SFS: Featured Visiting Conductors

The brochure that was distributed through the mail by the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) a little over a week ago included the full calendar of events for the 2024–25 season. However, it also featured “highlights” to call attention to particular collections of programs. It was through those “highlights” that I compiled two of my recent articles, one featuring some (but not all) of the programs to be led by Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen and the other calling out performances featuring the SFS Chorus.

The booklet also includes a “highlight” entitled “Common Threads.” As far as I can tell, that “commonality” involves a preference for recent compositions. The other outstanding feature is that all of the programs were prepared by visiting conductors. Specifics are as follows:

October 25–26: Conductor Thomas Wilkins has prepared a program of American music from the middle of the last century. His soloist will be pianist Michelle Cann in a performance of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” Wilkins will conclude the program with an orchestral suite of music from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess opera entitled “Catfish Row.” This will be complemented at the beginning of the program with a suite taken from Leonard Bernstein’s score for the musical Candide. The remaining selection will be William Grant Still’s “Wood Notes.”

April 10–12: Marin Alsop has prepared a program entitled Music of the Americas. Note the plural in the title. The composers from the United States will be Aaron Copland (“Fanfare for the Common Man”), Joan Tower (“Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman”), and Samuel Barber (his first symphony). The program will begin with “Antrópolis” by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz. Venezuelan Gabriela Montero will then be the soloist in a performance of her own first piano concerto, given the subtitle “Latin.” Both of these works will be receiving their first SFS performances.

Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero (photograph by Lukasz Rajchert, courtesy of SFS)

May 2–3: Giancarlo Guerrero, last seen on the SFS podium a little over a year ago, will return to lead a program entitled Talent & Phoenix. This is also the title of the work that Gabriel Kahane composed on an SFS commission. It will be preceded by another premiere, the first SFS performance of Kaija Saariaho’s “Asteroid 4179: Toutatis.” The “concluding symphony” for this program will be Ottorino Respighi’s “Fountains of Rome.”

May 15–17: This season will also see the return of a conductor that last visited in April of last year. Dalia Stasevska will lead the world premiere performance of the cello concerto composed by Anna Thorvaldsdottir on an SFS commission. The cello soloist will be Johannes Moser. This will be the only work on the first half of the program. The second half will be devoted entirely to Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Symphonic Dances.”

Each of the above dates is hyperlinked to an SFS Web page through which readers can be informed about ticket prices and availability, as well as support for online purchases. There will be Open Rehearsals for two of the visiting conductors: Alsop on Thursday, April 10. and Stasevska on Thursday, May 15. These special behind-the-scenes experiences begin at 8:30 a.m. with coffee and complimentary doughnuts, followed by a half-hour introductory talk at 9 a.m. The rehearsal itself begins at 10 a.m.; and, of course, the pieces rehearsed are at the conductor’s discretion. Admission will be free for those holding tickets for one of the three concert performances. For others general admission is $45 with $55 for reserved seats in the Premiere Orchestra section, as well as all Boxes and the Loge. Tickets may be purchased online through separate event pages for April and May. All tickets may also be purchased at the Davies Symphony Hall Box Office. The entrance is on the south side of MTT Way (formerly Grove Street), located between Franklin Street and Van Ness Avenue.