The San Francisco Symphony presents music of Currier, Elgar and Strauss
conducted by Hugh Wolff, with Michael Grebanier, cello.  Davies Symphony
Hall, performance of 23 March 2002.

Mark Twain's maxim 'eschew surplusage' has finally been taken to heart
by a composer other than Webern.  The result transfigured a concert.
How could anyone write a ten-minute symphony with a depth to rival those
at least three times as long? How could a man orchestrate in a way to
make Peter Maxwell Davies' sprawling 'Antarctic Symphony' seem like the
laughable work of an amateur? How could anyone write a five-minute slow
movement with all the profundity of the best of Mahler? Who has ever
written a fabulous Minute Waltz that actually lasts a minute or less?
Chopin couldn't.

Houdini came to town in the form of Sebastian Currier.  His Microsymph
quite simply dazzled and astounded this aged and jaded reviewer.  The
hand is certainly quicker than the ear:  the pen of Sebastian Currier
has perhaps written the greatest ever American symphony- - at least until
the wool is pulled off, the ears of this reviewer are so convinced!

The first movementlet, 'quickchange,' zips and scintillates.  Sparkles
appear here and there, deft touches, ear ticklers, then finally, meows.
The second, 'minute waltz,' in only 50 seconds pulls off a miracle with
a great waltz tune that is less a tune than a typifying swooping gesture.
Somehow, everything that was elegant and sweet about the latter 19th
century is encapsulated in a microapotheosis.  Ravel's La Valse is now
superseded.

Then the 'gargantuan' adagio.  Again the tell-all gesture, this time
the three-note, upward-leaning anacrusis that clearly obsessed Mahler.
A massive climax, then a diatonic descending phrase on the harp concludes.
Next a 65-second 'nanoscherzo' and the finale, 'kaleidoscope,' where
elements of the preceding movements return for a bow as in Carnival of
the Animals.  A dazzling, astounding masterpiece.

The Elgar, one of his most popular works, had a tough act to follow.
How could it not sound bloated by comparison? Nevertheless, sheer beauty
managed to hold its own through three movements, excellently performed
by first chair Michael Grebanier.  Unfortunately, the concerto has four
movements.  In the final allegro Elgar falls victim to a habit he was
commonly criticized for in his time:  overuse of sequences.  And in
comparison to the Currier, these sequences sounded all the more
galumphingly redundant.

Then came Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra, elegantly put through its
paces by the almost spider-like talents of Hugh Wolff.

But after Houdini's has been on stage, any other composer is a clown.

Jeff Dunn
Alameda, CA
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