Last week, in discussing how the 2019–20 season of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) will bring Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) to the conclusion of his 25-year tenure, this site discussed the priority that will be given to three “warhorse” composers, Ludwig van Beethoven, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Wagner. The season will also single out three “distinguished visitors,” each of whom will be granted a season-long residency. They will be soprano Julia Bullock, mezzo Sasha Cooke, and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, all familiar faces in San Francisco. There will, of course, be one other “distinguished visitor” in the form of conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, who will prepare two weeks of concerts in his capacity as Music Director Designate.
Bullock will curate and perform three concert programs that will illuminate the distinct voices of literary, visual, and musical artists. Note the verb in the final phrase of that sentence. Bullock will be the featured soloist at the concerts that Salonen will direct on February 20–22. She will perform Benjamin Britten’s Les Illuminations, a cycle of settings of poems that Arthur Rimbaud collected under the same title. Her literary exploration of Rimbaud will then be complemented by an exploration of Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé through Maurice Ravel’s settings of three of his poems. Next she will curate the SoundBox concert to be given on April 24 and 25, which will combine a broad repertoire of vocal music (from Hildegard von Bingen to Nina Simone) with poetry readings and immersive visual designs. Finally, in June she will bring her History’s Persistent Voice program to Davies Symphony Hall. Her program will include SFS commissions from Rhiannon Giddens, Camille Norment, Cécile McLorin Salvant, and Pamela Z, as well as West Coast premieres of works by Tania León, Allison Loggins-Hull, and Jessie Montgomery. [Shameless editorial comment about Z: It’s damned well about time!]
Cooke will make her first appearance at the concerts on January 9–12. Having been involved in many of MTT’s Mahler performances, she will sing selections from the Des Knaben Wunderhorn (the boy’s magic horn) collection. As was observed last week, she will share the performance of the full cycle with bass-baritone Ryan McKinny. On the same program she will give the world premiere performances of Rilke Songs, a new setting of lyric poems by Rainer Maria Rilke composed by MTT. She will then return on May 31 to give a vocal recital that will feature chamber music as well as art song.
As was observed last week, Mutter will play a key role in the programming that will mark Beethoven’s 250th birthday. On January 26, accompanied by her longtime piano collaborator Lambert Orkis, she will play three of Beethoven’s violin sonatas, Opus 23 (fourth) in A minor, Opus 24 (fifth) in F major, and Opus 47 (“Kreutzer,” the ninth) in A major. The following evening, she will be joined by violinist Ye-Eun Choi, violist Vladimir Babesko, and cellist Daniel Mueller-Schott for a chamber music program. Without Choi, the program will begin with the Opus 3 trio in E-flat major. The entire quartet will conclude the program with Beethoven’s Opus 74 (“Harp”) string quartet in E-flat major. Between these two pieces, the quartet will give the West Coast premiere of Jörg Widmann’s sixth quartet, which he entitled “A Study on Beethoven.” Finally, as has already been observed, Mutter will be the soloist when MTT conducts the Opus 61 violin concerto in D major at the concerts on June 4–6.
Finally, the concerts on February 20–22 will mark the first week of Salonen’s two-week visit. In addition to the works that Bullock will perform, the program will present Steven Stucky’s “Funeral Music for Queen Mary” and the orchestral version of Ravel’s suite Ma Mère l’Oye (mother goose). The second round of concerts will take place on February 27–29 and will follow the more conventional overture-concerto-symphony format. The concerto soloist will be violinist Leila Josefowicz; and she will play Salonen’s violin concerto, reprising the SFS “centennial day” performance, which Salonen conducted on December 8, 2011. Salonen will also acknowledge Beethoven by performing the overture from his Opus 117 King Stephen, a collection of vocal and instrumental movements composed in commemoration of King Stephen I, founder of the Kingdom of Hungary. The symphony will be Carl Nielsen’s Opus 50 (fifth), structured as two extended movements.
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