The Opera Tattler

* Notes *

Maestro James Gaffigan conducted the San Francisco Symphony (pictured, photograph by Stefan Cohen) in a festive program of Carlos Simon, George Gershwin, and Duke Ellington last night at Davies Hall. Hélène Grimaud joined the orchestra as soloist in Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, which she played with technical skill and relaxed aplomb.

In addition to being a concert pianist, Grimaud may be most famous for being a wildlife conservationist with a particular interest in wolves. Her playing is elegant and unflashy, she is economical with her movements. In the Gershwin, she was very much the soloist, doing her own thing as the orchestra supported her. The concertmaster, Alexander Barantschik, had a brief but lovely solo, in the second movement. The solo trumpet seemed to have more trouble here, the timing and intonation both seemed off. There could have been more sensuous in the playing for the whole of the orchestra, but the legato lines were lovely.

The other Gershwin piece, An American In Paris, was more successful. I have a particular love of this work, as I played it many times in high school orchestra. It was so fun to hear it played by a professional symphony, and Gaffigan seemed to have a good rapport with the musicians. The trumpet solo was much better in this, clear and bright, one of the best parts of the performance.

The highlight of the night was certainly Duke Elllington’s Harlem, orchestrated by Luther Henderson. The piece is passionate and evocative. The percussion was attractive and the clarinet and violin soli were both also very strong. Both An American In Paris and Harlem have a lot of amusing and jaunty street sounds, so they definitely made a good pair for the second half of the program.

Starting off the performance was Carlos Simon’s The Block, a 6 minute piece written in 2018. It is full of joy, and was a great way to begin this very approachable evening of music.

* Tattling *

There was quite a bit of bad behavior from the audience in the first half of the show. A watch alarm chimed the 8 o’clock hour as the Piano Concerto was still being played. Then someone’s cellular phone rang during Grimaud’s encore and my companion heard the person whose mobile device it was say “C’mon! Piece of shit!” though I only detected murmuring.