SF SYMPHONY—A Perfect Concert

Inspired by 300 years of music history

By Jeff Dunn

How many times do you go to a symphony concert where at least one of the pieces is boring or has issues of execution or interpretation, no matter how good the rest of it is? If you're an old feisty music critic like me, it's almost always. But last weekend's SF Symphony concert, masterfully assembled by Music Director Essa-Pekka Salonen, was perfect in every respect, with enthralling, varied, and integrated repertoire giving all sections of the orchestra a chance to shine. And shine they did! To top it off, Salonen's superb conducting maximized the inherent drama and dynamic ranges of the selections, leading to one standing ovation after another.

What integrated the four pieces offered was their consistent references to baroque composers set in the respective styles of the Romantic, Modernist, and 21st-Century composers Edward Elgar, Paul Hindemith, and Nico Muhly. The result was a resplendent survey of many glories of the last 300 years of music history.

Muhly's work was a SF Symphony-commissioned premiere of his 2024 Piano Concerto. This was the most impressive of his works I've heard so far, one immediately pleasurable and worth many future listenings as well when recordings become available. Its three movements were played without pause over a 25-minute span. The first showed orchestrational evidence of Muhly's eight years as an assistant to Philip Glass, along with tads of John Adams' postminimalism. But the second conjured up unique sounds, including eerie glissandi and a shattering central climax. The third is a brisk toccata. All movements successfully exuded touches of the baroque composers Rameau and Couperin in a thoroughly contemporary and dazzling orchestral setting.

Muhly, admittedly obsessed by soloist Alexandre Tharaud, designed the concerto around his unique pianistic skills: lightning-fast fingers, ultra-high energy, and masterful control (except for his left foot, which periodically shot out to the side as if kicking away a cuff-chewing dog--but this added to, not subtracted from the excitement).

The first piece after intermission was Elgar's orchestration of Bach's Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 537, a superlative example of what became a fad with Leopold Stokowski's transcriptions later on in the 1920s. Elgar's over-the-top conclusion to the end of the Fugue goes beyond anything Stokowski attempted. Even Richard Strauss, Mr. Excess himself, thought it went too far, but to me it's a thrilling example of the Romantic spirit emanating from Berlioz.

The first and last works were Hindemith's. When he died in 1963, he was considered one of the greatest 20th-century composers, along with Stravinsky, Bartok, and Schoenberg. Such is no longer today, and it's a shame. His four-minute Ragtime (Well-Tempered) (1920) is full of robust good humor, immersing the theme of Bach's C-minor Well Tempered Clavier tune in a sea of obstreperous fox trots, rags, and brass raspberries. And the concluding work, his masterpiece, Symphony, Mathis Der Maler brought the audience to their feet for three long curtain calls. It's totally incredible that this staple of music history had been neglected by Symphony programmers for more than 36 years. How many lesser works have we heard countless times in that interval here? When compared to Mahler even, Hindemith's symphony surpasses when you consider greatness per minute. In fact the whole program, less than an hour of music, makes it a champion by that measure.

Perfect!