This past Thursday San Francisco Symphony (SFS) announced a summer season that will run from early July through early August. All performances will be live, and this will be the first summer season with programming prepared by Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen. Two years ago I observed that the annual Summer with the Symphony series “has always been planned to appeal to a broader audience base that goes beyond those of us that are more disposed to take their listening seriously.” This summer, however, Salonen has limited that “broader appeal” to a single concert featuring the music of John Williams, which will be the final offering of the season. As I recall, when Tommy Carcetti became Mayor of Baltimore on The Wire, he told his constituents (and opponents), “It’s a brand new day!” That’s pretty much how I feel about the coming summer’s first six concerts, whose specifics are as follows:
The San Francisco Symphony performing at Stern Grove (courtesy of SFS)
Friday, July 2, 7 p.m. and Sunday, July 4, 2 p.m.: Ironically, the Fourth of July holiday puts this particular program on the “pops borderline.” Edwin Outwater will conduct a program that will begin with the fanfare music composed for the Olympics by Williams, and the program will conclude with a season-specific account of John Philip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Pianist Aaron Diehl will be the soloist in an account of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” that will be a “Historically Informed Performance.” Diehl and SFS will play the original scoring by Ferde Grofé given at the premiere performance by Paul Whiteman’s jazz band on February 12, 1924. Aaron Copland will be represented by the “Saturday Night Waltz” and “Hoedown” scenes from his score for the ballet “Rodeo.” In a similar vein SFS will perform the “Pavanne” movement from the second composition that Morton Gould called American Symphonette. The other excerpt on the program will be the “Cathedrals” movement from Jennifer Higdon’s suite All Things Majestic. Closer to the “immediate” present will be performances of “Reflections on a Memorial” by Quinn Mason and “The Block” by Carlos Simon. The Friday concert will take place at Davies Symphony Hall, followed by the Fourth of July concert at Stern Grove. All remaining San Francisco performances will take place at Davies.
Friday, July 9, 7 p.m.: Salonen will conduct the first of two overture-concerto-symphony programs. The concerto soloist will be Principal Clarinet Carey Bell performing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 622 concerto in A major. The symphony will be Jean Sibelius’ Opus 43 (second) in D major. The “overture” will be Otto Klemperer’s orchestration of Gottfried Heinrich Stöltze’s song “Bist du bei mir” (are you with me), frequently attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach because he included it in his Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, leading to it having been assigned the catalog number BWV 508.
Friday, July 16, 7 p.m.: The concerto soloist for Salonen’s second program will be Principal Trumpet Mark Inouye performing Joseph Haydn’s Hoboken VIIe/1 concerto in E-flat major. The symphony will be Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 90 (fourth) symphony in A major, commonly known as the “Italian.” The program will begin with Anna Clyne’s “Within Her Arms.”
Friday, July 23, 7 p.m.: Michael Morgan, Music Director of the Oakland East Bay Symphony, will begin the program with a “real” overture, composed by Gioachino Rossini for his opera La gazza ladra (the thieving magpie). This will be followed by the “Pas de Six” ballet music from another Rossini opera, William Tell. The program will then advance to the middle of the nineteenth century with a performance of Louise Farrenc’s Opus 36 (third) symphony in G minor. The program will conclude in 1923, the year in which the prodigious stride pianist James P. Johnson composed “The Charleston.” Information about the arrangement of this music for orchestra has not yet been disclosed.
Friday, July 30, 7 p.m.: This program will feature two SFS debuts, that of conductor Lina González-Granados and her cello soloist Pablo Ferrández. Ferrández will be featured in a performance of Robert Schumann’s Opus 129 concerto in A minor. [updated 7/23, 3:10 p.m.: Ferrández will not be able to perform due to visa and travel complications. The Schumann concerto will be performed by Joshua Roman.] The program will begin with the first suite that Manuel de Falla extracted from the music he composed for Léonide Massine’s two-act ballet The Three-Cornered Hat. The program will conclude with Zoltán Kodály’s “Dances of Galánta,” based on collections of Hungarian dances published in Vienna in 1800.
Friday, August 6, 7 p.m.: The final “serious” program of the season will be conducted by Xian Zhang. The concerto soloist will be pianist George Li, performing Mozart’s K. 491 concerto in C minor. This will be followed by the symphony selection, also by Mozart, his K. 543 in E-flat major. The “overture” will be “Mother and Child,” composed by William Grant Still.
The entrance to Stern Grove is on the northwest corner where 19th Avenue crosses Sloat Boulevard. In the past tickets have not been required for the performances presented there. However, this summer reservations will be required for all concerts. Reservations for the July 4 concert will be made available beginning at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, June 22. The Web site will be updated on that date for processing reservations. According to the current Web page, reservations will also be processed through Eventbrite. Those wishing further information are welcome to send electronic mail to INFO@STERNGROVE.ORG.
As is currently the case, tickets for Davies will be available online through the hyperlinks attached to the above dates beginning on this coming Friday, June 11, at 10 a.m. At that time they may also be purchased by calling the Box Office at 415-864-6000. Ticket prices range from $25 to $95. As of this writing, the Box Office Lobby will not be open for in-person ticket sales. Davies is located at 201 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of Grove Street. The main entrance (currently the only entrance) is located on the south side of Grove Street, halfway between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street.
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