San Francisco Symphony presents Koopman’s Bach: Bach in Leipzig featuring Ton Koopman conducting the San Francisco Symphony
Davies Symphony Hall
201 Van Ness, San Francisco, CA
8:00 PM, Thursday, May 8, 2014
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[8:01 PM lights down, pre-performance announcements]
J.S. Bach (1685-1750): Cantata, Auf, schmetternde Töne der muntern Trompeten, BWV 207a (1735)
[8:55 PM lights down, announcements]
J.S. Bach (1685-1750): Missa brevis (Kyrie and Gloria from Mass in B minor), BWV 232a (1733)
The show starts off in novel fashion when the symphony launches into a march immediately after the collective tuning, after a few moments, the chorus enters by procession split between the two center aisles, followed at end by the four soloists and Ton Koopman, who lept up to his podium and began gesturing wildly to assert his conductorship midway through the first movement. The rest of the cantata unfolded without further surprises, and while it was quite satisfying to me, the rest of the audience seemed caught by surprise at the conclusion, with the silent gap before the ovation growing almost uncomfortably long. Hard to imagine that they were snoozing given the impressively loud and pompous flourishes of the final chorus. Very strange!
Anyways, I took set break as an opportunity to skip over to a open seat in the center of the sixth row. Hooray! Nicer to be a little bit further back and even more, not having to sit crooked to see all the action! And the second set mass is a fine one, even if it's a bit incomplete (having only the start: Kyrie & Gloria – and lacking the Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei of a regular “ordinary” mass). I especially enjoy the chamber sections when the soloist is accompanied by only a pair of instruments – all the better to expose the raw beauty of Bach's compositional ideas. A big plus of the abbreviation of the mass is that it trims the work down to a more listener-friendly length: an hour is good and generous, but not so long that it becomes a chore to attend to the listening task!
Stephen Smoliar posted his review of the show at the Examiner website.
Back to the previous event ☸ Back to the 2014 yearbox ☸ Back to the 2014 event list! ☸ On to the next event!