Thomas Quasthoff's debut with the San Francisco Symphony tonight was
a much-anticipated event both for the opportunity to hear the baritone
with orchestra here for the first time, and to see if he has recovered
from a recent bout with illness (which forced him to cancel appearances
at the Oregon Bach Festival and elsewhere).

Ah, there is good news tonight!  The concert was "perfect" in the sense
that expectations were fulfilled, that even those who have heard Quasthoff
many times found something new and affecting, that it was a brilliant,
joyous event; and he looked and sounded at his best.

Although Quasthoff's program of orchestrated Schubert songs was performed
recently at Verbier, the plan for it originated years ago when Michael
Tilson Thomas met Quasthoff in Berlin and engaged him.  (A recording,
with Claudio Abbado and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, is available
at http://tinyurl.com/5bsua)

The Davies Hall program consisted of "Tranenregen" from "Die schone
Mullerin" and "Der Wegweiser" from "Winterreise," orchestrated by Webern;
"Prometheus" and "Erlkonig," orchestrated by Reger; "Standchen,"
orchestrated by Offenbach, and an encore: "An die Musik." A short concert
segment by the stopwatch - less than 25 minutes - it was, nevertheless,
an experience of timeless beauty.  (The program also included Steve
Reich's 1987 "For Strings, with winds and brass," revised for these
concerts, and Sibelius' Symphony No.  2.)

Quasthoff's voice was as rich and warm as ever, caressing and trumpet-like
in turn, layered and yet utterly simple, reaching out effortlessly to
the listeners, creating an instant, intimate bond.  The contrast with
the scene across the street the night before couldn't have been clearer;
in "La Traviata" at the Opera, another baritone, Dmitri Hvorostovsky,
produced a pleasant but impersonal, unvaryingly cold sound.  In Davies
Hall, the singing was intimate, immediate, sincere, *musical* in the
full sense of the word.

The orchestra was in good form for this first subscription concert of
the season (a sold-out house with many empty seats, probably because of
Rosh Hashanah), but MTT slightly overdid the role of being the accompanist.
He "babied" Quasthoff, with extra-slow tempi, holding the volume down
most of the time to a whisper.  There were some advantages in that:
playing the music quietly, woodwind passages emerged in "Erlkonig" not
usually obvious to the listener.

Although the conductor routinely responds in a personal way to the
music and soloists, tonight showed MTT in an even more obvious role of
"sympathizing" with the singer, both conducting and listening intently.
At the end of "Der Wegwiser," as Quasthoff repeated "I must travel a
road / from which no one has returned" three times, with quiet, simple
dignity - not a smidgen of sentimentality - there were tears in MTT's
eyes, and he kept shaking his head in astonishment, as if not quite
believing the beauty of the phrase.  He was not alone.

The concert will be repeated tomorrow and Friday; KDFC-FM (www.kdfc.com)
may be broadcasting it on Sept.  28; there is no confirmation of either
date or the broadcast being available on the Internet.

Janos Gereben
www.sfcv.org
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