UPCOMING PERFORMANCES
FEBRUARY 24-27, 2022
San Francisco Symphony
Creatures of Prometheus
Originally conceived as a ballet work, Ludwig van Beethoven’s The Creatures of Prometheus tells the story of two clay statues made human by a cunning Prometheus. In this imaginative multimedia performance led by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Hillary Leben’s original animated projections combine with Beethoven’s talent for colorful and dramatic storytelling to bring to life the enchanting story of Prometheus’ antics in the world of the mighty and capricious Greek gods.
MARCH 3-5, 2022
San Francisco Symphony
Salonen and Thibaudet
Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet joins Esa-Pekka Salonen and the SF Symphony in a program of myths and mysticism. Fang Man’s Song of the Flaming Phoenix, heard here in its world premiere, blends myths of different traditions in a showcase for sheng virtuoso Wu Wei. The program concludes with Alexander Scriabin’s bewitching The Poem of Ecstasy.
MARCH 10-12, 2022
San Francisco Symphony
Salonen: Stravinsky & Ogonek
Elizabeth Ogonek’s Sleep & Unremembrance translates Wisława Szymborska’s playful words into a musical patchwork of memories, images, and emotions. Then, violin star Leila Josefowicz joins the Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen to perform Igor Stravinsky’s dazzling Violin Concerto. The program concludes with an eternal favorite, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, a work so provocative that it famously incited the Parisian audience to riot at its premiere.
MARCH 25, 2022
Oakland Symphony
Martín & Beethoven
Dr. Leslie B. Dunner conducts Sphinx Competition prize winner Aaron Olguin on Andrés Martín's Bass Concerto No. 1 paired with Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.
APRIL 2, 2022
San Francisco Contemporary Music Players
At The Crossroads: Drama and Poetry
Gubaidulina, Regucera & Norris
At the high-water mark of our 51st season, we take a collective look in the mirror with a set of generational responses from across the globe to the poetry and drama of existence. Celebrating her 90th birthday, Eastern European master Sofia Gubaidulina is a luminary among the first generation of female composers to have risen to international prominence, with a music hailed for its unflagging dramatic and emotional intensity. Two of her works anchor the first concert in an exploration of the existential, while the winning composer of our annual SF Search for Scores responds to the theme. Continuing the emphasis on the emotional and dramatic, the searing intensity and athleticism of Amadeus Regucera’s musical language comes to life in a newly-commissioned work of instrumental theater, calling upon the poetry of Filipino writer José Garcia Villa as inspiration and composed with the individual personas and dramatic capabilities of our Contemporary Players musicians in mind.
APRIL 7-9, 2022
San Francisco Symphony
Guerrero Conducts Corigliano and Piazzolla
Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero makes his SF Symphony debut with a program of Symphony premieres highlighting some of the most captivating 20th and 21st century music from the Americas. Works by Adolphus Hailstork, Antonio Estévez, and Astor Piazzolla paint vivid scenes of a bustling Virginia port, rolling Venezuelan countryside, and raucous Argentine tango club. Timothy McAllister, one of the greatest classical saxophonists of his generation, takes center stage for John Corigliano’s Saxophone Concerto, an SF Symphony commission and world premiere.
APRIL 21-24, 2022
San Francisco Symphony
Dudamel Conducts Mahler 5
Gustavo Dudamel leads the SF Symphony in a program that balances Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s dramatic Symphony No. 38, Prague and Gustav Mahler’s masterful Fifth Symphony. Opening with a lone trumpet call that devolves into a most unusual funeral dirge, Mahler’s monumental work winds its way through frenetic bursts of energy, bucolic scenes, a yearning and gorgeous slow movement, and, finally, the jubilant and triumphant finale—a fitting culmination for one of the composer’s most beloved works.
APRIL 30, 2022
Camellia Symphony Orchestra
Ginastera Harp Concerto
Meredith joins Christian Baldini and the Camellia Symphony Orchestra for the Ginastera Harp Concerto. The rhythmic and dramatic harp concerto will be performed alongside Ginastera's Estancia suite and Schumann Symphony No. 4.
MAY 6-7, 2022
Modesto Symphony Orchestra
Wijeratne & Tchaikovsky
Conductor Paul Haas breaks new ground with Dinuk Wijeratne’s Concerto for Tabla, a piece that highlights the “king” of Indian percussion instruments—known for the richness of its timbre and rhythmically complex repertoire unique to the instrument itself. This concerto will be performed by Guggenheim Fellow, Silk Road Ensemble member and Grammy-winner, Sandeep Das! This driving concerto leads to the emotional finale of Tchaikovsky’s fate-filled Fourth Symphony.
MAY 13-15, 2022
San Francisco Symphony
Karina Canellakis & Alisa Weilerstein
Conductor Karina Canellakis leads the SF Symphony and cellist Alisa Weilerstein in a concert featuring Richard Strauss’ stunning Don Quixote for solo cello and orchestra. One moment brilliant and triumphant, the next farcical, sometimes sad, the music paints a nuanced portrait of Cervantes’ complicated and compelling title character. The program also features Lili Boulanger’s D’un soir triste, a brooding work she wrote shortly before her death at age 24, and Witold Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra, brimming with folk-inspired melodies and sweeping musical gestures.
MAY 20, 2022
Oakland Symphony
Season Finale with Leonard Slatkin
Leonard Slatkin conducts the Season Finale of the Oakland Symphony. Joining with the Oakland Symphony Chorus, the program will include Cindy McTee's Circuits, Alan Hovhaness' Symphony No. 2 "Mysterious Mountain," and Michael Tippett's A Child of Our Time.
MAY 26-28, 2022
San Francisco Symphony
Stutzmann Conducts Tchaikovsky 6
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, nicknamed Pathétique to describe the emotional turmoil evoked by its lush orchestral writing, anchors this program led by conductor Nathalie Stutzmann. Listen as the music twists its way through moments of touching tenderness and overwhelming passion before arriving at a deeply introspective final movement that has floored audiences since the work’s premiere in 1893. The program opens with three choral works by Johannes Brahms inspired by Classical mythology and featuring the SF Symphony Chorus.
JUNE 2-5, 2022
San Francisco Symphony
Daniil Trifonov Plays Bates
When Mason Bates composed his Piano Concerto, he repeated a simple mantra to himself: Let the soloist shine. Bates could not have chosen a better partner for this SF Symphony Co-Commission and West Coast Premiere than the astoundingly dexterous pianist Daniil Trifonov. Led by Ruth Reinhardt in her SF Symphony debut, the program also includes Lotta Wennäkoski’s Helsinki Variations and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 5, a work beloved for its natural warmth, singing melodies, and beautiful pastoral scenes.
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