Symphony Plays a Different Tune
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SAN FRANCISCO — Sir Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra were forced to improvise Saturday when trucks hauling their instruments and formal clothing failed to appear in time for a performance scheduled in Davies Symphony Hall.
Hoping that the trucks would arrive any moment, Solti, the Chicago group’s music director, took the stage in street clothes to play the piano--something he has never done before in the United States--with four principal musicians.
They presented impromptu chamber music, including Mozart’s piano quartet in G minor.
When the trucks still did not appear, the full symphony in street clothes began its concert of Wagner, Beethoven and Mozart with instruments borrowed from San Francisco musicians before a sell-out crowd of 3,000.
The trucks, coming from Oklahoma, were delayed by an Arizona snowstorm and a flat tire.
It is expected that they will arrive in time for another concert Sunday.
