In Tuesday’s (2/25) San Jose Mercury News, Richard Scheinin reports, “Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony will open their 20th season together on Sept. 3 at Davies Symphony Hall with a Gala event. Bonnie Raitt will sing songs associated with her late father, Broadway singer John Raitt. Pianist Yuja Wang will solo in Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue.’ And the orchestra will offer Stravinsky’s ‘Circus Polka,’ a ballet for 50 elephants, whose digital images will dance across a giant video screen above the musicians.” The season will showcase works by seventeen American composers. A June 2015 Beethoven festival includes a semi-staged “Fidelio” and a recreation of the 1808 concert in Vienna that introduced such now-famous works as the 5th and 6th symphonies. SoundBox, an experimental performance space at Davies Symphony Hall, will be unveiled December 12-13 “in a cabaret-style setting with flexible seating and bar service.” Tilson Thomas’s 70th birthday will be celebrated with a concert on January 15, 2015, featuring Liszt’s “Hexameron” for Piano and Orchestra, and his 20th anniversary as music director with a November 2014 tour that includes Carnegie Hall. Scheinin’s article includes a Q&A with Tilson Thomas.
Posted February 25, 2014
