An Evening of Haydn and Mozart

Whenever we attend a symphony concert in San Francisco, we usually arrive in the city around thirty minutes before the show. It allows us just enough time to park the car, walk to the music hall and find our seats. It also tends to stress me out since I end up feeling rushed. It's a silly thing to stress about, but it's true. Anyway, I promised myself the next time we went to the symphony that we would do something different. We would arrive early.

The next time turned out to be last Friday. To ensure we had plenty of time to spare before the 6:30 concert, we arrived in the city nearly two hours beforehand. I was so proud of myself that I would have been content to stand in front of Davies Symphony Hall for an hour or so, marveling at how early we were, but M thought we might make better use of our time finding somewhere to eat.

Fortunately, I had already scouted out a dining possibility on the web, so we didn't have to wander aimlessly for food. Instead, we ventured two blocks west of Davies to a little Italian restaurant called Caffe Delle Stelle.

When we reached it, there was already a line of five or six patrons waiting for the doors to open. Promptly at 5:00, they did. Although we didn't have reservations, we were seated, something I'm most thankful for since Plan B involved searching for a Burger King on Market Street. "It's still early enough in the evening," the host said before she showed us to our table.

The food and service at Caffe Delle Stelle were excellent. The staff was quick, but courteous, and obviously accustomed to the symphony-dining crowd. We were in and out of there within an hour without ever feeling hurried. Afterwards, we strolled over to the music hall.

The evening's program was part of San Francisco Symphony's Friday 6.5 Series. It featured Haydn's The Storm, his Symphony No. 96 (Miracle) and Mozart's Coronation Mass. They are two of my favorite composers, so their pairing was perfect.

What made the performance even better was that Martin Haselböck, the conductor, gave a short introduction before each piece, offering insights about the music and the composers. At one point, he joked that in Mozart's day, people loved music so much that they didn't attend services for the sermon, but for the music the composer wrote for the services.

He also mentioned Vienna a number of times, which made me long to visit it (and Salzburg) again. He said the city had 52 orchestras and that one could attend a concert every night of the week if he or she wanted. My biggest regret was never attending a symphony performance while we were in Austria. I hope to return to correct that one day, hopefully with an evening of Haydn and Mozart.