It has been almost exactly one year since the programs for the MainStage Concerts of the 2025–26 season of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra (SFCO) were announced. Plans for the coming season showed up in my Inbox yesterday evening at 7 PM. Once again, there will be four programs; and it appears that content has already been finalized. All performances will begin at 7:30 p.m., taking place at three different venues. Tickets may be reserved through the individual Web pages for the concerts using the attached hyperlinks below. Specifics are as follows:
Friday, October 16, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Beethoven’s Eroica, A Hero’s Journey: As the title suggests, the second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 62 (third) symphony in E-flat major. Beethoven was originally inspired by Napoleon until he realized the threat of tyranny, providing a title that would reflect the composer’s own defiant and life-affirming spirit. This will be complemented at the beginning of the program with the performance of Beethoven’s Opus 62 (“Coriolan”) overture, inspired by a five-act play of the same title by Heinrich Joseph von Collin about a Roman general known for defeating the invading Volscians. The first half of the program will conclude with Grace Williams’ “Sea Sketches,” inspired by the Welsh coastline. The performance will take place in the Conservatory building at 50 Oak Street.
Wednesday, December 30, Herbst Theatre, Rising Stars: This program will see the debut of fourteen-year-old pianist Isabel Feng, who will be the soloist in a performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 25, his first piano concerto, composed in the key of G minor. The “overture” for the program will be “D’un matin de printemps,” a musical portrait of a spring morning composed by Lili Boulanger. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s last symphony, K. 551 (“Jupiter”) in C major. For those that do not yet know, the venue is located on the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and McAllister Street.
Friday, February 26, Taube Atrium Theatre, Emerging Voices: The “voices” are the current members of the San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows.The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to opera arias, whose selections have not yet been finalized. The program will begin with the seventh (D minor) of the thirteen string symphonies composed by Felix Mendelssohn between the ages of twelve and fourteen. This will be followed by one of the more familiar compositions by Caroline Shaw, “Entr’acte.” The venue is located in the same building as Herbst but on the top floor.
Starla Breshears, concerto soloist for the final MainStage Concert of the season (from the Web page for this performance)
Friday, May 7, Taube Atrium Theatre, Sounds of the City: The title refers to a new multi-media commissioned work by Xavier Muzik entitled “i like my coffee, black,” which was inspired by a series of recent photographs of San Francisco. (I am not sure about the significance of the comma!) This will be preceded by two excerpts from Richard Strauss’ opera Ariadne auf Naxos, the overture and the dance scene. The second half of the program will see the winner of the Irving Klein International Competition, cellist Starla Breshears, who is now the youngest member in the San Francisco Symphony. She will be the soloist in a performance of Joseph Haydn’s Hoboken VIIb/1 cello concerto (his first).
