December is the month when the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) presents a diverse assortment of programs to appeal to an extensive audience base. As a result, the opportunities afforded by Davies Symphony Hall for “concert programming” are extremely limited, to the extent that, in the past, the only offering discussed on this site has been the annual performance of George Frideric Handel’s HWV 56 oratorio, better known by its title, Messiah. Festivities get under way with an annual “pops” concert entitled Deck the Hall, which is usually overlooked on this site. This year, however, that program will include music by one of the more active of 21st-century composers as part of its eclectic mix; and the presence of that composer justifies providing a more detailed account of the program. As a result, the events likely to be of interest are as follows:
Sunday, December 4, 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.: Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser will conduct the SFS; but, for the most part, his leadership will involve limited “pops” offerings. These will include the “Russian Dance” movement from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 71a suite of numbers extracted from his Opus 71 ballet The Nutcracker. The program will also include the “Chocolate” dance, which was not one of the suite movements. Performers will include students from the San Francisco Ballet Trainee Program, who may perform during these Tchaikovsky selections. SFS will also launch the entire performance with Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride.” Vocal offerings will be performed by both the Young Women’s Choral Projects of San Francisco and the San Francisco Boys Chorus. There will also be performances by the Kugelplex Klezmer ensemble, the Punjabi Dohirhythms Dance Company, and the low-comedy pantomime production of Sleeping Beauty being performed in its entirety in the Presidio. The program will conclude with “Take What You Need,” which Reena Esmail composed for the Urban Voices Project in 2016.
Conductor Masaaki Suzuki (photograph by Marco Borggreve, courtesy of SFS)
Friday, December 9, and Saturday, December 10, 7:30 p.m.: Handel’s oratorio will be conducted by Masaaki Suzuki, who, according to my records, was last seen in Davies in December of 2017, when he led the Davies debut performance of the Bach Collegium Japan for a Great Performers concert; SFS and the SFS Chorus will be joined by soloists Lauren Snouffer (soprano), Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen (countertenor), Leif Aruhn-Solén (tenor), and Jonathan Adams (baritone). [added 11/9, 8:15 a.m.:
Sunday, December 11, 2 p.m.: Some details have now been released with regard to the annual holiday performance by the SFS Youth Orchestra led by Wattis Foundation Music Director Daniel Stewart. Traditionally, this features a performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf;” and this year the narrator will be W. Kamau Bell. There will again be selections from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 71a suite; and the “overture” for the occasion will be Leroy Anderson's “A Christmas Festival.” The remainder of the program will involve the audience in a holiday sing-along.] [added 12/6, 1:20 p.m.:
Tuesday, December 20, 7:30 p.m.: Details have now been released for the Holiday Brass program. This will be performed by members of the SFS Brass and Percussion sections. Some readers may recall that they contributed to the National Brass Ensemble (NBE) concert, which took place in Davies this past June under the baton of Eun Sun Kim, Music Director of the San Francisco Opera. The program will include arrangements by trombonist Tim Higgins of three of the selections from Giovanni Gabrieli’s Sacrae Symphoniae, which can be found on the only NBE album released thus far. In fact, only one selection on the program does not involve an arranger, “The Toy Maker” by Anthony DiLorenzo. Higgins will also provide arrangements of excerpts from Sergei Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé suite and Duke Ellington’s jazzy arrangement of the suite from Tchaikovsky’s Opus 71 ballet The Nutcracker. The opening will be an arrangement of Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture;” and Ralph Vaughan Williams will be represented with a movement from his Hodie cantata. Other sacred selections will be complemented by an arrangement of “The Christmas Song,” which was originally composed by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé. That arrangement will include a vocal performance by Sharon Rietkerk.]
Ticket prices range from $10 to $165. The hyperlinks attached to the above dates may be used for online purchase. Tickets may also be purchased by calling 415-864-6000 or by visiting the Box Office in Davies Symphony Hall, whose entrance is on the south side of Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street. The Box Office is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday.
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