A month ago I saw the San Francisco Symphony (conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, choral direction by Jenny Wong, piano by Jean-Yvette Thibaudet) at Davies Symphony Hall do Scriabin’s Prometheus, The Poem of Fire and Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle.
The ensemble was spectacular, the acoustics of the venue left a bit to be desired (2nd tier center there I would never recommend - obviously I was not in an ideal place but it was certainly underwhelming where I was at - between Prometheus and Bluebeard I moved from ‘Premier 2nd Tier’ to a side-box labeled merely ‘2nd Tier’ and experienced notably superior sound) and there was a bit too much tacky technical flibitty-jibbity with the lights and big screens displaying the English translation of the Bluebeard text for my taste.
The performance of Prometheus was spectacular, albeit somewhat marred for me personally by the persistent noise-making and fidgeting of nearby attendees.
Afterwards we went to Martuni’s piano bar and I heard some of the best vocalists I’ve ever heard get up and sing all manner of songs, (the piano player was brilliant) seated about three feet away and, especially with the multiple martinis on board and the super-cool vibe of the thing, had a much better time there.
