SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY AND MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS ANNOUNCE 2013-14 SEASON CONCERT PROGRAMS, EVENTS, AND RECORDINGS
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SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY AND MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS ANNOUNCE 2013-14 SEASON CONCERT PROGRAMS, EVENTS, AND RECORDINGS
· Season highlights include a four-week celebration of the Benjamin Britten centenary, including MTT leading semi-staged performances of Peter Grimes and Four Sea Interludes with original co-commissioned video, and anniversary performances of War Requiem
· Tilson Thomas conducts three weeks of programs pairing the music of Beethoven with Project San Francisco composer Mason Bates, to be recorded for SFS Media
· Pianist Yuja Wang and composer Mason Bates are Project San Francisco artists
· Pablo Heras-Casado leads two-week festival pairing music by Thomas Adès and Mendelssohn
· SFS launches series of new music experiences with SFS musicians, composers, and artists in small, newly-created alternative space in Davies Symphony Hall
· West Coast premiere of Zosha Di Castri’s new work Lineage to be performed as part of inaugural New Voices composer initiative
· Season-long focus on J.S. Bach includes performances with pianist András Schiff, violinist Christian Tetzlaff, conductor Ton Koopman, and organist Martin Haselböck
· SFS musicians Alexander Barantschik, Carey Bell, Mark Inouye, Robert Ward, and Peter Wyrick are featured as soloists; SFS Chorus 40th anniversary highlights major works from Bach to Britten
· New season-long film series includes Halloween week of Hitchcock films with the world premiere presentation of Vertigo with live orchestral accompaniment, Disney’s Fantasia in Concert, Chaplin’s City Lights, and A Night at the Oscars
· Distinguished guest conductors include Herbert Blomstedt, Semyon Bychkov, James Conlon, Charles Dutoit, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Marek Janowski, Edwin Outwater, and Osmo Vänskä
· Returning guest soloists include Emanuel Ax, Christine Brewer, Yefim Bronfman, Jeremy Denk, James Ehnes, Julia Fischer, Kirill Gerstein, Hélène Grimaud, Janine Jansen, Leila Josefowicz, Yo-Yo Ma, Audra McDonald, Garrick Ohlsson, Gil Shaham, Stuart Skelton, Toby Spence, Christian Tetzlaff, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Simon Trpčeski, Elza van den Heever, Yuja Wang, and Alisa Weilerstein
· Debut performances with the Orchestra by Lionel Bringuier, Jaap van Zweden, Bogna Bartosz, Till Fellner, Rodney Gilfrey, Martin Helmchen, Claudia Huckle, Simone Lamsma, Tilman Lichdi, Audrey Elizabeth Luna, Klaus Mertens, Ann Murray, Sean Panikkar, Daniil Trifonov, Teresa Wakim, and Roderick Williams
· Great Performers Series includes concerts by Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic with Yuja Wang, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Saint Petersburg Philharmonic with Yuri Temirkanov, Kremerata Baltica with Gidon Kremer, baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and pianists Murray Perahia, Yuja Wang, Evgeny Kissin, and Katia and Marielle Labèque
· MTT and Orchestra to record Mason Bates’ The B-Sides, an SFS commission, plus Alternative Energy and Liquid Interface; Grammy award-winning SFS Media label to release Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in April 2013 and record John Adams’ Absolute Jest, an SFS commission
· MTT leads Orchestra on tours of US and Europe, including concerts at Carnegie Hall and in London, Paris, Vienna, Prague, Geneva, Luxembourg, Dortmund, and Birmingham; soloists include Sasha Cooke, Jeremy Denk, Susan Graham, and St. Lawrence String Quartet
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – March 4, 2013 – The San Francisco Symphony (SFS) and Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) announced their 2013-14 season today, a slate of concerts, programs, and events that reflects their commitment to performing and recording core classical repertoire and new music by contemporary and emerging composers, presenting them side by side in in-depth explorations and creative settings. MTT continues his multi-year focus on performing and recording Beethoven, with three weeks of concerts pairing some of Beethoven’s infrequently performed works alongside three recent compositions by Bay Area composer and electronica artist Mason Bates. In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Britten, MTT leads three weeks of concerts, including a new semi-staged production of Peter Grimes, and Four Sea Interludes with original co-commissioned video. MTT also conducts the Orchestra in major works by Antheil, Bartók, Berlioz, Brahms, Debussy, Ives, Steven Mackey, Mahler, Mozart, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, and Schumann. Other high points of the season include Pablo Heras-Casado leading a two-week festival pairing the music of Felix Mendelssohn and Thomas Adès, with common literary and musical inspirations as a theme, and a season-long focus on J.S. Bach with some of today’s foremost musical proponents of his music: Ton Koopman, András Schiff, and Christian Tetzlaff. The Orchestra makes its first performances of works by Thomas Adès, Mason Bates, J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, Dvořák, Ligeti, Lully, Mendelssohn, and Schulhoff; debuts a new season-long film series including the first live performances of the complete score of Hitchcock’s Vertigo, accompanying the film; and launches a series of immersive and informal musical events featuring SFS musicians, Bay Area-based and visiting composers, and visual artists. Other highlights of the SF Symphony’s eleven-month season are the West Coast premiere of Zosha Di Castri’s New Voices project commission and composer Mason Bates and pianist Yuja Wang returning as Project San Francisco artists. The Orchestra returns to Europe for a three-week tour in March 2014, and tours the U.S. in November 2013. On its SFS Media label, the Orchestra releases recordings of music by Beethoven, and will record performances of music by Bates and Beethoven for future release.
Subscription ticket packages start at $186 (a six-concert package in the 2nd Tier) for the San Francisco Symphony’s 2013-14 season and are on sale now to renewing subscribers and the general public. Ticket information is available through the San Francisco Symphony Web site at www.sfsymphony.org/subscribe, through the SFS Patron Services Office at 415-864-6000, and at the Davies Symphony Hall box office, on Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street in San Francisco. Tickets for individual 2013-14 San Francisco Symphony concerts will go on sale on July 22.
MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS’ 2013-14 HIGHLIGHTS
Michael Tilson Thomas marks his 19th season as Music Director with the SFS in 2013-14, and is currently the longest-tenured music director of any major American orchestra. In 18 concert weeks this season, in Davies Symphony Hall and on tour in Europe and the U.S., MTT leads the Orchestra in a wide variety of programs and events that highlight his commitment to new and rarely performed music as well as providing audiences new context to core classical repertoire.
“One of the great rewards of a long partnership between a conductor and an orchestra is the opportunity to explore works old and new, by many composers,” said Michael Tilson Thomas. “Just as we continue to examine the music of Beethoven and find new pathways into hearing his work, it is important to develop and support composers writing today, and treat new music in the way we treat music of the past—to revisit it over the years. This is part of developing creative partnerships with composers over the course of their careers, such as our continued explorations of the music of Bay Area composers John Adams and Mason Bates. Ongoing relationships with composers, present as well as past, are inseparable from our work together as musicians and open new dimensions in our music-making.”
SEASON OPENING GALA – ALL-AMERICAN PROGRAM WITH AUDRA McDONALD
The San Francisco Symphony’s 102nd season opens Tuesday, September 3, 2013, with Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas leading the Orchestra in its annual Opening Gala concert and celebration at Davies Symphony Hall. Soprano Audra McDonald and the Orchestra offer a program of works by American composers including Gershwin’s An American in Paris and Antheil’s Jazz Symphony. The gala concert will be broadcast live on Classical KDFC 90.3/89.9/104.9 FM and kdfc.com. The Orchestra’s All-San Francisco concert for San Franciscans served by local community groups takes place September 5, with Gershwin’s An American in Paris, and violinist James Ehnes joining MTT and the Orchestra in Barber’s Violin Concerto. MTT also conducts as James Ehnes and the Orchestra perform Barber’s Violin Concerto September 6, alongside Gershwin’s An American in Paris and Antheil’s Jazz Symphony.
BENJAMIN BRITTEN CENTENARY
The first SF Symphony performances of Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes (1945) are the culminating events in a four-week celebration of the English composer’s work and music, marking the centenary of his 1913 birth. The celebration encompasses Britten’s works for opera, vocal music, a ballet score, and orchestral writing, and spans the prolific career of a composer, conductor and pianist who died in 1976 at the age of 63. For the centenary, MTT will create a new semi-staged production of Peter Grimes in June 2014, with tenor Stuart Skelton (Peter Grimes) and soprano Elza van den Heever (Ellen Orford) heading a cast of singers including baritone Alan Opie (Captain Balstrode), mezzo-sopranos Ann Murray (Auntie) and Nancy Maultsby (Mrs. Sedley), baritone Eugene Brancoveanu (Ned Keene), bass John Relyea (Mr. Swallow), and the SFS Chorus. Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes will be presented with original co-commissioned video by visual artist Tal Rosner (“Polaris”). In other programs, Britten’s works are paired with those of his colleague and close friend, Dmitri Shostakovich. The Orchestra is joined by a gamelan ensemble in excerpts of music from Britten’s 1945 ballet The Prince of the Pagodas alongside Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto with Janine Jansen. SFS Principal Horn Robert Ward is featured in Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (1943), with tenor Toby Spence in a program that includes Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15. During the composer’s 100th birthday week in November 2013, Semyon Bychkov leads soprano Christine Brewer, tenor James Gilchrist, baritone Roderick Williams, the SFS Chorus, the Pacific Boychoir, and the Orchestra in Britten’s War Requiem (1962). Concertmaster Alexander Barantshik leads the Orchestra in Britten’s Simple Symphony for string orchestra during a week of January concerts.
BEETHOVEN AND BATES FESTIVAL
MTT and the Orchestra continue their multi-season exploration of Beethoven with three concert weeks that pair some of his early and lesser-heard works alongside recent music by Bay Area composer and electronica artist Mason Bates, a frequent SFS collaborator and this season’s Project San Francisco composer. Bates’ music will be recorded live during these concerts for later release on SFS Media. Since Bates attended the first American Mavericks Festival in 2000, he and MTT have worked together in multiple settings, including with the SFS at Davies Symphony Hall (the SFS commissioned Mass Transmission in 2011 for its centennial season, part of the American Mavericks Festival,) on the American Mavericks Festival tour, and in the YouTube Symphony Orchestra project. In the Beethoven and Bates Festival’s first week, in January, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 is paired on a program with his Romances Nos. 1 and 2. Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik is featured as soloist in these infrequently performed works, and he performs Romance No. 1 for the first time with the Orchestra. Mason Bates performs on electronica with the Orchestra in his Alternative Energy, performed in San Francisco by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra during the SFS centennial season. In the second week, for the first time since 1998, the Orchestra and the SFS Chorus perform Beethoven’s complete Mass in C. Excerpts from Beethoven’s rarely performed music for King Stephen, including the Overture and selected choral movements, open the concerts, and Bates joins the Orchestra on electronica for performances of his Liquid Interface.
“I can always count on a trip to the SFS to shake up my musical reality. Whether it’s new music, old music, or some provocative combination of the two, I always leave with retuned hearing. Few institutions this large behave so adventurously. It's been wonderful to create several new works for MTT and the musicians, and I am deeply honored that several pieces dear to me will be performed and recorded next season,” Bates said.
In the festival’s third week, in February, The B-Sides by Mason Bates opens the evening, again with Bates on electronica performing with the Orchestra. The SFS commissioned and premiered Bates’ The B-Sides in 2009. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, which the Orchestra recorded with MTT in 2010, also will be performed as part of the Beethoven and Bates Festival’s final week, and Gil Shaham is soloist in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2.
In addition to the Beethoven and Bates Festival weeks, in September, Emanuel Ax returns to perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with MTT and the Orchestra; a recording of his live performances of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Orchestra was released on SFS Media in 2011. The Orchestra also performs Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3, which it also recently recorded and issued on SFS Media, at Davies Symphony Hall and on tour in Carnegie Hall and in Champaign-Urbana, IL.
NEW VOICES COMPOSER – ZOSHA DI CASTRI
Canadian composer Zosha Di Castri was chosen last year as the first composer to have her work fostered, promoted and performed as part of New Voices, a new collaborative composer development initiative with the San Francisco Symphony, New World Symphony, and publisher Boosey & Hawkes. The SFS presents and performs Di Castri’s new orchestral work Lineage in its West Coast premiere in September, following its world premiere in Miami in April 2013. Her work will be performed by the Orchestra in Davies Symphony Hall and also at the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University. The New Voices project supports composers in developing their work in chamber and orchestral settings, preparing them for public performances, and promoting their music, with performances in Miami and San Francisco. Di Castri’s chamber music piece will be performed by SFS musicians in 2014.
TOURS
MTT leads the Orchestra on tours of Europe and the U.S. during the 2013-14 season, performing the music of contemporary and maverick American composers including John Adams, Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, and Steven Mackey alongside core classical repertoire by Mahler, Beethoven, Berlioz, Prokofiev, and Mozart. In March 2014, MTT and the Orchestra perform two weeks of concerts in the musical capitals of Europe, visiting London, Paris, and Vienna for two concerts each, as well as Prague, Geneva, Luxembourg, Dortmund, and Birmingham. Tour repertoire reflects the diverse array of works from its Grammy award-winning SFS Media catalogue, including Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7; Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique; The Alcotts from Ives’ A Concord Symphony, orchestrated by Henry Brant; and the St. Lawrence String Quartet in John Adams’ Absolute Jest, a San Francisco Symphony co-commission. Julia Fischer will join the Orchestra as soloist in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1. For Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 tour performances, the Orchestra is joined by local choruses including St. Paul’s Boys Choir and Women of the London Symphony Orchestra Chorus (London), Maîtresse de Radio France and Choeur des femmes de l’Orchestre de Paris (Paris and Geneva), Choeur symphonique de la Grande Région and Pueri cantores of the Luxembourg Conservatoire (Luxembourg), and Vienna Boys Choir and Women of the Wienersingakademie (Vienna).
In November 2013, the Orchestra performs four concerts on a U.S. tour to New York’s Carnegie Hall, Ann Arbor, MI, and Champaign-Urbana, IL. Repertoire includes Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with soprano Susan Graham (at Carnegie) and soprano Sasha Cooke (at Ann Arbor) and, at Carnegie and Champaign-Urbana, Steven Mackey’s Eating Greens, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 with Jeremy Denk, Copland’s Symphonic Ode, and Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3, recently released on SFS Media.
RECORDINGS
The Orchestra’s recordings on its own Grammy award-winning SFS Media label continue to reflect the artistic identity of its programming, a commitment to the work of contemporary American composers alongside that of the core classical masterworks. In the 2013-14 season, MTT and the Orchestra record performances of the Beethoven and Bates Festival, including three works by Bay Area composer Mason Bates: Liquid Interface, Alternative Energy and the SFS-commissioned The B-Sides. On April 9, 2013 SFS Media will release a recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, captured live in the concluding concerts of the 2011-12 centennial season with MTT, the Orchestra, the Chorus, and soloists Erin Wall, Kendall Gladen, William Burden, and Nathan Berg. During MTT and the Orchestra’s May 2013 Beethoven Festival, SFS Media will record John Adams’ Absolute Jest with the St. Lawrence String Quartet for future release. Absolute Jest was inspired by and based on fragments of Beethoven’s scherzos for string quartets and was co-commissioned by the SFS and premiered as part of its American Mavericks Festival last season. Release dates for all future recordings will be announced at a later date.
ADDITIONAL HIGHLIGHTS WITH MTT
Among other highlights of MTT’s season are programs featuring visits by some of the most acclaimed and beloved soloists, returning to perform with the Orchestra:
· Pianist Yefim Bronfman performs Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with MTT and the Orchestra, along with Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 3, in programs beginning Sept. 11.
· The week of September 18, MTT leads the Orchestra and soprano Sasha Cooke with the women of the SF Symphony Chorus and SF Girls Chorus in Mahler’s Symphony No. 3.
· Pianist Emanuel Ax joins MTT and the Orchestra the week of September 26 for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, in a program that includes Mahler’s Blumine and a selection of short pieces by Copland, Debussy, Delius, Grieg, and Rachmaninoff.
· Cellist Yo-Yo Ma joins the Orchestra and MTT for one concert in February, performing Schumann’s Cello Concerto. MTT also leads Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 and The Alcotts, from Ives’s A Concord Symphony, orchestrated by Henry Brant.
· Christian Tetzlaff performs Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with MTT and the Orchestra the week of May 14. The program also includes Brahms’ Symphony No. 4, and opens with Sibelius’ Lemminkäinen’s Return.
· Pianist Yuja Wang joins the Orchestra the week of May 22 to perform Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with MTT. The Orchestra also performs Debussy’s Images and Tchaikovsky’s The Tempest, Opus 18.
THOMAS ADÈS AND MENDELSSOHN FESTIVAL WITH PABLO HERAS-CASADO
Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado leads a two-week festival in October pairing the music of English composer Thomas Adès with that of Felix Mendelssohn, performing music spanning four centuries. In a program inspired by William Shakespeare and Goethe, Heras-Casado conducts a cast of soloists including soprano Audrey Elizabeth Luna (Ariel), mezzo-soprano Charlotte Hellekant, and baritone Rodney Gilfrey in the Orchestra’s first performances of excerpts from Adès’ The Tempest. Luna sang the role at the Metropolitan Opera in 2012 under Adès’ direction. The program includes Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the first SFS performances of Die erste Walpurgisnacht. The festival’s second program illuminates Mendelssohn and Adès’ mutual fascination with the Baroque, featuring the Orchestra’s first performances of Adès’ Three Studies from Couperin and Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Overture and Passacaille from Armide (1686). Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3, Scottish, and Stravinsky’s neoclassical Violin Concerto, with soloist Leila Josefowicz, round out the program. Thomas Adès will participate in the festival. Heras-Casado will showcase the composers’ chamber works in a concert featuring SFS musicians and will also conduct the SF Symphony Youth Orchestra in rehearsal. Further details about the festival concerts and related activities will be announced at a later date.
SFS PREMIERES AND FIRST PERFORMANCES
MTT leads the Orchestra in a variety of commissions, premieres and first performances, including the first SFS performances of Mason Bates’ Liquid Interface and Alternative Energy; its first performances of Britten’s complete Peter Grimes, in a semi-staged presentation; and the West Coast premiere of New Voices composer Zosha Di Castri’s new work for orchestra, Lineage, an SFS co-commission. Under Pablo Heras-Casado, the Orchestra makes its first performances of excerpts from Thomas Adès’ The Tempest and Three Studies from Couperin, as well as Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht and Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Overture and Passacaille from Armide. Ton Koopman leads the SFS in two first performances: C.P.E. Bach’s Cello Concerto No. 3 and J.S. Bach’s Cantata No. 207a, Auf, schmetternde Töne der muntern Trompeten. With Charles Dutoit on the podium, the Orchestra and SFS Chorus debut Poulenc’s Litanies à la vierge noire (Litanies of the Black Virgin), in a program that features the Chorus on all three works. Former SFS Resident Conductor Edwin Outwater, now music director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, leads the Orchestra in the SFS premieres of Ligeti’s Concert Românesc and three of Dvořák’s Legends for Orchestra, Nos. 2, 6 and 10. James Conlon, music director of Los Angeles Opera, joins the Orchestra for debut SFS performances of Schulhoff’s Scherzo from his Symphony No. 5. The Orchestra performs the world premiere of Bernard Herrmann’s full score for Hitchcock’s film Vertigo with a screening of the film, and the first SFS performances of Herrmann’s scores for Hitchcock!, an evening of excerpts from the master’s films. Sarah Hicks leads the Orchestra in a performance of the complete score of Fantasia with the Disney movie on the big screen.
NEW SERIES OF INFORMAL, EXPERIMENTAL MUSICAL EVENINGS HIGHLIGHT SFS MUSICIANS, BAY AREA ARTISTS AND COMPOSERS
MTT and the SFS are launching a new series of intimate and experimental musical evenings in a newly-created alternative space at Davies Symphony Hall. The events will be curated by innovative and forward-thinking composers, artists and musicians and will highlight members of the SFS. As a platform for musical ideas and passions of the participating artists, the series of ten events will offer explorations in program, format, technology, audience interaction, and curatorial elements. All events will feature SFS musicians in live performance with such composers as electronica artist and DJ Mason Bates (DJ Masonic), performing in and curating his Mercury Soul club event. Other performers and composers participating include Samuel Carl Adams, a Brooklyn composer and Bay Area native whose music combines elements of jazz, electronica, and classical influences; Nathaniel Stookey, the San Francisco-based composer and SFSYO alumnus who wrote the modern kids’ guide to the orchestra, The Composer is Dead, and Mahlerwerk; and New Voices composer Zosha Di Castri, who is writing a work for percussion as part of the project. Programming is currently under development and full details will be announced this summer.
PROJECT SAN FRANCISCO: YUJA WANG AND MASON BATES
Pianist Yuja Wang and composer Mason Bates, two young artists championed by Michael Tilson Thomas and the SFS, return as this season’s Project San Francisco resident artists, collaborating with the Orchestra in concerts, chamber music, lectures and education and community events. Three works by Mason Bates – The B-Sides, Alternative Energy, and Liquid Interface – will be performed by MTT, Bates, and the Orchestra as part of a three-week festival pairing his music with Beethoven’s. Bates’ works will be also recorded for release on SFS Media. Since meeting at the original American Mavericks Festival in 2000, Bates and MTT have collaborated on a variety of projects, with the SFS, New World Symphony, and the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. His The B-Sides was commissioned by the SFS and premiered in 2009. The SFS commissioned and played Bates’ work for chorus and electronica, Mass Transmission, on the 2012 American Mavericks Festival, performing with Bates on electronica both in SF and on its two-week all-American Mavericks national tour. Bates is also a collaborator with the SFS on its new, curated musical experiences in the newly-created alternative performance space at Davies Symphony Hall, and is a well-known DJ who hosts and curates Mercury Soul nightclub dates.
One of the world’s most dynamic artists, Yuja Wang first appeared with the SFS in 2006 as a soloist on its Chinese New Year concert and has returned to the SFS every year since her debut. Most recently she joined MTT and the Orchestra on its acclaimed November 2012 tour of Asia. She also appears as soloist in its March 2013 concerts in Carnegie Hall and Newark. She joins the Orchestra to perform Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with MTT, and also performs a solo recital of works by Albéniz, Granados, and Liszt. As part of the Great Performers Series, she joins the visiting Los Angeles Philharmonic led by Gustavo Dudamel in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1.
Additional details of Bates’ and Wang’s Project San Francisco residencies will be announced at a later date.
SEASON-LONG FOCUS ON J.S. BACH
The Orchestra continues its multi-year, in-depth exploration of the work and influence of J.S. Bach, featuring conductors and artists who bring a unique and historically informed perspective on the composer. Conductor Ton Koopman, one of the world’s preeminent Bach interpreters, begins a series of annual visits to the SFS to conduct the Orchestra in Bach and other Baroque repertoire. His May 2014 programs include works by father and son, J.S. Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 4 and Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, BWV 51 and C.P.E. Bach’s Cello Concerto No. 3 and Symphony in G major. SFS Principal Trumpet Mark Inouye is soloist in Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, along with soprano Carolyn Sampson, and Associate Principal Cello Peter Wyrick solos in C.P.E. Bach’s Cello Concerto. In Koopman’s second week of concerts, the SF Symphony Chorus joins soloists soprano Teresa Wakim, mezzo-soprano Bogna Bartosz, tenor Tilman Lichdi, and bass Klaus Mertens with the Orchestra in J.S. Bach’s Cantata No. 118, Cantata No. 207a, Auf, Schmetternde Tone der muntern Trompeten, and Missa Brevis (Kyrie and Gloria from Mass in B minor). Three renowned Bach interpreters are featured in solo recitals throughout the year. Violinist Christian Tetzlaff performs a program of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin. András Schiff, in his second year of recital performances of works by Bach co-presented by the SFS and SF Performances, performs Bach’s Partitas Nos. 1-6, his celebrated 2009 recording of which is a milestone of the Bach discography. In Schiff’s final recital, audiences have the rare opportunity to hear two monumental works of the keyboard literature in one program: J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations, and Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. Conductor and organist Martin Haselböck performs his Davies Symphony Hall solo organ recital debut, preceding Koopman’s concert weeks.
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY MUSICIANS IN THE SPOTLIGHT
San Francisco Symphony principal musicians are featured in variety of solo turns with the Orchestra this season. Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik, Principal Clarinet Carey Bell, Principal Trumpet Mark Inouye, Principal Horn Robert Ward and Associate Principal Cello Peter Wyrick all will be featured soloists during the year. Inouye is soloist on two successive concert weeks in April and May, with James Conlon in Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (Concerto for Piano, Trumpet, and String Orchestra) and then with Bach specialist Ton Koopman in J.S. Bach’s Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen. Associate Principal Cello Peter Wyrick is soloist in C.P.E. Bach’s Cello Concerto No. 3, also with Ton Koopman on the podium. Alexander Barantschik leads the SFS in a week of January concerts that include Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in D minor and Mozart’s Divertimento for Strings. Barantschik performs the Mendelssohn Concerto on the famed “David” Guarnerius violin. In April, Carey Bell appears with Herbert Blomstedt in Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto. Principal Horn Robert Ward is soloist with Michael Tilson Thomas leading the SFS in Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings in June during its Britten Centenary Festival.
The San Francisco Symphony Chorus, led by Chorus Director Ragnar Bohlin, celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2013-14 with a season of major works, first performances, and recordings. The Chorus is in the spotlight during many of the season’s artistic focal points, such as Britten’s Peter Grimes and Beethoven’s Mass in C and excerpts from King Stephen, with MTT on the podium; Bach’s Missa Brevis (Kyrie and Gloria) from Mass in B minor and the first SFS performances of both Bach’s Cantata No. 207a, Auf, schmetternde Töne der muntern Trompeten, with Ton Koopman; and Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht, with Pablo Heras-Casado. Semyon Bychkov leads the Orchestra and Chorus in Britten’s War Requiem the week of the 100th anniversary of his birth. With Charles Dutoit conducting, the Chorus is featured in the first SFS performances of Poulenc’s Litanies of the Black Virgin, as well as Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, and the first performances of Fauré’s Requiem since 2003. Also, with MTT on the podium, the women of the SFS Chorus perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 3. Chorus Director Ragnar Bohlin conducts the Chorus in December holiday performances of Handel’s Messiah.
GUEST ARTISTS AND CONDUCTORS
The San Francisco Symphony’s 2013-14 season features some of the world’s most distinguished guest conductors, instrumentalists, and singers and many young, emerging artists. Returning for two-week engagements are SFS Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt, Semyon Bychkov, Charles Dutoit, Pablo Heras-Casado, and Ton Koopman. Returning to lead the Orchestra in a week of concerts each are James Conlon, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (conducting the orchestra for the first time since 1985), Marek Janowski, Edwin Outwater, and Osmo Vänskä. Sarah Hicks leads the Orchestra in two film nights: A Night at the Oscars and Fantasia in Concert, and Richard Kaufman conducts Chaplin’s music for his film City Lights as the movie is presented on the big screen.
Soloists familiar to Davies Symphony Hall audiences include violinists James Ehnes, Julia Fischer, Janine Jansen, Leila Josefowicz, Gil Shaham, and Christian Tetzlaff; pianists Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Jeremy Denk, Kirill Gerstein, Hélène Grimaud, Garrick Ohlsson, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Simon Trpčeski, and Yuja Wang; and cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Alisa Weilerstein. Mason Bates performs on electronica.
Returning singers include sopranos Christine Brewer, Audra McDonald, Carolyn Sampson, Elza van den Heever, and Katie van Kooten; mezzo-sopranos Sasha Cooke, Charlotte Hellekant, and Nancy Maultsby; tenors James Gilchrist, Stuart Skelton, and Toby Spence; baritones Eugene Brancoveanu, Joshua Hopkins, and Alan Opie; and bass John Relyea.
Making their conducting debuts on the SFS podium are Lionel Bringuier, resident conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Jaap van Zweden, music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Joshua Gersen, winner of the prestigious 2011 Aspen Conducting Prize, and conducting fellow at the New World Symphony, where he is assistant conductor to MTT, is on the podium as the Orchestra performs Bernard Herrmann’s film scores for Psycho and Vertigo with the films, and also conducts the Orchestra in music to accompany Hitchcock! Greatest Hits.
Debut artists appearing this season with the SFS include pianists Till Fellner, Martin Helmchen, and Daniil Trifonov; violinist Simone Lamsma; sopranos Audrey Elizabeth Luna and Teresa Wakim, mezzo-sopranos Bogna Bartosz and Ann Murray; contralto Claudia Huckle; tenors Tilman Lichdi and Sean Panikkar; baritones Rodney Gilfrey and Roderick Williams, and bass Klaus Mertens.
GREAT PERFORMERS SERIES and SPECIAL CONCERTS
András Schiff, the Symphony’s 2012-13 Project San Francisco resident artist and one of the world’s greatest interpreters of Bach, returns next season to continue his multi-year exploration of Bach keyboard works, with two October recitals. His solo programs of Bach’s Partitas 1-6 and Bach’s Goldberg Variations with Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations are co-presented by the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Performances.
Gustavo Dudamel leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in two concerts, one with pianist Yuja Wang performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The Orchestra performs a work by Anders Hillborg and John Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1, in addition to Brahms and Tchaikovsky. Wang also performs a solo recital. Two other visiting orchestras perform in Davies Symphony Hall in 2013-14: the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, led by Yuri Temirkanov, and soloists pianist Denis Kozhukhin and violinist Vilde Frang, in programs of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Rimsky-Korsakov, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performs an all-Beethoven program led by Pinchas Zukerman, who is soloist in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. Gidon Kremer is featured in his Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra in a program of Britten, Shostakovich, and Mieczyslaw Weinberg.
Baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky sings Shostakovich and other Russian repertoire, violinist Christian Tetzlaff performs Bach, and pianists Murray Perahia and Evgeny Kissin perform solo recitals. Pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque appear in a special concert of all-American repertoire: Philip Glass, Gershwin, and excerpts from Bernstein’s West Side Story with percussionists.
NEW FILM SERIES
This season the San Francisco Symphony introduces a new film series, with live orchestral performances accompanying great films, starting Halloween week. Among the presentations are four Alfred Hitchcock film events, including the first performances by an orchestra of the full Bernard Herrmann score of Vertigo accompanying the film screening. The Orchestra will perform Hermann’s score live to the classic thriller Psycho (Oct. 30), and also performs a program featuring essential scenes from Hitchcock’s body of work, Hitchcock! Greatest Hits, on Nov. 2. Joshua Gersen conducts, in his debut with the Orchestra. Organist Todd Wilson performs the music for Hitchcock’s The Lodger, a silent early classic, on Davies Symphony Hall’s magnificent Ruffatti organ. On four Saturdays throughout the season, beginning with Hitchcock! Greatest Hits, the Symphony performs live to accompany highlights from Oscar-winning movies in A Night at the Oscars; Chaplin’s score to City Lights (with music by Chaplin and Arthur Johnston), and Fantasia in Concert, with a soundtrack of Stravinsky, Bach, Dukas, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Ponchielli, and Schubert.
GREEN MUSIC CENTER SERIES AND COLLEGE CAMPUS CONCERTS
In the 2013-14 season, beginning in September, the San Francisco Symphony continues its four-concert, Thursday night series at Weill Hall in the new Donald and Maureen Green Music Center (GMC) on the campus of Sonoma State University. In the GMC season’s opening concert, MTT leads the Orchestra in Zosha Di Castri’s new co-commissioned work, Lineage; Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Yefim Bronfman, and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 3. Later in the season, Semyon Bychkov leads the Orchestra in R. Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony; Alexander Barantschik performs Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and leads the Orchestra in Britten, Mozart and Piazzolla; and Charles Dutoit and Kirill Gerstein bring Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10. The Orchestra also performs two concerts at the Mondavi Center at the University of California at Davis. At UC Davis, Marek Janowski leads pianist Martin Helmchen in Schumann’s Piano Concerto in October, and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7, and Tilson Thomas conducts the Orchestra and Christian Tetzlaff in Sibelius, Bartók and Brahms in May.
FAMILY CONCERTS / YOUTH ORCHESTRA / ORGAN SERIES / CHAMBER MUSIC
Special events of the San Francisco Symphony’s 102nd season include a variety of family, heritage, and community concerts, including its annual Día de los Muertos Community Concert and the annual Lunar New Year Concert and Celebration.
The San Francisco Symphony performs a variety of free and low-cost family and community concerts throughout the year, offering the Bay Area the widest possible opportunity to hear and experience orchestral music. The Orchestra’s annual free summer concerts at Dolores Park and Stern Grove take place in July. The Orchestra also performs its annual low-priced All-San Francisco concert for San Francisco’s community groups, Community Deck the Hall Holiday Concert, low-cost Concerts for Kids, and the Music for Families series.
The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra (SFSYO) performs three concerts under the direction of Wattis Foundation Music Director Donato Cabrera, beginning in November. The SFSYO also performs at the Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival, held in January in Davies Symphony Hall, and its annual holiday performances of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf.
The Orchestra’s three organ recitals scheduled for 2013-14 include the Davies Hall recital debut of conductor/ organist Martin Haselböck (playing Bach), and the returns of Olivier Latry and Paul Jacobs. The musicians of the SF Symphony perform both classical and contemporary repertoire in more intimate groups in two annual chamber music series, with six concerts at Davies Symphony Hall beginning in October and four at the Palace of the Legion of Honor.
Complete programs and artists for holiday concerts, Youth Orchestra, chamber music, and summer 2014 concerts will be announced at a later date.
MUSIC EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY CONCERTS
In its second century, the SF Symphony continues its commitment to bringing orchestral music and access to music to people at every age and life stage. The Symphony’s pioneering music education programs in San Francisco public schools serve students throughout their elementary and secondary years—grades 1-12. Its Adventures in Music program in San Francisco’s public schools reaches every first through fifth grader with comprehensive music education experiences, making it possible for them to learn about music in the classroom. Launching in 2013 is a revitalized children’s music education website, www.sfskids.org, developed in conjunction with the UC Irvine Center for Computer Games and Virtual Worlds. For older students, the Instrument Training and Support program offers substantial support for every San Francisco public middle and high school with an instrumental music program. Through the SFS Youth Orchestra and performances on Bay Area college campuses, the SFS continues to offer connections to young adults.
For adults, the Symphony offers Community of Music Makers amateur music-making choral and instrumental workshops, giving people the opportunity to develop their musical skills onstage at Davies Symphony Hall with the support of the musicians, staff, and resources of the SF Symphony. For chamber musicians seeking rehearsal or performance partners, a convening website developed with San Francisco Classical Voice (http://comm.sfcv.org) launched in 2012.
ABOUT THE SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
The San Francisco Symphony, widely considered to be among the most artistically adventurous and innovative arts institutions in the U.S., celebrated its centennial season in 2011-12. The Orchestra was established by a group of San Francisco citizens, music-lovers, and musicians in the wake of the 1906 earthquake, and played its first concert on December 8, 1911. Almost immediately, the Symphony revitalized the city’s cultural life. The Orchestra has grown in stature and acclaim under a succession of distinguished music directors: American composer Henry Hadley, Alfred Hertz (who had led the American premieres of Parsifal, Salome, and Der Rosenkavalier at the Metropolitan Opera), Basil Cameron, Issay Dobrowen, the legendary Pierre Monteux (who introduced the world to Le Sacre du printemps and Petrushka), Enrique Jordá, Josef Krips, Seiji Ozawa, Edo de Waart, Herbert Blomstedt (now Conductor Laureate), and current Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT). Led by Tilson Thomas, now in his nineteenth season as Music Director, the SFS presents more than 220 concerts annually for an audience of nearly 600,000 in its home of Davies Symphony Hall and through national and international tours.
Since Tilson Thomas assumed his post as the SFS’s eleventh Music Director in 1995, he and the San Francisco Symphony have formed a musical partnership hailed as one of the most inspiring and successful in the country. MTT’s tenure with the Orchestra has been praised for outstanding musicianship, innovative programming, highlighting the works of American composers, and bringing new audiences to classical music. In addition, the Orchestra has been recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in music education and the use of multimedia, television, technology, and the web to make classical music available worldwide to as many people as possible. MTT is currently the longest-serving music director among those leading major American orchestras, and the longest-tenured music director in San Francisco Symphony history.
In its centennial season, the orchestra reprised its acclaimed American Mavericks Festival of music by pioneering modern American composers, featuring the world premieres of four commissioned works in two weeks of concerts at Davies Symphony Hall and on a two-week national tour, including four performances at Carnegie Hall. Its annual Project San Francisco residencies focus on artists and composers in a variety of musical settings, and in 2013-14 spotlights pianist Yuja Wang and composer Mason Bates. The San Francisco Symphony regularly mounts special weeklong semi-staged productions with multimedia, hosted and curated by MTT, and in 2012-13 presents specially staged performances of Grieg’s Peer Gynt and Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, and the first concert performances by an orchestra of the complete music from Bernstein’s West Side Story. Tilson Thomas and the Orchestra are dedicating multiple concert weeks in 2012-13 and 2013-14 to the in-depth exploration of music by Beethoven.
Since 1996, when Tilson Thomas led the Orchestra on the first of their more than a dozen national tours together, they have continued an ambitious yearly touring schedule that takes them to Europe, Asia and throughout the United States. In March 2014, the Orchestra and MTT make a three-week tour of Europe’s major capitals and musical centers. Their two-week November 2012 tour of Asia with pianist Yuja Wang included performances by the Orchestra in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Taipei, and Macau. They mounted a widely praised two-week national tour in 2012 with all- American Mavericks repertoire. In 2011, they made a three-week tour of Europe, culminating in Vienna performances of three Mahler symphonies to commemorate the anniversaries of the composer’s birth and death. Other touring highlights include a three-week 2007 European tour that featured two televised appearances at the BBC Proms in London and concerts at several other major European festivals.
The Orchestra’s recording series on SFS Media continues to reflect the artistic identity of its programming, including its commitment to performing the work of American maverick composers alongside that of the core classical masterworks. The San Francisco Symphony has recently recorded works from its American Mavericks Festival by Henry Cowell, Lou Harrison, and Edgard Varèse; John Adams’s Harmonielehre and Short Ride in a Fast Machine (2013 Grammy Award winner, Best Orchestral Performance); and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. In 2013, the Orchestra releases its recording of its centennial season performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and John Adams’ Absolute Jest, an SFS co-commission, will be recorded live in concert for release on SFS Media. Tilson Thomas and the Orchestra have recorded all nine of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies and the Adagio from the unfinished Tenth Symphony, and the composer’s works for voices, chorus, and orchestra for SFS Media. Their 2009 recording with the SFS Chorus of Mahler’s sweeping Symphony No. 8, Symphony of a Thousand, and the Adagio from Symphony No. 10 won three Grammy awards, including Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance. Other significant recordings include scenes from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, a collection of Stravinsky ballets, a Gershwin collection, and works of Copland, among others. In addition to fifteen Grammy Awards, seven of them for the Mahler cycle, the SFS has won some of the world’s most prestigious recording awards, including Japan’s Record Academy Award and France’s Grand Prix du Disque.
Tilson Thomas and the SFS launched the national Keeping Score PBS television series and multimedia project in 2006, to help make classical music more accessible to people of all ages and musical backgrounds. The project, an unprecedented undertaking among orchestras, is anchored by eight composer documentaries, hosted by Tilson Thomas, and eight live concert films, and includes www.keepingscore.org, an innovative website to explore and learn about music; a national radio series; documentary and live performance DVD and CDs; and an education program for K-12 schools to further teaching through the arts by integrating classical music into core subjects. To date, more than nine million people have seen the Keeping Score television series, and the radio series has been broadcast on almost 100 stations nationally.
The San Francisco Symphony provides the most extensive education programs offered by any American orchestra today. In 1988, the Symphony established Adventures in Music (AIM), a free, comprehensive music education program that reaches every first- through fifth-grade child in the San Francisco Unified School District. AIM marks its 25th anniversary in 2012-13. The SFS Instrument Training and Support program reaches students in all San Francisco public middle and high schools with instrumental music programs, providing coaching by professional musicians. The Symphony expanded its educational offerings in 2011-12 with Community of Music Makers, a program that supports amateur choral singers and instrumental musicians with professional coaching, rehearsals, and other learning opportunities. Launching in 2013 is a revitalized children’s music education website, www.sfskids.org, developed in conjunction with the UC Irvine Center for Computer Games and Virtual Worlds. The SFS also offers opportunities to hear and learn about great music through its programs Concerts for Kids, Music for Families, the internationally-acclaimed SFS Youth Orchestra, and annual free and community concerts.
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2013-14 SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
MAJOR INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS
The San Francisco Symphony is grateful for the support of its generous partners during the 2013-14 season:
Second Century Partners
Chevron
Inaugural Partner
Wells Fargo
Major Corporate Partners
Bank of America
Emirates Airline
Official Airline
Franklin Templeton Investments
HSBC Premier
Jones Day
J.P. Morgan
Macy’s Foundation
Morrison & Foerster LLP
William Hill Estate Winery
Official Wine
Public Funders
San Francisco Arts Commission
Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund
National Endowment for the Arts
Contact:
Public Relations
San Francisco Symphony
(415) 503-5474
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SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY 2013-2014 SEASON
CONCERT CALENDAR
Calendar editors, please note: Subscriptions to the 2013-2014 season go on sale to renewing subscribers and the general public Monday, March 4 at 10 a.m. at www.sfsymphony.org, (415) 864-6000, and at the Davies Symphony Hall Box Office, located on Grove Street between Franklin and Van Ness.
All concerts are at Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, unless otherwise noted.
OPENING NIGHT GALA WITH AUDRA MCDONALD
Davies Symphony Hall
Michael Tilson Thomas conductor
Audra McDonald soprano
San Francisco Symphony
Antheil Jazz Symphony
Gershwin An American in Paris
ALL SAN FRANCISCO CONCERT, MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS CONDUCTING
Davies Symphony Hall
Thursday, September 5 at 8 pm
Michael Tilson Thomas conductor
James Ehnes violin
San Francisco Symphony
Antheil Jazz Symphony
Barber Violin Concerto, Opus 14
Gershwin An American in Paris
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY, MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS CONDUCTING
Davies Symphony Hall
Michael Tilson Thomas conductor
James Ehnes violin
San Francisco Symphony
Antheil Jazz Symphony
Barber Violin Concerto, Opus 14
Gershwin An American in Paris
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY, MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS CONDUCTING
Davies Symphony Hall
Wednesday, September 11 at 8 pm
Thursday, September 12 at 8 pm (Green Music Center – Sonoma State University)
Saturday, September 14 at 8 pm
Michael Tilson Thomas conductor
Yefim Bronfman piano
San Francisco Symphony
Zosha Di Castri Lineage (New Voices Commission; West Coast premiere)
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Opus 23
Prokofiev Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Opus 44
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY, MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS CONDUCTING
Davies Symphony Hall
Wednesday, September 18 at 8 pm
Thursday, September 19 at 8 pm
Saturday, September 21 at 8 pm
Michael Tilson Thomas conductor
Sasha Cooke mezzo-soprano
Women of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus
San Francisco Girls Chorus
San Francisco Symphony
Mahler Symphony No. 3 in D minor
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY, MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS CONDUCTING
Davies Symphony Hall
Thursday, September 26 at 10 am (Open Rehearsal)
Thursday, September 26 at 8 pm
Saturday, September 28 at 8 pm
Michael Tilson Thomas conductor
Emanuel Ax piano
San Francisco Symphony
Mahler Blumine
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Opus 37
Copland Music from the film Our Town
Debussy La Plus que lente
Delius On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring
Grieg The Last Spring, Opus 34, no.2
Rachmaninoff “Vocalise,” Opus 34, no.14
MUSIC FOR FAMILIES
Davies Symphony Hall
Saturday, September 28 at 2 pm
TBD conductor
San Francisco Symphony
Program to be announced
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
-
Mendelssohn and Adès Festival
Davies Symphony Hall
Pablo Heras-Casado conductor
Leila Josefowicz violin
San Francisco Symphony
Lully Overture and Passacaille from Armide
Thomas Adès Three Studies from Couperin
Stravinsky Violin Concerto in D major
Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Opus 56, Scottish
ANDRÁS SCHIFF
-
Great Performers Series
Davies Symphony Hall
András Schiff piano
J.S. Bach Partita No. 5 in G major, BWV 829
J.S. Bach Partita No. 3 in A minor, BWV 827
J.S. Bach Partita No. 1 in B-flat major, BWV 825
J.S. Bach Partita No. 2 in C minor, BWV 826
J.S. Bach Partita No. 4 in D major, BWV 828
J.S. Bach Partita No. 6 in E minor, BWV 830
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
-
Mendelssohn and Adès Festival
Davies Symphony Hall
Thursday, October 10 at 10 am (Open Rehearsal)
Pablo Heras-Casado conductor
Audrey Elizabeth Luna soprano
Charlotte Hellekant mezzo-soprano
Rodney Gilfrey baritone
San Francisco Symphony Chorus
San Francisco Symphony
Mendelssohn Suite from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Opus 61
Thomas Adès Scenes from The Tempest
MendelssohnDie erste Walpurgisnacht, Opus 60
OLIVIER LATRY ORGAN RECITAL
Davies Symphony Hall
Olivier Latry organ
Program to be announced
CHAMBER MUSIC WITH SF SYMPHONY MUSICIANS
Davies Symphony Hall
Musicians and program to be announced
ANDRÁS SCHIFF
-
Great Performers Series
Davies Symphony Hall
András Schiff piano
J. S. Bach Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
Beethoven Diabelli Variations, Opus 120
YUJA WANG
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Great Performers Series
Davies Symphony Hall
Yuja Wang piano
Works by Albeniz, Granados, and Liszt
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
Davies Symphony Hall
Friday, October 18 at 8 pm (UC Davis)
Marek Janowski conductor
Martin Helmchen piano
San Francisco Symphony
Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor, Opus 54
Dvořák Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Opus 70
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
Davies Symphony Hall
Edwin Outwater conductor
Simon Trpčeski piano
San Francisco Symphony
Ligeti Concert Românesc
Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Opus 26
Dvořák ThreeLegends for Orchestra
Legend for Orchestra, Opus 59, no.2
Legend for Orchestra, Opus 59, no.6
Legend for Orchestra, Opus 59, no.10
Lutosławski Concerto for Orchestra
FILM SERIES: HITCHCOCK’S PSYCHO
Davies Symphony Hall
Joshua Gersen conductor
San Francisco Symphony
Herrmann Psycho
FILM SERIES: HITCHCOCK’S THE LODGER
Davies Symphony Hall
Thursday, October 31 at 7:30 pm
Todd Wilson organ
The Lodger silent film with organ accompaniment
FILM SERIES: HITCHCOCK’S VERTIGO
Davies Symphony Hall
World Premiere
Joshua Gersen conductor
San Francisco Symphony
Herrmann Vertigo
DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS COMMUNITY CONCERT
Davies Symphony Hall
Festivities begin at 1 pm
Donato Cabrera conductor
San Francisco Symphony
FILM SERIES: HITCHCOCK’S GREATEST HITS
Davies Symphony Hall
Joshua Gersen conductor
San Francisco Symphony
HerrmannHitchcock!
Excerpts from Hitchcock films
CHAMBER MUSIC WITH SF SYMPHONY MUSICIANS
Florence Gould Theatre at the Legion of Honor
Musicians and program to be announced
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY, MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS CONDUCTING
Davies Symphony Hall
Michael Tilson Thomas conductor
Jeremy Denk piano
San Francisco Symphony
Beethoven Leonore Overture No. 3, Opus 72a
Steven Mackey Eating Greens
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K.503
Copland Symphonic Ode
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY YOUTH ORCHESTRA
Davies Symphony Hall
Donato Cabrera conductor
San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra
Program to be announced
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
Davies Symphony Hall
Wednesday, November 20 at 10 am (Open Rehearsal)
Thursday, November 21 at 8 pm (Green Music Center – Sonoma State University)
Semyon Bychkov conductor
Till Fellner piano
San Francisco Symphony
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K.491
R. Strauss An Alpine Symphony, Opus 64
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
Davies Symphony Hall
Wednesday, November 27 at 8 pm
Semyon Bychkov conductor
Christine Brewer soprano
James Gilchrist tenor
Roderick Williams baritone
San Francisco Symphony Chorus
Pacific Boychoir, Kevin Fox director
San Francisco Symphony
Britten War Requiem, Opus 66
CHAMBER MUSIC WITH SF SYMPHONY MUSICIANS
Davies Symphony Hall
Musicians and program to be announced
MUSIC FOR FAMILIES
Davies Symphony Hall
TBD conductor
San Francisco Symphony
Program to be announced
DECK THE HALL: SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
Davies Symphony Hall
Sunday, December 8 at 11am and 3 pm
Randall Craig Fleisher conductor
Members of the San Francisco Symphony
PETER AND THE WOLF
Davies Symphony Hall
Saturday, December 14 at 1 pm and 4 pm
Donato Cabrera conductor
San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra
Prokofiev Peter and the Wolf
CHAMBER MUSIC WITH SF SYMPHONY MUSICIANS
Florence Gould Theatre at the Legion of Honor
Musicians and program to be announced
COLORS OF CHRISTMAS
Davies Symphony Hall
Monday, December 16 at 8 pm
Tuesday, December 17 at 8 pm
Wednesday, December 18 at 8 pm
San Francisco Symphony
Program to be announced
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
Davies Symphony Hall
Ragnar Bohlin conductor
Katie Van Kooten soprano
Claudia Huckle contralto
Sean Panikkar tenor
Joshua Hopkins baritone
San Francisco Symphony Chorus
San Francisco Symphony
HandelMessiah
NEW YEAR’S EVE MASQUERADE BALL
Davies Symphony Hall
Tuesday, December 31 at 9 pm (doors open 8 pm)
San Francisco Symphony
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY, MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS CONDUCTING
-
Beethoven and Bates Festival
Davies Symphony Hall
Michael Tilson Thomas conductor
Alexander Barantschik violin
Mason Bates electronica
San Francisco Symphony
BeethovenRomance No. 1 in G major, Opus 40
Beethoven Romance No. 2 in F major, Opus 50
Mason Bates Alternative Energy
Beethoven Symphony No. 1 in C major, Opus 21
CHAMBER MUSIC WITH SF SYMPHONY MUSICIANS
Davies Symphony Hall
Musicians and program to be announced
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY, MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS CONDUCTING
-
Beethoven and Bates Festival
Davies Symphony Hall
Michael Tilson Thomas conductor
Mason Bates electronica
San Francisco Symphony Chorus
San Francisco Symphony
Beethoven Excerpts from King Stephen, Opus 117
Overture, Women’s Chorus “Wo die Unschild Blumen streute…”
Victory March
Final Chorus “Heil! Heil unsern Enkeln…”
Mason Bates Liquid Interface
Beethoven Mass in C major, Opus 86
BAY AREA YOUTH ORCHESTRA FESTIVAL
Davies Symphony Hall
Sunday, January 19 at 3 pm
San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra
Other youth orchestras and programs to be announced
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
Davies Symphony Hall
Wednesday, January 22 at 10 am (Open Rehearsal)
Thursday, January 23 at 8 pm (Green Music Center, Sonoma State University)
Alexander Barantschik leader and violinist
San Francisco Symphony
Mozart Divertimento for Strings
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in D minor
Britten Simple Symphony, Opus 4
Piazzolla Melodia—Libertango
MUSIC FOR FAMILIES
Davies Symphony Hall
TBD conductor
San Francisco Symphony
Program to be announced
ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Davies Symphony Hall
Pinchas Zukerman conductor and violin
Royal Philarmonic Orchestra
Beethoven Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, Opus 43
Beethoven Violin Concerto in D major, Opus 61
Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Opus 67
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
Davies Symphony Hall
Osmo Vänskä conductor
Daniil Trifonov piano
San Francisco Symphony
Sibelius Night Ride and Sunrise, Opus 55
Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Opus 43
Stravinsky Symphonies of Wind Instruments
SibeliusSymphony No. 6, Opus 104
GIDON KREMER AND KREMERATA BALTICA
-
Great Performers Series
Davies Symphony Hall
Gidon Kremer violin
Kremerata Baltica
Weinberg Concertino for violin and strings
Shostakovich (arr. Zinman/Pushkarev) Violin Sonata, Opus 134
Britten Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Opus 10
Shostakovich (Arr. Pushkarev)Anti-formalist Rayok
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
Davies Symphony Hall
Lionel Bringuier conductor
Hélène Grimaud piano
San Francisco Symphony
Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Opus 83
Henri Dutilleux Métaboles
Ravel La Valse
LUNAR NEW YEAR CONCERT AND CELEBRATION
Davies Symphony Hall
San Francisco Symphony
Program to be announced
CHAMBER MUSIC WITH SF SYMPHONY MUSICIANS
Davies Symphony Hall
Musicians and program to be announced
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
Davies Symphony Hall
Wednesday, February 12 at 8 pm
Jaap van Zweden conductor
Simone Lamsmaviolin
San Francisco Symphony
Mozart Overture from The Abduction from the Seraglio, K.384
SibeliusViolin Concerto in D minor, Opus 47
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Opus 36
FILM SERIES: A NIGHT AT THE OSCARS
Davies Symphony Hall
Sarah Hicks conductor
PAUL JACOBS ORGAN RECITAL
Davies Symphony Hall
Paul Jacobs organ
Program to be announced
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
Davies Symphony Hall
Wednesday, February 19 at 8 pm
Friday, February 21 at 6:30 pm
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos conductor
Alisa Weilerstein cello
San Francisco Symphony
Haydn Symphony No. 6 in D major, Le Matin
Haydn Cello Concerto No. 1 in C major
Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade, Opus 35
MURRAY PERAHIA
-
Great Performers Series
Davies Symphony Hall
Murray Perahia piano
Program to be announced
CHAMBER MUSIC WITH SF SYMPHONY MUSICIANS
Florence Gould Theatre at the Legion of Honor
Musicians and program to be announced
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY, MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS CONDUCTING
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Beethoven and Bates Festival
Davies Symphony Hall
Thursday, February 27 at 10 am (Open Rehearsal)
Michael Tilson Thomas conductor
Gil Shaham violin
Mason Bates electronica
San Francisco Symphony
Mason Bates The B-Sides
Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Opus 63
Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A major, Opus 92
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY, MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS CONDUCTING
Davies Symphony Hall
Michael Tilson Thomas conductor
Yo-Yo Ma cello
San Francisco Symphony
Ives/Brant The Alcotts from A Concord Symphony
Schumann Cello Concerto in A minor, Opus 129
Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A major, Opus 92
SAINT PETERSBURG PHILHARMONIC
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Great Performers Series
Davies Symphony Hall
Yuri Temirkanov conductor
Denis Kozhukhin piano
Saint Petersburg Philharmonic
Rimsky-Korsakov Suite from The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh
Giya Kancheli …al Niente
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Opus 23
SAINT PETERSBURG PHILHARMONIC
-
Great Performers Series
Davies Symphony Hall
Yuri Temirkanov conductor
Vilde Frang violin
Saint Petersburg Philharmonic
Rossini Overture to The Barber of Seville
Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Opus 63
Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Opus 27
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY, MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS CONDUCTING
Davies Symphony Hall
Michael Tilson Thomas conductor
Julia Fischer violin
San Francisco Symphony
Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Opus 19
BerliozSymphonie fantastique, Opus 14
LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC, GUSTAVO DUDAMEL CONDUCTING
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Great Performers Series
Davies Symphony Hall
Gustavo Dudamel conductor
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
John Corigliano Symphony No. 1
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Opus 64
LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC, GUSTAVO DUDAMEL CONDUCTING
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Great Performers Series
Davies Symphony Hall
Gustavo Dudamel conductor
Yuja Wang piano
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp major, Opus 1
Brahms Symphony No. 2 in D major, Opus 73
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY YOUTH ORCHESTRA
Davies Symphony Hall
Donato Cabrera conductor
San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra
Program to be announced
EVGENY KISSIN
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Great Performers Series
Davies Symphony Hall
Evgeny Kissin piano
Schubert Sonata in D major, D.850
Scriabin Sonata No. 2 in G-sharp minor, Opus 19
Scriabin Selections from Twelve Études, Opus 8
Étude No. 2 in F-sharp minor
Étude No. 4 in B major
Étude No. 5 in E major
Étude No. 8 in A-flat major
Étude No. 9 in G-sharp minor
Étude No. 11 in B-flat minor
Étude No. 12 in D-sharp minor
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
Davies Symphony Hall
Herbert Blomstedt conductor
Carey Bell clarinet
San Francisco Symphony
Nielsen Clarinet Concerto, Opus 57
SchubertSymphony in C major, D.944, The Great
KATIA AND MARIELLE LABÈQUE
Davies Symphony Hall
Katia and Marielle Labèque duo piano
Gershwin Three Preludes for Two Pianos
Philip Glass Four Movements for Two Pianos
Bernstein Excerpts from West Side Story
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
Davies Symphony Hall
Wednesday, April 9 at 10 am (Open Rehearsal)
Herbert Blomstedt conductor
Garrick Ohlsson piano
San Francisco Symphony
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K.467
Bruckner Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major, Romantic
FILM SERIES: CITY LIGHTS
Davies Symphony Hall
Richard Kaufman conductor
San Francisco Symphony
Chaplin City Lights
CHAMBER MUSIC WITH SF SYMPHONY MUSICIANS
Davies Symphony Hall
Musicians and program to be announced
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
Davies Symphony Hall
James Conlon conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet piano
Mark Inouye trumpet
San Francisco Symphony
Schulhoff Scherzo from Symphony No. 5
Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Opus 35
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Opus 74, Pathétique
MARTIN HASELBÖCK ORGAN RECITAL
Davies Symphony Hall
Martin Haselböck organ
Program to be announced
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
Davies Symphony Hall
Ton Koopman conductor
Carolyn Sampson soprano
Peter Wyrick cello
Mark Inouye trumpet
San Francisco Symphony
J.S. Bach Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D major, BWV 1069
C.P.E. Bach Cello Concerto No. 3 in A major, H.439 (Wq.172)
C.P.E. Bach Symphony in G major, H.666 (Wq.183,4)
J.S. Bach Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, BWV 51
MUSIC FOR FAMILIES
Davies Symphony Hall
TBD conductor
San Francisco Symphony
Program to be announced
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
Davies Symphony Hall
Thursday, May 8 at 10 am (Open Rehearsal)
Ton Koopman conductor
Teresa Wakim soprano
Bogna Bartosz mezzo-soprano
Tilman Lichdi tenor
Klaus Mertens bass
San Francisco Symphony Chorus
San Francisco Symphony
J.S. Bach Cantata No. 207a, Auf, schmetternde Töne der muntern Trompeten
J.S. Bach Missa Brevis (1733) (Kyrie and Gloria from Mass in B minor, BWV 232)
CHAMBER MUSIC WITH SF SYMPHONY MUSICIANS
Florence Gould Theatre at the Legion of Honor
Musicians and program to be announced
CHRISTIAN TETZLAFF
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Great Performers Series
Davies Symphony Hall
Christian Tetzlaff violin
J.S. Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, BWV 1001-1006
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY, MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS CONDUCTING
Davies Symphony Hall
Thursday, May 15 at 8 pm (UC Davis)
Michael Tilson Thomas conductor
Christian Tetzlaff violin
San Francisco Symphony
SibeliusLemminkäinen's Return, Opus 22, no.4
Bartók Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor
BrahmsSymphony No. 4 in E minor, Opus 98
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY YOUTH ORCHESTRA
Davies Symphony Hall
Donato Cabrera conductor
San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra
Program to be announced
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY, MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS CONDUCTING
Davies Symphony Hall
Michael Tilson Thomas conductor
Yuja Wang piano
San Francisco Symphony
Tchaikovsky The Tempest, Opus 18
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor, Opus 40
Debussy Images
DMITRI HVOROSTOVSKY
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Great Performers Series
Davies Symphony Hall
Dmitri Hvorostovsky baritone
Ivari Ilja piano
Glinka, Borodin, Rachmaninoff, Glière Romances on Poems by Alexander Pushkin
Shostakovich Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti, Opus 145a
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
Davies Symphony Hall
Thursday, May 29 at 10 am (Open Rehearsal)
Charles Dutoit conductor
San Francisco Symphony Chorus
San Francisco Symphony
Poulenc Litanies à la Vierge noire, FP82
Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms
Fauré Requiem, Opus 48
FILM SERIES: FANTASIA in Concert
Davies Symphony Hall
Sarah Hicks conductor
San Francisco Symphony
Fantasia
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
Davies Symphony Hall
Thursday, June 5 at 8 pm (Green Music Center – Sonoma State University)
Charles Dutoit conductor
Kirill Gerstein piano
San Francisco Symphony
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Opus 19
Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Opus 93
CHAMBER MUSIC WITH SF SYMPHONY MUSICIANS
Davies Symphony Hall
Program to be announced
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY, MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS CONDUCTING
Davies Symphony Hall
Michael Tilson Thomas conductor
Janine Jansen violin
TBD gamelan ensemble
San Francisco Symphony
Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Opus 77(99)
Britten Excerpts from The Prince of the Pagodas, Opus 57
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY, MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS CONDUCTING
Davies Symphony Hall
Michael Tilson Thomas conductor
Toby Spence tenor
Robert Ward horn
San Francisco Symphony
Copland Danzón cubano
Britten Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, Opus 31
Shostakovich Symphony No. 15 in A major, Opus 141
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY, MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS CONDUCTING
Davies Symphony Hall
Michael Tilson Thomas conductor
Stuart Skelton tenor (Peter Grimes)
Elza van den Heever soprano (Ellen Orford)
Alan Opie baritone (Captain Balstrode)
Ann Murray mezzo-soprano (Auntie)
Nancy Maultsby mezzo-soprano (Mrs. Sedley)
Eugene Brancoveanu baritone (Ned Keene)
John Relyea bass (Mr. Swallow)
San Francisco Symphony Chorus
San Francisco Symphony
Britten Peter Grimes (semi-staged, enhanced concert production)
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY, MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS CONDUCTING
Davies Symphony Hall
Michael Tilson Thomas conductor
Tal Rosner video artist
San Francisco Symphony
Copland Danzón cubano
Britten Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Opus 33a [with video]
Shostakovich Symphony No. 15 in A major, Opus 141
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The San Francisco Symphony is grateful for the support of its generous partners during the 2013-14 season:
Second Century Partners
Chevron
Inaugural Partner
Wells Fargo
Major Corporate Partners
Bank of America
Emirates Airline
Official Airline
Franklin Templeton Investments
HSBC Premier
Jones Day
J.P. Morgan
Macy’s Foundation
Morrison & Foerster LLP
William Hill Estate Winery
Official Wine
Public Funders
San Francisco Arts Commission
Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund
National Endowment for the Arts
-SFS-
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY MUSIC DIRECTOR
Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) assumed his post as the San Francisco Symphony’s (SFS) 11th Music Director in September 1995, consolidating a strong relationship with the Orchestra that began some two decades earlier. He made his San Francisco Symphony conducting debut in 1974 at 29, leading the Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No. 9.
Tilson Thomas celebrates his 19th season as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony during the Orchestra’s 2013-14 season. MTT is currently the longest-tenured music director at any major American orchestra, and has surpassed Pierre Monteux as the longest-tenured music director at the San Francisco Symphony. He and the Orchestra have been praised for innovative programming, enhancing the orchestral concert experience with multimedia and creative staging, for showcasing the works of American composers, and attracting new audiences for orchestral music, both at Davies Symphony Hall and through the Orchestra’s extensive media projects. In 2012, Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony presented a landmark two-week American Mavericks Festival, a celebration of America’s maverick musical heritage of the 20th century, and toured nationally with all American Mavericks repertoire, including four concerts at Carnegie Hall. The initial American Mavericks Festival, which MTT and the Orchestra mounted in 2000, was a 12-concert festival that established the orchestra’s reputation as a standard-bearer for American music. MTT has led the Orchestra in internationally acclaimed explorations of the music of Mahler, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Beethoven, Wagner, and Weill. Semi-staged productions have included Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, Debussy’s Le martyre de Saint Sebastian, music from Peer Gynt by Grieg, Robin Holloway, and Alfred Schnittke;Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera-ballet Mlada, and The Thomashefskys, celebrating MTT’s grandparents, Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, pioneers of the American Yiddish theater. In the 2012-13 season, he leads the SF Symphony in explorations of the music of Beethoven and Stravinsky, including 100th anniversary performances of The Rite of Spring, and conducts the first live concert performances of Bernstein’s complete West Side Story.
Michael Tilson Thomas’s acclaimed recordings have won numerous international awards, including 12 Grammys for SF Symphony recordings of John Adams’ Harmonielehre and Short Ride in a Fast Machine, Mahler’s symphonies 3, 6, 7, 8, and the Adagio from Symphony No. 10, scenes from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, and a collection of three Stravinsky ballet scores – Le Sacres du printemps, The Firebird, and Perséphone. For the San Francisco Symphony’s own SFS Media label, Tilson Thomas and the Orchestra recorded all of Mahler’s symphonies and his works for voices, chorus and orchestra. Most recently, in addition to the Grammy-winning John Adams recording, MTT and the Orchestra recorded and released a live recording culled from its American Mavericks Festival concerts, with works by Henry Cowell, Lou Harrison, and Edgard Varèse, featuring Jeremy Denk and Paul Jacobs. Other significant recent recordings include Ives’ A Concord Symphony, arranged by Henry Brant; Copland’s Organ Symphony with Paul Jacobs; and Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 5 and 7 and his Piano Concerto No. 4, with Emanuel Ax. Tilson Thomas’s recordings also include pioneering work with the music of American composers Carl Ruggles, Steve Reich, John Cage and George and Ira Gershwin.
Since 1996, Tilson Thomas and the Orchestra have made more than two dozen national and international tours together. They continue to tour every year and perform regularly in Europe and throughout the United States, including annual visits to Carnegie Hall. MTT and the Orchestra toured Asia in November 2012, performing 10 concerts in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Macau, and Tokyo. Acclaimed interpreters of Mahler’s music, Tilson Thomas and the SFS performed his symphonies in 2011 in some of Europe’s leading music capitals for the anniversaries of the composer’s birth and death, including the centerpiece: a rare four-concert engagement at the famed Vienna Konzerthaus. MTT and the Orchestra opened Carnegie Hall’s 2008-09 season with a gala tribute to Leonard Bernstein that was filmed for national broadcast on PBS’s Great Performances and released by SFS Media on DVD. Other recent touring highlights, in addition to the two-week American Mavericks tour of the U.S. in 2012, include the Orchestra’s 2006 inaugural visit to mainland China, where they performed in Shanghai and opened the Hong Kong Arts Festival, and a 2007 tour of summer festivals including the London Proms and festivals of Edinburgh, Rheingau, Berlin and Lucerne.
A Los Angeles native, Tilson Thomas began his formal studies at the University of Southern California, where he studied piano with John Crown and conducting and composition with Ingolf Dahl. At 19, he was named Music Director of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra. He worked with Stravinsky, Boulez, Stockhausen, and Copland on premieres of their works at Los Angeles’s famed Monday Evening Concerts. During this period he was also pianist and conductor for Gregor Piatigorsky and Jascha Heifetz.
In 1969, at age 24, after winning the Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood, Tilson Thomas was appointed Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). Ten days later he made his New York debut with the Boston Symphony, gaining international recognition when he replaced Music Director William Steinberg mid-concert at Lincoln Center. He was later appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the BSO, where he remained until 1974. He led the television broadcasts of the New York Philharmonic’s famed Young People’s Concerts from 1971 to 1977. He has also served as Chief Conductor and Director of the Ojai Festival, Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, and a Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has toured the world with the London Symphony Orchestra, of which he became Principal Conductor in 1988 and now serves as Principal Guest Conductor. Until 2000 he was co-Artistic Director of the Pacific Music Festival, which he and Leonard Bernstein inaugurated in Sapporo, Japan, in 1990. His guest conducting engagements include frequent appearances with the major orchestras of Europe and the United States.
Tilson Thomas is noted for his commitment to music education and young people. He founded the New World Symphony (NWS) in Miami, a national training orchestra for the most gifted graduates of America’s conservatories, and continues as Artistic Director. The NWS celebrates its 25th anniversary this season. A newly-built Frank Gehry venue, the New World Center, conceived as a laboratory for the way music is taught, performed and experienced, opened in Miami Beach in 2011. As Artistic Director of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, MTT led the globally-sourced ensemble in both its first concert in 2009 at Carnegie Hall and the new group of musicians who performed at the Sydney Opera House in 2011. That event was the most popular live YouTube concert, with 33 million viewers.
MTT and the SFS created the acclaimed national Keeping Score PBS television series and multimedia project, unprecedented among American orchestras. Designed to make classical music more accessible to people of all ages and musical backgrounds, Keeping Score is anchored by eight composer documentaries and eight live concert films, viewed by more than nine million Americans on national PBS television and DVD; an interactive web site to explore and learn about music, www.keepingscore.org; and a national radio series with episodes hosted by MTT. Its education program for K-12 schools furthers teaching through the arts by integrating classical music into core subjects. Keeping Score composers include Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Copland, Ives, Berlioz, Shostakovich, and Mahler.
Acclaimed for his work as a composer, MTT has given world premieres of many of his works with the San Francisco Symphony. In 1999, MTT conducted the SFS in the first orchestral version of Three Songs to Poems by Walt Whitman, and in 2001, Renée Fleming and the SFS premiered his song cycle Poems of Emily Dickinson. In 2002, Tilson Thomas led the SFS in the world premiere of his contrabassoon concerto Urban Legend, with SFS contrabassoonist Steven Braunstein as soloist. In 2005, MTT and the SFS performed Tilson Thomas’s Island Music, dedicated to the memory of Lou Harrison. In 1991, Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony performed From the Diary of Anne Frank, composed by Tilson Thomas and commissioned by UNICEF. His composition Shówa/Shoáh was written in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.
Tilson Thomas’s many honors include the National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists by the U.S. government, presented by President Barack Obama in February 2010. He has also been recognized with Columbia University’s Ditson Award for services to American Music and the President’s Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He was named 1995 Conductor of the Year by Musical America. Tilson Thomas was a Carnegie Hall Perspectives Artist from 2003-2005. In 2006 he was recognized with Gramophone’s Artist of the Year award, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Tilson Thomas is a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres of France.
(March 2013)
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
2013-2014 SEASON AT A GLANCE
SFS COMMISSIONS, PREMIERES, AND FIRST PERFORMANCES
Thomas Adès Excerpts from The Tempest (first SFS performances)
Thomas Adès Three Studies from Couperin (first SFS performances)
C.P.E. Bach Cello Concerto No. 3 in A major, H.439 (Wq.172) (first SFS performances)
J.S. Bach Cantata No. 207a, Auf, schmetternde Töne der muntern Trompeten (first SFS performances)
Mason Bates Liquid Interface (first SFS performances)
Mason Bates Alternative Energy (first SFS performances)
Mason Bates The B-Sides (SFS commission, 2009)
Benjamin Britten Peter Grimes (first complete SFS performances)
Zosha Di Castri Lineage (SFS co-commission, West Coast premiere)
Antonín Dvořák Legends for Orchestra, Nos. 2, 6 and 10 (first SFS performances)
Bernard Herrmann Vertigo (world premiere of full score with film)
Bernard Herrmann Selections from Hitchcock films (first SFS performance)
György Ligeti Concert Românesc (first SFS performances)
Jean-Baptiste Lully Overture and Passacaille from Armide (first SFS performances)
Felix Mendelssohn Die erste Walpurgisnacht, Opus 60 (first SFS performances)
Francis Poulenc Litanies à la Vierge noire (Litanies of the Black Virgin), FP82 (first SFS performances)
Erwin Schulhoff Scherzo from Symphony No. 5 (first SFS performances)
Various Fantasia in Concert (first SFS performance with film)
WORKS BY LIVING COMPOSERS
John Adams Absolute Jest (SFS co-commission)*
Thomas Adès Excerpts from The Tempest (first SFS performances)
Thomas Adès Three Studies from Couperin (first SFS performances)
Mason Bates Liquid Interface (first SFS performances)
Mason Bates Alternative Energy (first SFS performances)
Mason Bates The B-Sides (SFS commission, 2009)
Zosha Di Castri Lineage (West Coast premiere, New Voices co-commission)
Henri Dutilleux Métaboles
Steven Mackey Eating Greens
*On European tour
CONDUCTORS FOR THE 2013-2014 SEASON
Alexander Barantschik January 22-26
Ragnar Bohlin December 19-21
Herbert Blomstedt April 3-6, April 9 & 11
Lionel Bringuier* February 5-7
Semyon Bychkov November 20-24, November 27 & 30
James Conlon April 24-26
Charles Dutoit May 29-30, June 4-7
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos February 19-22
Pablo Heras-Casado October 3-6, October 10-12
Marek Janowski October 17-20
Ton Koopman May 1-4, May 8-10
Edwin Outwater October 24-26
Michael Tilson Thomas Please see 2013-2014 calendar for complete dates
Jaap van Zweden * February 12 & 14
Osmo Vänskä January 30-February 1
*San Francisco Symphony debut
SOLOISTS FOR THE 2013-2014 SEASON
Emanuel Ax piano Beethoven/Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Opus 37 Sep. 26-28
Alexander Barantschik violin Beethoven/Romance No. 1 in G major, Opus 40 Jan. 8-11
Alexander Barantschik violin Beethoven/Romance No. 2 in F major, Opus 50 Jan. 8-11
Alexander Barantschik violin Mendelssohn/Violin Concerto in D minor Jan. 22-26
Bogna Bartosz* mezzo-soprano J.S. Bach/ Missa Brevis May 8-10
Mason Bates electronica Bates/Alternative Energy Jan. 8-11
Mason Bates electronica Bates/Liquid Interface Jan. 15-18
Mason Bates electronica Bates/The B-Sides Feb. 27-Mar. 2
Carey Bell clarinet Nielsen/Clarinet Concerto, Opus 57 Apr. 3-6
Eugene Brancoveanu baritone Britten/Peter Grimes June 26-29
Christine Brewer soprano Britten/War Requiem, Opus 66 Nov. 27 & 30
Yefim Bronfman piano Tchaikovsky/Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Opus 23 Sep. 11-14
Sasha Cooke mezzo-soprano Mahler/Symphony No. 3 in D minor Sep. 18-21
Sasha Cooke† mezzo-soprano Mahler/Symphony No. 3 in D minor Nov. 16
Sasha Cooke†† mezzo-soprano Mahler/Symphony No. 3 in D minor Mar. 16, 18, 20, 23, 26
Jeremy Denk piano Mozart/Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K.503 Nov. 7-10
Jeremy Denk† piano Mozart/Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K.503 Nov. 13 & 15
James Ehnes violin Barber/Violin Concerto, Opus 14 Sep. 5-6
Till Fellner* piano Mozart/Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K.491 Nov. 20-24
Julia Fischer violin Prokofiev/Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Opus 19 Mar. 6-9
Julia Fischer†† violin Prokofiev/Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Opus 19 Mar. 21, 24, 25
Kirill Gerstein piano Beethoven/Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Opus 19 June 4-7
James Gilchrist tenor Britten/War Requiem, Opus 66 Nov. 27 & 30
Rodney Gilfrey* baritone Adès/Scenes from The Tempest Oct. 10-12
Rodney Gilfrey* baritone Mendelssohn/Die erste Walpurgisnacht, Opus 60Oct. 10-12
Susan Graham† mezzo-soprano Mahler/Symphony No. 3 in D minor Nov. 14
Hélène Grimaud piano Brahms/Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Opus 83 Feb. 5-7
Charlotte Hellekant mezzo-soprano Adès/Scenes from The Tempest Oct. 10-12
Charlotte Hellekant mezzo-soprano Mendelssohn/Die erste Walpurgisnacht, Opus 60Oct. 10-12
Martin Helmchen* piano Schumann/Piano Concerto in A minor, Opus 54 Oct. 17-20
Joshua Hopkins baritone Handel/Messiah Dec. 19-21
Claudia Huckle* contralto Handel/Messiah Dec. 19-21
Mark Inouye trumpet Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Opus 35 Apr. 24-26
Mark Inouye trumpet J.S. Bach/Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, BWV 51 May 1-4
Janine Jansen violin Shostakovich/Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Opus 77 (99) June 12-15
Leila Josefowicz violin Stravinsky/Violin Concerto in D major Oct. 3-6
Simone Lamsma* violin Sibelius/Violin Concerto in D minor, Opus 47 Feb. 12 & 14
Tilman Lichdi* tenor J.S. Bach/ Missa Brevis May 8-10
Audrey Elizabeth Luna* soprano Adès/Scenes from The Tempest Oct. 10-12
Yo-Yo Ma cello Schumann/Cello Concerto in A minor, Opus 129 Feb. 28
Nancy Maultsby mezzo-soprano Britten/Peter Grimes June 26-29
Audra McDonald soprano Repertoire TBD Sep. 3
Klaus Mertens* bass J.S. Bach/ Missa Brevis May 8-10
Ann Murray* mezzo-soprano Britten/Peter Grimes June 26-29
Garrick Ohlsson piano Mozart/Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K.467 Apr. 9 & 11
Alan Opie baritone Britten/Peter Grimes June 26-29
Sean Panikkar* tenor Handel/Messiah Dec. 19-21
John Relyea bass Britten/Peter Grimes June 26-29
Carolyn Sampson soprano J.S. Bach/Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, BWV 51 May 1-4
Gil Shaham violin Prokofiev/Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Opus 63 Feb. 27-Mar. 2
Stuart Skelton tenor Britten/Peter Grimes June 26-29
Toby Spence tenor Britten/Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, Opus 31 June 19-21
St. Lawrence String Quartet†† John Adams/Absolute Jest Mar. 14, 15, 17
Christian Tetzlaff violin Bartók/Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor May 14-17
Jean-Yves Thibaudet piano Shostakovich/Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Opus 35 Apr. 24-26
Daniil Trifonov* piano Rachmaninoff/Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Opus 43 Jan. 30-Feb. 1
Simon Trpčeski piano Prokofiev/Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Opus 26 Oct. 24-26
Elza van den Heever soprano Britten/Peter Grimes June 26-29
Katie van Kooten soprano Handel/Messiah Dec. 19-21
Teresa Wakim* soprano J.S. Bach/ Missa Brevis May 8-10
Yuja Wang piano Rachmaninoff/Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor, Opus 40 May 22-25
Robert Ward horn Britten/Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, Opus 31 June 19-21
Alisa Weilerstein cello Haydn/Cello Concerto No. 1 in C major Feb. 19-22
Roderick Williams* baritone Britten/War Requiem, Opus 66 Nov. 27 & 30
Peter Wyrick cello C.P.E. Bach/Cello Concerto No. 3 May 1-4
*San Francisco Symphony debut
† United States tour, November 13-16, 2013
†† European tour, March 14-26, 2014
ARTIST AND CONDUCTOR DEBUTS
Lionel Bringuier conductor works by Brahms, Dutilleux and Ravel February 5-7
Bogna Bartosz mezzo-soprano J.S. Bach/ Missa Brevis May 8-10
Till Fellner piano Mozart/Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K.491 Nov 20-24
Joshua Gersen conductor Herrmann/Psycho film Oct. 30
Joshua Gersen conductor Herrmann/Vertigo filmNov. 1
Joshua Gersen conductor Herrmann/Hitchcock! Greatest Hits Nov. 2
Rodney Gilfrey baritone Adès/Scenes from The Tempest Oct. 10-12
Martin Helmchen piano Schumann/Piano Concerto in A minor, Opus 54 Oct. 17-20
Claudia Huckle contralto Handel/Messiah Dec. 19-21
Simone Lamsma violin Sibelius/Violin Concerto in D minor, Opus 47 Feb. 12 & 14
Tilman Lichdi tenor J.S. Bach/ Missa Brevis May 8-10
Audrey Elizabeth Luna soprano Adès/Scenes from The Tempest Oct. 10-12
Klaus Mertens bass J.S. Bach/ Missa Brevis May 8-10
Ann Murray mezzo-soprano Britten/Peter Grimes June 26-29
Sean Panikkar tenor Handel/Messiah Dec. 19-21
Daniil Trifonov piano Rachmaninoff/Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Opus 43 Jan. 30-Feb. 1
Jaap van Zweden conductor works by Mozart, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky February 12 & 14
Teresa Wakim soprano J.S. Bach/ Missa Brevis May 8-10
Roderick Williams baritone Britten/War Requiem, Opus 66 Nov. 27 & 30
2013-14 GREAT PERFORMERS SERIES and SPECIAL EVENTS: CONDUCTORS AND ARTISTS
Donato Cabrera conductor Día de los Muertos Nov. 2
Randall Craig Fleischer conductor Deck the Hall Dec. 8
Gustavo Dudamel conductor Los Angeles Philharmonic Mar. 11-12
Vilde Frang** violin Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Mar. 3
Joshua Gersen* conductor Psycho film Oct. 30
Joshua Gersen conductor Vertigo filmNov. 1
Joshua Gersen conductor Hitchcock! Greatest Hits Nov. 2
Martin Haselböck organ Recital Apr. 27
Sarah Hicks conductor A Night at the Oscars Feb. 15
Sarah Hicks conductor Fantasia in Concert May 31
Dmitri Hvorostovsky baritone Recital with Ivari Ilja May 25
Ivari Ilja piano Recital with Dmitri Hvorostovsky May 25
Paul Jacobs organ Recital Feb. 16
Richard Kaufman conductor City Lights film Apr. 12
Evgeny Kissin piano Recital Mar. 20
Denis Kozhukhin** piano Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Mar. 2
Gidon Kremer violin/conductor Kremerata Baltica Feb. 2
Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra Feb. 2
Katia Labèque piano Recital with Marielle Labèque Apr. 7
Marielle Labèque piano Recital with Katia Labèque Apr. 7
Olivier Latry organ Recital Oct. 12
Los Angeles Philharmonic Mar. 11-12
Murray Perahia piano Recital Feb. 20
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Jan. 26
Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Mar. 2-3
András Schiff piano Recital Oct. 6 & 13
Yuri Temirkanov conductor Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Mar. 2-3
Christian Tetzlaff† violin Recital May 11
Yuja Wang† piano Recital Oct. 15
Yuja Wang† piano Los Angeles Philharmonic Mar. 12
Todd Wilson** organ The Lodger film Oct. 31
Pinchas Zukerman violin/conductor Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Jan. 26
*San Francisco Symphony debut
** Davies Symphony Hall debut
† also appearing on SFS Subscription Season
