Michael Tilson Thomas opened the San Francisco Symphony's "Beethoven's
Vienna" festival in Davies Hall tonight by recreating the musical life
of the Austrian capital between 1790 and 1818, when Beethoven was operating
among many rivals, instead of being the singular force he appears to us,
"fast-forwarding music from the 1803 `Eroica' to Wagner's 1865 `Tristan
und Isolde'."

And so, there was the music of "others" - Joseph Wolfl's Piano Sonata
in E major (with Jon Nakamatsu), Anton Diabelli's Six Waltzes for the
Carnival (violinists Mark Volkert and Dan Nobuhiko Smiley, bassist Larry
Epstein), the Presto of Muzio Clementi's Piano Sonata in C (Nakamatsu),
and Daniel Steibelt's Storm Rondo from the Piano Concerto No.  3.

There was music by the man himself, to be sure, some of the Contradances,
a portion of the Piano Trio in B-flat major (pianist Peter Grunberg,
clarinetist David Neuman, cellist Peter Wyrick), and the Finale of the
"Eroica," but perhaps the most memorable performances came from other
sources at this "symposium," filled delightfully by MTT's freewheeling
mini-lectures.

One was Antonin Reicha's Fugue in E-flat, an 1803 piano piece, performed
to well-justified acclaim by MTT.  The Czech composer, known today mostly
for what MTT called "decorative" woodwind works, was an imaginative,
bold innovator, leaving behind Beethoven himself in that department.
The Fugue sounded a century or two ahead of its time - full of strange
harmonic and rhythmic progressions, and outright 20th-century dissonances.

The campy highlight of the evening was Steibelt's "Bacchanal for Tambourine
and Piano," performed by MTT and the star of long-running mega-musicals,
Lisa Vroman.  The singer, who appeared as Christine of "The Phantom of
the Opera" productions in various cities for over a decade, didn't sing
a single note.  Instead, she played the tambourine, even as did Steibelt's
wife back in the 1800s.

MTT - in a fascinating introduction to the colorful composer, who served
both Robespierre and Catherine the Great - quoted a review from back
then, singling out the great sensation created by Frau Steibelt's bare
arm.  Tonight's Davies Hall audience kept up with that kind of musical
sophistication, cheering lustily as Vroman slowly and provocatively
removed her long black glove (only one, Michael-Jackson-like) before her
virtuoso tambourine performance.  Who says Symphony concerts must be
stuffy?

Not making a strong assertion, but obviously having fun in establishing
a direct line from Beethoven, MTT spoke of his piano teacher, John Crown,
who had studied by Moritz Rosenthal, a pianist with a direct link to
Franz Liszt (a cell phone went off at this point, and MTT didn't miss a
beat, asking if it's Liszt calling), who studied with Carl Czerny, who
- yes - was partially begot (musically) by Beethoven.

It was an entertaining, educational and occasionally titillating evening,
a fine introduction to the festival's coming (probably more "serious")
attractions.  See http://www.sfsevents.org/beethoven/

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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