Good advice, from the Gospel According to Luke (even if first said by
Sophocles, 500 years before).  It arrived in Davies Hall tonight, via
Bach's 1734 Christmas Oratorio.  The San Francisco Symphony - bravely,
wisely - picked a different bunch of shepherds abiding in the field,
giving "Messiah" a well-earned rest.

Further, Michael Tilson Thomas brought in one of finest Bach specialists
in the world today - Helmuth Rilling - who, in turn, cast the oratorio with
three excellent singers: mezzo Iris Vermillion, tenor Marcus Ullmann and
bass-baritone Dietrich Henschel.  (Soprano Kendra Colton also sat in front
of the orchestra, but her performance ranged from a brief recitative that
became nearly shrill to a labored aria without a clear sense of the music:
she had no business singing with those three.)

As usual, Rilling conducted without a score.  It is good to have somebody
in charge who knows all of Bach by heart.  Even better, one who always
plays Bach from the heart.  Brainy as he is, Rilling doesn't present
"intellectual Bach," he makes the music sing, regardless of who is
performing at the moment - it's all music and singing, from soloists,
the chorus, the orchestra.

Using small forces for the four cantatas he scheduled for the evening,
Rilling made do with a chorus of 46 and an orchestra half the size.
Balances (as heard from downstairs) were exemplary.  The over-all quality
of the performance was different from what one is used to hear from Rilling
in his usual habitat, Stuttgart and the Oregon Bach Festival, where he
works with orchestra and chorus long and hard.  There, he infallibly
presents excellence and consistency.  Here, with an obviously limited
number of rehearsals, the evening was somewhat of a rollercoaster ride,
although never dipping too deep, and the high points were as high as one
can get.

The opening chorus was energetic, taut, happy.  Vance George's SFS Chorus
was wonderfully prepared, staying together even in the trickiest passages,
with clear, effective diction.  As the mood changed to a more quiet and
lyrical sound, that singing quality took over, from hushed to meltingly
beautiful.

Vermillion sang her first aria still trying to adjust to the big hall
(I heard her in the Semperoper last month and she blew down the walls),
but by "Schlafe, meine Liebster," she was once again memorably great,
"Schlaaaaaaafe" coming from far away, staying seemingly forever, blending
with instruments.  Vermillion's "Schliesse mein Herz," with concertmaster
Nadya Tichman's superb obbligato, was among the highest of the high spots.

Whatever misgivings one might have had about Henschel's mostly excellent
Mahler earlier this week with the Berkeley Symphony completely evaporated
tonight.  He sang with certainty, authority, in service of the music,
even trying to carry the soprano in their duet.  When Henschel and the
orchestra's virtuoso principal trumpet, Glenn Fischthal, met up in "Er ist
auf Erden kommen arm," there was no longer a question about this young
baritone - he is going places.

Ullmann, equally young and talented, may be more of a question mark.  He
did good work as the Evangelist, adequate in the tenor arias.  His is a
strong lyric voice, which projects well, but it has a narrow range, and
it is clearly a head voice, not well grounded.

Among Rilling's many exceptional talents is the ability to balance
everything, including the very different soloists (different in volume,
projection, timbre) so that the over-all sound still had unity and a
special quality - "real Bach."

Janos Gereben/SF
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