Some readers may recall that next month will conclude with the first San Francisco Symphony (SFS) performance by conductor Elim Chan since her appointment as Music Director Designate earlier this year. This will be the first of three appearances on the Davies Symphony Hall podium. The other two will take place near the beginning and the middle of next year. Specifics for all three of the programs have been finalized as follows:
Thursday, October 29, Friday, October 30, Saturday, October 31, 7:30 p.m.: Violinist Renaud Capuçon will be the soloist in Felix Mendelssohn’s last concerto, his Opus 64 in E minor. Director Jenny Wong will lead the SFS Chorus in the first SFS performance of Arvo Pärt’s “Magnificat” setting. Also a first SFS performance will be the concluding selection, the “Doctor Atomic Symphony,” composed by John Adams based on music from his Doctor Atomic opera. The Chorus will also perform the opening selection, Johannes Brahms’ “Nänie.”
Conductor Elim Chan at the European première performance of “Swaddling Silk and Gossamer Rain” (from the YouTube video of that performance)
Thursday, January 14, 2 p.m., and Friday, January 15, and Saturday, January 16, 7:30 p.m.: I must confess to a personal feeling of pleasure for this program. I always look forward to an opportunity to listen to Edward Elgar’s Opus 36, “Variations on an Original Theme,” which is more popularly known as the “Enigma Variations.” I have had the good fortune not only to listen to this composition in concert performance but also to view the choreography created by Frederick Ashton for the music. The intermission will be preceded by another personal favorite, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 364 in E-flat major, his “Sinfonia concertante” with solo parts for violin and viola, which will be performed by SFS members Alexander Barantschik and Jonathan Vinocour, respectively. The program will begin with Noriko Koide’s “Swaddling Silk and Gossamer Rain,” completed in 2022 and first performed in Europe in 2023 (with Chan conducting).
Friday, June 25, and Saturday, June 26, 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, June 27, 2 p.m.: Pianist Yefim Bronfman will return to Davies as soloist in a performance of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Opus 30, his third piano concerto, composed in the key of D minor. This will be complemented following the intermission with another Russian composer, Sergei Prokofiev. The selection will be his Opus 100, his fifth symphony composed in the key of B-flat major. The “overture” for the program will be “Sunlight Echoes,” composed by Augusta Read Thomas.
