SFS will Give Two Free Summer Concerts Next Month

As part of his duties as Director of Summer Concerts for the San Francisco Symphony (SFS), Edwin Outwater will lead the ensemble in two free performances next month.

The first of these will be an appearance at the annual Stern Grove Festival:

photograph by Scott Wall, courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony

The featured soloists will be soprano Jana McIntyre and baritone Hadleigh Adams. Each will sing an aria from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 620 opera The Magic Flute; and they will also sing the first-act duet “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen” (in those who feel love). They will also participate in a medley of songs associated with the late French chanteuse Edith Piaf, arranged by Outwater.

The program will begin with the overture to The Magic Flute and will also include Mozart’s final symphony, K. 551 (“Jupiter”) in C major. The French side of the program will feature instrumental selections from Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen. The program will conclude with Maurice Ravel’s “La Valse.”

This concert will begin at 2 p.m. on Sunday, July 9. The entrance to Stern Grove is on the northwest corner where 19th Avenue crosses Sloat Boulevard. No tickets are required. Those planning to attend need to know that there will be no public parking area at Stern Grove for this event. Finding parking is extremely difficult, so all are encouraged to use public transportation. The 19th Avenue bus lines (23 and 28) both stop right at the entrance to Stern Grove. The K and M Muni lines stop one block to the east, where Sloat Boulevard meets St. Francis Circle.

The second free performance will mark a return to the James R. Herman Cruise Terminal on the waterfront. The featured soloist will be soprano Julie Adams, who will sing the “Song to the Moon” from Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 114 opera Rusalka. The first half of the program will feature music by American composers Aaron Copland (“Hoe-Down,” the concluding section of his music for Agnes de Mille’s one-act ballet “Rodeo”) and Leonard Bernstein (his overture for his musical Candide and the orchestral suite of dance music from the musical West Side Story). The program will also include André Caplet’s orchestration of the “Claire de Lune” movement from Claude Debussy’s Suite bergamasque and three of the movements from Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite The Planets, the sections for Mars, Venus, and Jupiter.

This concert will begin at noon on Sunday, July 23. The venue is located at Pier 27, across the Embarcadero from where it meets Lombard Street. Valet bike parking will be available, and those in the audience are encouraged to bring blankets and picnics. Meals will also be available from a selection of local food trucks. Once again no tickets will be required.