Pirate attack at the Symphony

Eric and I went to see Yo-Yo Ma perform with the San Francisco Symphony last night. Instead of our usual awesome subscription seats which are front orchestra on the bass side, these were up in the balcony. I guess you could say it was nice to get a different view, but it sure felt far away. At least there wasn't an earthquake.

The piece that they performed with Yo-Yo Ma was Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 2. Yo-Yo is a masterful, vivacious and evocative performer. He was so animated that it seemed his butt was barely in the chair for most of the performance. I thought he might go "gremlin"* on us, but he didn't.

I took a look at the reviews this morning and was discouraged that the Chronicle reviewer hadn't picked up on what I felt was the clear "pirate attack" motif of the piece. There were dark and stormy seas, there was a lot of low growling and there was a whole section with cannon fire. Yo-Yo Ma might as well have had a Jolly Roger flag flying off the end of his bow - it could not have been any more obvious.

Instead the reviewer used words like "plangent" and phrases like "the orchestra's angular expostulations" which just make me feel inarticulate and uncultured. He did at one point refer to the piece's "aggressive swagger." But that's as close to pirate-y as he got.


*At a live music show at The Parkside not too long ago the bassist balanced his bass precariously and proceeded to hop up on it and perch like a gremlin, one foot near the neck, the other resting in the side groove, while he continued to play. Impressive, horrifying - your call.