For the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) the new year will get off to a rather busy start. In addition to the usual weekly Orchestral Series concerts, the annual Shenson Spotlight Series of recitals will begin next month; and there will be three “off-site” chamber music concerts. As in the past, I prefer to deal with the individual events in chronological order. Most of them will take place in Davies Symphony Hall; and, as in the past, each of the dates will be provided with a hyperlink to facilitate ticket purchases. Tickets may also be purchased at the Box Office, which is at the entrance to Davies on the south side of Grove Street, between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street.
Tuesday, January 13, 5:30 p.m., San Francisco Public Library Bernal Heights Branch: That said, the month will begin with the first Community Chamber Concert. The program has not yet been finalized. However, the performers will be a violinist (Jessie Fellows), a violist (Katie Kadarauch), and a cellist (Anne Richardson); and they may perform in different combinations over the course of the performance. Following the performance, the audience will be encouraged to remain for a Q&A with the musicians.
Thursday, January 15, Friday, January 16, and Saturday, January 17, 7:30 p.m.: Edward Gardner will return to the Davies podium as the first conductor in the new year, and violinist Randall Goosby will return as the first concerto soloist of the new year. His selection will be Max Bruch’s Opus 26 (first) violin concerto in G minor. Director Jenny Wong will prepare the SFS Chorus for the conclusion of the final selection on the program, Gustav Holst’s suite The Planets. The program will begin with music by a fellow Englishman, Ralph Vaughan Williams. The overture he composed for a production of Aristophanes’ The Wasps will receive its first SFS performance.
Sunday, January 18, 2 p.m., Legion of Honor: This will be the first chamber music recital curated by Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik, performing on the 1742 Guarneri del Gesù violin. He will be joined by Peter Wyrick on cello and pianist Anton Nel. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Johannes Brahms’ first piano trio, his Opus 8 in B major. The trio will begin with Franz Schubert’s D. 897 “Notturno” in E-flat major. Barantschik will then play Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 378 violin sonata in B-flat major, accompanied by Nel.
Sunday, January 18, 3 p.m.: The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra will host the Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival. The other participating ensembles will be the California Youth Symphony, the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra, and the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra. In this annual concert, each participating ensemble will perform a selection, after which they will all join forces to conclude the program. Selections will include overtures by Giuseppe Verdi (Nabuco) and Johannes Brahms (“Academic Festival”) and movements selected from three symphonies by, respectively, Antonín Dvořák (Opus 88, the eighth in G major), Sergei Prokofiev (Opus 100, the fifth, in B-flat major), and Dmitri Shostakovich (Opus 93, the tenth in E minor). There will also be two single-movement selections, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” by Paul Dukas and the “Pinkillo Serrano” movement from Gabriela Lena Frank’s “Apu: Tone Poem for Orchestra.”
Wednesday, January 21, 7:30 p.m.: The Shenson Spotlight Series will begin with a solo piano recital by Jaeden Izik-Dzurko. He has framed his program with two Russian composers, who will appear in chronological order. He will begin with Alexander Scriabin’s Opus 28 “Fantasy,” composed in the key of B minor. He will conclude with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Opus 23 collection of ten preludes. The “keystone” for the program will be César Franck’s “Prélude, Choral et Fugue.”
Thursday, January 22, Friday, January 23, and Saturday, January 24, 7:30 p.m.: Finnish conductor John Storgårds will make his debut in the SFS Orchestral Series. The “overture” for the program will be by a “fellow Finn.” “The Rapids of Life,” composed by Outi Tarkiainen, will receive its United States premiere. It will be followed by a more familiar piano concerto, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 35, scored for piano, trumpet, and string orchestra. The piano soloist will be Seong-Jin Cho, and the trumpet part will be performed by SFS Principal Trumpet Mark Inouye. The intermission will be followed by an even more familiar symphony: Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 67 in C minor, often known just as “the fifth.”
Sunday, January 25, 2 p.m., San Francisco Public Library Western Addition Branch: The program has not yet been finalized for the second Community Chamber Concert of the month; but it will be a trio performance involving two violinists (Yvette Kraft and Kingston Ho) and a violist (Leonid Plashinov-Johnson).
Pianist Emanuel Ax (photograph by Nigel Parry, courtesy of SFS)
Thursday, January 29, Friday, January 30, Saturday, January 31, 7:30 p.m.: Pianist Emanuel Ax will return to Davies as concerto soloist. He will perform Mozart’s K. 503 (25th) piano concerto in C major under the baton of Jaap van Zweden. The intermission will be followed by Anton Bruckner’s WAB 107, his seventh symphony in E major.
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