Back in SF
Well it’s been a while since I posted. Since we last checked in I finished the season with the KWS, including a wonderful performance of Les nuits d’été with the fabulous Measha Brueggergosman. She has a nice history with the orchestra, having done her first Verdi Requiem and more with the orchestra. She has the bearing of a diva, but the truth is she is a very serious, no-BS musician who likes to work things out. We have plans for future concerts in KW, and they are cool.
After the season, Tom and I spent a week in “cottage country,” Stratford, Niagara Falls, Niagara wine country, and Tornoto. It was nice to hang out in Ontario with out work hanging over my head — it’s a beautiful, fun place to hang. Next summer I have to get more of my Cali friends up here.
Then three days in Cardiff, Wales with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW) for some radio recordings. Britten Cello Symphony with Danjulo Ishizaka and Hindemith Schwanendreher with Maxim Rysanov. These are two concertos that I’ll probably never get to do live without some serious explaining, but they’re both great works. The Cello Symphony in particular is not easy going for the listener. The music makes me feel trapped and empty. It is full of the intense yearning you find in Peter Grimes, but yearning for what? Britten never exactly answers the questions he poses in his music.
Now I’m back in SF, and I must have serious jet-lag because I heard Mahler’s Adagietto in the men’s locker room of my yuppie gym. This kind of stuff is what drove Daniel Barenboim out of this country. Anyway, I would like to believe that it subtly reminded all of us trying to keep fit, that we’re all gonna die anyway.