A Concert Surprise

I have to admit I wasn't expecting much from my series concert Friday night.  Right in the middle of the holiday music season, this seemed like an odd program:

Sibelius

Pohjola’s Daughter

Esa-Pekka Salonen

Violin Concerto

Wagner

Excerpts from Götterdämmerung

 

The following nights feature Peter and the Wolf, Colors of Christmas, and of course Messiah.

 

So it was a pleasant surprise to hear two works that were new to me that are definitely worth repeat hearings -- the Sibelius and Salonen's concerto.  And the Wagner excerpts were beautifully done with Christine Brewer as an excellent Brunhilde. 

 

San Francisco Symphony concerts are broadcast locally on KDFC and on the web.  I don't see this concert on the list yet but, if and when they broadcast it, it's definitely worth a listen.

 

As a side note, it was also a surprise to see how many empty seats there were in the hall -- very unusual for a series concert.  Offsetting that were the presence of numerous, enthusiastic younger audience members -- something we need to encourage.

Today is National Cat Day (isn't every day?)

This was news to me and, although it has almost nothing to do with real estate, we have a cat and if we don't properly acknowledge the day she will almost certainly give us the "treatment".

Or not.

Great Fall Weekend

First off, the calendar may say fall but the weather this week has been what we normally expect this time of year -- sunny, warm, with little wind and virtually no fog. And this time of year is also when so many of the city's street and music festivals are scheduled (for good reason) -- Polk Street, Castro Street, Folsom Street, Noe Valley Harvest, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Treasure Island Music Festival, and many others.  The San Francisco Symphony has just begun its 100th season and San Francisco Opera has also started its season including a free simulcast of Turandot at AT&T Park.

Just this weekend (and it's only Saturday as I write this), I've seen a great San Francisco Symphony performance of Pictures at an Exhibition (and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14),

promenaded through our neighborhood street fair on Potrero Hill,

and checked out one of the local Open Studio

A couple of the artists particularly caught my attention:

Daniel Phill



Phillip Hua



Fleet Week

It's been a busy three weekends in San Francisco with various street fairs and other goings on.  Not surprising since this time of year is supposed to bring some of our best weather -- other parts of the country would call it "Indian summer" -- with glorious, warmth, sunshine and little or no wind.  Unfortunately this year, the weather has been touch and go all three of the last weekends although nobody got rained on.

One of my favorite annual events is Fleet Week which just wrapped up.

The best day to catch the air show is usually Friday afternoon when they do their practice.  This year Friday also turned out to be the best day for weather plus the usual benefits of many fewer people.

Here's some photos:



Click on the slideshow to see photo captions.