SFS: Remainder of October, 2022

At the beginning of this month, this site reported on the first four programs of the 2022–23 Season of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS), all conducted by Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen. That covered performances take place up to and including Saturday, October 15. The remainder of the month will be more diverse. Salonen will conduct two more programs. In addition, the remainder of October will see the first concert in the Great Performers Series and the first program in the SFS Chamber Music Series will be performed. Specifics are as follows:

Sunday, October 16, 7:30 p.m.: As was recently announced, the Great Performers Series will begin with a visit by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason will appear as guest soloist, performing Edward Elgar’s cello concerto. The program will be framed by music inspired by the sea, beginning with the four “Sea Interludes” that Benjamin Britten composed for his Peter Grimes opera and concluding with Claude Debussy’s “La Mer.” The Debussy selection will be preceded by a symphony composed by Thomas Adès based on thematic material from his opera The Exterminating Angel.

Thursday, October 20, and Saturday, October 22, 7:30 p.m.: Salonen has prepared a “pre-Halloween” program of “spooky spirits.” The visiting soloist will be pianist Bertrand Chamayou, performing Franz Liszt’s “Totentanz” (dance of the dead). The “overture” to precede this “concerto” will be Modest Mussorgsky’s depiction of a Witches’ Sabbath, “Night on Bald Mountain.” The symphony to conclude the program will be, appropriately enough, Hector Berlioz’ “Symphonie fantastique.”

These performances will be preceded by the first Katherine Hanrahan Open Rehearsal. As usual, this special behind-the-scenes experience will precede the first performance. It will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, October 20, with coffee and complimentary doughnuts, followed by a half-hour introductory talk. The rehearsal itself begins at 10 a.m.; and, of course, the pieces rehearsed are at the conductor’s discretion.

Sunday, October 23, 2 p.m.: As was the case last year, October will also see the launch of the Chamber Music Series through which SFS musicians and their colleagues have an opportunity to explore the diverse aspects of the chamber music repertoire. The program will begin with two piano trios, both by composers born in Russia. The first of them will be Anton Arensky, represented by his first trio in D minor. He will be followed by contemporary composer Lera Auerbach, whose second piano trio was given the title “Triptych: This Mirror Has Three Faces.” The program will conclude with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 522 divertimento given the title “A Musical Joke.” Mozart scored this composition for two horns and string quartet.

Thursday, October 27, Friday, October 28, and Saturday, October 29, 7:30 p.m.: Halloween itself will be preceded by the final program of the month. The most “traditional” work to be performed will be the suite that Béla Bartók extracted from the music he composed for the brutal and erotic ballet “The Miraculous Mandarin.” The program will begin with “Frankenstein!!,” composed by Heinz Karl Gruber (who prefers to be known as “HK Gruber”). The composer described this piece as “a pan-demonium for chansonnier and orchestra,” setting a parody text by H. C. Artmann (or “HC Artmann,” if you prefer). Gruber’s take on the Hollywood Frankenstein will be followed by the suite that Bernard Herrmann composed based on the music he composed for Psycho.

All of the hyperlinked dates will provide the Web pages for ticket purchases.