Music I'm Listening to: San Francisco Symphony

I went to an interesting concert at Davies Hall last night in San Francisco. The program was an odd juxtaposition of the modern and the classical--but my taste is eclectic; I enjoyed both pieces played. The orchestra performed Concentric Paths, a violin concerto of sorts, by contemporary composer Thomas Ades, and Mozart's Symphony No. 39.

I say a concerto "of sorts" because it was more a concerto for orchestra with a violin riding on top--the violin slicing in and out of the high end of the fabric of orchestral sound--than a traditional concerto with the soloist in opposition to the orchestra or participating in a dialog with it. The soloist was Leila Josefewicz, someone I plan to start keeping tabs on. Very interesting music. I'd like to hear it again.

The composer attended the performance. Apparently the orchestra, soloist, and conductor had learned he would be there only a day or two before. He joined the musicians on stage both before and after the concert and spoke a bit about the composition beforehand, answering questions from conductor James Gaffigan, who is a rather funny man (see below). 

Music is such an abstract thing. It's always interesting to listen to (or read) people trying to explain what it's about. It's an impossible task. People resort to describing the structure and pointing out unusual or interesting themes and sonorities, which is what the composer, the soloist, and the conductor did on stage, and I suppose that was good enough, as we, the audience, knew we were about to hear the music. Words are never really adequate. I don't pretend to be able to do it especially well either. It was fun to see the composer so clearly pleased by the performance and by the recognition from the audience.

The Mozart was very well played, the woodwinds in particular were beautiful. This was my third live San Francisco Symphony concert. Each time I've been impressed by the woodwinds. During one particularly impressively played woodwind passage, the conductor half turned to the audience and made a one-handed gesture with a fist that said "Listen to that!" as he continued to conduct with the other hand, eliciting a laugh. At the end of the Mozart, Gaffigan not only asked the woodwinds to stand to be recognized, but he then walked back into the array of musicians to personally congratulate them on a job well done. All in all, a pleasant evening.