Concert Review: Everybody Gets Ice Cream

The San Francisco Symphony opens Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Broadway soprano Audra McDonald lit up opening night at Carnegie Hall.
Photo by Autumn de Wilde.

Opening night of Carnegie Hall is a little bit...different. Men's clothes are nattier. Women's necklines dip lower. The concert is shorter, minus the usual intermission. There's an  elegant rooftop dinner for heavy donors. And there's always an A-list special guest (or two), a star attraction that one wouldn't hear on the programs reserved for mere concert-going music enthusiasts.

Concert Review: From Ten to One

The San Francisco Symphony encapsulates Mahler's career.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Busted: Michael Tilson Thomas (right) with Rodin's bust of Gustav Mahler.
Photo taken in the Musikverein, Vienna © San Francisco Symphony

When Gustav Mahler died in 1911, he was working on the Symphony No. 10. He had completed sketches of its five movements, and the orchestration of the opening Adagio. On Saturday night, Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony paired that movement with the composer's Symphony No. 1, offering a fascinating look at the end and beginning of a composer's legend.

Concert Review: They're Red-Eyed But Fearless

The San Francisco Symphony returns to New York.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Michael Tilson Thomas at the helm of the San Francisco Symphony.
Photo courtesy Carnegie Hall.

The conductor Michael Tilson Thomas is in his third decade at the helm of the San Francisco Symphony, one of the longest and most consistent runs of a music director in a music business where maestros change podiums like NFL quarterbacks switching teams in free agency.

Concert Review: Occasional Demons

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony return to Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Michael Tilson Thomas.
Photo © 2016 San Francisco Symphony.

It didn't look like much on paper. On Wednesday night, the San Francisco Symphony opened a two night stand under the leadership of Michael Tilson Thomas, currently in his 21st season as music director of the California orchestra. The program featured three lesser known works by Aaron Copland, paired with the Symphony No. 2 by Robert Schumann, a respected, if not universally loved example of early Romanticism.

Concert Review: Providence, Prokofiev and Pirates

The San Francisco Symphony at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Michael Tilson Thomas.
Photo © 2013 San Francisco Symphony.

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra closed their two-night 2014 stand at Carnegie Hall on Thursday night. The evening offered pretty much everything this ensemble does well. There was new music. There was a surprisingly gentle 20th century concerto. And there was an almost obligatory Big Work: the unexpurgated score of Maurice Ravel's ballet Daphnis et Chloë.

Concert Review: California's Dark

MTT and the San Francisco Symphony return with Mahler's Seventh.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Mahler groove: conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.
Photo © 2014 San Francisco Symphony.

When Gustav Mahler premiered his Symphony No. 7 in E minor in 1906, he set a series of problems and riddles that too often, baffle today's conductors, listeners and critics. On Wednesday night, the San Francisco Symphony returned to Carnegie Hall to play this difficult and uniquely weird five-movement work, under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas.

How Not To Get To Carnegie Hall

San Francisco Symphony cancels East Coast tour.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Just do what the sign says.

The San Francisco Symphony will not come to New York this week.

The musicians struck last Wednesday, following a month-long dispute regarding player salaries, pension funds, and the projected renovation of their home venue Davies Hall.

They Left Their Parts (in San Francisco)

San Francisco Symphony Orchestra strikes.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Labor impasse in San Francisco means concert cancellations at Davies Hall.
Original image © San Francisco Symphony. Photo editing by the author.

Members of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra cancelled a rehearsal Wednesday, causing the orchestra to nix a planned performance of Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony. The players had been working without a contract since Feb. 10, the same day that they won a Grammy for Best Orchestral Performance of 2012.

Concert Review: It's All Happening!

American Mavericks comes to Carnegie Hall.
by Paul Pelkonen

A key component of John Cage's Song Books, and a valuable source of potassium.
(Andy Warhol was an "American maverick too!)

The stage of Carnegie Hall on Tuesday night had a poker table on it. Some microphones, two pianos, and a counter with a typewriter at one end, some fruits and vegetables, and a blender. 

Festival Preview: American Mavericks

The modern music festival comes to Carnegie Hall.

Redshirts: Michael Tilson Thomas (left) with composer Lou Harrison.
Photo © San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

John Cage. Charles Ives. John Adams. Steve Reich. Meredith Monk.

These are just a few of the composers featured at American Mavericks, next week's week-long festival at Carnegie Hall celebrating the bold music of American composers who continue to push the envelope in the 20th century and beyond. The program seeks to challenge the traditional conservatism of Carnegie audiences by presenting these modern composers next to each other instead of trying to contrast them with better known music by Brahms or Tchaikovsky.

The week-long concert series is curated by Michael Tilson Thomas, music director of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. "M.T.T.", (as he is known) has assembled an exciting series that should make the staid plaster arches of the Stern Auditorium echo with exciting new sounds. 

The sound moves upstairs on Tuesday, with the first of two concerts by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Jessye Norman joins the orchestra to sing works from the Cage Song Books. But the real plum here is the New York premiere of John Adams' Absolute Jest, a kind of concerto for string quartet and orchestra.

Wednesday night features special guest Emanuel Ax, playing Morton Feldman's Piano and Orchestra. Also featured: Sun-Treader by the underrated composer Carl Ruggles, and A Concord Symphony by American pioneer Charles Ives. 

The festival ends with two concerts at Zankel Hall, featuring members of the SFSO. Thursday night features the fantastical music of Harry Partch, whose kit-bashing approach to composition resulted in the creation of some truly unique instruments. The concert also features music by David Del Tredici, the New York premier of Mason Bates' Mass Transmission, and the Concerto for Organ with Percssion Orchestra by Lou Harrison. 

Friday night features Music for Pieces of Wood by Steve Reich and the New York premiere of Ms. Monk's Realm Variations. The concert (and the festival) ends with Echoi by Lukas Foss and Jacob's Room a monodrama by Morton Subotnick.