quieter

Mozart’s Coronation Mass

Program:
Haydn The Storm; Scena di Berenice
Haydn Symphony No. 96, Miracle
Mozart Coronation Mass

SF Symphony on Wednesday night with W., as usual. No dinner, we both worked late. cold outside.

the SF Chorus was there. Apparently their director, Vance George, is retiring after this year, so there was a big piece in the program about him.

The first half of the program was really quite good. All Haydn: a chorale piece, a soprano solo [quite good, the Scena de Berenice], and then a gorgeous Haydn Symphony: No. 96, from the period when he was in London. I was really fond of the first two movements, especially the second movement, the Andante. A really show the orchesta’s musicality as the melody moves around the orchestra in a series of wind solos, as the violins fill in the background. It was a smaller orchestra, so it was easy to find who was playing what at any particular moment.

The second half was Mozart’s Coronation Mass. I feel like I’ve sung this piece while in college. Maybe just the Kyrie and the Gloria–actually, I’m pretty sure I remember singing it at church when I sang in McCauley’s choir. The rest of the Mass I didn’t really remember. Anyway. I enjoyed the Mass, but I kind of ran out of steam towards the end. The guest conductor was good, (Haselbock) and he filled out the program with some pieces that were probably played at the original Mass performance, or at least in the same time period.

The quartet of soloists were really good, especially the soprano,who sang the Haydn piece in the first half. She also wore a great blue taffetta dress. I’m always happy when the guest artists wear something attractive and colorful. Makes it more of an event. I know I do my part, showing up in my jeans, t-shirt, red and beige suede Pumas, and my bright red-orange fleece.

I usually use the 3rd floor Men’s room at the intermission, mostly because I like to step out onto the outdoor platform they have up there tog et some fresh air. As I got on the elevator, two young men in priest’s robes and colalrs got on with me. One was a tall, lanky Germanic-looking guy with sandly blonde hair and glasses. Maybe about 6 feet tall. The other was a short, squat Asian guy, with a full beard and mustache. On the elevator they talked about the glass mirrors and claustrophobia. “Didn’t Hitler demand only really large elevators?” I wondered if this was their first time at the symphony.

After I got out of the bathroom, I went out to the deck. There I saw the two priests. The tall one pulled out a small metal case with a faux gold trim. He offered a cigarette to the asian priest. They both lit up separately.

Not everyday you see some priests light up. It was delicious to watch them enjoy a small vice.

Anyway, fun concert. W had a party to go to. I was tired, and went home and caught up on Battlestar Galactica and Grey’s Anatomy.

I’m at Milk watching a couple local bands. The first band was great, a noise pop trio, mostly percussion, that was just an amazing act, especially from the drummer. 24 minutes of straight playing–mostly percussion. Not my usual cup of tea, but after a few minutes i realized tha these guys are really good, and the rest of the way agape at the awesome virtuostic performance. A kind of sonic enema, cleansing the system of melody and pop and cliche and just delivering toe tapping rhythm.

The next band, Scrabbel, I find to be kind of sleepy. They try to be lyrical and retro, but it doesnt always work for me. When I see all six of them on stage (3 guitars: string, electric, bass; drummer; cello; and backup vocalist/percussionist) I think: there’s a good band in here somewhere. And that’s often the case. Somewhere in all the instrument changes there’s occasionally a good song, and a good combination of instruments really grooving together. But there always seems to be at least one member who is left out at any one time.

Looking forward to the final set by a band called dealership. They’re good. (wwww.dealerkids.com).

But i get the feeling the first band will be the best tonight.

—

(Later)

So, dealership was great, but they had an extremely short set because they club told them they only had so much more time. Which sucked. Between the bands they had DJ sets, where all the kids would dance. I think their dance music sucked, and the DJ kept shouting “Frisco! Let me hear you!” which I found annoying.

But Dealership was good. Evidently the bassist and drummer are in a band called Citizens Here And Abroad, which I’d like to see sometime.

Photos of Dealership

Okay, I get back from a week out of town, and all of the sudden there’s a ton of live music I want to see.

Here’s what I see in today’s guardian:

Tomorrow 2/23 @ Milk: local bands Scrabbel, Dealership. Definitely gonna try to see this, since it is so close.

3/4 Saturday: Polysics @ Cafe du Nord.

3/13 Monday: Artic Monkeys @ GAMH. Read a bit about them in the New Yorker, and there are posters up everywhere. I downloaded some of their music, and I can tell that I don’t care for them.

3/21 : Belle & Sebastian / New Pornos @ Design Center.

3/31 : Film School @ Slim’s.

details:
John Pickard The Flight of Icarus (U.S. premiere)
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1
Haydn Symphony No. 99

I went to the SF Symphony on Friday night. Lang Lang, W.’s and my favorite guest pianist was playing.

First the bad:

The guest conductor I wasn’t fond of. Between him and Haydn, managed to trick the audience into clapping about 200 measures before the end of the piece. Those kinds of pauses in a piece are tricky, but if the audience is engaged and the conductor makes the signal clear, no one claps. apparently everyone was ready to get out of there, and a big round of applause interrupted the piece–yours truly included. and this wasn’t just a few people who didn’t know what was going on… a good 30 percent of the hall. The best thing I can say is at least it didn’t interrupt a piece I really cared about.

The opening piece, Icarus, was a nice little tone poem. Still, it lacked the arrative magic of a Respighi.

-/-

But really, this concert was all about LangLang, as evidenced by the crowds of families (mostly Chinese) with thier children, who left at the half, after LangLang’s encore. (And who can blame them? They gotta get those kids to bed.)

We had seen him at his SF debut in 2000, when he was a fuzzy headed, gangly 18 year old. The contrast between his awkward appearance and obvious youth–and the beauty and joy of his music was a stuning contrast. Friday he showed up a bit older, but no less eye-catching. Now his buzzcut has grown into long gently waving locks, just above his shoulders; instead of a standard tux he wore a black felt suit, with a black collared shirt, no tie. Like a Chinese Jesus dressed for an Elvis Presley impersonators party.

W. laughed when I said, “lookit, our little Lang Lang’s all growed up!”

The Beethoven was nice, but it’s not my favorite piano concerto. Call me an old codger. What did touch me was Lang Lang’s encore–he played a chinese tune (I can’t recall the name of it) in honor of the Chinese New Year at the end of the month. The melody evoked a quiet scene in a teahouse in a Shaw Bros. movie. and it was fun to imagine Lang Lang playing the accompanimenttest