concert review: San Francisco Symphony

[calimac]

This was designated as a popular-classical fusion concert. Originally the singer-songwriter scheduled to premiere a vocal-orchestral work was Rufus Wainwright, whom I'd at least heard of. But he bowed out some time ago. I think this was before his mother died, so it may have been because of her illness. He's supposed to be back next year, though not on my series.

The replacement singer-songwriter was Duncan Sheik, who was new to me. YouTube investigation provided unobjectionable songs that I might get to like if I listened to them often enough, but not compelling enough to make me want to do so; fairly agreeable guitar-based arrangements.

I liked the concert a bit better than that, largely due to colorful orchestrations by frequent rock-song orchestrator Simon Hale, rather in the vein of John Cameron's work on Les Misérables. This enabled me to hear it as classical rather than pop, for which I have different personal standards. The songs were all from Sheik's concept-album/stage-musical Whisper House, whose premise is that resident ghosts sing to a small boy who's gone to live in his aunt's creepy lighthouse. Sheik (in suit with narrow tie) and his co-vocalist Holly Brook (off-the-shoulder white dress) sang these in pop style into not-overloud microphones; good sonic balance with the unamplified orchestra.

Conductor Edwin Outwater paired this with the most pops-y orchestral work he could think of, the ballet music from Gounod's Faust. Listening to that from this orchestra was the equivalent of going to a first-rate Chinese restaurant and having sweet and sour pork. It'll be the best sweet and sour pork you've ever had, but, I mean, come on ...

Also on the program: Zipangu by the late Québecois composer Claude Vivier, a soundscape work for small string ensemble, rendered harmonically resonant by being based largely on exploitation of overtones. Imagine a cross between Ligeti and some melody-less version of the Penguin Café Orchestra.

And Les Biches by Poulenc, which may be succinctly described as Pulcinella, Vol. II.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

The style that Vivier writes in is called spectralism, and is the latest trend in European classical music. I agree with your description: it sounds to me like Xenakis/Ligeti/Scelsi where the extreme upper partials of the overtone series have been strengthened and made more resonant; it gives the music a slightly different flavor of microtonality than the quartertones and glissandi of the three composers mentioned.

Other spectralists I've heard include Gerard Grisey, Tristan Murail, Georg Friedric Haas (whose =In vain= Alex Ross speaks of very highly) and, curiously enough, a jazz composer, Steve Lehman (who studied with Murail).

So far I'm interested but not fascinated. More research to be done.

Don Keller

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I thought the harmonies were effective and at times eerily beautiful. So far for Vivier. I'm not sure whether I could say anything else for the piece, though.