SF Civic Symphony’s “American Sound”

Yesterday afternoon my wife and I returned to Herbst Theatre, this time for the latest program presented by the San Francisco Civic Symphony of the San Francisco Civic Music Association. The full title of the program was The American Sound - in celebration of America’s Semi-quincentennial. The ensemble was led by Music Director Paul Schrage, and the concerto soloist was pianist Daniel Glover. He departed from the usual “American” performance of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” preferring, instead, the three-movement “Concerto in F.”

Conductor Walter Damrosch had attended the world premiere of “Rhapsody in Blue” on February 12, 1924; and the following day he commissioned Gershwin to compose a full-length piano concerto for the New York Symphony Orchestra, which he conducted. It receives far less attention than the “Rhapsody;” but, here in San Francisco, pianist Hélène Grimaud performed it as concerto soloist for this season’s opening night performance for the San Francisco Symphony. Glover was just as engaging in yesterday afternoon’s account, following up with an equally high-spirited account of Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s “The Banjo.”

Cover page of a piano arrangement of the first movement of Gottschalk’s first symphony (from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

As might be expected, the concerto was preceded by an overture. In this case the source of the “American sound” was Scott Joplin with the overture to his Treemonisha opera, which was followed by Aaron Copland’s symphonic approach to the “John Henry” folk song. The second half of the program began with Joplin’s contemporary, Florence Price. Many readers may be familiar with her violin concerto, which has been performed in Davies Symphony Hall. “The Oak” is a relatively short tone poem when compared with that concerto, but it is far more visceral and definitely seized listener attention following the intermission. This was followed by William Schuman’s orchestral arrangement of “Variations on ‘America,’” which Charles Ives had composed for organ for an Independence Day celebration. This provided the “comic relief” for the afternoon, and Schrage knew just how to capture that spirit. The program concluded with Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s first symphony, given the descriptive title “La nuit des tropiques” (night of the tropics). Gottschalk was one to “pull out all the stops;” and the second of the two movements is not only raucous but also, according to its Wikipedia entry, “the first orchestral setting of a samba!”

The ensemble is a “community orchestra,” meaning that all the members have a different “day job.” I performed in such an ensemble during my senior year in high school. The conductor was not afraid to be ambitious; and the high point of that year was a full performance of Joseph Haydn’s Hoboken XXI:2 oratorio The Creation. Yesterday afternoon’s program was just as ambitious, yet another example of what happens when amateurs are willing to take their music seriously!