WET SERENDIPITY

Yesterday --on another rainy Sunday afternoon, as I took BART to Civic Center to change to the MUNI METRO to go to dinner at a Japanese restaurant in the Castro before going to a two-hour Schola Cantorum rehearsal at the S.F. Girls' Chorus building near Van Ness Avenue-- I had my head in a book, as is my wont. My friend Adam K had given me his copy of Wm. Paul Young's novel The Shack, a moving story about dealing with tragedy and loss. It's beautifully written... and I've been taking my time reading it-- interspersed among several other things. I was also reluctant to face the tragic abduction of the little girl. I'm such a wuss at times.

Anyway, just as the protagonist met the triune God --whom his wife called "Papa"-- in the person of a large black woman in the shack where his daughter had been murdered, we arrived at 16th Street... and a trio of musicians boarded the train. The ensemble consisted of a saxophonist, bass drummer, and a tuba-wrapped cornet player on his knees. I didn't stick around to hear him play um-pah-pah on the tuba, since I was going only one more stop, but the whole interlude seemed to fit the incongruity of the book I was reading.

The night before I heard an extraordinary performance of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor played by the stunningly beautiful Ann-Sophie Mutter conducted by MTT and the San Francisco Symphony. It was certainly the fastest version I've ever heard ...and was absolutely brilliant! I wished my sister Cynthia could have gone. The rest of the concert was a relatively obscure overture by Prokofiev and two sets of waltzes by Ravel -- one written before World War I, the other, after. Ravel was clearly the master orchestrator!

Earlier in the afternoon, my friends Adam and Justin visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium. They said they had a marvelous time visiting the sea creatures. Dennis and I went there at the time of David and Lissa's wedding in Carmel on my parents' wedding anniversary, September 1st, six and a half years ago. What wonderful memories!

Saturday morning I had attended a lecture on the Library of Alexandria and its revival. Fascinating! The location of the older library is now under water. Such was my rainy weekend following S.F. Ballet's "Swan Lake" with Adam on Friday night. Now to face a drizzly Monday morning back at work.

JOSHUA BELL at the San Francisco Symphony

Photo by Timothy White

Saturday night I went to the San Francisco Symphony with my friend Russell David from work to hear excellent, young violinist Joshua Bell. (No relation that I know of – though I wish. Besides being a great violinist, he’s really great looking. He played the violin solos in the movie The Red Violin.)

Joshua Bell is a virtuoso equal to the programmed show-stoppers by Saint-Saëns: Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, Opus 28; and Ravel: Tzigane, Concert Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra. Both were technically impressive, though not substantial. S.F. Chronicle reviewer, Joshua Kosman, put it: “His playing was so strong that it left the listener eager to hear him tackle something a bit meatier.” Here I am doing something I usually criticize music critics for: that is, writing about the programming rather than the performance. Nevertheless, Bell was superb.

Strauss's wild take on Don Juan [R. Strauss: Don Juan, Tone Poem for Large Orchestra (After Nicolaus Lenau), Opus 20] opened the program. I adore the music of Richard Strauss. He was only twenty-four when he wrote this glorious tone poem. His orchestration is utterly brilliant. It borders on being bombastic, but is so technically proficient and appropriate that I couldn’t refrain from smiling broadly throughout the performance, conducted with “fierceness and finesse” by visiting Italian conductor Fabio Luisi.

Composed in the early 1930s, Franz Schmidt's Fourth Symphony was “reminiscent of a lost Vienna—opulent in sound, by turns wistful & impassioned” as the S.F. Symphony web page put it. Reviewer Kosman wrote: “The San Francisco Symphony introduced two new presences to its roster during Thursday night’s superb concert in Davies Symphony hall. It’s a close call which of them left a more exciting impression. One was Italian conductor Fabio Luisi, who made an invigorating and fiercely dramatic debut with the orchestra. The other was Franz Schmidt’s ravishingly beautiful Fourth Symphony, which joined the orchestra’s repertoire a mere 65 years after its premiere. The combination was breathtaking, a potent display of rhythmic vibrancy, lush phrasing and brilliant solo contributions from all quarters of the orchestra.”

Following the concert we had the opportunity to meet Joshua Bell for a CD signing at the Symphony store in the lobby at Davies Hall. He was gracious, but had a right to look a little tired.

Earlier in the day— after brunch with Adam, Rose and Rupert at Catch— I had intended to go to Fort Mason to the Annual San Francisco Fall Antiques Show. My cousin Clae had given me her free pass. But I was tired and took a nap instead. I plan to go this afternoon. I’m particularly looking forward to the collection of antique architectural models.