I have been looking forward to this for a while now. I have not seen Bell live in a while, and Bancroft’s first time with the San Francisco Symphony promised to be interesting.
After dinner at Son & Garden – fund and great as always – we made our way over to the symphony.
Rebecca Wishnia wrote a great review here titled “Joshua Bell and SF Symphony Are Otherworldly.” The program we saw included Unsuk Chin’s “Alaraph ‘Ritus des Herzschlags'” (Alaraph, ritual of the heartbeat) as a United States premiere, Henri Vieuxtemps’s Violin Concerto No. 5 featuring Joshua Bell as soloist and for a second act Kevin Puts’s “Earth” from “The Elements” suite that was commissioned by Joshua Bell and as closing piece Claude Debussy’s “La mer” showcasing Bancroft and the San Francisco orchestra.
Unsuk Chin’s piece started so rhythmic that we thought one of the trombonists had dropped his silender. Twice. The rhythm section in the orchestra was distractingly diverse, including a piano that was only used open for percussion.
Watching Bell through Vieuxtemp was breathtaking and it was hard to take the eyes off him. Amazing.
I also loved “Earth” that opened the second part and it inspired me to listen to the rest of the Elements series. Earth’s melodic sequences almost felt like it could be a movie soundtrack, I was imagining images of earth while listening.
Finally, La Mer, exhibited Bancrofts leadership and it led to a great culmination of a fantastic evening.
StageAficionado 