The San Francisco Symphony's program of Ruggles, Feldman, and Ives-Brant was, as expected, a knockout. MTT gave a little talk before the Feldman, positioning the music in the context of the Abstract Expressionists and not so subtly begging the audience to remain quiet for the duration of the piece. This they did; Morty was saved the incessant coughing and shuffling that, in the past, has greeted his appearances in large New York halls. (On one unhappy night at the Philharmonic in 1996, Feldman's Structures preceded the final scene from Salome, and dynamic levels onstage and off seemed about the same.) What a joy it was to hear Ruggles's Sun-Treader! This masterly score has been played all too seldom in New York since its local premiere, in 1967, with the American Symphony under Leopold Stokowski. (The program erroneously listed a 1970 MTT/Boston Symphony performance as the first New York outing.) When the Phillharmonic thundered through Sun-Treader at the American Eccentrics festival in 1994, I felt certain that it would become a repertory item, but it did not. Incidentally, Other Minds will, at long last, reissue the classic two-LP set of the complete Ruggles that MTT put together for CBS in 1980. The release is scheduled for next month. Tonight's program has Harry Partch, Mason Bates, David Del Tredici, and Lou Harrison.
