Music I'm Listening to: San Francisco Symphony

I attended a San Francisco Symphony concert last night. Michael Tilson Thomas conducted. I heard the Schubert Mass in G and the Berg Violin Concerto (I've always wondered why so many composers wrote just one violin concerto--I guess it feels obligatory even to composers that aren't really interested in the idea). Generally, I enjoyed the concert, but the Berg concerto is not one of my favorites. I mostly wanted to hear Gil Shaham play. He was very good--as you would expect--but in several sections I got the feeling that the conductor had lost perspective. The violin was almost completely hidden behind the orchestra in passages that seemed to me to require the soloist to be up front--but what do I know?

The Schubert mass was beautifully done, however. The chorus and the soloists were very good, I thought. MTT is a fairly acrobatic conductor, I see. I hadn't seen him live before. So far, all the concerts I've been to in SF have been with guest conductors or with James Gaffigan--whom I like very much. Frankly, I like him better than MTT.

Photos courtesy of The San Francisco Symphony