San Francisco Symphony presents Paul Jacobs with Christine Brewer
2015-10-18
Davies Symphony Hall
201 Van Ness, San Francisco, CA
7:00 PM, Sunday, October 18, 2015

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2015 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2015 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[7:00 PM lights down, announcements]

1. [7:01 PM] Bach: Sinfonia to Cantata No. 29, Wir danken dir, Gott
2. [7:06 PM] Bach: Bist du bei mir
3. [7:12 PM] Handel: But, Oh What Art Can Teach from Ode for St. Cecilia's Day
4. [7:15 PM] Franck: Panis Angelicus
5. [7:21 PM] N. Boulanger: Trois Pièces for Organ
6. [7:31 PM] L. Boulanger: Pie Jesu
7. [7:35 PM] Puccini: Salve Regina
8. [7:41 PM] Reger: Toccata and Fugue
9. [7:52 PM] Reger (arr. Wolf): Nun wandre, Maria
10. [7:m PM] Reger (arr. Wolf): Führ mich, Kind, nach Bethlehem!
11. [7:m PM] Reger (arr. Wolf): Gebet
12. [8:01 PM] Bach (arr. Gounod): Ave Maria
13. [8:04 PM] Gounod: O Divine Redeemer
14. [8:10 PM] Widor: Toccata from Symphony No. 5
    [set ends 8:16 PM]
     
    Encore
15. [8:17 PM] Schubert: Ave Maria
    [show ends 8:20 PM]

• Christine Brewer: soprano vox;
• Paul Jacobs: organ.

I was surprised to arrive in San Francisco tonight to find the city draped in a thick, drippy fog. Awesome! We need moisture any way we can get it – but slow and drippy is especially good for the natives that like it that way. Like me! So I sat in the car and snarfled my dinner sandwich with a bottle of ginger kombucha, then shuffled up the block to Davies and settled into my seat. Up until the last moment before showtime I thought I was going to enjoy the happy bonus arm room of an empty seat on my right, but an overly enthusiastic German-American organist settled in at the last minute with a hearty “Guden Tag!” and proceeded to try and chit-chat throughout the show. Sigh. At least she didn't talk much during the performance!

I was entirely unfamiliar with tonight's repertoire – duets for soprano and pipe organ? Guess I didn't get to attend those sort of church services growing up in sunny southern California. Singing along to Godspell and Kumbaya on acoustic guitars under the old oak trees in the garden was a little more typical of my musical church experience!

So these tunes were new and interesting, and for the most part, pretty good stuff. Hard to say whether I liked the interstitial solo organ performances better or worse than the duo sets. Jacobs certainly likes to rave it up on the organ, so the solo stuff has that plus, but Brewer sang like an angel throughout the night. Guess I'll call it a tie! Good show!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2015 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2015 event list! ☸ On to the next event!