I drove up Saturday for the SFO's last weekend before June and decided
to follow the Sunday "Butterfly" matinee with an evening performance at
Davies Hall of the Hungarian National Philharmonic with Zoltan Koscis
conducting. Got a nice balcony seat on Saturday, and found the house on
Sunday mostly full but not completely.

The program opened with Bartok's "Dance Suite," followed by Liszt's Cto.
1, with Koscis leading from the keyboard. Bartok is a favorite of mine
- I feel that he is a more "human" composer, in some sense I can't explain
well, than the more celebrated Stravinsky and the more "touted," if you
will, Schoenberg. To me, the second violin concerto and Concerto for
Orchestra are probably the two last great masterpieces of classical
music.  After those - pips and squeaks from pipsqueaks.

The "dance suite" is not a masterpiece, but it is highly rhythmic and
exciting, and Koscis led a vivid performance. Perhaps Bartok could have
dug out a more memorable tune or two, as he did for the "Hungarian
Sketches," but the "dance suite" makes a great opener.

I can't warm to the Liszt. And I love brash and noisy! Prokofiev is a
favorite of mine, for instance. But the bluster of the Liszt is just too
patently "much ado about nothing" for me. Of course, Koscis tore into
the piece, and we all ate it up. I think the audience wanted a Koscis
encore but I'm sure he didn't want to upstage the orchestra.

The second half of the program was given to a Dvorak Symphony. "Number
9," you ask? No. "Oh, then, 7." No. "So it was 8." No.

This is why I bought a ticket. It was Symphony 3. I can't think of any
other mostly unplayed symphony with more memorable themes. I could feel
half the audience sit up as the first tune sang out within moments of
the symphony's start. Such delight.

Of course, the problem is that structurally, -  well - I don't know
what's going on structurally. The second movement in particular just
seems to amble around its material, and it is too long by five minutes
at least.  The fantastic finale lifts our spirits, however, and with
just three movements, we are out of there in well under 40 minutes.

The Hungarian Nat'l Phil looked mostly young to me (I'm 47), and they
played with great passion and joy. Maybe the horns blared a little, but
that's what horns tend to do.

So I'm glad I ended my SF weekend with this concert. And I hope I can hear
more Dvorak symphonies besides 7, 8, and 9. Heck, number 6 alone should
be played as often as 7 or 8. If anyone hasn't picked up a Dvorak symphony
cycle and listened to these earlier works, you have many, many treats
in store.

C Mullins
Los Angeles