Blomstedt Returns to the San Francisco Symphony in Tchaikovsky and Bruckner Fifths; Garrick Ohlsson Plays Mozart Piano Concerto K. 271, by Steven Kruger

Blomstedt-herbert-12
Herbert Blomstedt

The San Francisco Symphony
Davies Hall, San Francisco

Saturday, February 4, 2012
Herbert Blomstedt, conductor
Garrick Ohlsson, piano

Mozart - Concerto No. 9 in E-Flat, K.271 (1777)
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Opus 64 (1888)

Friday, February 10, 2012
Herbert Blomstedt, conductor

Bruckner - Symphony No 5 in B-flat (1878)

Imagine an apocryphal New Yorker magazine cover depicting an evening at the symphony. Onstage sits the pianist, a tall figure in black, motionless at his instrument but for the whir of fingers. The lacquered piano lid conceals a conductor's head and body, but black arms and a baton poke sideways from it, indicating his presence. The audience is attentive and faces forward. But somewhere near row X, a grey-haired woman lies prostrate on her back, motionless in the aisle. Nobody seems to notice, except for a patron a few rows beyond. His head is turned sideways and one eyeball bulges with amazement and alarm. That eyeball is mine.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!