S.F. Symphony Marches Into Its Second Century

Still in the middle of its acclaimed centennial season, San Francisco Symphony announced plans today for 2012-2013. Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, Executive Director Brent Assink, and Director of Artistic Planning John Mangum have come up with a year-round ambitious and complex program for the next season.

There will be 157 concerts in Davies Symphony Hall alone, in addition to the December holiday schedule and summer concerts. The orchestra is also performing in Sonoma (Green Music Center), Stanford (Bing Concert Hall), and on tour to Asia (November 2012) and the East Coast (March 2013).

In an unusual move, because of MTT's tour of Europe with the London Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco fall season gala opening is scheduled for Sept. 19, after two weeks of subscription concerts, very attractive ones at that. Semyon Bychkov conducts programs of Wagner, Bruch, Tchaikovsky, and Shostakovich.

By the time the 101st season ends, the orchestra will have covered an enormous range of music, from what MTT calls "the core classical tradition" to new works. Among the latter: the world premiere of Robin Holloway’s SFS-commissioned arrangement of Debussy’s settings of Poems of Paul Verlaine, sung by Renée Fleming.

MTT also leads the world premiere of SFS Assistant Concertmaster Mark Volkert’s work for string orchestra, Pandora. Besides his other distinctions, Volkert has the longest tenure in the orchestra, having joined in 1972. An SFS co-commission and U.S. premiere is German composer Jörg Widmann's piano concerto, with Yefim Bronfman as soloist.

Among novelties: the first San Francisco performances of selections from Mozart’s unfinished opera Zaïde; Luciano Berio’s mid-1970s piece Eindrücke; and the West Coast premiere of Samuel Carl Adams’ Drift and Providence. Adams, 26, is the son of composer John Adams, whose Absolute Jest had its SFS premiere this season.

The younger Adams' music is said to draw primarily from "experimental forms, noise, jazz, structured improvisation, and phonography."

At 67, MTT has been in the forefront of music for almost a half century. He first conducted SFS 38 years ago (he goes back 40 years with LSO). In his 17th year as music director, he has the longest tenure among current music directors of major American orchestras. And, lest there be speculation about his future plans, he seems firmly and happily rooted here:

It feels very comfortable, so much fun. There is a spirit of adventure along with tremendous care that goes into the work of the orchestra. At the end of a rehearsal, in the intermission, you see them work together on their own. Elsewhere some of that care doesn't occur.

The reason we got to such interesting places musically is that the necessary basic work is done (already by the musicians themselves). The sense of identity is getting stronger and stronger every year.

Among MTT's adventures in the next season: a series of Beethoven performances, ranging from Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II by the 19-year-old composer, and culminating in his late Missa solemnis (making a surprising return appearance since its 2011 performance); an exploration of Ibsen's great and difficult play Peer Gynt, going beyond the familiar Grieg score; and unprecedented complete concert performances of Bernstein's West Side Story (soloists yet to be named).

The Great Performers Series features concerts by the Warsaw Philharmonic and the Russian National Orchestra (conducted by San Francisco Opera's Patrick Summers), plus recitals by Itzhak Perlman, Gil Shaham, Renée Fleming with Susan Graham, and Matthias Goerne with Christoph Eschenbach.