Ask not.

Those bells above the massed percussion and huge orchestra did not toll for
or against the Central Committee or the dead outside the Winter Palace in
1905 (per the title) or the dead on the streets of Budapest in 1956 (when
it was written).

This tremendous finale of the Shostakovich Eleventh Symphony as performed
tonight -- and the subsequent riotous ovation, unique in Davies Hall
history -- was a coronation scene, right out of "Boris," for the American
czarevich of the Tomaszewskis.

Michael Tilson Thomas is no longer a very, very good conductor.  He
surpassed that years ago, with those amazing Mahler performances and
standard-setting playing of American music.  MTT is a major, exciting,
"great" conductor, and nothing could state the case better than tonight's
"The Year 1905."

MTT referred to the work as "Russian Mahler," and it was that, but also
an American Tchaikovsky -- very Russian in a free, brassy "American" way.
And, beyond all that foolishness about political, geographic, nationalistic
considerations, it was pure music, 65 minutes of uninterrupted, sustained
flow of passion, drama, tragedy and exultation.  It will be inscribed on
the steadily growing list of wonderfully memorable performances by the
"new" San Francisco Symphony of the MTT Era.

Unlike the tremendous but quick buildup/release opening of the Beethoven
Fourth or the Nielsen Third, the Shostakovich buildup runs 17 minutes and
is not directly resolved (maybe only in the fourth-movement finale) -- it's
devilishly difficult music to perform "right," navigating between tedium
or too much, forced expression.  MTT drove the orchestra engine with an
unerring sense of steady rhythm and exactly right dynamics -- but there was
nothing mechanical or "measured" about it.  From here, through the entire
work, there was only that eye-popping, jaw-dropping sense of something
flawlessly right...  righteous, even.

Every section of the orchestra was at its very best behavior, with the
brass, cellos and percussion first among equals.

The performance trusted and honored Shostakovich, never "punching it up"
or holding back or doctoring it in any way; MTT was "playing through" and
sustaining the performance throughout.  How much longer do we have to wait
for the San Francisco Opera inviting him to show this rare gift across the
street?!

The concert (which opens with Beethoven's Fifth) is repeated Saturday and
Sunday; it will be broadcast on KDFC-FM at 8 p.m., Tuesday, Feb.  22.

Janos Gereben/SF
[log in to unmask]