This afternoon in Davies Symphony Hall, the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) presented the first of its three programs featuring highly jazz-informed programming performed, for the most part, with symphonic, rather than jazz-band, resources. The conductor was Thomas Wilkins, who made his SFS debut in December of 2019; and the soloist was Branford Marsalis on alto saxophone, who made his SFS debut in March of 1994. As might be expected, this was not the usual overture-concerto-symphony program. Instead, there was an opening based on three excerpts from Leonard Bernstein’s score for the musical On the Town, two works featuring the saxophone, and “Harlem,” which may be the closest Duke Ellington ever came to composing a tone poem.
Bass player Stephen Tramontozzi (from his Faculty Web page on the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Web site)
Two of the works involved arrangements that deserve attention. The first of these was Marsalis’ first selection, originally conceived by Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff as a sonata for alto saxophone and piano, given the title “Hot-Sonate.” However, this afternoon the piece was played as a concerto in an arrangement by Richard Rodney Bennett. Among the Europeans, Schulhoff had one of the keenest ears for jazz rhetoric; and Bennett seems to have made it a point to make sure that his arrangement would not short-change any of the original version’s jazzy qualities.
It is also worth noting that Marsalis was part of a trio of soloists, reflecting a combo of saxophone, bass(Stephen Tramontozzi), and drum kit (Jacob Nissly). Most important, however, was that Bennett knew how to make sure that he never short-changed the flood of “hot” gestures found in the original score. This selection was being performed by SFS for the very first time.
The other arrangement involved “Harlem,” which was originally commissioned by the NBC Symphony. However, it was first performed by the Ellington band in 1951. The symphonic version was orchestrated by Luther Henderson; but, when Maurice Peress recorded the work with the American Composers Orchestra, he provided his own orchestration. Since both names are included in the program book, it is likely that Wilkins chose which portions of the score would receive orchestration by which composer. Regardless of its “pedigree,” this selection presented just as much impact as one could expect from a program-concluding symphony, complete with some wild percussion works that even spilled over onto Edward Stephan’s timpani.
The other two works on the program had their “roots” in narrative. The opening selection was composed by Leonard Bernstein, drawing upon the score he had originally created for the musical On the Town. From that score he distilled a symphonic suite of sorts, called simply “Three Dance Episodes.” These days On the Town is better known for the 1949 film, which was directed by Gene Kelley (who was also a leading member of the cast). Those familiar with the film would probably recall the scenes from which Bernstein extracted his episodes, but my own opinion is that the music has far more impact in its original narrative setting.
The other narrative came from the film Catch Me If You Can, whose score was composed by John Williams. I have to confess that I never saw this film. As a result, most of my own listening joy came from having a second opportunity to listen to Marsalis lead his trio with Tramontozzi and Nissly. Once again, this “dynamic trio” had a hand to giving the music its first SFS performance. Williams himself call his reworking of excerpts Escapades; and listening to the “escapades” of both the trio and the full orchestra behind them made for a rich sense of satisfaction that had nothing to do with any underling movie narrative! This offering was also given its first SFS appearance, and the music clearly has more than enough substance to justify returning in a future SFS program.
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