Martin Haselböck at Davies Symphony Hall, April 27, 2014

San Francisco Symphony presents an all-Bach organ recital featuring Martin Haselböck
2014-04-27
Davies Symphony Hall
201 Van Ness, San Francisco, CA
3:00 PM, Sunday, April 27, 2014

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[3:01 PM announcements]

1. [3:05 PM] Antonio Vivaldi (trans. Bach): Concerto grosso in A minor from L'estro armonico

[work ends 3:08 PM]

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): Sechs Choräle von verschiedener Art (Six Chorales of Various Kinds AKA Schübler Chorales), BWV 645-650 (ca. 1748)

[3:12 PM; waiting]

1. [3:14 PM] Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (“Wake, Awake for Night is Passing”), BWV 645
2. [3:18 PM] Wo soll ich fliehen hin (“Whither shall I flee?”), BWV 646
3. [3:20 PM] Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten (“Who allows God alone to rule him”), BWV 647
4. [3:22 PM] Meine Seele erhebt den Herren (“My soul doth magnify the Lord”), BWV 648
5. [3:25 PM] Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ (“Lord Jesus Christ, with us abide”), BWV 649
6. [3:27 PM] Kommst du nun, Jesu, vom Himmel herunter auf Erden (“Come thou, Jesu, from heaven to earth”), BWV 650
   [work ends 3:30 PM]

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major, BWV 564 (ca. 1710-1717)

1. [3:31 PM] Toccata
2. [3:36 PM] Adagio. Grave
3. [3:39 PM] Fugue
   [work ends 3:44 PM]

[3:57 bells to call us back inside]

Franz Liszt (1811-1886): Variationen über das motif von Bach: Basso Continuo des ersten Satzes seiner Kantate “Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen” und Des Crucifixus der H-moll messe (Variations on the motif by Bach: Basso Continuo from the first movement of the Cantata “Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen” and the Crucifixus of the B minor mass), S. 180, (1863) (ca. 20 min? seemed MUCH shorter)

1. [4:05 PM] Prelude
2. [4:11 PM] 30 variations; Recitative
   [work ends 4:27 PM]

1. [4:27 PM] Martin Haselböck: Improvisation on given themes (Themes of J.S. Bach)
   [show ends 4:38 PM]

• Martin Haselböck: organ.

“Busy Betty” next to me is full of opinions about the first half – slamming on Haselböck for using the wrong stops, playing the wrong registers, and on and on. She thinks perhaps he's a bit sick, or a little senile, or both! Pretty strong statements!! I noticed a few oddities – some inaudible foot trills, and strange knocking (sounding like a mechanical problem with the organ, actually) accompanying some of the bassoon-like bass notes, but wouldn't go nearly as far in my criticism.

What I will complain about is that the program seemed kinda short, particularly over the second half, and that Haselböck failed to engage with the audience or introduce either of the two encore works. Oh well, not much I can do to fix those things except hope that Smoliar or another reviewer will fill me in!

Stephen Smoliar's review helped clarify my understanding of the show … apparently Haselböck inserted a full stop (standing and bowing) after the initial statement of the Liszt piece that opened the second set (explaining why I thought that work so short, and then the improvisations so long).

Thinking back about the show, another image comes to mind is that Haselböck didn't really seem to be using a traditional score. Instead, he had multiple, stiff, file-folder-like cards (some small, some giant), upon which were pasted what I would guess were score excerpts. The small cards – maybe A5-sized? appeared to have one or perhaps two sections – like a traditional score, only much smaller, and certainly too small to be much more than a cue or summary of the primary themes. The large cards – folio sized? – had many such snippets – as many as a dozen or so – and it looked as if the printing on them was very tiny, too. Strange! I guess if you're busy coordinating hands and feet across multiple registers and pull-stops, it's best not to have to fiddle with page-turning too.

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