I’m cheating here; this could be separated as two different concerts, hence finishing my goal. But as both concerts were part of the Prokofiev festival, and they were almost back to back, I’m going to lump them as one. I don’t feel particularly bad about this, since I know I have another concert to go to next week, which will put me over my goal.
Prokofiev may be my favorite composer. Weird harmonies, crashing passages, it gives me goosebumps to hear it. I’ve been a fan since I dated the clarinet player in high school. So when I read that the SF Symphony was going to have a Prokofiev FESTIVAL, I nearly jumped out of my skin. I quickly contacted my symphony pal Tyler and figured out we could afford to go to two of the four concerts: one at Davies, and one in my old stomping ground in San Jose.
Saturday, June 16th, found Tyler and I entering Davies in our symphony best. We had managed to snag my favorite seats again, in the left of the choir box, where you can watch the facial expressions of the conductor (MTT in this case), you can see the hands of the pianist, and most importantly, you can see how hard the musicians have to work to produce their sound. Because Prokofiev makes them work. It was exhausting for me just to watch them, and I can only imagine what it’s like to play.
Saturday’s program started with the American Overture, which was pleasant, but hardly note-worthy. I don’t find it to be one of his more memorable or best works. I spent most of it musing on the two (two!) harp players, and thinking about how fun it must be to pluck those strings. After the intermission (and a glass of champagne, how fancy are we!), what we were there to see/hear: Piano Concerto No 2 in G Minor. It is a beautiful piece of music, but it kind of shoots its load (to use a rather crass phrase) in the first movement, the Andantino. That piano solo is so amazing that the other three movements are pretty bland in comparison. But don’t get me wrong; I was enraptured through the entire thing.
Sunday, though. Oh Sunday. Tyler and I hopped in the car and drove down to Flint (which is only a mile from my old house). We had once again managed excellent seats, pretty close and slightly to the left, with again a great view of the solo pianist’s hands. This show was opened with scenes from The Love of Three Oranges, which I hadn’t heard previously. I liked the pieces enough to be curious to hear it in it’s full opera form.
But the 3rd Piano Concerto. Oh. Even remembering it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Tyler had mentioned that it’s one of his favorite pieces of music, and I thought I wasn’t familiar with it, but as soon as the clarinet played the opening solo, I realized that I knew all three movements as well as the back of my hand. When dating that clarinet player in high school, he made me a classical mix tape (how can you not adore that?), and the 3rd Piano Concerto was what I listened to, rewound, and listened to over and over again. Over the last 10+ years, I had forgotten who had written it, but it all came back to me, and it was one of the more spectacular things I have witnessed.
Yefim Bronfman, the soloist, had amazing hands. It’s one thing to listen to a piece of music and enjoy it as much as I enjoy the 3rd. It’s quite another to see what the pianist has to fight to make those sounds. There’s so many runs from one end of the piano to the other, these huge chords that take up half the keyboard, and so many hand crossovers. I totally broke protocol and clapped after the first movement, I was so excited about his playing.
After the intermission, they played pieces from Romeo and Juliet. I thought that THIS was going to be the big ta-da for me, but after the 3rd, everything pales. Romeo and Juliet was great, but I nodded off a little during the balcony scene, and the music didn’t really grab me until we got to the Death of Tybalt, which is textbook Prokofiev and excellent. And the last thing they played.
I’m sad that my goal is nearing its end, but happy that I’ve been to more shows in the last six months than I had the two years before, combined. I have Feist next week, and more scheduled for later in the year. I think even after I hit ten, I’m going to keep chronicling them here. It’s pretty fun!
