San Francisco Philharmonic’s Beethoven Offering

Many readers probably know by now that I do my best to keep up with announcements of performances by the San Francisco Philharmonic (SF Phil). This is an 80-piece ensemble founded in 2019 by Jessica Bejarano, who still serves as its Music Director. Towards the end of my high school years, I had the good fortune to play first clarinet for a group like SF Phil, which was known, in those days, as a “community orchestra.” In other words, all the performers had “day jobs” (mine being finishing high school).

During my tenure with that ensemble, the “crowning achievement” was a performance, in its entirety, of Joseph Haydn’s Hoboken XXI:2 oratorio, The Creation. The Music Director from my high school attended, and I was particularly impressed that he was impressed. (High school was his “day job,” and the night’s were for combo work!) My first encounter with SF Phil almost immediately reminded me of my high school days. Here was a diverse ensemble of local residents, all committed to taking the performance of music seriously. Bejarano could not have been better in leading them to live up to that commitment. Every one of the performers was fixated on what to expect from the expressiveness of her conducting, and the result was a “unified whole” that did justice to the entire program.

Portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven by Christian Horneman, painted in 1803 when he was working on his Opus 56 “Triple Concerto”

That program involved three familiar compositions by Ludwig van Beethoven, concluding with the most familiar of all, the Opus 67 (fifth) symphony in C minor. The entire program followed the usual overture-concerto-symphony format. The overture was composed for the Opus 72 Fidelio, the last of four efforts to begin the opera. The concerto was the Opus 56 “Triple Concerto,” so called because it is a concerto for piano trio and orchestra. The trio members were Cordula Merks on violin, cellist Amos Yang, and John Wilson on piano. The interplay between this group and the orchestral ensemble could not have been more intimate and engaging.

In these post-pandemic days I often find myself scanning an audience to see how many seats are empty. Sadly, my visits to Herbst Theatre tend to reveal more empty seats than I would care to count. Last night, however, SF Phil played to a “full house;” and the atmosphere felt like every seat was filled with an attentive listener. Music “by the community, from the community, and for the community” seems to work well in this town!