Top guest conductors grace S.F. Symphony podium
The San Francisco Symphony has three guest conductors set to lead three diverse programs in Davies Symphony Hall this month.
This week, Jaap van Zweden, the lauded music director of the New York Philharmonic, returns to the symphony to conduct Bruckner’s Symphony No. 5 and Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto; San Francisco Symphony principal clarinetist Carey Bell is the soloist.
Van Zweden, who became the New York Philharmonic’s music director in September, will be new to many Bay Area music lovers. His only previous San Francisco Symphony appearance was in February 2014, when he conducted a program of Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Sibelius. Before his appointment in New York, van Zweden was music director of the Dallas Symphony; in 2008, shortly after his appointment in Dallas, he brought that orchestra to Napa’s Festival del Sole to perform an allMahler program.
Van Zweden continued as music director in Dallas from 2008 until he joined the New York Philharmonic, succeeding Alan Gilbert. A native of Amsterdam, Van Zweden began his career as a violinist; he studied with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School and joined the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as concertmaster at age 19. That’s where he began conducting — and the rest is music history.
Van Zweden starts a month that includes appearances by two additional conductors. Christian Reif, currently in his final season as San Francisco Symphony’s resident conductor and music director of the Youth Orchestra, leads the symphony in a program that features Lutoslawski’s Cello Concerto, with Johannes Moser as soloist. These mark the symphony’s first performances of the concerto, and Reif and Moser should make it an exciting experience. The program also includes Richard Strauss’ “Don Juan” and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major.
During his tenure in San Francisco, Reif has established a strong profile. A new music advocate, he’s curated interesting programs in the symphony’s SoundBox venue, and he scored a triumph last month in New York conducting a new, streamlined version of John Adams and Peter Sellars’ Nativity oratorio, “El Niño,” with Reif’s wife, Julia Bullock, as the soprano soloist.
The third in this month’s trio of conductors is San Francisco Symphony Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt, who arrives Jan. 31 with a program featuring two 19th-century symphonies: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral,” and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3, “Scottish.” Blomstedt, who served as the symphony’s music director from 1985 to 1995, is a master of this repertoire.
DETAILS >> Program 1, with Jaap van Zweden, 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday; Program 2, with Christian Reif, 8 p.m. Jan. 24-26; Program 3, with Herbert Blomstedt, 8 p.m. Jan. 31 and Feb. 1-2; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; $20-$156; 415864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org.
WEATHERING A WORLD PREMIERE >>
A new work in response to climate change is on this week’s program by the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble. Titled “The Sound of Nature,” it features the world premiere of “Lemuria,” by BrazilianAmerican composer Clarice Assad. Scored for two cellos, percussion and cello choir, the concerto takes its title from a mythic culture — one that existed, according to Assad, “prior to and during the time of Atlantis” and was swept away in a great flood of rising tides. Cellist Tanya Tomkins, who commissioned the score, is one of two featured cellists performing the premiere; the other is Leighton Fong. Loren Mach is the percussion soloist.
The program includes another work for two cellos, Kurt Rohde’s “credo petrified.” George Crumb’s “A Dog’s Life” for guitar and percussion, Evan Hause’s “Fields” for marimba and Bach’s Cello Suite in G major complete the lineup.
DETAILS >> 7:30 p.m. Monday at San Francisco Conservatory of Music; 7:30 p.m. Jan. 19 at Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley; $35 general, $18 under age 35; 415-6175223, www.leftcoastensemble.org.
MORE NATURE-THEMED MUSIC >>
Nature is also a longrunning theme at Other Minds, the new music organization founded by Charles Amirkhanian. In partnership with Berkeley’s David Brower Center, the group’s “The Nature of Music” series continues Thursday with San Francisco composer Anne Guthrie presenting two new works, “Hackle” and “Lenser 7730.” The performances mark the 100th and 101st world premieres in Other Minds’ 25-year history.
DETAILS >> 7 p.m. today; David Brower Center, Berkeley; $15 adults, $12 students, seniors; 415-9348134, www.otherminds.org.
S.F. CONSERVATORY NEWS >>
Adding to its lustrous profile, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music has just announced that soprano Marnie Breckenridge, mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade and pianist Jeremy Denk have joined the elite music school’s faculty. And if you still haven’t heard a performance in the Conservatory’s Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall, this is a good month to do so.
On Friday, Martin West conducts the Berkeley Symphony and SFCM musicians in a program that includes the world premiere of Daniel De Togni’s “Tsuioku: On the Internment of Japanese Americans.” Jan. 18 brings a community concert featuring Kronos Quartet. Both events start at 7:30 p.m.; admission is free, but registration is recommended. Information: www.sfcm. edu/events.