Seldom have I heard a performance as brilliant as San Francisco Ballet
concertmaster Roy Malan's last night in the "Thais" Meditation, part of
the score for Hans van Manen's wonderfully entertaining "Black Cake."

What made the event truly noteworthy was that it came in the immediate
aftermath of a terrible marathon: Malan has just finished a half hour of
sawing away in a virtual violin concerto of finger- and soul-deadening
abomination.

Bright Shen's commissioned work for Helgi Tomasson's "Chi-Lin," which is
getting its much-advertised world premiere in the War Memorial, is Yellow
River Piano Concerto-bland, Elgar-imitation non-Chinese, fast-food music of
empty calories.  It also requires the violin soloist to produce a forceful
sound of randomly rising and falling notes through the entire duration.
Malan survived the ordeal and went on to play real music really well.
Bravo!  (I wonder if Massenet received a fraction of the fee Mr. Shen
collected.)

Fortunately for the dancers, Tomasson is true to his unvaried method of not
making any connection between dance and music.  Otherwise, poor Yuan Yuan
Tan - in Sandra Woodall's ridiculous costumes, including a Beach Blanket
Babylon-size tiara - would surely have perished trying.

Janos Gereben/SF
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