Four great young singers and the entire San Francisco Symphony was
swallowed up tonight by Grace Cathedral.

Sitting behind the 6-foot-3 frame (plus two inches of curls) of Gordon
Getty, I couldn't help thinking of the $9 million Getty spent on fixing up
cathedral-like Davies Hall.  Perhaps he has some money left to invest here?
Of course, Grace is about twice Davies' size, so it would cost a lot.

Why play music in a magnificent echo chamber? It's the atmosphere, stupid.
Michael Tilson Thomas got to the `sacred' portion in the Stravinsky
Festival, and where else can you get a better backdrop?

A wonderful program, masterfully conducted, employing first-class singers,
filling the huge cathedral -- so what's missing from this picture? Nothing
from the picture, only from most of the notes of the music.

The program:  `Mass' (1948), `Symphonies of Wind Instruments' (1920),
`Requiem Canticles' (1966), `Canticum Sacrum (1955), and `Symphony of
Psalms' (1930) -- a cross-section of virtually the entire Stravinsky
career.

The singers:  soprano Nicolle Foland, mezzo Michelle DeYoung, tenor Richard
Clement, and baritone Grant Youngblood (possibly the only Cherokee singer
in all opera, a major talent at that) -- four artists of accomplishment and
promise.

And yet, the unholly din reigned over the proceedings, a very frustrating,
unfortunate situation.

There was one moment of pure magic, however, caused partially by the weird,
terribly acoustics:  in the final section of the `Requiem Canticles,' the
soloists' voices soared above the (deliberate) din of the chattering chorus
and the twisting sound of the orchestra -- with `Libera Me' spoken in
unison and forcefully, music and performance winning over the hall just
once.  In pretty-good Davies Hall, this would have been a great concert
all the way through.

>From MTT's gems tonight:  Stravinsky's dismissal of Kodaly and Casals
(clucking over his search for adventures in music) as composers whose major
exposure to adventure is to have wives 60 years younger than they were.
Also, the excellent point that while everybody, including the composer,
realized that `Requiem Canticles' is Stravinsky's own requiem (and it was
put to that use in Venice in 1971), the man who despised and resisted the
obvious still wrote `The Owl and the Pussycat,' almost as if wanting to
ruin the `last work' myth.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Opera House, the gods were still in their terminal
twilight, Jane Eaglen singing with power and freshness more likely to
follow a long vacation than completing her *second* `Ring' cycle.

Intimations of a cold are gone, and Eaglen is singing that impossible role
with a kind of abandon and enjoyment that's hard to imagine:  you must
witness it in person.  She will sing Cycle 4 on June 27, 30 and July 3
(Frances Ginzer is singing in Cycle 3).  This is not to be missed -- a
Bruennhilde having fun, all the way through (and including) the immolation!

Under Donald Runnicles' increasingly driven direction, the orchestra played
in tandem with that great Eaglen performance -- an amazing feat when you
consider that the same musicians played `Siegfried' on Tuesday, `Walkuere'
on Wednesday, and after tonight's `Goetterdaemmerung,' they will perform
`Rheingold' tomorrow.  May they all survive June!

Janos Gereben/SF
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