SFP and SFS will Join Forces for Two Major Recitals Next Month

Next month two major soloists will return to Davies Symphony Hall to give recitals presented jointly by San Francisco Performances (SFP) and the San Francisco Symphony (SFS).

The first of these visitors will be pianist András Schiff, who last came to San Francisco in October of 2015. That was when he completed this three-concert series of the last piano sonatas composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Schubert. He then returned to Davies to take the SFS podium to lead of a program of music by Mozart (the K. 595 piano concerto in B-flat major, which he conducted from the keyboard), Haydn (the Hoboken XXII/11 Mass setting in D minor), and Schubert (featuring songs sung by the Mass soloists accompanied by Schiff at the keyboard).

Next month’s recital will consist entirely of more Schubert selections. Following up on his last cycle of recitals, the second half of the program will feature the D. 894 sonata in G major, the last sonata Schubert composed prior to his final three (all of which were composed in one frantic burst of activity in September of 1828 within months of his death). While D. 894 was composed in October of 1826, in many ways it constitutes a foretaste of Schubert’s venture into extended durations for his sonata movements. D. 894 will be complemented by Schiff beginning his program with the D. 845 sonata in A minor, a work described by publisher A. Pennauer as “Première grande Sonate.” Between these two sonatas Schiff will play the four D. 935 impromptus (which he recorded on his 2015 ECM album) and the three D. 946 pieces, the first of which just appeared on Schiff’s latest album Encores after Beethoven.

This concert will take place on Monday, March 12, beginning at 8 p.m. Ticket prices range from $35 to $99. They may be purchased online through the event page for this program on the SFS Web site, by calling 415-864-6000, or by visiting the Box Office in Davies Symphony Hall, whose entrance is on the south side of Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street. The Box Office is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday. In addition City Box Office has an event page through which it is selling tickets for SFP.

The second visiting recitalist will be violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, who will be appearing with pianist Lambert Orkis as her accompanist. She will begin her program with “Clockwork,” which Sebastian Currier composed in 1989. The other twentieth-century composer on the program will be Ottorino Respighi with his B minor sonata. The nineteenth century will be represented by Camille Saint-Saëns’ Opus 28, his A minor “Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso,” which he composed in 1863 for the virtuoso violinist Pablo de Sarasate. The one composition from the eighteenth century will be Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 526 sonata in A major.

This concert will take place on Sunday, March 26, beginning at 7 p.m. Ticket prices range from $35 to $125. They may be purchased online through the event page for this program on the SFS Web site, by calling 415-864-6000, or by visiting the Box Office in Davies Symphony Hall, whose entrance is on the south side of Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street. The Box Office is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday.