SFist Reviews: Joshua Bell at the SF Symphony

SF Symphony guest conductor Fabio Luisi did his best last week to steal the thunder of violin megastar Joshua Bell. He opened the program with a tone poem by Richard Strauss, Don Juan. Tone poem means a symphonic little piece which tells a story, and, more often than not, said story is rather hard to follow: the instrumental language of an orchestra, as powerful and evocative as it is, is still open to multiple conflicting interpretations. To each their own daydream. Not with Luisi's Don Juan: after a crisp, brilliant opening that said, here comes Don Juan, he does not fuss around, Luisi and the SFSO delivered a sexy, lush rendition of the piece. It was a propulsive, erect, fanfare-ish opening. The strings (and Barantschik in particular) were seductive, the brass blended with the orchestra. A oboe playfully riffed on a snake charmer melodic line.

We did smile, though, when a dialogue erupted between a flute and cello (quite explicitly a female voice and Don Juan), climaxing with panting sighs from the flute. (Is there such thing as PG-17 classical music?) Luisi himself stood slightly hunched forward, as if to step his body slightly ahead of the beat, to push the piece forward. The piece interrupts itself with a silent pause before the final coda, and the program notes mention the death of Don Juan. But with such a sexy rendition, we're sure it was only a petite mort.