If I had not previously been inclined to spend a Monday night listening
to Mahler played by a touring orchestra, statements by visitors to this
site induced me to do so and I was certainly rewarded with an extraordinary
night of music-making!  Of course I'm referring to the performance by
the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra Monday night, March 22nd at Boston's
Symphony Hall.  I even went so far as to draw from two days' worth of
unused vacation time from 2003 so I could arrive relaxed and also not
worry about getting up early the next morning.  I don't know what the
orchestra members and Michael Tilson Thomas thought when the schedule
had them playing a lengthy and demanding concert on a Monday, but all
things considered, the turnout was very good, and the audience was
energized and responsive.  When the BSO arrived the next day, it's
possible the chandeliers were still swinging from the foot-stomping
reaction of the assembled multitude the night before.  We got the John
Adams/Mahler concert, and to add to the buzz, Mr.  Adams was present to
take TWO bows for his "My Father Knew Charles Ives".  Talk about train
wrecks...the piece's first movement includes a section with full orchestra
playing descending scales transitioning immediately to a calm, pensive
Debussy-esque impressionistic passage.  It was played flawlessly by the
orchestra.  But even the New England references in the score and the
presence of the composer didn't deflect the concentration of the
concertgoers from the piece de resistance: Mahler's 5th Symphony.
Mr.  Tilson Thomas conducted from memory rather than score, and put on
a clinic of conductorial technique that nonetheless was still in service
of the music.  He seemed to me to mix and match attention to detail and
observance of Mahler's (in)famous tempo and inflection markings with the
requisite forward momentum such a mighty musical composition like this
requires.  Of course one couldn't help being impressed by the brass-filled
tutti that get the pulse racing, but the more introspective moments
constantly delighted.  The strings (and harp) were achingly beautiful
and resplendent with burnished tones during the almost too familiar
adagietto.  (NOTE: during last week's Ebert and Roeper movie review show,
they veered from theatrical films and reviewed two made-for-TV series:
"The Sopranos" on HBO, and "American Family" on PBS.  A scene from the
latter showed the family patriarch saying goodbye to his son in the
military before shipping out to Iraq; the background music?  Mahler's
adagietto!) The Boston Symphony will be performing Mahler's 5th this
fall (also the 1st and the 8th the latter of which will tour to NYC).
Levine will have his hands full matching Monday night's performance.
Some in the audience will have heard both...tough room.

Laurence Glavin
Methuen, MA