S.F. Symphony shows off Mahler before setting off on road trip
San Francisco Symphony audiences are about to get a taste of what music director Michael Tilson Thomas and the orchestra will be taking on the road for the symphony’s upcoming California tour.
In concerts today through Sunday in Davies Symphony Hall, the conductor will lead four performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. The program also includes Berg’s Violin Concerto, with violinist Gil Shaham as soloist.
Following the Davies Hall dates, Tilson Thomas, Shaham and the orchestra depart for Southern California, with tour stops in Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall on Tuesday, Santa Barbara’s Granada Theatre on Wednesday and the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa on March 29.
Mahler’s Fifth Symphony is a work Tilson Thomas has conducted many times and one he recorded with the orchestra and released in 2006 as part of the symphony’s multiyear, Grammy Award-winning Mahler recording project.
It’s a massive undertaking for any orchestra — a score that more than a few conductors have likened to climbing Mount Everest — and Tilson Thomas traverses its hourlong running time with consummate mastery. I can’t wait to hear him embark on its journey again.
Completing the program is Berg’s Violin Concerto. With Shaham as soloist, these performances promise something truly memorable. Shaham’s musical insight and unerring tone make him the ideal partner for this challenging score, Berg’s most frequently performed instrumental piece and the last work he completed.
These performances of Berg’s concerto will be recorded live in Davies Hall for future release on the SFS Media label. The recording also will include the symphony’s previously recorded performance of Berg’s “Three Pieces for Orchestra” and “Seven
Early Songs,” which Tilson Thomas and the orchestra plan to record in live performances in November with soprano Susanna Phillips as part of the symphony’s 2018-19 season.
DETAILS >> 8 p.m. today through Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; $15-$159; 415-864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org.
FIRST CHOICE FOR OAKLAND >> Composer, pianist, emcee and educator Kev Choice is the guest for this weekend’s Oakland Symphony concert. Titled “Rooted in Oakland,” the program features the world premiere of Choice’s “Soul Restoration Suite,” a new piano concerto commissioned by the symphony and featuring the composer, multiple instrumentalists and the Concert Choir of the Oakland School of the Arts, where Choice is a teacher and mentor.
Choice, who has worked with artists including Lauryn Hill and Michael Franti, says the concerto is about “revival, rejuvenation, re-establishment and transformation.” Led by music director Michael Morgan, the program also includes Rossini’s Overture to “The Barber of Seville,” with the Oakland Symphony’s middle school orchestra, MUSE Vivo; George Frederick Bristow’s Overture to “Rip van Winkle” and Schubert’s Symphony No. 5.
DETAILS >> 8 p.m. Friday; Paramount Theatre, Oakland; $25-$90; 510-4440802, www.oaklandsymphony.org.
A BIG WEEKEND >> Talk about ambitious — the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players has four concerts in two days on the schedule this weekend. Celebrating the 85th anniversary of the birth of composer Pauline Oliveros and marking Steven Schick’s final season as the organization’s artistic director, the concerts will feature music by Oliveros, Morton Feldman, Luciano Berio and Galina Ustvolskaya. New works by Xavier Beteta and Carolyn Chen are on the schedule, and composer percussionist S chick, in his seventh and final season as artistic director, will give a special solo percussion concert featuring a premiere by Celeste Oram.
DETAILS >> Friday-Saturday; Z Space, San Francisco; single concert tickets $14-$25, weekend passes $38-$65, all events free for subscribers and 20 percent off for SFCMP members; www.zspace.org.
HOPE FOR NEW CENTURY >> British violinist Daniel Hope, who has been the New Century Chamber Orchestra’s artistic partner since 2016, has been named the conductorless ensemble’s new music director.
The appointment, which officially begins at the start of the 2018-19 season, will run five years, through 2022-23, while New Century continues to search for a permanent music director. With the appointment, Hope, a virtuoso soloist who also directs other ensembles as concertmaster, becomes New Century’s fourth music director, following Stuart Canin (1992-99), Krista Bennion Feeney (1999-2006) and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg (2008-17).
In a statement, Hope said he was delighted with the appointment: “The connection I felt with each and every member of this fine orchestra was immediate from the first moment we played together,” he said.