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WFMT Orchestra Series

Saturdays at 7pm
SFS_BrandonPatoc_0020

San Francisco Symphony. Photo by: Brandon Patoc.

This season of the San Francisco Symphony features astounding performances from the Symphony’s long history, with performances from prestigious soloists, guest conductors, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Symphony’s newest Music Director.

Schedule
  • June 6
    Alsop Conducts Music of the Americas

    Conductor Marin Alsop guides the SF Symphony through an exhilarating journey that spans the United States, Venezuela, and Mexico. Gabriela Ortiz’s playfully seductive Antrópolis sets the stage while the Venezuelan composer and pianist Gabriela Montero performs her Piano Concerto No. 1, Latin. Paired fanfares by Aaron Copland and Joan Tower join with Samuel Barber’s primal and propulsive Symphony No. 1.

    CONDUCTOR

    Marin Alsop

    SOLOIST

    Gabriela Montero, piano*

    Gabriela Ortiz

    Antrópolis

    Gabriela Montero

    Latin Concerto

    Aaron Copland

    Fanfare for the Common Man

    Joan Tower

    Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, No. 1

    Samuel Barber

    Symphony No. 1, Opus 9

  • June 13
    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.

    CONDUCTOR

    Giancarlo Guerrero

    Kaija Saariaho

    Asteroid 4179: Toutatis

    Igor Stravinsky

    Petrushka (1947 version)

    Ottorino Respighi

    Fountains of Rome

    Ottorino Respighi

    Pines of Rome

  • June 20
    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.

    CONDUCTOR

    Esa-Pekka Salonen

    SOLOIST

    Isabelle Faust, violin*

    Magnus Lindberg

    Chorale

    Alban Berg

    Violin Concerto*

    Igor Stravinsky

    The Firebird

  • June 27
    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.

    CONDUCTOR

    Esa-Pekka Salonen

    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

  • July 4
    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!”

    CONDUCTOR

    Esa-Pekka Salonen

    SOLOIST

    Heidi Stober, soprano*; Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano*;
    SFS Chorus

    Gustav Mahler

    Symphony No. 2 in C minor*