SFS in February: Yuja Wang Changing Repertoire

Pianist Yuja Wang (photograph by ©Julia Wesely, courtesy of SFS)

In about six week’s time pianist Yuja Wang will make her next visit to Davies Symphony Hall. She will be the soloist for the series of concerts that will be conducted by Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen. The original plan was that she would perform two of Igor Stravinsky’s compositions for piano and orchestra, the Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments and “Movements for Piano and Orchestra.” Instead, she will present the first San Francisco Symphony (SFS) performances of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Opus 45, his first piano concerto. This will be coupled with a more familiar work from the twentieth century, Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand.

These works will be framed by the three orchestral compositions by Claude Debussy given the collective title Images pour orchestre. The program will begin with “Gigues” and “Rondes de printemps.” Both of these are single-movement compositions. The final selection will be the three-movement “Ibéria.”

This program will be given four performances at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 13, Friday, February 14, and Saturday, February 15, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, February 16. For those that do not yet already know, 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. 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. A single Web page has been created for online purchases, and readers should be informed that availability is limited for all four performances. In addition, the Box Office in the Davies lobby is open for selling tickets.