S.F. Symphony makes triumphant live return
Priscilla Geeslin, the San Francisco Symphony’s new board president, could barely get the words out. “My heart is pounding,” she said, looking visibly flustered on the stage of Davies Symphony Hall on Thursday, May 6. “I’m so excited to be here!”
She wasn’t alone. Not a soul among the 360 or so invited guests scattered around the hall could have felt any differently.
The program of music for strings was short (75 minutes with no intermission) and relatively subdued. But in its own way, this was a celebratory bombshell.
It was the first live music event in the orchestra’s longtime home for more than 14 months. It was the first concert to take place in person under the new music director, EsaPekka Salonen. It was a reaffirmation that not even a global pandemic could silence the sound of music entirely.
Sometimes, in our darker moments, it might have felt as if this day would never arrive. Yet here we were again, sharing the communal gift of live music almost as if the past year had been a bad dream.
The truth of it hit me a few minutes after Geeslin, as Salonen led a complement of 25 musicians — all string players along with one lone percussionist — through the suave, velvety harmonies of
Sibelius’ “Rakastava” (“The Lover”). Suddenly, I felt my chest wracked with silent sobs and knew I’d come home again.
As with any return to familiar ground after a long absence, the event felt simultaneously workaday and slightly surreal. Everything in Davies looked just as we’d left it. I spent several happy minutes before the concert reconnecting with the ushering staff, whose presence is always a welcoming part of any visit.
But there was something weird and dreamlike about the experience as well — most notably the fact that 360 people, widely spread among the rows in the downstairs orchestra section and the loges, barely make a dent in Davies’ 2,743 seats.
For the opening program, the Symphony invited medical professionals, first responders and community leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It was a wonderful gesture of gratitude to those who have done so much to shepherd the Bay Area through this perilous episode, as well as a suitably gradual next step for the intricate return to concert life.
It also meant that the feeling of exuberant celebration was more conceptual than visceral. Everyone in the hall clapped their hearts out, but the bursts of truly thunderous applause will have to wait until next week when the Symphony opens concerts to the ticketbuying public.
Fortunately, San Francisco recently moved to the state’s yellow tier for reopening. Because of this, the Symphony this week upped concert capacity to 50% of the hall from the previously announced 35%. That translates to 1,371 seats, according to a Symphony spokesperson.
In the meantime, Salonen led his stringplaying colleagues — themselves spread across the concert stage — through a series of pieces designed to show off their flexibility and elegance even under adverse circumstances.
Joining the Sibelius in a Nordic vein were Nielsen’s “Little Suite,” Op. 1, and “From Holberg’s Time,” Grieg’s stylish nod to music of the 18th century. America was represented by George Walker’s astoundingly lovely “Lyric for Strings” and Caroline Shaw’s delectably witty “Entr’acte,” which culminated in an entrancing solo from Associate Principal Cellist Peter Wyrick.
It was easy to see the constraints behind the programming. Salonen was limited to music for a small string ensemble because the woodwinds and brass are still operating under more rigorous restrictions, and he chose music that the orchestra already knew well (such as the Shaw, which featured in the orchestra’s recent SoundBox virtual program). But it was heartening to see him make room for African American and female composers, voices that have been underrepresented for far too long in the orchestra’s activities.
And in the end, the repertoire choices mattered less than the sheer celebratory triumphalism of the moment. Live orchestral musicmaking is back! Who can say what else will follow?
Suddenly, I felt my chest wracked with silent sobs and knew I’d come home again.