Like a miracle — San Diego Symphony’s Opus Gala almost here

‘Tis the season for The Symphony Opus Gala. I’ve been waiting impatiently for months for the season to finally start up again. The Gala falls on Saturday, October 7, between two concerts on Friday, October 6 and Sunday October 8. The selections for Friday are the Richard Wagner’s Prelude to Die Meistersinger, Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and Richard Strauss’ A Hero’s Life. Conducting the concert is friend of the symphony Edo de Waart. The soloist for the Liszt is Jean Yves Thibaudet. The relationship between these pieces is clear. Wagner and Liszt were fast friends and connected by the marriage of Liszt’s daughter Cosima to Wagner. Richard Strauss’ tone poems, such as A Hero’s Life, were directly in the Wagnerian vein. The Saturday concert is the same as Friday except Wagner is out. The Sunday concert is a chamber concert featuring Thibaudet and members of the San Diego Symphony performing Francis Poulenc, Franz Schubert, and Gabriel Faure.

The theme for this concert is less Germanic and more Parisian Salon. I must admit I find this concert to be fascinating.

Poulenc’s Oboe Sonata feels a bit like a miracle. Schubert’s String Trio No. 1 in B flat major portrays Schubert’s strength, aka music for an intimate setting. Faure’s Piano Quartet No. 1 is as “bourgie” as this ultimate bourgeois composer can get — except for his Pavane.

I don’t use “bourgie” as a pejorative at all. I love Faure, because I am so bourgie myself. I am so bourgie that I spell it correctly. Bougie is wrong. That’s how dilettantes and philistines spell it.

As much as I love those massive orchestral pieces from Friday and Saturday I am kind of in awe of the Sunday concert. The concert will be held at The Jacobs Music Center (Copley Symphony Hall). It isn’t the most intimate of settings, but I don’t even care.