Cancelled: San Francisco Symphony
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San Francisco Symphony is also performing March 18.
Performers
San Francisco Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas, Music Director and Conductor
Gautier Capuçon, Cello
Program
JOHN ADAMS I Still Dance (NY Premiere, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall)
SAINT-SAËNS Cello Concerto No. 1
STRAVINSKY The Firebird
Event Duration
The printed program will last approximately two hours, including one 20-minute intermission.Pre-Concert Talk
Pre-concert talk at 7 PM with Paul Berry, Adjunct Associate Professor of Music History, Yale University.
At a Glance
JOHN ADAMS I Still Dance
John Adams’s brief new piece, I Still Dance, was composed in honor of the 25th and final season of Michael Tilson Thomas’s tenure as the San Francisco Symphony’s music director. It celebrates “the continued youthful vitality” of Tilson Thomas, as well as of his husband, Joshua Robison. I Still Dance sustains an explosive, relentless intensity from the first downbeat through most of its span. Just as the churning maelstrom of energy seems poised to rouse for a climax, Adams dims the lights for what he describes as a “soft landing.”
SAINT-SAËNS Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 33
Saint-Saëns was not only an extraordinary composer, he was an accomplished organist, champion of forgotten early music and of contemporary composers, inspiring teacher, gifted writer, world traveler, and an informed aficionado of such disciplines as Classical languages, astronomy, archaeology, philosophy, and even the occult sciences. He gave cellists their most famous short piece, the noble and evocative “The Swan” from Le carnaval des animaux, and this, one of the most graceful of concertos. It is nicely punctual, it has pleasing tunes and a bang-up close, and—something particularly appreciated by cellists—it presents none of the problems of balance, of sheer audibility of the solo instrument, that are a bother in almost all other examples of the genre.
STRAVINSKY The Firebird
The first performance of The Firebird by Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes made Stravinsky a celebrity—for life. Its Parisian audience wanted a taste of the avant-garde, and with this ballet score the 27-year-old more than delivered. The company made a specialty of dancing works inspired by Russian folklore, and The Firebird was perfectly suited to Ballets Russes designs. The fantastical tale involves a dashing prince, an evil sorcerer, enchanted princesses, a magic egg, and, of course, the mythical and mystical titular creature.