Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor –

Combining food with music is fairly common but the San Antonio Symphony has come up with new twist on the traditional pairing. Called the “Symphony of Flavors,” its 2019 spring festival is celebrating the music and cuisine of three European countries – Italy, France and Spain – whose musical and culinary traditions are well known in the U.S.

“The original idea for the festival came from our music director Sebastian Lang-Lessing who had the vision of pairing fine food with symphonic music,” said the Symphony’s manager of artistic planning Katie Brill. “Elizabeth Johnson, who owns the Pharm Table restaurant, helped us connect with local chefs.”

According to Brill, food events will mostly take place at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts where SAS is a resident company. Previous plans to have Thursday night dinners at the Spanish Governor’s Palace have been abandoned. At present, concertgoers will have several pre-concert options inside the Tobin, that include both restaurant-style dining and casual box dinners offered to those who attend pre-concert lectures. Pharm Table, which is in the immediate vicinity of the Tobin, will also serve special dinners on concert nights. In addition, patrons will be able to enjoy post-concert munchies from several food truck services, stationed outside, next to the smaller Carlos Alvarez Theater of the Tobin Center.

But the most unusual aspect of this fest is something I have never heard of before: food demonstrations right on stage while the orchestra is playing. Maybe the chefs will coordinate their movements to the music while sizzling grills contribute their own enticing sounds!  (Just kidding!) The chefs will be allowed to speak briefly to the audience, said Brill.

While the gastronomical part of the three-weekend event may have attracted the most attention, the “Symphony of Flavors” is still essentially a music showcase, though Lang-Lessing’s approach to each concert’s programming reflects in a way a multi-course meal by mostly including selections of shorter pieces, said Brill. They could be thought of as hors d’oeuvres, soup, salad, entrée and dessert, she noted. Last weekend’s focus on Italy featured San Antonio-born tenor David Portillo in an evening of operatic arias and overtures by great Italian composers such as Rossini, Verdi, Mascagni and Donizetti, but Berlioz and Tchaikovsky were snuck in there, too.

This weekend is about the “Flavors of France,” (April 5-6) with Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major, Mihaud’s “jazzy” “La Creation du Monde,” and the beloved “La Mer” by Debussy. Guest conductor Jeffrey Kahane will lead the orchestra while also playing solo piano in the Ravel concerto.

The festival concludes next weekend with “Savor Spain,” (April 12-13) conducted by Lang-Lessing and featuring music from and inspired by Spain – Bizet’s Suite from “Carmen,” and Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Capriccio Espagnol” – as well as a special treat: the Guadalupe Dance Company performing de Falla’s “El Amor Brujo” with mezzo-soprano Veronica Williams.

Concert tickets $10-$81, available online at www.tobincenter.org, by phone 210-223-8624 or in person at the Tobin box office, 100 Auditorium Circle, San Antonio, TX, 78205. Dinner tickets are available from Pharm Table www.pharmtable.com, and at the Tobin www.tobincentercatering.com fffffffff