Once again, events taking place in Davies Symphony Hall will include more than the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) Orchestral Series Concerts. In fact, due to all the other events, there will be only one performance in that series. However, in the spirit of facilitating planning, this article will continue to account for all of the performance-related events of the month in chronological order, as follows. As usual, each of the dates will be provided with a hyperlink to facilitate ticket purchases.
Sunday, April 6, 7:30 p.m.: Once again, the month will begin with a Great Performers Series recital. The recitalist will be violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, accompanied at the piano by Lambert Orkis. She will begin with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 301 violin sonata in G major, which will be followed by Franz Schubert’s D. 934 fantasy in C major (which includes a set of variations on his D. 741 song “Sei mir gegrüßt”). The next two selections will be by female composers. The first of these, Aftab Darvishi, was born in Iran in 1987; and her contribution is entitled “Likoo.” She will be followed by the more familiar Clara Schumann, who will be represented by her Opus 22, a set of three “Romances.” The program will conclude with Ottorino Respighi’s violin sonata in B minor.
Wednesday, April 9, 7:30 p.m.: The next Shenson Spotlight Series artist will be pianist Martin James Bartlett. He will give a chronological account of François Couperin (“Les Barricades mystérieuses”), Jean-Philippe Rameau (selected movements from the RCT 5 suite in A minor), Robert Schumann (the Opus 15 Kinderszenen), and Maurice Ravel (“Pavane pour une infante défunte” and “La valse”). There will also be two arrangements by Franz Liszt. The first of these will be the song “Widmung” from Schumann’s Opus 25 song cycle Myrthen. The other will be the “Liebestod” from Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde.
Thursday, April 10, Friday, April 11, and Saturday, April 12, 7:30 p.m.: Guest conductor Marin Alsop has prepared a program entitled Music of the Americas or the only Orchestral Series event of the month. This will include the first SFS performances of Gabriela Montero’s first piano concerto, to which she gave the title “Latin.” The program will begin with Gabriela Ortiz’ “Antrópolis.” The remaining selections will reflect on the United States. Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” will be followed immediately by Joan Tower’s “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman.” The program will then conclude with Samuel Barber’s first symphony.
Sunday, April 20, 7:30 p.m.: The second Great Performers recitalist will be pianist Evgeny Kissin. He will begin with Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 826 (second) keyboard partita, composed in the key of C minor. This will be followed by three works by Frédéric Chopin: two nocturnes (Opus 27, Number 1 in C-sharp minor and Opus 32, Number 2 in A-flat major) and the Opus 54 (fourth) scherzo in E major. The remainder of the program will be devoted to Dmitri Shostakovich. Following his second piano sonata in B minor, Kissin will select prelude-fugue couplings from the Opus 87 collection, which accounts for all of those couplings in the major and minor keys.
The Piazza Navona in Rome, presumably the site Respighi had in mind for the final episode of his “Roman Festivals” (photograph by Myrabella, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license)
Saturday, April 26, 7:30 p.m.: As might be expected, this concert has already been sold out. My guess is that the best way to check for returned tickets will be to call the Box Office at 415-864-6000. Readers will probably have guessed by now that this will be the concert celebrating the 80th birthday of Music Director Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT). The soloists will be four vocalists: Sasha Cooke, Ben Jones, Frederica von Stade, and Jessica Vosk; and Jenny Wong will prepare the SFS Chorus. The vocal selections will include the final movement of Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and selections from songs composed by MTT. The program will begin with Benjamin Britten’s “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” and conclude with “Roman Festivals” by Ottorino Respighi.
Sunday, April 27, 2 p.m.: The month will conclude with the next Chamber Music recital. I described one of this month’s selection as “highly imaginative,” but next month promises to be even more so! The program will begin with Charles Chandler, Bowen Ha, Orion Miller, and Daniel G. Smith joining forces to play “Passione amorosa,” which Giovanni Bottesini composed for four double basses. This will be followed by “Café Music” a seriously raucous work that Paul Schoenfield composed for piano trio. The next offering of seldom-encountered instrumentation will be the 1959 nonet by Bohuslav Martinů, scored for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horn, violin, viola, cello, and double bass. The program will then conclude with another more standard ensemble performing Sergei Prokofiev’s Opus 50, his first string quartet composed in the key of B minor.
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