While trying to adjust to the loss of the finest, the most readable program
annotator in all the land as Michael Steinberg is retiring from his post at
the San Francisco Symphony, we still have his program notes this season...
and hope for continuing with some "canned" material in the future.

Here are a couple of typical Steinberg items from tonight's program --

With the Ravel Piano Concerto in G:  "Pierre-Joseph Ravel, the composer's
father, was a deeply musical engineer who contributed significantly to the
development of the two-stroke internal combustion motor fondly remembered
by 1960s Saab owners."

With the Barber "Capricorn Concerto":  "One morning when he was eight or
nine...  Barber left this message on his desk before he went to school:

   Notice to Mother and *nobody else*

   Dear Mother:  I have written this to tell you my worrying secret.
   Now don't cry when you read this because it is neither yours nor my
   fault.  I suppose I will have to tell it now without any nonsense.

   To begin with, I was not meant to be an athlet.  I was meant to be
   a composer, and will be I'm sure.  I'll ask you one more thing.
   Don't ask me to try to forget this unpleasant thing and go and play
   football.  *Please* Sometimes I've been worrying about this so much
   that it makes me mad (not very).  Love, SAM BARBER II."

Yes, we'll miss Steinberg a lot!

As to the concert, it was headed by the one of the Bay Area's three
pianist-conductors, Jeffrey Kahane.  He was brilliant in the Ravel,
conducting from the piano, and playing a virtuoso solo that was effortless,
consistently *musical* (instead of "pianistic"), and brought cheers from
the audience and orchestra alike.  (The other two pianist- conductors are,
of course, Michael Tilson Thomas and Donald Runnicles.)

Apparently, now that it's the year 2000, Kahane's long-standing advocacy
of 20th century music is more acceptable (it's the *last* century, after
all, depending on how you count) because tonight's all-contemporary program
was received very well by a fairly full house.  (MTT must be given a great
deal of credit for bringing along the community in just a few years after
decades of mostly conservative programming.)

Besides the 1932 Ravel and the 1944 Barber, Kahane also offered Hindemith's
1922 "Kammermusik No.  1" (conducting from the piano again) and Ginastera's
1953 "Variaciones Concertantes."

Earlier, at an SFS family matinee, Bernstein was entertaining youngsters
with a talk about music -- a slender, youthful mother-of-two Bernstein,
with two-tone hair and '60s-style wedgies with four-inch heels.

That would be Jamie Bernstein Thomas, who did fairly well, but failed
in comparison with her father if for no other reason than the lack of
spontaneity, *reading* the "informal chat" aimed at advocating and
illuminating music.  Alasdair Neale conducted the program consisting
entirely of Bernstein "dance music."

Janos Gereben/SF
[log in to unmask]