SFS “Favorites in Focus” Next Year

Next month San Francisco Symphony (SFS) will begin a selection of four subscription concerts collected under the title Favorites in Focus and unabashedly described as an “ultimate playlist.” Each program will be led by a different conductor with Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen “taking the helm” to conclude the series. What struck me as interesting was that the entire repertoire across all four of the offerings was firmly grounded in the nineteenth century, suggesting that the overall title could have been “Favorites from the Good Old Days!” Furthermore, each program consists of only two selections on either side of the intermission. Here is a basic summary of the works to be performed and the conductors that will lead them:

SFS Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt (photograph by Martin Lengemann, courtesy of SFS)

January 30–February 1: As was first reported at the beginning of this month, the series will begin with Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt on the podium. He prepared a program of only two symphonies, each by a German composer and each at either end of the nineteenth century. The first half of the program will be devoted entirely to Franz Schubert’s D. 485 (fifth) symphony in B-flat major, which he completed on October 3, 1816. This will be complemented in the second half by Johannes Brahms’ Opus 68, his first symphony, composed over the course of 21 years and first performed on November 4, 1876.

February 28–March 2: The distance between the two composers in the second concert is somewhat wider. Pianist Francesco Piemontesi will be the soloist in the first half, performing Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 58 (fourth) piano concerto in G major, which was completed in 1806. The second half advances a little more than a century to Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Opus 27 (second) symphony in E minor. The conductor will be Robin Ticciati.

March 13–15: Elim Chan will conduct a program of two works by the same composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. In the first half she will lead a suite (possibly her own) of excerpts from the score for the ballet Swan Lake. The narrative for this ballet involves an evil sorcerer, whose spell is only broken by the apotheosis in the final act. If this is a journey from darkness to light, then the second half of the program, the Opus 74 (sixth) symphony descends in the opposite direction, with a final movement that is one of the bleakest in the nineteenth-century repertoire.

May 29–June 1: Beethoven gets a “second round” in Salonen’s presentation of the final concert of the series. The program itself will be another pairing of concerto and symphony. This time, however, the first half will be devoted to Beethoven’s Opus 60, his fourth symphony composed in the key of B-flat major. In the second half, violinist Hilary Hahn will be the soloist for the Opus 61 violin concerto in D major, making for a “back-to-back” approach to programming.

As usual, all programs will take place in Davies Symphony Hall, which 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. Each of the above hyperlinks will provide concert ticket prices for the respective programs. Tickets may be purchased online or by calling 415-503-5351. In addition, the Box Office in the Davies lobby is open for selling tickets.