San Francisco Symphony Plays The Kennedy Center

By Author: Rob LaGrone
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San Francisco Symphony Plays The Kennedy Center

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From the opening note of the violins, cool and smooth as a frozen pond, the San Francisco Symphony exuded depth. A dozen violinists playing the same note, and attaining the richness of multiple instruments while staying in perfect tune and time, takes tremendous talent - and these people have it.

Today's performance was one of many at the Kennedy Center this 2002 Fall season by some very prestigious organizations, including the Vienna Philharmonic, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and cellist Yo-yo Ma. The playbill featured works from Bela Bartok, Carl Ruggles, and Richard Strauss. The performance was one of many sponsored by the Washington Performing Arts Society (www.wpas.org), an ambitious organization whose purpose is to further the development and enjoyment of music, theater, and dance in the greater Washington, D.C. area, and to ...
... make the city as much a cultural capital as a governmental one.

I sat between the wife of a foreign embassy official and a young percussionist studying under WPAS's youth fellowship program. Funny, I didn't meet people like this at the monster truck rally...

Michael Tilson Thomas has been Conductor and Musical Director for the San Francisco Symphony since 1995. It is a treat to see him in action, arms waving about, hands moving expressively and passionately as he conducts. He not only draws the very best out of his musicians but visibly enjoys every minute of it.

I think this afternoon's Bartok piece, 'Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta', should be called 'The Bipolar Symphony'. The opening movement, played 'Andante tranquillo', or "calmly", can best be described by a color: grey. Gently overlapping chords in minor keys, and some very artistically dissonant tones, lend an air of resigned despair until the volume rises toward a surprising intense climax. Then the final, graceful note of the violins trails off like the quiet death of hope. The melodic celeste (think of the Nutcracker Suite's 'Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy' by Tchaikovsky) helps to make the movement sound pretty despite its mood.

The second movement - 'Allegro', or happy - jumps in with an almost manic energy and races along, violin bows stabbing the air like swords in a Lord-of-the-Rings battle. This may be an apt analogy, as this piece calls for an unusual rearrangement of the orchestra that effectively creates two dueling string sections on either side of a grand piano (please don't stab the piano player). The sound is engaging and intriguing, with a spunky keyboard part and much plucking of strings from the violins, basses, and harp.

The third movement, played 'Adagio', returns you to greyness. The ethereal chords and unusual bent tones from the kettledrums suggest a weird dream, the kind that makes you wonder what was in last night's dinner.

When I looked down at my program and saw 'Allegro molto' for the final movement, I began feeling around for a seat belt. Another wild, melodic ride ensued, carried by the strings and spiced by cymbal and kettledrum. The movement is described as a country dance, and Maestro Tilson Thomas reminded me (forgive me here) of a huge dancing grasshopper, his long limbs and tuxedo tails flying. A final crescendo built into a sudden, almost unexpected ending. Spectacular! It was a long, arduous piece of music, and an intermission followed. This was entirely understandable, as the musicians must have been drained. I certainly was.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, originally conceived under President Eisenhower, was dedicated in 1964 by Congress after Kennedy's death the previous November. The Center's Grand Foyer contains a seven-foot-high bronze bust of JFK and a new interactive information system that teaches visitors about his life and legacy.

The Center contains several performing-arts venues: its 2,441 seat concert hall was renovated in 1997, and the 2,200 seat opera house will close for a year-long renovation after this December's Kennedy Center Honors gala. Next to the opera house is the 1,100 seat Eisenhower Theater, and up on the Terrace Level are two smaller venues. On display everywhere are gifts from around the world: Italian marble walls, Norwegian chandeliers, art works from numerous countries. The entire Center was intended to be a living memorial to JFK, who believed that the quality of a nation's civilization is reflected in the vitality of its performing arts.

Carl Ruggles was a Twentieth-Century American composer who

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Rob LaGrone, Jetsetters Magazine Correspondent - Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com To book travel visit Jetstreams.com at www.jetstreams.com and for Beach Resorts visit Beach Booker at www.beachbooker.com


About the Author Rob LaGrone, Jetsetters Magazine Correspondent. Join the Travel Writers Network in the logo at www.jetsettersmagazine.com Leave Your email next to the logo for FREE e travel newsletter.