Melvyn Krauss is a professional economist who often writes about music. He has published on music in the Wall Street Journal, Harper's, and Opera News. In his early years, he mostly spent his time in opera houses. But with the decline of great singers and production values, Mr. Krauss abandoned the opera house in favor of the concert hall where he found the standard of performing to be on a much higher level. He resides in Portola Valley, California with his wife Irene, two Irish setters, and two cats. He considers himself to be a New Yorker-in-exile.
San Francisco is not a Brahms town. Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT), the retiring Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS)--and the most influential classical music person in the Bay Area-- does not conduct much Brahms, relegating the works of the great master to guest conductors.
The second major event in the San Francisco Symphony’s celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday was a joint recital last Sunday evening at Davies Hall with the legendary violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and her frequent collaborator Lambert Orkis.
The first Beethoven of 2020 celebrating the master’s 250th birthday at the San Francisco Symphony--a performance of his Second Piano Concerto by Emmanuel Ax, Michael Tilson Thomas conducting—was a great success.
Shortages always have been a friend to outsider groups trying to burst into fields where they are discriminated against.
The growing shortage of top conducting talent in the field of classical music, for example, is opening doors for female conductors that would have stayed shut in more abundant times.
The superb American pianist Richard Goode and the invaluable San Francisco Performances (SFP) crossed paths on the occasion of the latter’s 40th Anniversary Gala at Herbst Theater in San Francisco last Tuesday evening, and the results gave gala donors something to cheer about.
The Christian Gerhaher recital of Mahler songs in Herbst Theatre last evening presented under the auspices of San Francisco Performances proves that a lieder singer of the first rank does not need a beautiful voice to succeed.
Last evening at Davies Hall was the first concert of the season for me and it turned out to be a somewhat depressing affair.
The San Francisco Symphony (SFS) presented two terrific young artists at its Memorial Day subscription concerts—the violinist Vilde Frang and the conductor Krzysztof Urbanski.
The two collaborated on an absolutely beautiful performance of Edward Elgar’s neglected masterpiece, the Violin Concerto in B minor, Opus 61.
I don’t get it. Francesco Piemontesi, the young Swiss pianist who made his San Francisco debut in recital with San Francisco Performances last Tuesday in their last concert of the season, is listed in his promotional data as being a student of Murray Perahia and Alfred Brendel.
Both these piano greats are especially known for elegance, refinement and subtlety.
But unlike his teachers, Mr. Piemontesi is a tremendous banger;
A good tip can be more valuable than gold.
Regarding the recital of the Tetzlaff-Tetzlaff-Vogt Trio (TTVT) presented under the auspices of San Francisco Performances on April 27 in Herbst Theatre, I advised the readers of this blog to, ‘Be There or Be Square’.
The ones that were ‘there, not square’ are the ones that had the good fortune to attend what I consider to be the absolute best classic music concert of the 2018-19 concert season.
The harp had a big night at last Saturday evening’s concert of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). It figured prominently in all three pieces on the program—Ravel’s “Pavane for a Dead Princess”; Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major and Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade”. That’s very special.
Also, special was the guest conductor Simone Young who made her debut with the SFS with these concerts.
There was an almost sell-out crowd for last Sunday’s joint recital of the violinist Midori and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet at Davies Hall in San Francisco.
And therein lays the problem!
At a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise, the program presented last Saturday at Herbst Theatre in San Francisco by Daniel Hope and the excellent New Century Chamber Orchestra, “Forbidden Music”, was both timely and entertaining.
I walked out of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) concert at Davies Hall after intermission last Sunday afternoon. It wasn’t because I hated what I had just heard; it was because I loved it!
Listening to Lars Vogt, the superb German pianist, play the Schumann Piano Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) last evening I could not help but think what a deep, deep reservoir of fabulous pianists there are in the classical music world today.
For me, the highlight of the San Francisco Symphony’s (SFS) concert seasons is the annual visits of former SFS Music Director Herbert Blomstedt.
Judging from the rapturous reactions of influential music critics, last month’s appointment of Esa-Pekka Salonen (EPS) as Music Director Designate of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra has been a great success.
A big question in classical music circles is whether Jaap van Zweden, the new music director of the New York Philharmonic, got the job because of his musical talent or because he brought a few very rich donors with him from his last gig in Dallas.
I decided to check it out myself…
On December 12, I went to hear the much praised violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja play her debut recital in San Francisco with the excellent pianist Polina Leschenko.
The recital was given at Herbst Hall in San Francisco under the auspices of San Francisco Performances.
The current political climate in the U.S. is such that if a symphony conductor is accused of sexual harassment, he is blacklisted by all the symphony orchestras in the country.
But with one notable exception, Europe is not America when it comes to alleged sexual assault violations.
