Loud is not necessarily powerful.  Very loud never is.  Deafening is
defined as "Loud enough to cause (temporary) hearing loss." Tonight's
San Francisco Symphony performance of Mahler's Eighth Symphony caused a
(temporary, one hopes) diminution of my sky-high regard for Michael Tilson
Thomas' special way with vocal music.

He engaged eight superb soloists and made them virtually inaudible.  When
Lauren Flanigan, of all singers, makes her best effort and yet can hardly
be heard, something is wrong.  Christine Brewer somehow managed to break
through, but Michelle DeYoung was almost gagged.  Who? Yes, her.  Goodness!

True, this was mostly in Part I, MTT's work very much complicated by Mahler
at his most manic, in "Veni, Creator Spiritus," but instead of balancing
and understating, MTT let it rip, and created a fast (22-minute) and
furious "sound sculpture" that stretched Davies Hall's million-cubic-feet
envelope.  (At 75 minutes, the entire work sounded - and was - rushed.

Collaborating in the din:  Vance George's magnificent Symphony Chorus -
a body that can perform miracles, and did, later in the evening; as the
Chorus Mysticus, when they really were mystical in presenting not sound,
but music.

In part one, as throughout the work, concertmaster Nadya Tichman managed
to impart the beauty that can exist even within such an overwrought
performance.

Part II went much better, but nowhere near previous peak MTT performances
of Mahler symphonies.  There are three more performances this week, and
they may easily improve, but with the botched first part, and excessive
volume elsewhere whenever the music allowed it, the new MTT hallmark of
integrated, over-all excellence was hard to find tonight.

In Part II solos, Flanagan, De Young and Jill Grove were at their usual
best.  Stephen Powell, after an impressive beginning, exhibited a curious
shift in voice color.  Franz Hawlata had a poor night.  Dominique Labelle
handled Mater Gloriosa's two lines very well.  (Now there is a role that
should be assigned to a strong chorus member.)

Anthony Dean Griffey, known and respected here as a "strong lyric tenor,"
showed plenty of heldentenorish steel in his voice, and he turned in a
remarkable performance, proving that you can be powerful without being loud
- something I wish the entire performance would have done.  The MTT-San
Francisco combination has lately delighted Mahlerites more and more; this
was an exception, alas.

Janos Gereben/SF, CA
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