The San Francisco Giants are playing Game 6 of the World Series tonight at Kansas City's Kaufmann Stadium. Then, in a couple of weeks, the San Francisco Symphony will play at Kansas City's Kaufmann Concert Hall.
Through a set of curious circumstances — and not as the result of a bet on the outcome — San Francisco's current preoccupation with Kansas City and their splendid Royals will extend to starting the orchestra's national tour there.
Whether to congratulate or console K.C. over the result of the Giants-Royals rivalry, which will be decided tonight or tomorrow, Michael Tilson Thomas and SFS will perform in Kauffman Center on Nov. 12, on the first stop of a seven-city tour.
On the program, besides Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2 (with Gil Shaham) and the complete Ravel Daphnis et Chloé suite (without chorus) is Samuel Adams' Drift and Providence, but I am resisting further baseball references a propos that title.
The tour celebrates the 20th anniversary of MTT's appointment as music director (his guest conducting SFS goes all the way back to 1974), also marking his 70th birthday, on Dec. 21. He is now both the longest-tenured music director for a major American orchestra and the longest-serving music director in SFS history.
After Kansas City, SFS will perform a mixed program in Ann Arbor's Hill Auditorium (Nov. 13), Cleveland's Severance Hall (Nov. 15), Boston's Symphony Hall (Nov. 16), New York's Carnegie Hall (Nov. 20), and Miami's Arsht Center (Nov. 22).
Another program, with Mahler's Symphony No. 7 the only work to be performed, is scheduled for Ann Arbor (Nov. 13), Princeton (Nov. 18), and New York (Nov. 19).
Concerts in Davies Symphony Hall, with programs including works to be played on the tour, are on Thursday, Nov. 6 at 8 p.m., Friday, Nov. 7 at 8 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 8 at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 9 at 2 p.m..