SFS: 2026 All San Francisco Concert

Many readers probably know by now that the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) All San Francisco Concert provides a subsidized price for Bay Area nonprofit, social services, and grassroots organizations. This amounts to a “thank you” to the city and those citizens without which achievements, such as the construction of Davies Symphony Hall, would not have been possible. Put another way, this is an opportunity where music can tell the city to put politics aside for a couple of hours. As a reviewer, I have to say that I relish this gesture, because it always seems that the audience is genuinely attentive, making for an atmosphere far more conducive than the annual gala occasion!

That said, last night’s program had the same “framework” as the Thursday gala concert. Once again, the “overture” was John Adams’ “The Chairman Dances;” and the concluding “symphony” was Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s five-movement Opus 34, “Capriccio espagnol.” However, the “meat” in this “sandwich” was far more adventurous than yet another performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 64, his violin concerto in E minor, however engaging Hilary Hahn may have been at the gala. The intermission was followed by Gabriela Lena Frank’s mini-suite, Three Latin American Dances. While this was adventurous music, even more adventurous was the performance of a bassoon concerto concluding the first half of the program. The concerto was composed by Carl Maria von Weber in 1811, and the soloist was SFS Principal Bassoon Joshua Elmore.

I must confess to a soft spot for Weber, thanks to the music he composed for clarinet, which I came to know during my secondary school years. Elmore’s command of the concerto could not have been better, Of the four works on the program, this was the one that kept me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end! While much of the rhetoric was playful, the overall journey was as informative as it was adventurous. These days Weber is better known for his operas, but his instrumental compositions deserve more attention than they generally receive.

Where Frank is concerned, I have been writing about her since my Examiner days in 2012. That was when I was spending much of my time at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, but I also remember encountering her work through Old First Concerts. This year she finally won the Pulitzer Prize for Music, and she definitely deserved it! As might be expected, her suite was much appreciated by the percussion section; and, from my vantage point, I could enjoy the visual experience as much as the musical one.

Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero (from the SFS Web page for last night’s concert)

Revisiting the “framework” was just as engaging. Where Adams is concerned, one is always discovering coy details that had previously been overlooked. At the other end of the program, “Capriccio espagnol” was just plain fun. Once again, Giancarlo Guerrero was conducting; and his enthusiasm had not waned since his gala performance. This is music that dates all the way back to my childhood, but I never seem to tire of it!