SFS: More Rich Sonorities from Guerrero

Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero (photograph by Lukasz Rajchert taken on February 4, 2020, from Guerrero’s Web site)

Last night Giancarlo Guerrero returned to Davies Symphony Hall for his third visit to the podium of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). His last visit took place almost exactly two years ago, at the end of May in 2023. The high point of that visit was his delivery of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Opus 35 symphonic suite Scheherazade with a solid command of the full complement of instruments in the orchestra.

That command was in full force again last night, exercising the entire forces of the SFS ensemble for all they were worth. The second half of the program was devoted entirely to the two best-known tone poems of Ottorino Respighi, “Fountains of Rome,” composed in 1916, followed by his 1924 “Pines of Rome.” (He would compose “Roman Festivals” in 1928 to complete his “Roman trilogy.”) Instrumental sonorities were just as rich in the first half with Igor Stravinsky’s 1947 version of the complete score for the one-act ballet “Petrushka.” (Stravinsky would revise his works when the copyright ran out in the interest in maintaining a flow of royalties!) The program began the full-ensemble spirit with the first SFS performance of “Asteroid 4179: Toutatis,” composed by Kaija Saariaho in 2005.

Guerrero clearly enjoys working a large orchestra for all it is worth. One can see it in the joyfulness of his body language. However, it is just as clear that he wants to make sure that every last detail will register in the minds of the attentive listeners. Whether or not the music he was conducting was familiar to many (if not most) in the audience, there was a freshness in his approach that made even the most familiar passages feel like a journey of discovery. Thus, whether it was a first-encounter with music of Saariaho or works by Respighi and Stravinsky found in just about every collection of recordings, Guerrero knew how to get his listeners to sit up and take notice. I am already looking forward to what he will plan for his next visit!