Cooke & Vinocour at SFS
June 25, 2010
* Notes *
Michael Tilson Thomas is currently conducting San Francisco Symphony in a program of Berlioz. The Wednesday performance began with the Le carnaval romain, and it was played brightly and with bombast. The English horn solo was very pretty. Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke joined the orchestra for Les Nuits d'été. The six songs were brilliantly sung, Cooke's voice simply floated over the instruments with hardly any strain at all. Her high notes are absolutely beautiful. There were two low notes that perhaps were not perfect, one sounded a bit gritty, the other did not project that well, but obviously this is only a minor point. The new principal violist, Jonathan Vinocour, was featured as the soloist of Harold en Italie. His playing was very smooth, warm, and sweet. Berlioz's music is off-kilter at times, for instance, the third movement Sérénade is hardly song-like or calm at all, until the end. Perhaps this is part of Berlioz's charm, however.
* Tattling *
There was a lot talking in the Front Orchestra Side section, except during the first piece. I hushed the Cantonese-speaking women at the end of Row F (Seats 22 and 24), and I was mesmerized by the hairdo of the young lady in front of me in Row D Seat 16. She seemed to have missed a significant portion of her roots when she last dyed her hair, but just on one side.