Pianist András Schiff (courtesy of SFP)
As of this writing, the cancellation of public performances at the San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus (coronavirus) will last through Friday, March 20. That means that we have reason to hope that pianist András Schiff will be able to make his annual visit to San Francisco, since his recital is scheduled for the following week. This year his appearance will be presented exclusively by San Francisco Performances (SFP) and promises to be a high point of the celebration of its 40th Anniversary Season.
As might be guessed, however, Schiff has prepared a program with another anniversary in mind. Some readers may recall that, beginning in October of 2007, Schiff began a two-season project to play all of the sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven in Davies Symphony Hall. This time he will celebrate the year of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth with a single program. That program consists of four piano sonatas that happen to be consecutive according to both the usual numerical ordering and the opus number ordering. (Those orderings do not always align with the chronological order of the date of composition; but all four of these sonatas were composed in the same year, 1801.)
The program will begin with Opus 26 (twelfth) in A-flat major, known for its “Funeral March” movement. This will be followed by the two Opus 27 sonatas, both identified as “Sonata quasi una Fantasia.” The first of these (thirteenth) is in E-flat major; and the second (fourteenth) is the “Moonlight” sonata in C-sharp minor. The program will then conclude with Opus 28 (fifteenth) in D major, sometimes known as the “Pastoral.” This will be the third of the four concerts being presented in the 2019–2020 Shenson Piano Series presented by SFP.
This performance will take place in Herbst Theatre at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 26. Herbst Theatre is located on the first two floors of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue, convenient to public transportation on both Van Ness Avenue and McAllister Street. Ticket prices will be $90 for premium seating on the Orchestra level and in the front of the Dress Circle, $75 for the Boxes, the remainder of the Orchestra, and the remainder of the center Dress Circle, and $55 for the Balcony and the remainder of the Dress Circle. Tickets may be purchased in advance online through an SFP event page.
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