Tonight's Bay Area historical statistics -

In Oakland, the A's won their 20th consecutive ballgame, breaking the 1906
White Sox's American League record.

In San Francisco, a city otherwise engaged in 1906, the Symphony was born
in 1911, and tonight, at the opening of the 91st season, three Stradivarius
violins ganged up on one Guernerius, all from a period some 300 years ago.

Symphony orchestras, especially such big and rich ones as San Francisco's,
use season-opening concerts as important fund-raising opportunities.
Always called a "gala," these events feature expensive dinners, a chance to
parade designer clothes, some big-name stars and music that's as pleasant
as possible.

Michael Tilson Thomas' had an interesting twist within those constraints
for tonight's opener in Davies Hall.  Strings constituting fully two-thirds
of the 103-piece orchestra, MTT programmed music for violins, interspersed
with spectacular bravura works - Glinka's "Ruslan and Ludmila" Overture,
Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No.  2, and "Theme and Variations" from
Tchaikovsky's Suite No.  3.

The star instrument of the evening, MTT explained at length - amplifying
his remarks later with an amusing imitation of Gregor Piatigorsky, who
apparently sounded like Boris Karloff - was concertmaster Alexander
Barantschik's 1742 Guernerius.  The instrument, called "David," is on a
more or less permanent loan from the Fine Arts Museums, which received it
as a gift from the violin's last owner, Jascha Heifetz.

Present for the occasion, Heifetz's son, Jay, an old friend of MTT's,
"from my days in that city to the south."

Little did the music director know how much violins will make the news
on this night.

In the middle of a phenomenal performance - virtuosic, passionate,
beautiful - of the Ravel "Tzigane," Gil Shaham broke a string.

He walked across the stage - while MTT kept the music going - said "sorry!"
and handed over his disabled 1699 Stradivarius, the "Countess Polignac,"
to associate concertmaster Nadya Tichman.

Tichman took the instrument and gave her 1724 Stradivarius, the
"ex-Thoulow," to Shaham, who walked back to the center, playing the
instrument in seamless continuation of the music.

Meanwhile, Tichman handed over Shaham's violin to assistant concertmaster
Jeremy Constant, who exchanged it for his own 1700 Heberlein-Taylor
Stradivarius, and set to fix the broken string.  He did that and tuned the
violin well in time with the completion of the Ravel, so that Shaham could
use his own instrument again immediately in the following Sarasate
"Navarra," playing a sensational duet with Barantschik.

There was nothing out of the ordinary in the handling of the problem with
the string - the relay is a fairly standard procedure - but it's rare to
have three such famous Strads involved in a single exchange.

Shaham, whose 21-year concert career at 31 is an ever-peaking crescendo of
excellence, also paced a fine performance (with Barantschik) of the Bach
Double Concerto in D.  The concertmaster, an outstanding violinist whose
Soviet-trained somber stage presence hampers audience appreciation of his
performance, was at his very best not front-and-center, but in his usual
first chair.  His solos, in that position, during the Tchaikovsky provided
softly glowing, beautifully sensitive music.

MTT opened "Theme and Variations" with the evening's only poor segment, as
those majestic opening steps (Balanchine is always present now, even in a
concert performance) came across sounding a bit stodgy.  But very quickly,
things improved, and by the mid-course hushed return of the theme, all was
right with the world.  Certainly, the Glinka and, especially, the Liszt (a
kind of musical joke, but very serious business if it is to go well)
sounded brilliant.  The Rachmaninov "Vocalise" appeared somnolent and out
of place, although it was almost certainly deliberately
"counter-programmed" against the bright pieces.

MTT is in a very good place - and the orchestra with him.  At the
beginning of his eighth year leading the Symphony, the music director does
not need to prove anything to the orchestra or the audience.  He is firmly
in charge, relaxed and clearly enjoying himself, making music the way it is
meant to be:  joyfully.  Certainly, there is no other conductor I know who
can turn casually to 2,800 strangers, all amateurs, and lead them with a
clear beat, convincingly, inspirationally, so that most tricky of choral
pieces - the "Star-Spangled Banner" - sounds as if performed by the crowd
in the Oakland Coliseum...after that great win tonight.

Janos Gereben/SF
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