Britten Ovations

San Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas is concluding the 2013-14 season with three weeks of concerts celebrating the centenary of British gay genius composer Benjamin Britten. Mini-festivals are an MTT trademark, and the confluence of Britten's birthday with the end of a particularly satisfying subscription season and Pride Week is offering a special treat for local music-lovers.

We have already enjoyed the first concert week, which included selections from Britten's glittering "Prince of the Pagodas" ballet score and a special appearance by the Balinese performing arts group Gamelan Sekar Jaya. Smart programming started the impressive evening with authentic gamelan performance, and ended it with Britten's beautiful synthesis of East and West with the enchanting sounds of Balinese music embedded in a symphony orchestra.

Sandwiched in-between was a less obvious selection, Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Opus 63. As expertly essayed by Gil Shaham, it proved an astringent palette-cleanser and more proof that MTT is especially sympathetic to the composer's tart harmonies, unique motoric rhythms and often surprisingly lush lyricism. We could have enjoyed Britten's own essay in the genre, but I would never pass on a chance to hear MTT or Shaham in Prokofiev, and the full house obviously agreed, with a hearty ovation.

Gamelan Sekar Jaya is a Bay Area ensemble, and their appearance at Davies Symphony Hall could easily have gone on longer. Their joyous clangor demonstrated why so many Western composers have been influenced by the tradition they carry on, but this was a Britten celebration after all, and "Prince of the Pagodas" was a perfect finale.

At this writing we look forward to the second week of Britten concerts featuring the composer's evocative Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, with tenor Toby Spence and SF Symphony Principal Horn Robert Ward. We will report back, and also cover the third week of the concerts, finishing in a semi-staged production of Britten's masterpiece opera, "Peter Grimes." The performances are the first SFS presentation of the complete work. Tenor Stuart Skelton is on hand to give his internationally noted interpretation.

"Peter Grimes" made Benjamin Britten's reputation, with his lover and life-long muse Peter Pears in the title role. Concluding the SFS season and the celebration of the composer's centenary with this deep and haunting story of a complicated soul and archetypal outsider seems particularly fitting as both a festival offering and a grateful recognition of the composer's enduring importance and uncompromising integrity.