ArtsSF

Count on mezzo Julia Bullock to design a program quite unlike anything ever at the S.F. Symphony: a multimedia perusal of the history of black women in America, bravely breaking out of the mold, played before a largely white S.F. Symphony audience. By the end you were convinced you’d earned a credit toward a master’s degree in sociology. In the process a lot of long-gone readings by notable artists were brought back to life in a viable format. The only…

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Although never billed as such, the latest S.F. Symphony program unreeled a tribute to the creativity of women—as conductor, as soloist, as composer. And by the end, I found myself reaching for my seat belt during a brassy, rambunctious large-orchestra finale of modern music that, yes, even got a standing ovation May 13. Yes, that dissonant modernist Lutoslawski gets a standing ovation—imagine that! The woman composer in a more dulcet mode was Lili Boulanger, sister of the legendary composition professor…

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ROHNERT PARK, CA—A composer can still strike gold. Yet today. I had Michael Daugherty, 68, pegged for a 21st-century Ferde Grofé—-a skilled tone painter in music for our times. Until, that is, we got to the finale of his new suite for and about Sonoma County, “Valley of the Moon.” That finale segment, “Call of the Wild,” was immensely engrossing. Instead of the expected happy music, Daugherty here turned troubled, unsettled and enigmatic, much like the adventurous author of said…

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Guest conductor Gustavo Dudamel was back with gusto, leading “this foaming, roaring, raging sea of sound,” as Mahler once described his own raging Symphony No. 5. The Venezuelan led with fire—and no printed score—through this 71-minute masterpiece that Mahler’s compatriots in Vienna would call “gefühlsmȁssig”—surfeited with emotion. The crowd at Davies Hall stayed hushed in awe, without fidget or distraction, in hearing a master at work with the virtuoso San Francisco Symphony. Until the patrons’ jubilant ovations at the end….

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WALNUT CREEK, CA—The California Symphony served up a twin-barreled surprise March 27 that went well beyond expectations. No sooner had they served up the amazing world premiere by Katherine Balch two years in the waiting than, before the applause had even died down, a fire alarm was set off, forcing every one out in the street cooling heels figuratively and literally. We should make clear that the fire alarm, which arriving firemen proved false, was not a part of Balch’s…

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