Lang Lang at the SF Symphony Gala
Lang Lang, Jessa Wu and Michael Tilson Thomas at the SF Symphony opening night gala. Picture by Drew Alitzer
The mood was light, and so was the first half: three waltzes in chronological order. Liszt's Mephisto Waltz was free, loose, joyous. Devilish it was not. If Mephistopheles was called upon, we had never heard such light footed goat hooves. Only a melancholy turn by cellist Peter Wyrick brought depth and soberness to the joyous romp. We're not sure the composer's intention were fully respected, but who can object to raising the curtain with some levity?
The orchestra followed up with an absolutely brilliant, violently contrasted rendition of Ravel's La Valse, which three beats were crack, pop, boom. They should take off MTT's baton and replace it with a knob, it would be fun to see him crank up those perfect crescendos.
The last waltz was Richard Rodger's Carousel Waltz, which felt thickly orchestrated, and oom-pah-pah-ish in comparison. It sounded like an SAT question, which one of these waltzes is not like the others. To which constituency in the audience was it a concession to include an excerpt of a musical? It was in the way of the intermission champagne.
The second half featured Lang-Lang in a technically flawless performance of Prokofiev's 3rd piano concerto. Lang-Lang was scarily good, as dazzling as ever, as if toying with the devilish piece. Even his foot stomping wasn't as noticeable. The performance was wasted on us, as we found this concerto pretty dull and its technical challenges a bit pointless. The audience was thrilled, and we can't tell if the high society is ignorant of the symphony conventions always or only after a few flutes, but gladly they clapped between the movements. No one really cared, and as a champagne-assisted kick off of the season, it definitely hit the spot.