SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Schubert, Berg: San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor; Michelle de Young, mezzo-soprano. Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, 27.5.2009 (HS)


At first glance, it may seem unclear just what the music of the early 19th-century composer Franz Schubert has in common with the 20th century’s Alban Berg. But leave it to Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony to suggest enough connections to make an overture, a set of songs, an oft-heard symphony and one piece for outsized orchestra into a coherent program that not only shone some light on those connections but made surprising musical sense.

This was the first concert in a three-week festival called “Schubert and Berg: Dawn to Twilight,” all of which will juxtapose the music of the two Viennese composers one who lived and worked at the beginning and the other at the end of the Romantic Era in music.

As an appetizer, Tilson Thomas served up Schubert’s “Rosamunde” Overture, followed by a substantial first course in Berg’s “Seven Early Songs.” Subtexts abound here, such as underlining how Schubert (along with Beethoven) pretty much set in motion the Romantic idea in music. Berg took it as far as it could go harmonically before stepping over into atonality, never losing that essential Viennese character. Although many considered Schubert the ne plus ultra of song composers, the program featured a set by Berg that simultaneously looks back at the form Schubert perfected and ahead at the possibilities of slipping the moors of those conventions.

For the main courses after intermission, the menu juxtaposed Schubert’s Symphony in B minor “Unfinished” with Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra. In introducing the Three Pieces, Tilson Thomas pointed out several connections between the two composers that might not be so obvious. For the music on this program, both composers explored purely musical ideas, he said. Schubert loved to play with enigmatic harmonies, often switching unexpectedly from major to minor but also slipping into unprepared harmonic territory by, for example, treating an A flat is if it were a G sharp and going where that change suggested. Berg and his late-Romantic cohorts (Wagner, Mahler, Schönberg) took that idea and pushed it to the extreme. Dawn to twilight.

Despite all such intellectualizing, what ultimately matters, of course, is how affecting the music can be. In that regard, it was clear, this conductor and this orchestra clearly put more weight on Berg. The program may have gone from Schubert to Berg in both halves of the concert for chronological reasons, or to contrast relatively delicate music with heavier material to follow, but the result gave Berg the superior position. In the end, the songs and the Three Pieces dominated the memory.

The overture got a straightforward reading that lacked rhythmic bite and tended to get muddy when the woodwinds and brass entered, pleasant enough but nothing special. The songs, however, tugged at the heart from the first notes. Michelle de Young’s seamless mezzo soprano soared against the sighing, shrugging and welling-up of the orchestra in a performance that mesmerized with both accuracy and passion. Her sound can be dark as an alto or float easily above the staff into pure cream like a soprano, and she put all these inflections to work, responding beautifully to each phrase. This was complete music, everything the overture was not.

In the symphony, among the most familiar music in the literature, Tilson Thomas aimed for delicacy and sweetness. Eschewing repeats, the music went by quickly, taking away even more weight. The result was pure and glistening, like a shiny gem floating in the air, appreciable more for the beauty of individual moments that for any sort of dramatic arc.

There was no missing the drama in the Three Pieces, however. This is one of the orchestra’s big showpieces. They took it on tour earlier this season, to acclaim, and the musicians’ familiarity with Berg’s ins and outs lends the piece a substance and sense of detail that serves it well. Every section gets a workout, especially the percussion, which opens and closes the first movement with hushed rustlings and punctuates climaxes with masses of sound. It would be easy for this dense music to congeal into something unappetizing, but this performance leapt from the page with amazing detail.

As each movement disassembles itself, the music crumbling into pieces, Berg’s message is clear. This is as far as we can go with music as we know it, he seems to be saying. Time to move on to something new. From our 21st-century perspective, we know there was a lot more to say within a tonal framework, but it sure didn’t look that way to Berg. Tilson Thomas may have found a rich vein to mine by contrasting the compelling works that emerged from Berg’s angst with the sense of wonder and discovery in Schubert’s music a century earlier.

Harvey Steiman

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