“All San Francisco Concert” Anniversary

Last night in Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco Symphony (SFS) marked the 45th anniversary of its All San Francisco Concert. This is the annual event that has more to do with the citizens of San Francisco (many of whom are not necessarily fans of classical music) than with the more “elite” concert-goers. As I previously observed, it was conceived for those “who work tirelessly to make the Bay Area a more just and equitable place.” Those working for Bay Area nonprofit, social services, and grassroots organizations are offered admission for only $12.

The program itself presented works by four composers whose names were likely familiar to most (if not all) of the audience. The first half coupled Jean Sibelius and Edvard Grieg, each represented by a suite extracted from a longer composition. The second half was devoted to “concert music” by two twentieth-century French composers, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted what amounted to full SFS resources, including harpist Katherine Siochi serving as soloist in the Debussy selection.

The chromatic harp built by Henry Greenway on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (photograph donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication)

The full title of that piece was “Danses pour harpe chromatique avec accompagnement d'orchestre d'instruments à cordes” (dances for chromatic harp with string orchestra accompaniment). My only encounter with a chromatic harp has been in a museum. The most familiar design can be seen in the above photograph. The instrument consists of two planes, corresponding to the white and black keys of a piano, respectively; and Debussy probably conceived his score with regard to how a pair of hands could deal with such a structure.

These days the music is almost always performed on the usual pedal harp. I have to confess that I really appreciated the view afforded by my seat last night. Since I am relatively familiar with the music, I was able to coordinate Siochi’s fingerwork with the sonorities I was expecting. She was accompanied only by the string section, and Salonen knew exactly how to capture the dance-like qualities of the score. This is music that deserves far more attention than it tends to get. The last SFS performance took place in May of 2006, around the end of my Silicon Valley days, when then SFS harpist Douglas Rioth played it with Edward Outwater conducting.

By way of contrast, the second of the two suites that Maurice Ravel extracted from his score for “Daphnis et Chloé,” the “symphonie chorégraphique” choreographed by Michel Fokine for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, can definitely claim warhorse status. It was taken from a one-act ballet in three sections and basically accounts for the final section. Ravel, of course, had a prodigious command of the wide spectrum of sonorities that he could summon from an orchestral ensemble; and there is no shortage of those sonorities in this particular suite. This was one of those occasions when it was clear that both the conductor and his ensemble were having a good time, and the final cadence erupted with enthusiastic approval from the audience.

The program began with a suite that was not as structured around a narrative. Jean Sibelius’ Opus 11, Karelia Suite consists of three movements extracted from his Karelia Music. As Lyle Watson observed in his Musical Quarterly article, the collection was conceived as a reflection on the folk music of Karelia without necessarily appropriating it. The suite is relative short in duration (usually clocking in at less that a quarter of an hour); but each of the three movements explores is own unique reflections on folk styles.

This suite was followed by another, more familiar, one: the first of the two suites that Edvard Grieg extracted from the music he wrote for a performance of Henrik Ibsen’s five-act play Peer Gynt. All four of the movements are familiar to most concert-goers; and the last of them, “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” is an unabashed roof-raiser. Salonen knew exactly how to built up the intensity of that movement, making for roaring approval from the audience at the final cadence.

Last night was the first performance of the new season, even though the “Opening Gala” is still a week and a half in the future! As a result, this was my first encounter with All San Francisco; and I think it would be fair to say that the chemistry between audience and orchestra involved more attention to the latter than I have seen in past Gala occasions. Last night’s audience clearly appreciated that the occasion was all about the music, and their enthusiastic response made it clear just how significant this ensemble is to our city.