Once again, next month in Davies Symphony Hall will see three Orchestral Series Concerts presented by the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) and the first Sunday afternoon chamber music recital. In addition, the month will begin with the annual Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration, and there will be a performance by the SFS Youth Orchestra on the last Sunday of the month. Specifics are as follows, ordered by date with hyperlinks to the SFS event pages:
Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor of the annual Día de los Muertos concert (photograph by Benjamin Ealovega, courtesy of SFS)
Saturday, November 2, 1:30 p.m.: As usual, Día de los Muertos will be celebrated with an afternoon of festivities in the lobby, followed by a concert, and concluding with a dinner. Carlos Miguel Prieto will conduct SFS, and the performance will also include trumpeter Pacho Flores, Héctor Molina on cuatro, and the Casa Círculo Cultural ensemble. As is often (always?) the case, the program will include a performance of José Pablo Moncayo’s “Huapango.” In addition, Gabriela Ortiz’ “Antrópolis” will be given its first SFS performance. The opening selection will be Carlos Chávez’ second symphony, given the title “Sinfonía india,” which will be followed by the “Concerto Venezolano” by Paquito D’Rivera.
Thursday, November 7, Friday, November 8, and Saturday, November 9, 7:30 p.m.: The first SFS Orchestral Series program of the month will be directed by Nicholas Collon, who will be making his Orchestral Series debut. The soloist will be pianist Conrad Tao, performing Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 23 (first) concerto for piano and orchestra in B-flat minor. The “overture” for the program will be Three-piece Suite by Thomas Adès, consisting of excepts extracted from his Powder Her Face chamber opera. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Edward Elgar’s Opus 36, entitled “Variations on an Original Theme” but better known as “Enigma Variations.”
Sunday, November 10, 2 p.m.: The first Chamber Music at Davies Symphony Hall program will involve some imaginative diversity. The entire program will be framed by two sets of variations. The first will be Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 988 (“Goldberg”) set of variations in an arrangement for string trio. The conclusion will be Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 265 set of variations on “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman” (better known in this country as “Twinkle, twinkle, little star”); and the instrumentation for the performance has not yet been announced. These “classical” offerings will frame two twentieth-century compositions. The first of these is “Till Eulenspiegel einmal anders!” which, in contemporary jargon, could be translated as “Till Eulenspiegel, one more time!” This is a deconstruction of Richard Strauss Opus 28 tone poem “Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks” composed by Franz Hasenöhrl (whose last name translates to “little rabbit ears”). This German offering will be complemented by Maurice Ravel’s “Introduction and Allegro,” which he scored for harp, flute, clarinet, and string quartet.
Friday, November 15, and Saturday, November 16, 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, November 17, 2 p.m.: The second half of this program will be devoted entirely to Gabriel Fauré’s Opus 48 setting of selections from the texts for a Requiem service. Jenny Wong will prepare the SFS Chorus; and the vocal soloists will be soprano Liv Redpath, making her Orchestral Series debut, and baritone Michael Sumuel. During the first half, pianist Hélène Grimaud will couple Maurice Ravel’s piano concerto in G major to the Fauré’s sacred selection. The program will begin with the United States premiere of Dai Fujikura’s “Entwine.”
Thursday, November 21, 2 p.m., Friday, November 22, and Saturday, November 23, 7:30 p.m.: Bernard Labadie will return to conduct an all-Mozart program. The soloist will be soprano Lucy Crowe, making her Orchestral Series debut. She will sing an aria from the K. 344 unfinished opera Zaide, along with three art songs, two of which will be receiving their first SFS performances. The instrumental selections will be the overture to the K. 621 opera La clemenza di Tito, the K. 477 “Maurerische Trauermusik,” and K. 543, the 39th symphony composed in the key of E-flat major.
Sunday, November 24, 2 p.m.: The first program to be presented by the SFS Youth Orchestra (SFSYO) will feature the winner of the SFSYO Concerto Competition. “Cyber Bird Concerto” is a concerto for saxophone and orchestra composed by Takashi Yoshimatsu. The soloist will be saxophonist Harry Jo. Radu Paponiu will conduct the program, which will begin with the overture to Leonard Bernstein’s Candide and conclude with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 36, his fourth symphony in the “fate-inspired” key of F minor.
All programs will take place in Davies Symphony Hall, which is located at 201 Van Ness Avenue and fills an entire city block. The other boundaries are Grove Street (north), Hayes Street (south), and Franklin Street (west). The main entrance (which is also the entrance to the Box Office) is on Grove Street, roughly halfway down the block. Each of the above hyperlinks will provide concert ticket prices for the respective programs. Tickets may be purchased online or by calling 415-503-5351. In addition, the Box Office in the Davies lobby is open for selling tickets.
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