San Francisco Symphony Program Update: Salonen/Wang

Esa-Pekka Salonen

Photo by Minna Hatinen, courtesy of San Francisco Symphony

I have no idea what the motivation for this program update is. For the February 13-16, 2025 programs, Yuja Wang was originally going to be the soloist for these works by Igor Stravinsky:

• Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
• Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra
• Movements for Piano and Orchestra 

A press release today from SFS says that instead, she'll be playing the following:

• Ravel, Piano Concerto for the Left Hand 
• Rautavaara, Piano Concerto No. 1

Works by Debussy complete the program and those are unchanged.

 

SF Symphony Program Change, May, 2025

Davies Symphony Hall

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

There's a change to Giancarlo Guerrero's May, 2025 concerts at SFS. Gabriel Kahane's Talent & Phoenix, a San Francisco Symphony commission, has been postponed to a future date, presumably in a future season. Instead, we'll hear the 1947 version of Stravinsky's Petrushka. Still on the program: Kaija Saariaho's Asteroid 4179: Toutatis and Ottorino Respighi’s Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome. (This was going to be, and to some extent still is, one of the weirder programs this season. Yeah, people who are really into new music, like the Saariaho and Kahane, are definitely big fans of Fountains and Pines.)

 

Berlioz IN, Brahms OUT

From San Francisco Symphony:

SAN FRANCISCO, March 4, 2016 –The San Francisco Symphony (SFS) announced today that mezzo-soprano Susan Graham will sing Berlioz’s La mort de Cléopâtre with the Orchestra, in place of the previously announced Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody, in concerts in Davies Symphony Hall May 19-22. The program now also includes Schubert’s Nachtgesang im Walde,featuring the men of the SFS Chorus.

“After Susan’s stunning appearance as Didon in Les Troyens at SF Opera, I wanted to provide an opportunity for San Francisco Symphony audiences to experience her unique and powerful interpretation of Berlioz’s music,” said Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas.  “For me, Susan has no equal when it comes to his music.” As originally announced, the remainder of the program includes Brahms’sVariations of a Theme by Haydn and Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 in D minor.

Web page & ticket purchase for the program.