8/5: Guerrero Conducts Pines of Rome
Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero brings out all the Technicolor glory of Ottorino Respighi’s vivid Roman postcards, Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome. Stravinsky’s ballet Petrushka is equally dramatic, placing us amid the hurly-burly of a Russian carnival where a trio of magical puppets comes to life. Kicking off the concert is Kaija Saariaho’s astronomical Asteroid 4179: Toutatis.
Kaija Saariaho: Asteroid 4179: Toutatis
Igor Stravinsky: Petrushka (1947 version)
Ottorino Respighi: Fountains of Rome
Ottorino Respighi: Pines of Rome
8/12: Salonen Conducts The Firebird
Igor Stravinsky’s wild Russian folk-fable of a ballet The Firebird, retains the power to shock and enthrall into its second century. Kicking off this program conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen is Magnus Lindberg’s 2002 Bach-inspired piece Chorale. Alban Berg’s famed Violin Concerto—played here by Isabelle Faust— functions both as an elegy for a surrogate daughter who died too soon, and as a requiem for himself.
Magnus Lindberg: Chorale
Alban Berg: Violin Concerto*
Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird
8/19: Salonen Conducts Sibelius 7
Bookended by two spectacular Richard Strauss tone poems, Esa-Pekka Salonen leads Rewilding, the SF Symphony’s first commission from Gabriella Smith, reflecting her passion for conservation and ecological reform. Jean Sibelius’s final symphony, the Seventh, distills symphonic form to its bare essentials.
Richard Strauss: Don Juan, Opus 20
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 7 in C major, Opus 105
Gabriella Smith: Rewilding
Richard Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, Opus 28
8/26: Salonen Conducts Mahler 2
In his final program as San Francisco Symphony Music Director, Esa-Pekka Salonen leads Mahler’s Second Symphony—a San Francisco Symphony staple. Reinforcing its theme of spiritual transcendence, Mahler wrote his own text for the finale: “Rise again . . . What you have conquered, will bear you to God!"
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C minor*