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Knussen and Beethoven: Erin Wall (soprano), Kendall Gladen (mezzo-soprano), Garrett Sorenson (tenor), Alastair Miles (bass), New York Choral Artists (chorus director: Joseph Flummerfelt), Michael Tilson Thomas (conductor), San Francisco Symphony, Carnegie Hall, 26.9.2008 (BH)

Oliver Knussen: Symphony No. 3, Op. 18 (1979)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 (1824)


For the San Francisco Symphony's final night of three, Oliver Knussen's Third Symphony made a curious companion to the Beethoven Ninth, but there is no doubt that Knussen's fifteen-minute meditation should get wider play.  Good for Michael Tilson Thomas for programming it.  Knussen's inspiration is Shakespeare's Ophelia, which (as the conductor noted in well-considered introductory remarks) means many aural water references, with perhaps a debt to Debussy, and a slow evolution towards death.  The orchestration includes a trio of soloists—harp, celesta and guitar placed right up front—which periodically intervenes to lower the temperature with quiet, transparent idylls.  Clarinets begin and end the two movements, in which all sections eventually rise to a huge climax spilling out onto the stage, before the texture thins out to depict Ophelia's drowning.

Tilson Thomas offered a few comments before the Knussen, but none were needed before Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.  A decisive, propulsive opening Allegro again showed the sheen of the strings, with the conductor emphasizing the movement's mystery.  The galloping Molto vivace had the winds chirping in affirmation, with the whole group in well-executed attacks and clean phrase endings.  As the Adagio kicked into high gear I had the sensation of angst receding and replaced with calm, Tilson Thomas encouraging a gently rocking motion from his stylish ensemble.

Remarkably, when the four soloists entered there was no applause to dispel the mood before one of the most famous opening chords in history, which the San Francisco musicians infused with real chaos.  Alastair Miles, the bass, got the party going with a beefy "Oh freunde" heralding a reading with punch and excellent enunciation.  Garrett Sorenson was appropriately jolly in the tenor march, and the lustrous Erin Wall (soprano) and gleaming Kendall Gladen (mezzo-soprano) rounded out the quartet.  And for once, no one in the foursome was trying to out-sing the other three; as an ensemble they fit together beautifully.  I wasn't sure that the balances between the orchestra, soloists and chorus were all in order, and listeners in other parts of the hall felt the same.  Some couldn't hear the chorus well, and others thought the orchestral ensemble overpowered everyone else onstage.  But from my vantage point, the New York Choral Artists, led by Joseph Flummerfelt, offered ardent, heartfelt work, and with diction that meant most listeners probably didn't need the texts.  And although the vocal parts in the final movement capture the lion's share of attention, at several points I mused on how heroically Beethoven wrote for the cellos and basses.

This was a night when non-musical matters were hovering in the air.  I would never counsel prospective listeners against watching important chapters in politics, and this final concert happened to fall on a night when many people were glued to their television sets watching Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain in their first debate.  Nevertheless, despite the evening's alternatives, Carnegie Hall seemed full, and the crowd gave the group a huge, loving sendoff.

Bruce Hodges


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