Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Marc-André Hamelin Coming to Davies this Sunday

Pianist Marc-André Hamelin (from the San Francisco Symphony event page for his recital)

The next Great Performers Series recital to be presented by the San Francisco Symphony in Davies Symphony Hall will be a solo performance by French-Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin. Hamelin has been a frequent visitor to San Francisco and consistently performs with just the right balance of the cerebral and the expressive. For this occasion he has prepared a program that combines familiar and unfamiliar repertoire. On the familiar side he will perform works by two composers born within half a year each other.

Frédéric Chopin was born on March 1, 1810. He will be represented by two of his more familiar compositions, the Opus 61 “Polonaise-Fantasie” in A-flat major and the Opus 54 scherzo in E major. Robert Schumann was born only a few months later on June 8. He will be represented by a single composition, whose scale encompasses three movements of epic proportions. The work is his Opus 17 fantasia in C major.

Like many pianists, Hamelin will begin his recital with Johann Sebastian Bach, performing a piano transcription of the Chaconne movement from the BWV 1004 solo violin partita in D minor. In the program as listed on this concert’s event page, no credit is given for the arrangement of the Bach source. It would not surprise me if Hamelin provided his own arrangement. (For that matter, given his impressive skill set, I would not be surprised if he performed directly from the violin part.)

He will also perform a set of arrangements by another pianist. These will be arrangements of six of the songs composed by the popular French singer Charles Trenet, and they were arranged by pianist Alexis Weissenberg. The other work on the program that probably will be unfamiliar to most listeners will be an early composition by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, his Opus 17 “Cipressi” (cypresses).

This recital will begin at 7:30 p.m. this coming Sunday, March 31. Davies Symphony Hall is located at 201 Van Ness Avenue and fills an entire city block. The other boundaries are Grove Street (north), Hayes Street (south), and Franklin Street (west). The main entrance (which is also the entrance to the Box Office) is on Grove Street, roughly halfway down the block. Tickets for this recital will be priced between $35 and $105. Tickets may be purchased in advance online through a Web page on the SFS Web site. Flash must be enabled for online ticket transactions. Tickets may also be purchased by visiting the Box Office or calling 415-864-6000. The Box Office is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday, and two hours before the beginning of the concert on Sunday.

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