Seldom has this sound been heard in Davies Hall since the San Francisco
Symphony moved into its new home in 1980.  Both Monday and Tuesday night,
the sound pervaded the cathedral-shaped hall, jam-packed at each concert,
temporary seats added to its 2,750-seat capacity.

It was the sound of silence.  Two concerts by the Berlin Philharmonic
kept everyone so enthralled that the normal noise simply didn't exist,
coughs, sneezes, conversation, cell phones (except for one) held in
abeyance.  A miracle, especially in November, the time for loud expressions
of head colds and worse.

The new Berlin Philharmonic, a surprisingly young, greatly varied group
of virtuoso musicians (anybody from Berlin?), listen to each other
intently, and apparently, they pay a great deal of attention to the
audience too.  So much so that music director Simon Rattle graciously
acknowledged the respectful silence by breaking the orchestra's no-encore
policy Tuesday night, rewarding San Francisco's strong, silent attitude
with one of Satie's "Gymnopedies."

Audience participation was especially impressive Monday night during
the slow movement of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, listeners holding their
breath through long minutes of luscious, aeriform music - not "Beethoven"
as we know him, but a wonderful experience, nevertheless.

Tuesday night, the attentive, participatory silence enfolded, buoyed an
iconoclastically stunning Haydn Symphony No.  88, Dutilleux's new,
pleasant, neo-classical "Correspondances," Debussy's "La Mer" as might
have been written by Cesar Franck, and a Sibelius Symphony No. 7 that
was all-Sibelius, absolutely, magnificently.

While the Sibelius was clearly the "biggest," more virtuosic and impressive
performance, the Haydn perhaps will stay longer in one's loving memory.

Rattle parsed the music with bold, uncompromising control, each phrase
breathing unfettered, quiet passages coming through in a whisper of
utmost delicacy, pauses held "forever," fortes played broadly and with
a sense of iron fist in velvet glove.  It was a most unusual Haydn, but
somehow giving the impression of being the truly authentic representation
of the composer.  Above all, it was luminously clear, quite without
either the frequent, if misplaced, Romantic take on the music or dry,
distant "classicism." Whatever Rattle does and however he does it, he
is never, ever dull.

The Dutilleux work is based on text of letters from Solzhenitsyn to
Galina and Mstislav Rostopovich, from Vincent to Theo van Gogh on diverse
subjects of great emotional power.  Sung well by Canadian soprano Valdine
Anderson, the rich, atmospheric, eminently tonal music received applause
that was somewhere between polite and warm.

However, for the strong, vital, overwhelming Sibelius and the colorful,
stormy "La Mer," there was passionate ovation, matching Rattle's way of
music-making: determined and unconditional.  There were many listeners
who attended both concerts, and they knew that no amount of applause
will result in an encore, but they raised the roof, nevertheless.  What
a pleasant surprise it was then to be rewarded anyway!

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
[log in to unmask]