SFS to Present “Preview” Concert for Tour

Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the San Francisco Symphony (photograph by Kristen Loken, courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony)

Next month Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) and the San Francisco Symphony will embark on their final national tour together before MTT concludes his 25-year tenure. The tour will run from March 19 to March 29, taking in eight cities across the United States with performances at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Washington (March 19), Hertzberg Hall in Kansas City, Missouri (March 21), the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. (March 23), Symphony Hall in Boston, Massachusetts (March 24), Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Illinois (March 26), the Krannert Center in Champaign, Illinois (March 27), the Lied Center in Lincoln, Nebraska (March 28), and the Iowa State Center in Ames, Iowa (March 29). Violinist Christian Tetzlaff will tour with SFS between March 19 and March 26; and violinist Alexander Kerr will perform at the remaining concerts on March 27, 28, and 29.

As in the past, SFS will precede the tour with a subscription offering that will preview three of the pieces to be performed during the tour. The program will follow the usual overture-concerto-symphony format. Tetzlaff will be the soloist in a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 216 (third) violin concerto in G major. This will be preceded by the orchestral version of Maurice Ravel’s suite Le Tombeau de Couperin. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Jean Sibelius’ Opus 43 (second) symphony in D major.

This program will be given four performances in Davies Symphony Hall, at 8 p.m. on Thursday, March 14,  Friday, March 15, and Saturday, March 16, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 17. There will be an Inside Music talk given by Elizabeth Seitz that will begin one hour before the performance. Doors to the Davies lobbies open fifteen minutes before the talk begins. Ticket prices range from $20 to $165. They may be purchased online through the event page for this program on the SFS Web site, by calling 415-864-6000, or by visiting the Davies Box Office, whose entrance is on the south side of Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street. The Box Office is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday, and two hours prior to Sunday performances. The event page also has sound clips from previous SFS performances of the Sibelius symphony, as well as KDFC’s Rik Malone’s podcast about the symphony. Flash must be enabled for both streamed content and online ticket purchases.