both exuberant romps, Maestro's Enchantment has a dark tone around the edges, despite the presence of the circus acts, comedy routines (led by former Ringling Brothers clown Peter Pitofsky), an extremely talented contortionist (Svetlana), and a tremendous opera singer (Kristin Clayton). The cast also includes the gold medalist acrobat Bianca Sapetto, comedic trapeze artists The Collins Brothers, the juggler Sergiy Krutikov and magician Brandon Rabe. As usual with Teatro ZinZanni, the talent in the tent is formidable and of the highest caliber- it's amazing what these performers can do. I suspect the darker tone may have something to do with the Russian influence of the cast, but perhaps that's because I've read too much Russian literature (if such a thing is actually possible) and I listen to too much Rachmaninoff and Shostakovitch.

Despite the presence of Baez, the show is clearly Voronin's. A veteran of more than 20 ZinZanni productions, he owns the stage with his incredible magic tricks and mysterious persona. He and Baez have an alluring chemistry between them which hints at a brooding, dark romance. It will be interesting to see how that chemistry between the characters changes once Melanie Stace takes over the role in August. The show continues through Oct. 9th. For tickets call ZinZanni at 415 328 2668 or go their website.

As for my mother and me, when we exited the tent and searched for a cab, a sense of exhaustion settled in between us. She has her concerns, I have mine, and some of them overlap with neither of us quite sure what looms ahead. But she's a good date.

All photos by Mark Kitaoka

Ella Hirst, aka Ms. Clawdy

I've been reading Ellen Willis' immensely enjoyable Out of the Vinyl Deeps. More than once she mentions 70's era Bay Area singer Ella Hirst, who was in a band called Eyes, later was the singer for Rosie and the Riveters, and then performed under the name Ms. Clawdy. I appreciate Willis' taste and she lists Hirst as one of her favorite singers.

I can't find any of her music online and would especially like to hear the song "Night Blindness" or at least find the lyrics.  If you know where I can find it, please send me an email or make a comment. Thank you.

The San Francisco Opera Ring posts

Though I didn't manage to see a complete cycle, I did get to see the whole thing.   For the most part it was interesting, often intriguing, and some moments were thrilling. If it wasn't a total success, well- what Ring Cycle is? If for no other reason (though there are plenty), the impact of Nina Stemme's first complete cycles as Brunnhilde established this Ring as an important one which also featured memorable turns by Heidi Melton, Brandon Jovanovich, Stefan Margita, Gordon Hawkins, Jay Hunter Morris,  Renée Tatum, David Cangelosi, Andrea Silvestrelli, Mark Delevan and Ronnita Miller. Kudos to Gockley, Runnicles and Zambello, along with the hundreds of other people involved in this gargantuan undertaking for making it a success.

Below are the San Francisco Opera Ring posts.

Das Rheingold 06/28/11

Die Walküre  06/10/10

Die Walküre  06/23/11

Die Walküre  06/29/11

Siegfried  05/29/11

Götterdämmerung  06/05/11