Sweet Thunder Festival: San Francisco Contemporary Music Players

By Grant Damron, 29 April 2014

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“she manipulated the sound in a way that is obvious in its effect but mysterious in its execution”

Reviewed at Fort Mason Center: Gallery 308, San Francisco on 26 April 2014

Varèse, Poème électronique

Varèse, Déserts

Davidovsky, Synchronisms no.10

Saariaho, Io

Fure, Albatross

Z, Unknown Person

San Francisco Contemporary Music Players

Steven Schick, Artistic Director

Michael Gordon's Timber resonates in San Francisco

Grant Damron, 14th November

“Timber”, the word, conjures images of trees falling in the wilderness as lumberjacks yell out, of fragrant wood crackling in a fireplace, and of stacks of lumber waiting to be crafted into furniture by carpenters’ rough hands. Michael Gordon’s 2010 work Timber is just as evocative.

****1

An unlikely meeting of Morton Feldman and the blues

Kurt Gottschalk, 27th September

Sorey’s instrumentation mirrors Feldman’s Rothko Chapel in a moving evening of musical high drama at Park Avenue Armory.

*****

Andris Nelsons and the BSO arrive in New York, with baggage in tow

Cameron Kelsall, 9th April

In his first New York appearance since the termination of his contract as BSO Music Director, Nelsons courts public sympathy and makes some thrilling music.

***11

Nelson Goerner shines with the CBSO and Rachmaninov's Rhapsody

Robert Gainer, 9th April

The CBSO present the work of three European émigré composers of the 1930s and 40s, who reimagined their musical influences with contrasting approaches and results.

****1

Karabits and Szeps-Znaider carouse with the LPO

Christopher Woodley, 8th April

The sparkle of Max Bruch's Fecond Violin Concerto and the drama of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony overcome the gloom of Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s dark forebodings.

****1

Savall conducts Beethoven and Haydn at the Elbphilharmonie

Mengguang Huang, 3rd April

Beethoven's Christus am Ölberge is paired with Haydn's Die sieben letzten Worte, a journey from agony to transcendence in which the agony proves the more honest companion.

***11

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Grant Damron