MTT conducts Beethoven and Bates featuring the San Francisco Symphony
2014-01-08
Davies Symphony Hall
201 Van Ness, San Francisco, CA
8:00 PM, Wednesday, January 8, 2014

[7:57 PM the musicians takes their places; 8:00 PM lights down, announcements, tuning]

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Romances for Violin and Orchestra, featuring Alexander Barantschik

1. [8:03 PM] Romance for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 in G major, Op. 40 (1802)
   [8:09 PM pause for a moment]
2. [8:10 PM] Romance for Violin and Orchestra No. 2 in F major, Op. 50 (1798)
   [set ends 8:18 PM; pause ~5 min to reset the stage]

Mason Bates: the B-Sides for orchestra & electronica (2009), dedicated to MTT

1. [8:25 PM] Broom of the System
2. [8:30 PM] Aerosol Melody (Hanalei)
3. [8:34 PM] Gemini in the Solar Wind »
4. [8:00 PM] Temescal Noir »
5. [8:00 PM] Warehouse Medicine
   [set ends 8:48 PM]

[9:09 PM noodling; 9:10 PM lights down]

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Symphony No. 7, Op. 92 in A major (1812)

1. [9:11 PM] Poco sostenuto – Vivace
2. [9:26 PM] Allegretto
3. [9:34 PM] Presto – Assai meno presto (trio)
4. [9:43 PM] Allegro con brio
   [set ends 9:53 PM]

• Alexander Barantschik: violin;
• Mason Bates: composer, laptop & electronics;
• Michael Tilson Thomas: conductor, music director;
• SF Symphony symphony members vary by program, see the current list.

As is not that unusual, the Symphony made an unannounced switch in the program, swapping out Mason Bates' Alternative Energy for +the B-Sides_. While I understand they may have compelling reasons for the change, it's awful frustrating to advertise one thing when tickets go on sale and then deliver something entirely different!

Stephen Smoliar posted a promo article on the Examiner website,

Mason's program notes are posted on his website,

Joshua Kosman posted both a promo interview and a show review at SFGate.

I enjoyed the show, though I was mightily distracted with a cold – trying to suppress a cough the whole night makes for a poor listening experience! With the program subtitled as “The Power of Beethoven. The Energy of Today” it was pretty clear that MTT and SFS were trying to give Bates a bit of a marketing push. But aside from somehow implying this anoints Bates as the “new” Beethoven, I heard little in common between the two. Bates writing is quite modern, and while interesting, has minimal overlap with Beethoven's compositional style.

This program repeats daily through Saturday, January 11.

Back to the calendar!