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San Francisco Symphony - June Highlights

6/3: Salonen Conducts Nico Muhly
Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s Baroque-inspired Piano Concerto, performed by Alexandre Tharaud. Also on the program: Paul Hindemith’s raucous Ragtime, based on a theme by J.S. Bach; Edward Elgar’s inventive transcription of Bach’s Fantasia & Fugue in C minor; and Hindemith’s Symphony Mathis der Maler.

Paul Hindemith:          Ragtime, from Suite 1922, Opus 26
Nico Muhly:                Piano Concerto*
Johann Sebastian Bach
(arr. Edward Elgar):    Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 537
Paul Hindemith:          Mathis der Maler

6/10: Salonen Conducts Brahms 4
Sayaka Shoji takes on Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1, a work that revels in dusky enchantments, diabolical dances, and frisky folk tunes. Brahms’s fourth and final symphony, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, draws on a lifetime of experience and immersive study.

Shostakovich:              Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Opus 77(99)*
Johannes Brahms:       Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Opus 98

6/17: Salonen Conducts Beethoven’s Pastoral
Principal Cello Rainer Eudeikis takes center stage in Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Cello Concerto conducted by the composer. Bookending the concerto are two works inspired by the natural world: Beethoven’s unapologetically pictorial Sixth Symphony and Debussy’s swelling, sparkling oceanic triptych La Mer.

Ludwig van
Beethoven:                  Symphony No. 6 in F major, Opus 68, Pastoral
Esa-Pekka Salonen:    Cello Concerto*
Claude Debussy:         La Mer

6/24: Enigma Variations
Conrad Tao stars in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, a work the composer valued above all his other piano compositions. Under the baton of Nicholas Collon, the program opens with Thomas Adès’s Three-piece Suite from his cheeky chamber opera, Powder Her Face. Edward Elgar’s famed Enigma Variations closes the program with an assortment of melodies depicting his friends.

Thomas Adès:             Three-Piece Suite from Powder Her Face
Pyotr Ilyich
Tchaikovsky:               Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Opus 23*
Edward Elgar:             Enigma Variations, Opus 36