Now that the “year of Beethoven” is officially under way, San Francisco Symphony (SFS) programming involving the music of Ludwig van Beethoven (which will be known as “Beethoven250”) will tend to be given a “special category” in this site’s preview articles. Those articles will summarize the content of a month with respect to not only the usual subscription concerts but also, when appropriate, Great Performers Series offerings. For the current month that will involve two subscription concerts and two recitals featuring violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. In chronological order, specifics are as follows:
January 16–18: Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) will return to the SFS podium to lead piano soloist Emanuel Ax in a performance of Beethoven’s Opus 19 (second) piano concerto in B-flat major. The program will begin with the West Coast premiere performance of a composition co-commissioned by SFS, Julia Wolfe’s “Fountain of Youth.” The second half of the program will similarly dwell on the music of “revolutionary” composers. Richard Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll” will be followed by the 1929 revision the three pieces for orchestra that Alban Berg collected as his Opus 6.
The three performances of this concert will all take place at 8 p.m. on Thursday, January 16, Friday, January 17, and Saturday, January 18. The Inside Music talk will be given by Laura Prichard one hour prior to each concert. Ticket prices range from $20 to $185, and an event page has been created for online purchase. They may also be purchased 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. KDFC’s Rik Malone’s podcast about the Berg composition will be posted to the Program Note Podcasts Web page prior to the first performance of this program. 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.
In addition, these performances will be preceded by the next Katherine Hanrahan Open Rehearsal of the season. This special behind-the-scenes experience begins at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, January 16, with coffee and complimentary doughnuts, followed by a half-hour introductory talk by Prichard at 9 a.m. The rehearsal itself begins at 10 a.m.; and, of course, the pieces rehearsed are at the conductor’s discretion. General admission is $30 with $45 for reserved seats in the Premier Orchestra section, Rear Boxes and Side Boxes, and the Loge. Tickets may be purchased online through a separate event page.
January 23–25: Dima Slobodeniouk will make his debut on the SFS podium conducting a standard overture-concerto-symphony program. The symphony will be Beethoven’s Opus 92 (seventh) in A major. The concerto soloist will be the Armenian virtuoso Sergey Khachatryan, the youngest-ever winner of the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition. Appropriately enough, he will perform Sibelius’ Opus 47 in D minor. The overture will be another SFS premiere performance, Jörg Widmann’s “Con brio,” whose title serves as a reflection on the final movement of Beethoven’s Opus 92.
The three performances of this concert will take place at 2 p.m. on Thursday, January 23, and at 8 p.m. on Friday, January 24, and Saturday, January 25. The Inside Music talk will be given by Scott Foglesong one hour prior to each concert. Ticket prices range from $35 to $25, and an event page has been created for online purchase. KDFC’s Rik Malone’s podcast about the Beethoven symphony will be posted to the Program Note Podcasts Web page prior to the first performance of this program. In addition the event page includes sound clips from previous SFS performance of that symphony.
January 26: Mutter has prepared two different programs for the Great Performers Series, which will be performed on successive evenings. Her first recital will present three of Beethoven’s best known sonatas for piano and violin (to used the ordering given on the cover pages of the music itself). These will be Opus 23 in A minor, Opus 24 (“Spring”) in F major, and Opus 47 (“Kreutzer”) in A major. Mutter’s pianist will be Lambert Orkis. This performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. Ticket prices range from $20 to $95. They may be purchased online through the event page for this concert.
January 27: Mutter’s second recital will be devoted entirely to chamber music for strings. The program will be framed by two of Beethoven’s string trios, the third of the Opus 9 trios in C minor and the Opus 3 trio in E-flat major. Mutter will be joined by violist Vladimir Babeshko and cellist Daniel Müller-Schott. Between these trios, Ye-Eun Choi will join the group to play second violin in a performance of Beethoven’s Opus 74 (“Harp”) quartet in E-flat major. This performance will begin at 8 p.m. Ticket prices again range from $20 to $95. They may be purchased online through the event page for this concert.
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