The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Category: San Francisco Symphony
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* Notes * James Conlon, Los Angeles Opera‘s music director, is conducting San Francisco Symphony a program of Wagner, Bruch, and Dvořák this week. Yesterday’s performance began with the Prelude to Act I of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, which was lovely. The trumpet and trombone were particularly strong, and the orchestra sounded cohesive. This was followed…
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* Notes * Michael Tilson Thomas is conducting San Francisco Symphony a program of Revueltas, Villa-Lobos, Varèse, and Beethoven this week. Revueltas' Sensemayá sounded tropical and percussive, and Villa-Lobos' Ciranda das sete notas was quite pretty. Principal bassoon player Stephen Paulson was the soloist in the latter, and the lines were beautifully lyrical. The strings sounded…
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* Notes * San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas returned to Davies Hall with a program of Lou Harrison, Copland, and Tchaikovsky last night. Harrison's rather orientalist A Parade was cheerful and shimmery. The duet between the concertmaster and principal violist was particularly lovely. This was followed by two Copland pieces, the first, Quiet City, featured English…
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* Notes * Michael Tilson Thomas is currently conducting San Francisco Symphony in a program of Berlioz. The Wednesday performance began with the Le carnaval romain, and it was played brightly and with bombast. The English horn solo was very pretty. Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke joined the orchestra for Les Nuits d'été. The six songs were brilliantly sung,…
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* Notes * Michael Tilson Thomas is amidst conducting San Francisco Symphony in a program of Stravinsky, Villa-Lobos, and Ravel. However, the main attraction of last night's performance was clearly pianist Yuja Wang. The evening began with MTT and Yuja playing Poulenc's Sonata for Piano Four Hands. The piece came off a bit acridly, Wang has a…
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* Notes * Michael Tilson Thomas just finished conducting San Francisco Symphony in a program of Wagner, Berg, and Beethoven. The Overture to The Flying Dutchman sounded lovely, and the brass were fairly clear and sounded nice. The second piece also had to do with opera, and the Suite from Lulu was dense and lush. Soprano…
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* Notes * This week Michael Tilson Thomas conducted San Francisco Symphony in a program of Mozart, Holloway, and Schumann. The performance began with Mozart's "Bella mia fiamma…Resta, o cara" and Holloway's Clarissa Sequence, both of which featured the soprano Erin Wall. The Mozart showcased her pure, clear sound, and though Wall warbled a bit,…
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* Notes * Michael Tilson Thomas conducted San Francisco Symphony in a program of Stravinsky, Bernstein, and Ravel last week. The performance was supposed to include Stravinsky's Threni, but EXAUDI, the vocal ensemble to be featured, was held up by issues with a group P-1 visa. Instead we heard Stravinsky's Ode and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms. In the…
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* Notes * San Francisco Symphony and Christoph Eschenbach just opened a run of 3 performances of Schumann’s 4th and Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony. The Schumann had a lightness in the beginning, but the woodwinds sounded somewhat muddy in their entrance of the Romanze. The brass also were a bit rough, but improved and sounded rich at…
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* Notes * Soprano Audra McDonald sang Broadway showtunes with her band and San Francisco Symphony last night. Conductor Ted Sperling kept everyone together, and even played piano and sang at different points. The orchestra sounded fine, and looked like they were enjoying themselves. The brass sounded fairly clear, and the woodwinds were especially lovely in…
The Opera Tattler 