{"id":8097,"date":"2013-10-17T11:57:10","date_gmt":"2013-10-17T18:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=8097"},"modified":"2013-10-17T16:29:40","modified_gmt":"2013-10-17T23:29:40","slug":"mtt-evokes-avant-garde-20s-via-american-in-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/mtt-evokes-avant-garde-20s-via-american-in-paris\/","title":{"rendered":"MTT evokes avant-garde 20s via ‘American in Paris’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Woody’s [rating:5]\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
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San Francisco Symphony conductor Michael Tilson-Thomas<\/p>\n

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Violin soloist James Ehnes<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

My wife last heard George Gershwin\u2019s \u201cAn American in Paris\u201d played in the flesh 49 years ago in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

I heard it in-person much more currently \u2014 33 years ago \u2014 also in New York.<\/p>\n

Sadly, neither of us can remember a thing about those concerts other than we were there. But the San Francisco Symphony version we caught recently, with Michael Tilson-Thomas conducting with his usual exemplary zeal, is apt to linger in our memories a long, long time.<\/p>\n

And not because the music stand of a musician in the last row slipped down with a clunk before the Davies Hall concert began.<\/p>\n

But because the performance was as luscious and joyous as the first bite of a truffle.<\/p>\n

And then some.<\/p>\n

The audience agreed. It gave the musicians \u2014 and MTT, of course \u2014 a standing ovation.<\/p>\n

Tilson-Thomas conducted it at a good clip, conjuring up all the vibrancy possible from Gershwin\u2019s instrumental dialogue \u2014 aided, naturally, by the incredible finesse of San Francisco\u2019s finest music-makers.<\/p>\n

Together they painted a melodic portrait that evoked the same images and feelings Gershwin must have experienced in the vital, avant-garde Paris of the 1920s.<\/p>\n

MTT didn\u2019t settle for just Gershwin, however.<\/p>\n

He constructed an amazing program that beguiled the audience, starting with \u201cThe Alcotts,\u201d a six-minute rendition of an unexpectedly sweet Charles Ives movement from \u201cA Concord Symphony\u201d \u2014 replete with passages that hint of church hymns and Beethoven\u2019s Fifth.<\/p>\n

Then, soloist James Ehnes, whose lightning-fast bow was a visual blur at the same time he created stringed exactitude, drew a standing ovation for his artistry on Samuel Barber\u2019s \u201dViolin Concerto, Opus 14.\u201d Some pundits have found the explosive, ultra-fast third movement disconnected from the first more pensive two, but Ehnes made any previous criticism vanish.<\/p>\n

My wife commented of the \u201cPresto in moto perpetuo,\u201d only half in jest, that \u201chis virtuosity made Rimsky-Korsakov\u2019s \u2018The Flight of the Bumblebee\u2019 sound like it\u2019s flying in slow motion.\u201d<\/p>\n

MTT gently pushed Ehnes back on stage for an encore. Niccol\u00f2 Paganini\u2019s \u201cCaprice No. 16\u201d earned him another standing ovation.<\/p>\n

Tilson-Thomas also paired George Antheil\u2019s \u201cA Jazz Symphony,\u201d a multi-faceted pastiche from 1928, with the Gershwin closer, suggesting Antheil was \u201cdeliberately out there, to delight and provoke.\u201d<\/p>\n

He urged the crowd to \u201cfasten your seat belts \u2014 here it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The piece, with layered textures, colors and rhythms, with musical pauses as effective as those in a Harold Pinter play, included blow-your-mind riffs from trumpeter Mark Inouye and pianist Robin Sutherland.<\/p>\n

One muted horn segment infused its bluesy strains in my mind and heart at once. A brief clarinet segment duplicated that impact.<\/p>\n

An ad campaign of the \u201870s and \u201880s repeatedly proclaimed that \u201cWhen E.F. Hutton talks, people listen.\u201d I suggest the slogan be updated for the 2013-14 season: \u201cWhen MTT conducts, everyone listens.\u201d<\/p>\n

His work so inspired my spouse, in fact, she rushed home to frolic with \u201cAn American in Paris\u201d on our Yamaha piano.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d never played it before but thought it \u201cwould be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was.<\/p>\n

For her and me.<\/p>\n

But in good conscience I must admit the symphony did it a teensy-weensy bit better.<\/p>\n

Maybe, dear, it was just because they\u2019d rehearsed.<\/p>\n

If you missed this performance, you might want to catch one of these upcoming concerts: \u201cMTT and Jeremy Denk: Beethoven, Mozart, Copland,\u201d Nov. 7-10; Natalie Cole and the symphony, Nov. 25; Dianne Reeves with the orchestra, Dec. 11; Burt Bacharach and the symphony, Dec. 13; \u201cMTT and Yo-Yo Ma,\u201d Feb. 28. Information: (415) 864-6400 or www.sfsymphony.org.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Woody’s [rating:5]\u00a0 My wife last heard George Gershwin\u2019s \u201cAn American in Paris\u201d played in the flesh 49 years ago in Manhattan. I heard it in-person much more currently \u2014 33…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"