United States Verdi, Mozart, Getty: Rachel Willis-Sørensen (soprano), Jamie Barton (mezzo-soprano), Mario Chang (tenor), Morris Robinson (bass), San Francisco Symphony Refrain (refrain director: Jenny Wong), San Francisco Symphony / James Gaffigan (conductor). Davies Symphony Corridor, San Francisco. 20.6.2025 (HS)
Mozart – ‘Ave verum corpus’, Ok.618
Gordon Getty – ‘Intermezzo’ from Goodbye, Mr. Chips; ‘Saint Christopher’; ‘The Previous Man within the Snow’
Verdi – Requiem
There was a lot to understand within the San Francisco Symphony’s Verdi’s Requiem, a part of the ultimate subscription live performance of their 2024-25 season. It featured stellar singing by the soloists and the refrain, and the vivid taking part in of the orchestra caught a lot of the composer’s drama. Conductor James Gaffigan, whose profession nowadays focuses on opera, struck a tenuous stability between out-and-out theatricality and reverence to the non secular textual content.
Gaffigan acquired the project as a result of the work, which had initially been deliberate because the September 2024 season opener with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting, needed to be rescheduled. The refrain went on strike over drastic cuts, and it took three months and a $4 million contribution by an nameless donor to save lots of the refrain with a two-year contract. When this system, which additionally included three works by Gordon Getty, a composer and monetary supporter of the symphony, was re-set for the tip of the season, Salonen was unavailable as a result of he had agreed to steer the New York Philharmonic on an Asian tour after his tenure had been scheduled to conclude.
The music director’s job remains to be open. Gaffigan, at the moment music director of Komische Oper Berlin and of the Queen Sofía Palace of the Arts in Valencia, is rumored to be within the working. Everybody concerned is tight-lipped, however Gaffigan (who has a historical past right here, having been affiliate conductor from 2006 to 2009) is scheduled to conduct two applications subsequent season, when solely Jap van Zweden has extra assignments. If anybody within the viewers was ‘scouting’, the intense depth of the efficiency emphasised the load and energy of the massive moments, however the singers discovered subtlety within the many moments of balm and sweetness.
Verdi’s concept of a Requiem, in fact, drew from his palette of theatrical tropes, which regularly conjured non secular moments to leaven the musical and dramatic textures of his operas. Soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, tenor Mario Chang and bass Morris Robinson, all veterans of Verdi operas in large theaters around the globe, captured his nuances.
The quiet opening was a young rendering of the ‘Requiem aeternam’ prayer from each the orchestra and refrain, and the ‘Kyrie’ that adopted gave a preview of what to anticipate from the singers as they chimed in one after the other after which sang collectively. Robinson made an impression even earlier than he rose to sing – I used to be fascinated to observe him quietly sing together with the refrain (one thing he did all through, eyes closed reverently). His voice surprised with its richness and gravity.
The distinction with Chang’s glossy lyric tenor was interesting, and Barton’s caramel sound on notes under the employees virtually felt like the next extension of Robinson’s gripping bass. If Willis-Sørensen appeared a bit squally at this level, she greater than made up for it with beautiful pianissimos later. Her voice acquired stronger and surer because the music progressed, crusing effortlessly over the ensemble sound when wanted and lavishing gentle caresses in solo moments late within the proceedings.
However first got here the ‘Dies Irae’, Verdi’s most colourful, operatic and prolonged innovation on this piece. Gaffigan launched into it with sufficient venom to shake the rafters. 4 trumpets positioned above the orchestra added to the brilliance of the ‘Tuba mirum’ fanfares and, when Robinson intoned the ‘Mors stupebit’, we might really feel it in our bones, particularly on the low notes that finish the episode. Barton adopted with a luxurious ‘Liber scriptus’. A real spotlight within the ‘Dies Irae’ was a perfectly sustained and well-framed ‘Recordare’ wherein the soprano and mezzo voices blended seamlessly. With that, Willis-Sørensen’s voice appeared to middle, and there was nothing however gold from her the remainder of the best way. Chang’s ‘Ingemisco’, a showcase for a lyric tenor, was not fairly as candy as could be excellent. The interweaving of all of the solo voices within the ‘Lacrymosa’, nevertheless, closed the ‘Dies Irae’ chapter splendidly and introduced a way of dignity to the ‘Offertory’ that adopted.
For my style, the rhythms of the ‘Sanctus’, wherein the refrain and orchestra rejoice briefly, might have danced with extra abandon, however this temporary digression did the job of setting issues up for the reverence of the ultimate sections. Willis-Sørensen and Barton acquired that going by rendering the gentle colours within the ‘Agnus Dei’ with superb a cappella singing, and the give-and-take with the refrain flowed easily. A seamless connection amongst mezzo, tenor and bass made the ‘Lux aeterna’ particularly engaging, as was the part wherein Robinson’s voice matched the low brass and bassoons.
The finale, ‘Libera me’, which Verdi wrote first, discovered Willis-Sørensen at her finest. She effortlessly met the composer’s calls for to sing on the highest and lowest extremities whereas expressing the fervent prayer within the textual content. The distinction with the horrifying ‘Dies Irae’ music, the essence of Verdi’s drama, couldn’t have been higher, and Gaffigan formed the orchestra into a way of calm on the finish.
The primary half of the live performance confirmed off the refrain in Mozart’s temporary ‘Ave verum corpus’ and in three reminders of what Gordon Getty has meant to this orchestra and the humanities tradition in San Francisco. The nonagenarian, effectively generally known as a philanthropist, additionally composed 4 operas and a protracted record of works for voice and orchestra, lots of them to his personal texts.
The orchestra and refrain sounded glorious within the’ Intermezzo’ from Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Getty’s 2021 opera movie, which was adopted by ‘Saint Christopher’, set to a poem he wrote in his faculty days. Each items leaned on tutorial elements, with easy melodies paying homage to faculty hymns. ‘The Previous Man within the Snow’, the latest of those items, debuted final summer season as a part of his Previous Man Triptych. The longest and essentially the most advanced of the three works, it explored adventurous musical elements and made a satisfying aperitif for what was to return.
Harvey Steiman
Featured Picture: Trumpets within the gallery in ‘Tuba mirum’ in Verdi’s Requiem © Kristen Loken
