This month San Francisco Symphony (SFS) Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) will return to the podium of Davies Symphony Hall to conduct two weeks of subscription concerts. Readers may recall that all three of this month’s visiting conductors will be presenting violin concertos, complementing the three piano concertos performed last month. The first of MTT’s two programs, on the other hand, will feature a piano soloist playing a concerto that is receiving far less attention than it deserves. Specifics are as follows:
May 9–11: The piano soloist Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Aimard has long been a champion of the music of György Ligeti. Where the solo piano music is concerned, he has created and curated a Web site called Explore the Score, on which he has provided interactive tutorials for two major collections of compositions, Musica ricercata (researched music) and the eighteen études composed between 1985 and 1994. For his visit to SFS he will play Ligeti’s only piano concerto. MTT will use the remainder of the program to present three of Claude Debussy’s best-known orchestral compositions, all of which will be recorded live for future release on an SFS Media recording: the “Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune,” intended to introduce a reading of Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem “L’après-midi d’un faune” (the afternoon of a faun), the three orchestral nocturnes, and “La mer” (the sea). The women of the SFS Chorus will join SFS for the third of the nocturnes.
This concert will be given three performances, all at 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 9, Friday, May 10, and Saturday, May 11. There will be an Inside Music talk given by Peter Grunberg that will begin one hour before the performance. Doors to the Davies lobbies open fifteen minutes before the talk begins. Ticket prices range from $35 to $170. 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. In addition, KDFC’s Rik Malone’s podcast about “La mer” can be found on the event page along with sound clips from previous SFS performances of both that set of three “symphonic sketches” and the “Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.” Flash must be enabled for both streamed content and online ticket purchases. 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.
May 16–18: The program for the following week will be devoted entirely to Gustav Mahler’s seventh symphony. This symphony is known for the intricate elegance of its “inside-out” structure. At the very center is a relatively short, but highly intense, Scherzo. It is flanked on either side by a relatively lengthy Nocturne movement. Those movements are then framed by an opening movement in traditional sonata form and a wild Rondo finale. While the symphony is often assigned the key of E minor, that key only appears in the Allegro risoluto portion of the first movement (which is preceded by a Langsam introduction in B minor). By the time the Rondo begins, the tonality has peregrinated into the key of C major.
This concert will also be given three performances, all at 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 16, Friday, May 17, and Saturday, May 18. Instead of the usual Inside Music talk, there will be a screening of the Keeping Score / Mahler video. That screening will begin at 6:30 p.m. and will last for one hour. Ticket prices range from $20 to $185, and an event page has been created for online purchase. Malone’s podcast about the symphony can be found on the event page along with sound clips from previous SFS performances of that composition.
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