Since the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra's June 30 concert in Ingolstadt last week, the young musicians have performed in two of the world's most famous concert halls, and received great reviews.
(You can watch the Ingolstadt concert here, and the July 5 concert in Amsterdam here.)
The tour began in Milan on June 25, and continued in Udine, Italy, before the Audi Sommer Festival opener in Ingolstadt. There, a review in the Bayerische Staatszeitung reported:
...outbursts of cheering, both for the fabulous violinist Sergey Khachatryan and for the 100 or so musicians comprising the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. Together they created a musical marvel that proved to be moving across a spectrum of moods and that had the concert hall shaking with excitement, whether for Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 featuring the Armenian violinist star or for the thundering orgasm of percussion in Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique.
The Youth Orchestra celebrated the Fourth of July in the Berlin Philharmonic's great hall, performing the Bruch Violin Concerto again, John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine, and — meeting a bold challenge yet again — Mahler's Fifth Symphony.
Der Tagesspiegel reported: "Once again these young Americans live up to their reputation as one of the world’s best youth orchestras with a mixture of perfection and expressiveness." Berliner Zeitung added:
It’s striking how much the precision for which adult American orchestras are known is already a part of this youth orchestra... The resulting sound and clarity of their ensemble playing is quite impressive.
The very next day, the orchestra repeated the program in another hallowed venue, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, getting an enthusiastic reception. The tour concludes in Prague's Smetana Hall on Wednesday.
The elder San Francisco Symphony, led by Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, will follow the Youth Orchestra in both the Berliner Philharmonie (Sept. 4) and Amsterdam Concertgebouw (Sept. 13), performing at the latter another Mahler, the Symphony No. 1, and Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, with Yuja Wang.
Otherwise, the S.F. Symphony tour will participate in summer festivals: Edinburgh (Aug. 27-28); BBC Proms in Royal Albert Hall (Aug. 30-31); Rheingau Festival, Wiesbaden (Sept. 3); George Enescu Festival, Bucharest (Sept. 6-7); Lucerne Festival (Sept. 9-11); and concluding the tour in Paris on Sept. 14.