One of the pieces on last night's program at the SF Symphony was the Overture and Venusberg Music from Tannhäuser. Once the Venusberg party gets going (the Bacchanal), various percussion instruments join in: tambourine, triangle, cymbals, drums, and ... castanets. I've heard this piece a zillion times and never noticed it, but I watched as Jacob Nissly, the Principal Percussion player, stood up, put one foot on a stool, and played the castanets on his thigh. It starts with one beat per measure (clack, clack, ...), then two (clackclack, clackclack, ...), then a triplet + 1 (clackety clack, clackety clack, ...), then all triplets (clackety, clackety, clackety ...), then four (clackclackclackclack, clackclackclackclack, ...), then non-stop, fast-as-you-can (clackclackclackclackclackclackclackclackclackclackclackclack ...) for a full minute or more. The guy has muscles and stamina, and probably a sore thigh. It was pretty funny to watch.
They also played the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde; it was "Wagner Love-Music" night. That was the second half. In the first half, we had Mendelssohn's Ruy Blas Overture (rarely played these days but you'd recognize it) and Bruch's G Minor Violin Concerto (likewise) with James Estes, who was spectacular. He came out after the Bruch and played an encore by Eugène Ysaÿe (thanks to Stephen Smoliar for identifying this composer, who was unknown to me). It started slowly but got faster, and then it switched into double stops (two notes at a time, so the bow has to cross two strings, very difficult), and then it got really fast and wild. The audience went crazy. He did a second encore, a short piece by Bach, which restored Order To The Universe.
Although I bought the ticket to hear the Wagner and the guest conductor, Marek Janowski, I enjoyed the non-Wagner pieces more. The Wagner pieces were just too familiar. We all know every note of those pieces. Well, except for the castanets.
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