Thomas, Symphony do Bernstein proud at tribute
This is a Bernstein year of sorts. Ninety isn’t the most significant milestone, but it does end in a zero and the New York City classical music community hardly needs an excuse to celebrate the birth of its favorite son. A festival of music and film presented by Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic runs in New York through Dec. 13 (”Bernstein: The Best of All Possible Worlds”), and while the lion’s share of the concerts feature the Philharmonic, it was the San Francisco Symphony that was selected to open the festival - and to launch Carnegie Hall’s 118th season - on Wednesday night.
The choice was clear and proved correct. Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas’ connection to Leonard Bernstein goes beyond a kindred bravura at the podium, skill at the keyboard, or the shared experience of a dazzling conducting debut shortly before his 25th birthday at Carnegie Hall by way of last-minute substitution. They also share an avid affinity for Mahler, educational outreach and advancing classical music by means of new media. Most importantly, until his death in 1990, Bernstein was a mentor and friend to Thomas.
Despite a cast of ringers assembled for Carnegie’s opening gala, it was the Symphony that shone brightest, and nowhere more so than in the first selection, the Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story.” From the opening Prologue, the music was driving yet imbued with a nuance and coloration that made the familiar music entirely fresh. Strong and confident, the go-for-broke brass gave the Prologue a West Coast swing and later bolstered “Cool Fugue” with a big-band sound. “Mambo” combined sharp percussive licks with a bright attack. “Somewhere” was homely, warm and understated, making it all the more poignant. In the Scherzo, Thomas and the Symphony channeled Aaron Copland as they evoked music of wide spaces and infinite possibility.
At the podium, Thomas recalled Bernstein for his obvious delight and gleeful showmanship (turning profile for maximum emotive exposure, cueing the audience for the second exclamatory “Mambo!”), but ultimately Thomas is a more contained and active manager of his orchestra. And hearing this great American orchestra play this music, one realizes that it takes an American orchestra to play it. European orchestras ultimately prove too rooted in their tradition to swing without self-awareness or irony, whereas Bernstein’s language, which at its best occupies a space between classical, Broadway and jazz, sits comfortably within the American vernacular.
Following the Symphonic Dances, the program ventured out to Bernstein’s more serious music. First, Thomas addressed the shared quality of the Finale of the “West Side Story” Dances and the Postlude to Act I of “A Quiet Place,” which the Symphony would perform as one of its selections from Bernstein’s final opera. The ending of both, Thomas noted, was “not ‘an Amen,’ not a ‘So be it,’ but a ‘May it be so …?’ ” The uncertainty in Bernstein’s music certainly mirrored the Renaissance man’s agonizing, not only over the balance in his life between composing, conducting, performing, writing and educating, but also over the relative failure of his symphonic and operatic music as compared with the roaring success of his theatrical music.
The remainder of the concert would do little to ease his mind on the latter concern. From “A Quiet Place,” baritone Thomas Hampson gave a dark and passionate reading of the funeral rant, “You’re Late,” and soprano Dawn Upshaw, despite her trademark scooping, provided a lyrical rendition of “Morning, Good Morning.”
But after a glitterati-mingling intermission, these performances were forgotten in the wake of vocalist Christine Ebersole’s “I Can Cook, Too” from the musical “On the Town,” where Ebsersole added a Satchmo growl to her light cabaret voice and was backed by more glorious big-band swinging from the Symphony. Equally appreciated by the crowd was Upshaw’s good-humored romp through “What a Movie” from “Trouble in Tahiti.” Meditation No. 1 from Bernstein’s “Mass” passed nearly unnoticed, despite the presence of cellist Yo-Yo Ma as soloist. Ma would return with Hampson and with a bit more success for a Mahlerian meditative performance of “To What You Said,” a setting of Walt Whitman from Bernstein’s late work, “Songfest.”
The finale saw all the soloists together for a sing-along of “Ya Got Me” from “On the Town.” Thomas himself crooned a verse and Ma gave an animated solo, urged on by the conductor. The highlight of the evening, however, was a semi-staged account of “Gee, Officer Krupke,” from “West Side Story,” performed by an ensemble of six students from the Juilliard School.
With exuberance and precise New Yorkese, and improbably acrobatic choreography performed in tight quarters, the students outshone the professionals and brought down the house. Moreover, they not only illustrated the timelessness and genius of Bernstein’s song of at-risk youth but furthered the popular conviction that West Side Story stands head and shoulders above the rest of the composer’s repertoire, which may not bode well for the festival’s remaining concerts.
Bernstein: The Best of All Possible Worlds: The San Francisco Symphony’s program-opening Carnegie Hall concert will be broadcast on “Great Performances” at 9 p.m. Oct. 29, on KQED.
