Music Legend with Changing Parts
At 81, American composer Philip Glass deserves to be called a living legend. For five decades the prolific writer has been at the forefront of music. An endless oeuvre of operas, symphonies, film scores and collaborations with poets, choreographers and rock stars is crowned by the many influential compositions written for his ensemble founded in the late 1960s.
The ongoing 80th birthday celebration finally made it to Davies Symphony Hall recently when San Francisco Performances presented the composer (still very much a working musician) with Philip Glass Ensemble under Music Director Michael Riesman, seven students from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the San Francisco Girls Chorus (Artistic Director Lisa Bielawa and keyboards), conducted by Valerie Sainte-Agathe.
An evening-long performance of "Music with Changing Parts" (1970) got a special out-of-town tryout at Carnegie Hall just four days before electrifying a packed house at DSH last Tuesday. Left Coast music-lovers have always embraced the new and unusual, and seeing the fresh and intensely focused faces of the SFGC backing the famous Ensemble with additional local instrumentalists added a special sense of connection.
The seminal work has been revisited by the composer because of the success enjoyed by younger performers. He has gratefully acknowledged them "by enlarging the original score with a brass and a vocal ensemble," adding that this presentation "is a richer version of the music, and a more satisfying completion of the original idea."
The wisdom of his decision to expand the hypnotic and immersive score was proved by the high-energy performance. Once into the hot tub of "Music with Changing Parts," listeners surrender to the composer's repetitive figures, which incrementally create harmonies of growing exhilaration. Ninety spellbound minutes later, the jets are abruptly turned off, but the rapturous feelings of a sometimes fierce experience remain.
The entire audience rose in unison for an extended ovation, stunned in admiration of the tireless performers and impressed by the exceptionally clear conducting of Michael Riesman and Valerie Sainte-Agathe.
Iconic is a word often used incorrectly and, like standing ovations, too easily reflexive, but no one could stay seated in the presence of Philip Glass. It may have been one more gig for him, but it was a chance for us to show sincere appreciation of a tremendous career.
Another Birthday Boy
The San Francisco Symphony's season-long celebration of another genuine American musical icon came to an end last week with performances of contrasting works by Leonard Bernstein. The beloved composer's enormous legacy has been well-served by the birth centennial celebration at DSH. Guest conductor Andrey Boreyko and violinist Vadim Gluzman wrapped the party with equal shares of fun and serious expressivity.
The delightfully goofy Divertimento was a great way to start the concert. Writing in 1980 for the Boston Symphony Orchestra's centennial, Bernstein created a happy-go-lucky parade of parodies of other composers and musical genres. It ended up sounding like a quick tour of his greatest hits. From Bernstein's Broadway ("West Side Story" and "Candide") to exuberant theatre works like "Mass," Divertimento is filled with characteristic joie de vivre. Boreyko was a careful curator, but the idiomatic SFS musicians broke out with their own irrepressible enthusiasm.
The conductor was more at home with the altogether more serious-minded Serenade. Vadim Gluzman was the fine interpreter of the important violin soloist's role. The piece is a loosely allied musical treatment of Plato's "Symposium," but inspiration aside, the score is unmistakably Bernstein. Gluzman essayed the deeper moments of contemplation with a beautiful lyricism. He was especially exciting in the virtuoso displays of the faster sections.
If only Boreyko had applied some of that impetus to the second half of the bill, the Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 that followed after intermission would have been a more thrilling experience. Arguably his most famous and popular work, the mighty Fifth covers more than a few of the composer's trademark themes and stands as a testament to his innate theatrical instincts. Moments of exquisite stillness and bittersweet contemplation are juxtaposed with frightening explosions of anger and grief. A monumental blare of Mahlerian intensity brings the work to an earthshaking final movement.
The guest conductor was careful to a fault with his shaping of the sprawling work, but Shostakovich can handle rougher treatment. The orchestra was particularly refined and sounded extraordinarily rich, but they, too, can get down-and-dirty. If Boreyko had given them freer rein, the amazing 20th-century masterpiece (Leonard Bernstein was an important advocate for it) might have come to bolder life.
Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado makes a welcome return to DSH this week with more Shostakovich, featuring SFS Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik in the Violin Concerto No. 2.
Composer Philip Glass performed in Davies Hall with the Philip Glass Ensemble, students from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the San Francisco Girls Chorus. Photo: Johansen Krause
Violinist Vadim Gluzman performed with the San Francisco Symphony. Photo: Marco Borggreve