About last month... Ojai in Berkeley

Let me ask you a question: do you do something you know you shouldn't and feel bad about doing it? And does doing that thing make you feel stupid? Or self-conscious? Then you unexpectedly see someone you admire, or who you know is not a loser, doing the very same thing and suddenly, while it doesn't make it okay, you know you're not the only idiot loser in the world?

I felt that way as I was walking up to Hertz Hall on the Berkeley campus for my second day of the Ojai North festival and saw Mark Morris outside of the building, ridiculously dressed in shorts, sandals, and dark grey socks, sitting there outside of the stage door on the edge of a planter smoking a cigarette. I had just bought my first pack after not having a single cigarette in five months and was about halfway through it, feeling a wave of self-loathing with each flick of my Bic. And there sat a genius, a man whose life should be so full and rewarding and interesting that it would be an absurd thought to think that such a person would even consider to do something as ridiculous as smoke cigarettes. It's a habit for losers. And Presidents. And yet there he was, puffing away in his anti-fashion that only geniuses can get away with wearing in public without fear or concern of derision.

Two nights before I had been there to see his troupe perform a powerful, mesmerizing Rite of Spring, accompanied by an explosive musical interpretation by the Bad Plus. Had Morris' group not led off the program with an amazing display of precision which included using the dancer's feet hitting the floor as percussion instruments accompanying the superb American String Quartet in a beautiful performance of Mosaic and United, the jazz trio would have stolen the show courtesy of David King's drumming, Reid Anderson's masterclass exhibition of what can be done with the bass, and Ethan Iverson's otherworldly piano skills. But Morris' troupe beat out a rhythm on the floor to Henry Cowell's string quartets of the same names, twitched their limbs like butterflies bursting from a chrysalis, and made me seriously regret missing some of their local performances during the past couple of years. Elements of the production reminded me of last year's Einstein on the Beach. 

Two nights later Sheila met me for the closing programs, which could have been subtitled More American Mavericks. Organist Colin Fowler came out shoeless and performed on the organ by Ives, Cowell, Vincent Perischetti and William Bolcom. The Ives piece, "Variations on America," written in 1892, was a revelation- the psychedelica of Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner" pales in comparison to this intriguing and alluring blast of sound. Perischetti's "Sonatine" (1940), played with only the feet upon the pedals, struck me as more of a gimmick than anything else by the time it was over, but it was interesting to watch and realize how much sound can be made on an organ without using keys or knobs and whatever they have. Bolcom's "La Cathedralw engloutie (Rock of Ages)" from 1979 was like a 50's low-budget sci-fi flick scored by Ligeti- in other words, it was pretty great. If nothing else, Henry Cowell's "Hymn and Fuguing Tune No 14" (1962) exposed Deep Purple's Jon Lord as having very few original ideas, since Cowell seems to have encapsulated every great Purple keyboard riff in his own seemingly tossed-off tune long a few years before the band's formation, and the same thing can be said for Goblin, the Italian group on the soundtrack of who knows how many of Dario Argento's giallo horror flicks. In the second half Fowler put on some shoes and was joined by the red fish blue fish percussion ensemble for an interesting version of Lou Harrison's Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra which started off great and then lapsed into merely interesting mode before wrapping it up with a Poppa-Ooo-Mow-Mow bang. It sounded like an entirely different piece than the one performed by the San Francisco Symphony last year. I liked the SFS version quite a bit more.

Speaking of the SFS, as we re-entered the hall for the final show of the festival, I noticed MTT enter the house through the stage door (quite nicely dressed, mind you). The show began with Cowell's "Heroic Dance For Martha Graham" performed by the Mark Morris Dance Group Music Ensemble, which is quite a mouthful, and it was okay. Frankly, I barely remembered it after what followed, which was the jaw-droppingly freakadelic orgasamajam of Cowell's Atlantis (1931), performed by the MMDGME with soprano Yulia Van Doren, mezzo Jamie Van Eyck, and barefoot bass-baritone Douglas Williams. I'm not even sure how to really describe what initially seemed to be a bizarre display of grunts, growls, gasps and ecstatic sighs performed by each singer into microphones morphed into one of the most delightful and alive musical performances I've witnessed in quite some time, but that pretty much sums it up. That each singer performed their part with enthusiastic abandon (though Van Eyck seemed a bit hesitant at first) only made it that much more delicious. If you ever get the opportunity to attend a live performance of this, do not miss it. Unfortunately I can't find a full-length recording of it to share with you, but perhaps that's for the good because it really is one of those things one must experience live.

The second half, featuring the music of Lou Harrison, couldn't top the first, though it wasn't for lack of trying as red fish blue fish performed "Fugue for Percussion"(1942) and then Fowler returned with some shoes on and joined the Gamelan Sari Raras for "Concerto for Piano and Javanese Gamelan." Harrison's score for the latter work calls for a non-standard tuning for the piano to sound more in tune with the gamelans, but I found it distracting and eventually displeasing- I have no idea if that's due to the timbre of the piece or perhaps the piano tuning didn't quite hit the right spot, but with the second of three movements consisting mostly of the mistuned piano, it was like listening to something which just sounded wrong. However, it blended well with the gamelans in the first and (especially in the) third movements. Still, while the variously sized gamelans produced an interesting array of sound textures, what I really wanted by that point was something that could top Atlantis, and this wasn't it.

This was the third season of Ojai North! presented by Cal Performances and the Ojai Music Festival, and I'm already looking forward to next year's model which will be planned by my pal Jeremy Denk.

Catching up, looking forward... (odds and ends)

Paradise: Love

Though I’ve seen Marc-Andre Hamelin perform a couple of times in the past two years I had yet to be swayed that he was really all that, as so many claim. My opinion changed after hearing him perform with the San Francisco Symphony last month in a terrific concert which featured the pianist soloing in Ravel’s Concerto For the Left Hand as well as Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Hamelin performed with nuanced beauty and a heady authority during the Ravel and if the Rhapsody didn’t quite reach the same heights it was due to conductor David Robertson’s less than wholly convincing control over the jazz elements in the score, which resulted in a performance which sang but didn’t quite swing. The concert also featured a knockout opener of Elliot Carter’s Variations for Orchestra and closed with Ravel’s La Valse. I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again- it’s inexplicable to me that Ravel is not given more respect as a composer- he was as good and often better than any of his contemporaries. During the intermission Lisa Hirsch and I had fun trying to determine the identity of the timpanist, Michael Israelievitch, who was terrific and hopefully is being considered for the seat being vacated by what-his-name.

In the second of three concerts in their inaugural season, Curious Flights celebrated the Britten Centennial with a diverse program featuring the Valinor Winds performing the Movement for Wind Sextet, the Friction Quartet with violist Jason Pyzowski performing the Phantasy in F Minor for String Quintet, tenor Brian Thorsett in a stunningly gorgeous Canticle III¸and best of all, Movements for a Clarinet Concerto- a work cobbled together from an unfinished concerto originally intended for Benny Goodman. This was performed by what was essentially a 50-odd piece pick-up orchestra featuring Curious Flights founder and prime mover Brenden Guy as the soloist, and led by Marin Symphony Music Director Alasdair Neale. Hearing this orchestra one would have never guessed they were organized for this particular concert- they sounded well-rehearsed and played at an exceptional level all around. The next program by Curious Flights, Transatlantic Crossings, will take place on October 18^th and will feature collaborations between contemporary British and Bay Area composers, performed in the concert hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Tickets ($15 GA, $10 for students) are available here. Program here.

Last weekend at The Lab in San Francisco’s Mission District, the Other Minds Festival brought Rhys Chatham to town as a warm-up of sorts for the November West Coast premiere of A Secret Rose (100 Guitars). Chatham was one six people playing electric guitars (with all amps seemingly turned up to “11”), and with a phenomenal drummer whose name a didn’t catch and a bassist who provided a booming Geezer Butler-ish bottom, they tore through an enthralling re-working of his Guitar Trio¸ renamed G3 to reflect the additional instruments. It was the most exhilarating 30 minutes of music I’ve heard all year, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store come November 17th. If you’re a local guitar player who wants to take part, contact the Other Minds Festival or apply online here- they are looking for people to participate ranging from talented amateurs to serious pros, and the rehearsal time will be minimal, but it promises to be a maximum pleasure, maybe even the event of the year.

This coming week has the SF Symphony performing lots of Stravinsky, and over at YBCA I'm really intrigued about the screenings of Ulrich Seidl's Paradise trilogy- three films under title Love, Faith, and Hope happening now through June 30th. Check their website for the full schedule, but the films are being screened sequentially so don't wait- Love only has screenings left on 06/15 & 06/16. It's not necessary to see them all, but if it turns out to be your kind of cinema it would be a shame to miss one. Note that the films are deemed provocative and controversial, raunchy and explicit- Seidl had been compared to Fassbinder by none other than John Waters. Works for me. And of course Ojai North is taking place this weekend- last night's performance was, in a word- sensational (more to come on that).

The Best of A Beast: 2012

Napoleon.

It's been quite a year.

If you've read this blog steadily over the last four years, and especially between the lines, I imagine you can't help but notice that this was the year when people and things started disappearing. Penelope, the Femme Fatale, Isabella, the Manhattans, most of the known associates,The Little Chinese Man, and the frequency of posts- where did they go? I've decided not to reveal all of the reasons behind this just yet, but eventually I probably will when I feel enough distance exists. Amidst all of this carnage (and believe me, it was carnage), I didn't even get around to writing posts about two performances listed below, and really didn't do the justice I intended to a third. Having spent most of the last twelve months changing some things and attempting to right others, I can only tell you it is my full intention to remedy this in the new year.

Looking back, it was also a different year for what made the list. Opera, which was nearly absent last time, came back to dominate this year's model, and even though my Number 1 isn't an opera it truly felt like one, so add one more for a total of six of the ten slots being taken by operas.  It was also a good year for Cal Performances, which presented three of the top ten performances and three of the honorable mentions. San Francisco Opera returned to the list after being absent last year, thank goodness, because let's face it- there is nothing better than opera and when SFO is putting junk on the stage life becomes a bit dull. However, it wasn't a great year for theater- at least the theater I saw, though there were some good things going on at Berkeley Rep which got honorable mentions.

I also saw fewer recitals, attended less dance, films, pop, and jazz performances and little of what I did attend in these areas impressed me this year, so there hasn't been much mention of these.  It's not that I'm getting lazy, at least I hope it's not that, but this has been a year of change and transition and I needed to take some time away from attending performances and writing about them to actually sort some things out. So without any further blather on my part, though  reserving my right to elaborate further on any or all of the items mentioned above or below at a future time, here are the best performances I experienced as an audience member during the last year:

1. Napoleon
Rarely, if ever, have I had the pleasure of experiencing something so completely immersing and engaging on every level of artistry. Abel Gance's 5 and 1/2 hour silent film from 1927  is more than a masterpiece- it's visionary, epic in the truest sense of the word, and fascinates from beginning to end. But the experience was really made sublime by the accompanying performance of the Oakland East bay Orchestra under the baton of Carl Davis conducting his own heroic score. To experience it all inside the exquisitely restored art deco Paramount Theatre was just icing on the cake. This not only lived up to the "once in lifetime" hype- it exceeded it by every measure. I really regret not writing a post about this- maybe one day.

2. Nixon in China
Nixon was the best thing San Francisco Opera has put on the stage of the War Memorial since The Makropulos Affair, and easily stands as the highlight of David Gockley's (who commissioned the John Adams work while he was with the Houston Opera) tenure. Superb casting and a production which really brought the opera's nuances to the fore made for one of the most compelling experiences I've experienced in the house. I was lucky to see it twice during the run, and could have easily enjoyed a third viewing. I regret never going back to write about this in-depth because there is so much to say about it, especially the third act, which many observers seemed to view as a throw-away, but I felt was the heart and soul of the work, a beautifully executed denouement where the main characters gather and internally ask themselves "What do we now after we've changed the world?" and can only respond with "What is left to do?"

3. Certitude and Joy
Erling Wold's chamber opera based on the real events surrounding a woman who sacrificed her own children to God by drowning them in the San Francisco Bay stuck in my head for weeks afterward. Wold's compelling score, played by the recently Grammy-nominated Zofo Duet and the earnest commitment of everyone on the small stage to make this work created something which deeply moved me. I'll never forget how I felt when it ended.

4. Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra's Mahler's 9th
As I mentioned in the original post, this performance brought me to tears. Thinking about its effect still makes my eyes swell.

5. Einstein on the Beach
Cal Performances was instrumental in making this revival of the original production happen and as promised, it was something every opera fan should have seen. Like Napoleon, Einstein lived up to the hype. How lucky are we in the Bay Area to live in a place where not one, but two rarely experienced major works of art appear on local stages in the same year?

6. Lohengrin (no post)
If only every production offered by San Francisco Opera were this good. Brandon Jovanovich was perfect in the title role, with an excellent supporting cast, a thoughtful production, and extraordinary conducting from Luisotti as he popped his Wagner cherry. Magnificent on every level- the company should be quite proud of it.

7. Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra's Wozzeck
Had this been a fully staged production and taken place at the War Memorial Opera House it would have easily been number two on this list.

8. Joyce DiDonato and the Alexander String Quartet: Camille Claudel: Into the Fire
While I admired Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's Moby Dick in its San Francisco debut this past fall, I ultimately felt the second act didn't live up to the artistic level and expectations created in its first. It left me wondering what the team could have done with more time to work on the opera, which felt like it was lacking something at its core. On the other hand, this smaller scale work arrived onstage so fully realized in its conception and execution it made me yearn for a larger, full-blown opera to be developed from the material. DiDonato just had what was probably the best year of her career (so far) and in retrospect this concert performance seemed like a harbinger for what was to follow.

9. Christian Tetzlaff and the San Francisco Symphony
The epitome of a rock star performance by a classical musician, and a perfect combination of piece and performer.

10. The San Francisco Symphony's American Mavericks Festival
Last season's Centennial celebration by the San Francisco Symphony had no shortage of highlights, but the return of the American Mavericks festival highlighted so many elements of what makes this organization and orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas so great. Not every moment worked, but the sum of every concert worked extremely well, with each featuring at least one truly memorable and exciting performance, often much more. Criticized by some for not being mavericky enough in its programming, those who actually attended were thrilled to be a part of it- I certainly was, and the next version can't arrive soon enough.

Honorable mentions (in no particular order): An Iliad, Keith Jarrett, Ojai North!, Nameless Forest, You Killed Hamlet, The Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra, Hilary Hahn, and Khatia Buniashvili's dress.

On a personal note, I want to thank Isabella- for everything you've given both from a distance and up close. Thank you Sheila, for being a wonderful listener in many ways. And thank you Thaïs, for killing the Femme Fatale and in doing so forcing me to figure out what's next.

And finally, I'd like to thank you, whoever you are, for reading this. See you next year.

The pleasures of Ojai North!

Having never been to the home version, when the Ojai North! festival was announced last year as a multi-year residency at Cal Performances, for some reason, perhaps the presence of Dawn Upshaw as the Music Director (an artist who alternately annoys and enthralls me, and that year she had annoyed), it really didn't register on my radar, and because of that, it took me awhile me to really take a look at the line-up for this year's version, despite the prominent presence of two extraordinary pianists (Leif Ove Andsnes and Marc-André Hamelin) and the rare appearance on the schedule of a piece I've been keen to hear for a few years now (John Luther Adams' Inksuit).

However, once I really looked it over I was pretty impressed by what Andsnes, assuming the role of Music Director for this year, had put together- seven concerts over four nights, all with intriguing, often compelling programming including Janacek, Beethoven, Berg, Schnittke, Shostakovich, Ives, Debussy as well as composers about whom I knew virtually nothing (Reinbert de Leeuw, Bent Sørensen,  Haflidi Hallgrímsson). While I knew I wouldn't be able to make the opening performance of Inuksuit due to the 5:00 PM start time (not conducive to pretty much anyone with a job which isn't arts-related or on the Berkeley campus), I planned to see the other six concerts. It didn't work out that way, but I did see four of them and came away extremely impressed not only with the caliber of the performances, but also with the extremely thoughtful programming of each concert. Andsnes did an amazing job and with Mark Morris on deck as Music Director for next year's festival, who'll be followed in 2014 by Jeremy Denk, this newly annual visit by the festival looms as a major musical event for the Bay Area. While ticket availability for this year's concerts was easy, I expect that won't be the case in coming years as word gets out about how good this year's event really was, so you may want to make a note to block out the nights of June 13-15 next summer on your calendar.

On Tuesday, the early concert began with Andsnes accompanying soprano Christianne Stotijn in Dmitri Shostakovich’s late song cycle Six Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva, Op. 143. I arrived late, missing the first half of these, but as I settled in upstairs with the other late arrivals, it became apparent within moments that Stotijn was in the midst of delivering something strong and compelling, delivered with force. Andsnes then joined four members of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra for Alfred Schnittke's Piano Quintet- a work I've never heard before and the beauty of which floored me. It was one of the most arresting performances I've seen this year. After the intermission Andsnes and Marc-André Hamelin squared off on grand pianos for a restructured four-hand version for piano of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring for two pianos. In a word, this was awesome. Rite was one of the first classical pieces that really grabbed me as a child, no doubt due to my music appreciation teacher's description of the riot which occurred on its opening night and the more importantly, the music depicted human sacrifices, which was pretty exciting to my ten-year old brain. Over the years, what enthralled me as a child got lost among so many other things and it's been a long time since the prospect of hearing a live performance of The Rite of Spring excited me. Not anymore. Deconstructed and then rebuilt across 176 keys, Hamelin and Andsnes made what I had come to view as a war horse sound not only captivating, but it was like hearing it again for the very first time, complete with human sacrifices in IMAX 3D.

The late concert featured Janáček's String Quartet No. 1, The Kreutzer Sonata, orchestrated for Chamber Orchestra (a good idea), with actor Theodore Jansen reading excerpts from Tolstoy's novella (a bad idea- very bad). It began with Andsnes and violinist Terje Tønneson performing the opening of Beethoven's "original" as an extended, dramatic quote, which was actually a really nice touch, and then Jensen began his prologue, humorously starting off by emphatically declaiming "Disgusting!...." before the orchestra came in sounding absolutely gorgeous. And then, well, then it went south quickly, as the orchestra would play a passage and gather some momentum only to have the music stop on a dime and at no particular place to allow Jensen to tell us more of the story from Tolstoy's perspective. Look, I love all the Kreutzers- Tolstoy's, Janáček's and yes, especially Beethoven's. I also like different kinds of bourbon, but that doesn't mean they should be blended together. In fact, that should never happen, and this shouldn't have either, and even though everyone  involved in it, especially Jensen, did a first-rate job, the whole thing just bothered me.

Sadly, I missed Wednesday night's concerts, which I heard were quite good, but on Thursday night I was back for more. The early concert began Icelandic composer Haflidi Hallgrímsson’s Poemi, Op. 7, featuring Terje Tønneson as the soloist in front of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. The increasingly ascending crescendos of the work were dazzling in his hands and the other players created bright hues of sound. I enjoyed it while it lasted, but the effects of the work were short-lived because what followed, the Bay Area premiere of Norwegian composer Bent Sørensen’s Piano Concerto No. 2, “La Mattina,” with Andsnes as soloist backed by the Norwegians again, was like listening to Wagner on acid. The Lento misterioso of the third movement was a beautiful homage to the Tristan chord, containing moments which sounded like humans humming it, and the cellists worked so hard I had this mental movie invade my mind where Bones says, "Dammit Jim, I'm a cellist, not a percussionist." Weird, but that's what I thought. The presto of the last movement swung like Gershwin's jazziest moments. It's a strikingly original, engaging music and I look forward to encountering it again. Andsnes was superb with it, providing a delicate opening Lento lugubre, and then more than willing to let the orchestra shine with him through the entire piece. This reminds me of something- Andnes, who was almost omnipresent throughout the two nights I was there, was one of the most gracious performers I've ever witnessed, seemingly determined to make everyone else onstage look good- and they did. A sense of camaraderie permeated every performance in which he took part.

After the intermission Hamelin accompanied Stotjin in Berg's Four Songs, Op. 2, revealing her commanding display of rich tone and power in the Shostakovich on Tuesday night was no fluke. Here again, she was compelling. Andsnes closed the concert with a brisk, fluid performance of the "Waldstein" Sonata, making Beethoven sound integral and linked to everything heard before (which is of course, true).

The late concert began with György Kurtag’s Játékok (“Games”), which left me slightly puzzled, though I admit to being distracted by some clowns who brought a dog to the performance. The dog obviously didn't care for the  Kurtag at all, because with almost every pause in the music it whimpered loudly. These young people weren't blind or disabled in any obvious way and there were three of them, so why they found it necessary to bring a whining dog to the concert is beyond me, not to mention plain rude to the performers and others in the audience. When the  Kurtag was over one of the clowns escorted the crying dog out of the hall and the concert resumed in peace with a beautiful, golden-tinged performance led by harpist Ida Aubert Bang of Debussy's Danses Sacre et Profane. Stotjin and Hamelin returned for William Bolcom's Cabaret Songs with mixed results that resulted more from the material than the performers, made plain by a fantastic rendering of Ives' "Memories" for an encore. The Norwegians then returned in their summer sportswear (I forgot to mention how good-looking this orchestra is, with the women in black sporting red accessories, the younger ones unafraid to sex it up a bit), many of them barefoot, to perform Grieg's "Holberg" Suite, with much vigor and a well-executed, joyous leap into the air on the final note.

Kudos to all involved: this was seriously great music, intelligently programmed and wonderfully performed.