SFS: 2022–23 Great Performers Series

Mosaic of soloists to appear in the SFS Great Performers Series (courtesy of SFS Public Relations)

As was promised at the end of this past March, the programs planned by the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) for its 2022–23 Great Performers Series have now been finalized. As usual, these performances will take place in Davies Symphony Hall. They will include both recitals by visiting artists and full concerts by visiting orchestras. For the coming season, there will be ten programs in the Series, one of which will be given two performances. Specifics for these programs, all of which will begin at 7:30 p.m., are as follows:

Sunday, October 16: Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason will appear as guest soloist with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), led by conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. The concerto selection will be Edward Elgar’s cello concerto. This will be preceded by an orchestral performance of the four “sea interludes” from Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes. The second half of the program will also begin with an “opera connection,” a symphony that Thomas Adès composed based on thematic material from his opera The Exterminating Angel. The program will then conclude with Claude Debussy’s “La Mer.”

Sunday, November 6: The second orchestra to visit Davies will be the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Lahav Shani will lead the ensemble in a program of two “first symphonies.” The first half of the program will consist entirely of the first symphony by Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim. The intermission will then be followed by Gustav Mahler’s first symphony.

Sunday, November 13: The first recitalist will be pianist Daniil Trifonov. The conclusion to his program will be the most ambitious selection, Alexander Scriabin’s Opus 53 (fifth) piano sonata, the first of his ten sonatas to be published without a key signature. This will be preceded by another challenging composition, Maurice Ravel’s suite Gaspard de la nuit. The program will begin with the 24 short pieces collected in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 39 entitled Album pour enfants (children’s album). This will be followed by Robert Schumann’s Opus 17, given the title “Fantasie” in C major. This will be paired with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 475 fantasia in C minor.

Sunday, December 11: Violinist Joshua Bell will return to Davies to give a solo recital; he has not yet provided program specifics.

Sunday, January 15: The following month will see the return of violinist Itzhak Perlman, who also has not yet finalized his program.

Sunday, January 22: Leif Ove Andsnes will be the second piano recitalist. He will begin with the piano sonata by Leoš Janáček entitled “1.X.1905,” marking the date of an uprising in Brno. This will be followed by the 1974 “Lamento” composed by Alexander Vustin. The second half of the program will begin with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 110 piano sonata in A-flat major. The program will conclude with a cycle of compositions that Antonín Dvořák called Poetic Tone Pictures.

Wednesday, March 1, and Thursday, March 2: This will be a special program given two performances at which Yuja Wang will play Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Opus 30 (third) piano concerto in D minor with SFS. Esa-Pekka Salonen will conduct a program that will also include his own “Nyx.” The opening selection will be “Tumblebird Contrails by Gabriella Smith. This will be the program that SFS will take on its European tour.

Sunday, March 12: Violinist Hilary Hahn will return to Davies to give a solo recital; she has not yet provided program specifics.

Sunday, March 26: Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet will play the complete collection of Debussy’s 24 preludes for solo piano.

Tuesday, June 27: This will be the solo recital that pianist Igor Levit will perform as part of his capacity as SFS 2022–23 Artist-in-Residence; he has not yet provided program specifics.

The above hyperlinks provide the Web pages for single-ticket purchases. There are also three subscription options. The Z Package includes all of the programs scheduled for performance, with the Wang performance on March 1. There are then two “packages,” each of which accounts for half of the programs. The A package consists of CBSO, Trifonov, Perlman, Wang on March 1, and Hahn. The B package covers the other five offerings: the Israel Philharmonic, Bell, Andsnes, Thibaudet, and Levit. Hyperlinks for purchasing tickets for all of these subscriptions have been collected on a single Web page.