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concert review: San Francisco Symphony
Nov. 4th, 2010 07:25 amYou've heard Carmina Burana before - if you're me, you've heard it many times - but you haven't heard it like this. There have been performances more colorful or more full of character, but none with such sizzling rhythmic vitality. And rhythm is what this post-Stravinskian work is all about. Carlos Kalmar of the Oregon Symphony conducted, and he really put the crisp punch in. Truly stunning. He also gave every passage that was tutti and forte at about twice the speed of those that were not.
That was the good part. Haydn's Symphony No. 97 was dull, and one of those Schnittke pieces where he chops up bits of Mozart on a cutting board and runs them through a blender was pointless.
ETA: So Thursday noon my editor phones and asks if I can cover one of the later performances. "I heard that last night," I say, and agree to at least try writing a review out of it. Turns out I did have my reviewing ears on, because with some cannibalization from this post and comments, plus h/t to DGK for the observation on MTT, and a side swipe at Joshua Kosman of the Chronicle, who hated the performance for reasons of his own, it came out here.
That was the good part. Haydn's Symphony No. 97 was dull, and one of those Schnittke pieces where he chops up bits of Mozart on a cutting board and runs them through a blender was pointless.
ETA: So Thursday noon my editor phones and asks if I can cover one of the later performances. "I heard that last night," I say, and agree to at least try writing a review out of it. Turns out I did have my reviewing ears on, because with some cannibalization from this post and comments, plus h/t to DGK for the observation on MTT, and a side swipe at Joshua Kosman of the Chronicle, who hated the performance for reasons of his own, it came out here.
