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