This month will see the return of Esa-Pekka Salonen to Davies Symphony Hall. He has prepared two weeks of concerts in his capacity as Music Director Designate of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). The soloist for the first of those concerts will be soprano Julia Bullock, the last of the three Artist-in-Residence performers for the 2019–20 season. (The first was violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, who presented two Beethoven250 programs last month, one devoted to the violin sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven and the other presenting chamber music for strings.) Specifics for the full programs that Salonen has prepared are as follows:
February 20–22: Bullock will perform in both halves of the program that Salonen has prepared. The first half will feature Benjamin Britten’s Opus 18 song cycle Les Illuminations, settings of poems taken from the collection of the same name by the late nineteenth-century poet Arthur Rimbaud. Britten composed this piece for soprano and string orchestra in 1939; but it can be (and frequently is) sung by a tenor. The intermission will be followed by Maurice Ravel’s setting of three poems by Stéphane Mallarmé, which he originally composed in 1913 for piccolo, two flutes, clarinet, bass clarinet, string quartet, and piano. This will be followed by Ravel’s score for the ballet “Ma mère l’Oye” (Mother Goose). This was based on a five-movement piano duet composed in 1910. Ravel subsequently orchestrated these movements and added four interludes and two movements at the beginning for a ballet that was first performed on January 29, 1912. The program will begin with the first SFS performances of “Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary," Steven Stucky’s reflection on music that Henry Purcell originally composed for the funeral of Queen Mary II of England.
This program will be given three performances, all of which will take place at 8 p.m. on Thursday, February 20, Friday, February 21, and Saturday, February 22. The Inside Music talk will be given by Laura Prichard one hour prior to each concert. Ticket prices range from $20 to $160, 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 “Ma mère l’Oye” 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.
February 27–29: This will be the second of the two Beethoven250 programs for the month of February, which were announced on this site at the end of last month. That announcement provided the necessary information about ticketing. It also gave the details for the Katherine Hanrahan Open Rehearsal that would precede the first performance.
Bullock’s residency will also see her curating two SoundBox programs. The first of these will be given two performances at 9 p.m. on Friday, April 24, and Saturday, April 25, respectively. Bullock has prepared a program of vocal music that will reach all the way back to Hildegard of Bingen and all the way into the immediate present. [2/25, 1:31 pm.: This program has been moved to next season, with further details released later this year: The second, which will be entitled History’s Persistent Voice, will be given only one performance, this time at 8 p.m., on June 19. This program will consist entirely of music by women composers, and it will also consist entirely of premiere performances. The first four selections were all written on SFS commissions and will be given world premieres. The remaining three will be receiving their West Coast premieres.]
SoundBox has a special entrance to Davies, located on Franklin Street at the northeast corner of Hayes Street. As of this writing, the only tickets that may be purchased are those covered by the $400 Producer Pass. This enables early entrance 30 minutes prior to when the doors open for the general audience, two complimentary drinks at the Producer’s Bar, credits projected before the show begins, early access to the remaining two Soundbox programs, and a tax deduction of $250. Hyperlinks for purchasing Producer Passes for the April programs are attached to the above dates. An event page for History’s Persistent Voice has not yet been created.
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