SFS “Snapshot” Artists for the New Year

Those that paid at least moderate attention to the brochure released by the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) for its 2024–24 season known that it identified three of the visiting artists with “Snapshot” profiles. Since all of them will be visiting Davies Symphony Hall during the coming new year, this seems like a good time to recognize who they are and what they will be doing when they visit. All of them will perform at subscription concerts, and one of them will also make a recital appearance. In “order of appearance,” these visitors are as follows:

January 9–11: As was observed in yesterday’s account of January performances, violinist Ray Chen will be the soloist in the performance of Samuel Barber’s only violin concerto. He made his SFS debut as soloist for the Chinese New Year concert at the end of January of 2011. He performed Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 40, the G major (first) “Romance” for violin and orchestra. He then followed up with Pablo de Sarasate’s “Zigeunerweisen” (Gypsy Airs). He has a social media presence on the Internet with self-produced videos, which combine comedy, education, and music. These may be viewed through his YouTube home page.

January 16, 18, and 19, and March 2: Also observed yesterday will be the visit by pianist Vikingur Ólafsson for the second program of the month. He will be the soloist for the world premiere performance of John Adams’ piano concerto, “After the Fall,” which was composed on an SFS commission. He will then return in March for a duo piano recital with Yuja Wang. The program will be a diverse one with a traditional account of Franz Schubert’s D. 940 fantasia in F minor and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Opus 45 “Symphonic Dances.” On the more adventurous side, they will play Thomas Adès arrangement of Conlon Nancarrow’s sixth “study,” made with a hand-punched piano roll. Other composers on the program will include John Cage, Luciano Berio, and Arvo Pärt. Ólafsson made his SFS debut in June of 2022 as the soloist in the performance of John Adams’ “Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?”

Conductor Dalia Stasevska (photograph by Veikko Kähkönen, from an SF Classical Voice article from January 22, 2024)

May 15–17: The final “Snapshot” artist will be a conductor, Dalia Stasevska. She will lead SFS in the world premiere performance of “Before we Fall,” a cello concerto by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, composed on an SFS commission. The cellist will be Johannes Moser. This concerto will be followed by the only other work on the program, Jean Sibelius’ Opus 82, his fifth symphony in E-flat major. Stasevska made her SFS debut at the end of April of last year with an all-Sibelius program: the Opus 47 violin concerto in D minor with soloist Joshua Bell and the second symphony in D major (Opus 43).