Michael Tilson Thomas leads the San Francisco Symphony in performance with featured soloists Abigail Washburn and Yuja Wang
Davies Symphony Hall
201 Van Ness, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA
8:00 PM, Thursday, September 13, 2018

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• Castiglioni: Inverno in-ver [with video]
• Ravel: Piano Concerto in D major for the Left Hand
• Copland: Appalachian Spring

[8:00 PM lights down, tuning; pause; 8:03 PM MTT enters, introduces AW]

1. [8:06 PM] Come All You Coal Miners Abigail Washburn, solo a capella
2. [8:09 PM] And Am I Born to Die? arr. Monk, Abigail Washburn, vox, with SFS
   [section ends 8:14 PM; long pause to get things together for the next segment]

[8:21 PM MTT introduces the next work]

Niccolò Castiglioni (1932–1996): Inverno in-ver (1973/78), 11 music poems for small orchestra; SFS premiere, featuring lighting by Luke Kritzeck & video by Clyde Scott

Score

1. [8:25 PM] Fiori di Ghiaccio (Flowers of Ice)
2. [8:28 PM] Il Ruscello (The Stream)
3. [8:29 PM] Danza Invernale (Winter Dance)
4. [8:32 PM] Salterello
5. [8:33 PM] La Brina (the Frost)
6. [8:36 PM] Il Lago Ghiacciato (the Frozen Lake)
7. [8:38 PM] Nenia Prima (Memorial I)
8. [8:39 PM] Nenia Seconda (Memorial II)
9. [8:40 PM] Silenzio (Silence)
10. [8:42 PM] Un Vecchio Adagio (An Old Adagio)
11. [8:45 PM] Il Rumore non fa Bene. Il Bene non fa Rumore (Noise does no good. The good makes no noise)
    [set ends 8:47 PM; pause to reset the stage for the next segment]

Program notes

[9:02 PM tuning; applause for entrance of MTT and Yuja]

Maurice Ravel (1875–1937): Piano Concerto in D major for the Left Hand (1930)

1. [9:03 PM] Lento
2. [9:21 PM] Allegro
   [work ends 9:22 PM; a few trips back and forth for applause, then our treat]
   
   Yuja solo piano Encore
3. [9:23 PM] Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847): Allegro leggiero, Op. 67, No. 2, from Lieder ohne Worte (Songs Without Words) (1843–45)
   [done by 9:25 PM; more wild applause; set ends 9:26 PM]

Program notes for Ravel

[9:45 PM lights down, tuning; 9:46 PM introduction by MTT]

Aaron Copland (1900–1990): Appalachian Spring (1944/1954/completed by David Newman, 2014)

1. [9:50 PM] Very slowly
2. [9:54 PM] Allegro
3. [9:57 PM] Moderato
4. [10:01 PM] Fast
5. [10:05 PM] Subito Allegro (Still faster)
6. [10:09 PM] Very slowly
7. [10:11 PM] Doppio Movimento. Five variations on Simple Gifts
8. [10:21 PM] Moderato - Coda
   [show ends 10:25 PM]

Program notes

• Michael Tilson Thomas: conductor, music director;
• symphony members vary by program; see the current list.

• Yuja Wang: piano;
• Abigail Washburn: vox.

SF Symphony last night was terrific: a great way for me to kick of this year's season!

Abigail Washburn's solo a capella rendition of Come All You Coal Miners was accompanied by striking stills from COAL+ICE. She then offered “a cheery little tune” And Am I Born to Die?, with accompaniment by MTT conducting the SFS to more COAL+ICE stills. The video screens flashed “(Monk)” after the title, but looking online, I couldn't turn anything up on that. My guess is that it's the orchestra arrangement credit. According to this thread on reddit, the words first appeared in 1763, with the melody following in 1816.

No banjo, no clogging, no more Abigail tonight. Drat! I was really intrigues by the idea of clogging at Davies Hall.

Castiglioni's Inverno In-Ver was up next – a modern abstract classical work, eleven takes on a winter theme, with more COAL+ICE stills, some overlain with bizarro video processing/filtering, moody lighting, and flashing LED stick lights spread throughout the orchestra for additional visual distraction.

First set continued with a super exciting version of Ravel's Piano Concerto in D for the left hand, featuring Yuja Wang. From my seat, I thought the balance between the symphony and the soloist was just right.

Yuja treated us to a brief solo encore – no more than 2-3 minutes – but without any introduction, I couldn't place the work. Chopin would be my wild guess. Turns out I was wrong. First time for everything!

Nearly 90 minutes for that set: quite long by SFS norms. Short intermission, then back for one more work: Copland's Appalachian Spring. MTT made note of the fact that they would be performing an expanded version of the piece, but no further explanation on that point appeared in the published program notes.

It was good, but not quite as perfectly executed as the Ravel.

Seems like the event (and likely the next few nights) was being recorded (audio only?) by SFS: I wouldn't be surprised to see part of the program condensed to a CD or two for release in the next year or so.

Stephen Smoliar was a little less impressed; check out his review. I'm grateful to him for identifying Yuja's encore; apparently she performed other encores on the other nights.

This page from WQXR relates the story of the latest “completion” of Copland's Appalachian Spring. As near as I can tell, no one has yet offered a recording of this version – maybe that's what was going on with all the microphones set up onstage.

No photos tonight, sorry!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2018 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2018 event list! ☸ On to the next event!