San Francisco Symphony presents Gamelan Sekar Jaya, then the San Francisco Symphony with Gil Shaham
2014-06-12
Davies Symphony Hall
201 Van Ness, San Francisco, CA
2:00 PM, Thursday, June 12, 2014

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Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1 with Janine Jansen
Britten: Excerpts from The Prince of the Pagodas

[2:01 PM lights down, announcements, then MTT introduces GSJ]

Traditional Works for Gamelan Ensemble, featuring Gamelan Sekar Jaya
Program Notes

1. [2:04 PM] Legong Pengeleb: Dance work arranged for gamelan gong kebyar
   [set ends 2:16 PM]

[pause to clear the Gamelan from the stage, then set up the chairs and stands for the symphony; ready to go at 2:20 or so PM; sound cloud lifted as the SFS tunes up]

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953): Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 63, (1935)
featuring Gil Shaham: violin.
Program Notes by Michael Steinberg

1. [2:28 PM] Allegro moderato
2. [2:39 PM] Andante assai
3. [2:49 PM] Allegro, ben marcato
   [set ends 2:56 PM]

[3:11 PM SFS sawing away; waiting; lights down]

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) (arranged by Donald Mitchell and Mervyn Cooke): Suite from the Ballet The Prince of the Pagodas, Op. 57 (1956) Program Notes by Michael Steinberg

1. [3:12 PM] Part 1: Prelude
    
   Part 2: The Four Kings
2. [3:m PM] Variation of the King of the North: Quick and heavy
3. [3:m PM] Variation of the King of the East: Slow and languorous
4. [3:18 PM] Variation of the King of the West: Moderately quick
5. [3:m PM] Variation of the King of the South: Quick and heavy. Energetic
    
   Part 3: The Strange Journey of Belle Rose to the Pagoda Land
6. [3:21 PM] Belle Rose is Borne in by Frogs
7. [3:m PM] Pas de deux: Male and Female Flames
8. [3:m PM] Coda: Male and Female Flames and corps de ballet of Flames
    
   Part 4: The Arrival and Adventures of Belle Rose in the Kingdom of the Pagodas
9. [3:m PM] Very free: Slow
10. [3:m PM] Pas de deux: The Prince and Belle Rose
     
    Part 5: The Pagoda Palace: Darkness to Light
11. [3:m PM] Slow. Same tempo
12. [3:m PM] Pas de six: Entrée: Quick and energetic
13. [3:m PM] Pas de deux: Broadly
14. [3:m PM] Pas de trois: Flowing
     
    Part 6: Finale
15. [3:m PM] Waltz time
16. [3:m PM] Boys of the Pas de six
17. [3:m PM] The Emperor and the Fool
18. [3:m PM] Girls of the Pas de six
19. [3:m PM] The Prince of the Pagodas
20. [3:m PM] Belle Rose
21. [3:m PM] Apotheosis: Quick. Broadly. Quick [show ends 3:m PM]

San Francisco Symphony

• Michael Tilson Thomas: conductor, music director;
• symphony members vary by program, see http://www.sfsymphony.org/About-Us/Musicians-Conductors for the current list.

• Gil Shaham: violin.

Gamelan Sekar Jaya

• I Dewa Putu Berata: guest music director;
• Emiko Saraswati Susilo: company director, guest dance director.

Today's matinee program was certainly unusual: it' s rare that a Symphony performance begins without any symphony members present onstage, but after an introduction that was both warm and heartfelt and somewhat mealy mouthed, MTT slipped off, leaving the stage empty until GSJ filed in to their places in the front. I feel lucky to have been assigned today's seat – smack dab in the center of the fourth row, and absolutely perfect for watching the dancers and performers. Molto bene! While my untutored recollection is that Legong is typically advertised as the 'dance of the virgins' and performed by preteens, todays quintet of dancers were all certainly of college age if not even a decade or two past that. For me, this changed the dance quite a bit, making it a less alien spectacle. Probably also a lot easier to find adult legong dancers in Berkeley, but I have to say that I haven't searched for any, so my opinion is unsubstantiated.

I thought the concluding work on today's program, an arrangement of Britten's 1957? ballet, the Prince of Pagodas, by Donald Mitchell and Mervyn Cooke, was darn interesting. Britten (or Mitchell and Cooke?) did a really fine job of orchestrating the parts to approximate the sound of a gamelan. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Britten was leaning hard on LP's that he picked up in Bali to tune his aural memories while writing the work. It's a shame that the piece was presented out of context – without costumed ballet dancers or theatrical backdrops – but that's not too surprising given the nature of the event, and not really even a complaint, just an observation that I'd have liked the extra sensory input!

Unfortunately, I seemed to have mucked things up with the set timing, and my data for the second set has been lost. I hate it when that happens!

Andrew Gilbert wrote a nice promo article about Gamelan Sekar Jaya for SFGate.

David Wiegand penned a promo article about the Britten work.

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