SFS Summer: Three Classical Programs at Davies

As usual, the conclusion of the 2022–23 subscription season of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) will be quickly followed by Summer with the Symphony programming. Once again, the classical repertoire is given only a few programs. Last year there were four of them in Davies Symphony Hall; and this year there will be only three, all beginning at 7:30 p.m. and each lead by a different conductor. Specifics (with hyperlinks for purchasing tickets) are as follows:

Thursday, July 6: The first program will see the return of Joshua Weilerstein to the SFS podium. His program will follow the familiar overture-concerto-symphony format. The concerto soloist will be violinist Alexei Kenney performing Jean Sibelius’ violin concerto. The overture will be Pavel Haas’ “Study for Strings,” which will mark its first SFS performance. The symphony will be Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 95 in E minor, best known as the “New World Symphony.”

Conductor Anna Rakitina (courtesy of SFS)

Thursday, July 13: This will be the SFS debut of Anna Rakitina, currently Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The concerto soloist will be pianist Denis Kozhukhin, who made his SFS debut back in March of 2014. He will play Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Opus 18, his second piano concerto composed in the key of C minor. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Edward Elgar’s Opus 36, best known as the “Enigma Variations.”

Saturday, July 22: Edwin Outwater will return to the SFS podium with a program entitled The Golden Age of Cinema. He will present the first SFS performance of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s cello concerto in C major, which found its way into the soundtrack for Deception. Bernard Herrmann will be represented by music he composed for two films by Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho and Vertigo. (In both cases Herrmann composed his own suites.) Other films to be represented on the program will be The Magnificent Seven (Elmer Bernstein), On the Waterfront (Leonard Bernstein), Ben-Hur (Miklós Rózsa), and a “pairing” of Jaws and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (John Williams).