Elvis Costello with SF Symphony

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Rio
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Elvis Costello with SF Symphony

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Posted on Wed, Mar. 29, 2006
Symphonic foray in S.F. fails to inspire
By Richard Scheinin
Mercury News

MERI SIMON - MERCURY NEWS
Elvis Costello's more familiar role of singer-songwriter dominated the second half of the concert Monday.
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Music: Elvis Costello, "Prelude--Overture--Puck 1" (RealAudio)
You wait and wait for months. Elvis Costello is coming! With an orchestra! They're going to play his new symphonic work! The one he recorded with Michael Tilson Thomas! Plus, they're going to play a bunch of his songs, Elvis and the San Francisco Symphony TOGETHER!

Well, the concert has come and gone. It happened Monday night at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. And as much as you have to love Elvis for his smile, his smarts, his good cheer and his chutzpah -- the way he's always testing and stretching himself, an admirable thing -- the concert was, in the end, not terrific. Actually, it was pretty underwhelming.

I felt almost guilty not enjoying a concert that almost everyone else in the sold-out hall clearly was so ready to enjoy. Elvis' fans love him, and he is easy to love, most obviously because of that voice of his, which only has ripened through the decades.

You think of the way he stretches his art and then of the way he stretches his voice -- leaning up, up, up into those rubber band-tight high notes, which he never misses -- and suspect there's more than a metaphorical connection.

Certainly, the man's aim is true. He loves jazz. He loves symphonic music. Deeply. But do we have to love his public demonstrations of love for those worlds? I have mixed feelings about this.

One of the first things Costello told the audience Monday was about his last visit to Davies, when he and his friend Tom Waits attended a performance of Olivier Messiaen's ``Turangalila'' Symphony. This is a good thing for Costello's audience to hear; the man is into Messiaen. Costello even told the audience that it should come back to Davies: Attending symphonic concerts ``is something you should do all the time,'' he suggested in a non-lecturey way.

But then came the San Francisco Symphony's performance of Costello's Suite from ``Il Sogno,'' and I'm not sure it offered much of a gateway to symphonic first-timers.

Costello wrote ``Il Sogno'' (``The Dream'') for an Italian ballet company's adaptation of Shakespeare's ``A Midsummer Night's Dream.'' The 200-page score was recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Tilson Thomas, in 2002, and the performance was issued on the Deutsche Grammophon label in 2004.

Tilson Thomas coached Costello a bit, helping him to strengthen what he'd written. But this is Costello's work. And it's a very good recording, about an hour long, with great atmospherics and real spirit; you can hear Costello's love of Debussy's refinement and Stravinsky's puckishness. There are halfway decent jazz solos and lots of good melodies, which feel very Elvis-like yet somehow different, because of the context, the way they keep rising up out of the symphonic stew.

Monday's performance was supposed to be of a shortened 45-minute ``Suite'' culled from the larger work; it wound up being a 30-minute reduction of the reduction, and it wasn't very good. The orchestra was sloppy: cracked notes in the brass, tepid saxophone solos, rhythmic incohesion, all-around sleepiness. The strings could have mustered a lot more luster; they played with little polish or punch.

It didn't sound like the San Francisco Symphony. Whether the problem was a lack of rehearsal time or a lack of communication between the players and conductor Alan Broadbent, better known as a jazz pianist, the result was a snooze of a ``dream.'' (Tilson Thomas, where were you?) In its boiled down, underperformed condition, the piece didn't seem to offer a lot, either; lots of riffs and faux jazz and a few decent tunes, but nothing to write home about.

Well, that was the first half of the show.

The second half was better, but not enough better. Costello wore a tuxedo and, roaming the stage, microphone in hand, came across as very much the crooner. A natural emcee-banterer, he joked that all he was missing was his martini.

At times, punching out an emotion-choked high note, he brought Tony Bennett to mind. He was joined by Steve Nieve, his long-time pianist, and, again, the orchestra, performing a potpourri of Costello tunes in a variety of full-scale arrangements, including ones by himself, Bill Frisell and Vince Mendoza.

Here's a problem. I confess to being stuck on Costello's early records: ``This Year's Model,'' ``My Aim is True,'' ``Get Happy.'' They were smart, but they still rocked raucously; they were filled with elation. By ``Imperial Bedroom'' -- and that was a long time ago -- Costello was getting ponderous.

And maybe that's what was wrong Monday; the songs and their delivery were a little ponderous. There was ``Speak Darkly, My Angel,'' an art song Costello wrote for the mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. The best thing about it at the concert was Costello's funny spoken introduction: ``It's about a woman of a certain age and desperation who finds herself on the Riviera -- and is considering pushing her young lover out the window.''

Likewise, ``She Handed Me a Mirror,'' commissioned by the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, began with a sing-song melody, evolved into something oddly contoured with Costello driving up to another high note, and felt, overall, dirge-like.

Again, the banter preceding the song was best: Inspired by the life of Hans Christian Andersen, he explained, ``Mirror'' is about ``a misfit man in love with an unattainable woman.'' Something about the story line, joked Costello (who is married to the lanky sexpot jazz singer Diana Krall), appealed to him.

He's really a charming guy. But as for the songs, the best ones backed off from the artsy end of things. ``Veronica,'' with just Costello on guitar and Nieve on piano, was a pretty good rocker. ``My Flame Burns Blue,'' Costello's setting of Billy Strayhorn's ``Blood Count,'' couldn't miss, because the tune's too good to mess up. (Mary Fettig had a nice feature on alto sax). And ``Alison'' -- oh, come on! It's from ``My Aim is True.''

But you know what was best? A couple of tunes from ``Painted from Memory,'' Costello's collaboration with Burt Bacharach from a few years back. He sang ``God Give Me Strength'' and ``I Still Have that Other Girl,'' and their ornate, suburban soul were the perfect fit for Costello's husky throb. He is a romantic at heart, and here, finally, was real romance.


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Contact Richard Scheinin at rscheinin@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5069.
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