Two Additional SFSymphony+ Events

Readers may recall that yesterday morning the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) released the final video-streamed SoundBox event before the beginning of the 2021–22 season. It was only after I had filed my report that I learned that SFSymphony+ had also released two additional videos. One of these is an additional program in the CURRENTS series that had not been previously announced. The other is a video recording of a performance by SFS led by Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen.

The CURRENTS program is curated by Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto, a master performer of the Japanese koto. The title of the program is ‘Niji’ 虹 (Rainbow), providing the Japanese in both the original text and English transliteration. The 26-minute program explores the intersection between Western classical music and Japanese classical music. The title composition, which concludes the program, was composed jointly by Muramoto and Ben Paderna and subsequently arranged for what might be called “SFS++” resources.

The participating SFS musicians for this performance will be clarinetist Jerome Simas, bassoonist Steven Braunstein, trumpeter Aaron Schuman, tenor trombonist Paul Welcomer, violinists Sarn Oliver and Suzanne Leon, violist David Gaudry, cellist Amos Yang, and Charles Chandler on bass. They will be joined by Muramoto on koto and Brian Mitsuhiro Wong playing shakuhachi, the end-blown bamboo flute that has both Japanese and ancient Chinese origins. There will also be a harp played by Destiny Muhammad, who curated the Resilience SoundBox concert, and Vince Delgado playing Egyptian tabla.

Muramoto will begin the performance with her own arrangement of the familiar traditional Japanese tune “Sakura” (cherry blossom). She will then be joined by Wong, this time playing bass koto, and Linda Lukas on flute. They will play the second of two “pastorals” composed by Nagasawa Katsutoshi. Muramoto and Wong will then play Chikushi Katsuko’s “Nagare” (flow) in an arrangement by Kaoru Watanabe for kotos and Western instruments. The participating SFS musicians will be oboist James Button, clarinetist Carey Bell, bassoonist Steven Dibner, Robert Ward on horn, violinists In Sun Jang and Raushan Akhmedyarova, violist David Kim, cellist Peter Wyrick, and Chandler again on bass.

The SFS performance for the second video took place this past June 24. The selection that was recorded was Robert Schumann’s Opus 97 (third) symphony in E-flat major. This piece is often known as the “Rhenish” symphony, because the composer had been inspired by a trip to the Rhineland. Some readers may recall that this concert marked the return of the full complement of brass players to Davies Symphony Hall since pandemic conditions had been imposed. When I wrote about this concert, I could not resist invoking the adjective “luscious” when the entire trombone section played the chorale of the fourth movement of this symphony!

Both of these performances, as well as the SoundBox program discussed yesterday, are being offered free of charge, as is also the case for all the other videos on the SFSymphony+ Web site.