playing conductor

School is cool, not too hard. at least not yet.

I went to the SF symphony with Dort, to the community "All Concert" for senior groups. Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) picked out a somewhat experimental program, in keeping with the philosophy of the city, he said. We explore "new ideas and languages" through listening to music, the conductor said. The program began with Lontano for Large Orchestra by György Ligeti, which Dort correctly identified as movie background music. "Sinister," she called it. Ligeti's music has appeared in Kubrick films like The Shining and 2001, according to the program. I liked it.

Before the cacophonous piece started, MTT hummed a lick he said we'd hear in the piece. He has a good voice. Who knew. I never heard the melody, though.

I wonder if Metallica will ever play with the SF symphony again. Somehow I doubt it.

The next piece was more conventional, a bit jazzy. It was Concerto in D minor for Two Pianos and Orchestra by an "urbane, insouciant" Parisian, Francis Poulenc. Sisters Katia and Marielle Labéque played grand pianos across from each other. One was more showy than the other. I tried to imagine which I would be. I'm a gemini, though, so I get to be both.

The second half of the show was just one raucous Prokofieff opus, Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Opus 100. It was all brass and drums, with some clutch reed and flute loops. If you doubt its badass-ittude, just know that it won the Stalin Prize in 1946. When it debuted the year before, gunshots of celebration could be heard as Prokofiev raised his baton to start the performance; Soviet forces had just crossed the Vistula River en route to victory over Germany.

No encore needed.