San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas Perform Five-Concert European Tour September 2010

By -

September 11-16 tour includes concerts in Milan and Turin and coincides with release of Orchestra’s final Mahler cycle recording, Songs with Orchestra

Soloists are mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, violinist Christian Tetzlaff, and organist Paul Jacobs

Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) and the

San Francisco Symphony (SFS) perform five concerts on a tour of Europe September 11-16, including three appearances at the Lucerne Festival and concerts in Milan and Turin , Italy . As acclaimed interpreters of the music of Gustav Mahler, and as part of the 2010-11 global commemoration of Mahler’s life, the Orchestra has been invited to perform the composer’s Symphony No. 5 at both the Lucerne Festival and in Turin .

On this tour, their ninth of Europe together, MTT and the Orchestra will also perform Aaron Copland’s Organ Symphony, featuring organist Paul Jacobs, and Berg’s Violin Concerto with frequent collaborator Christian Tetzlaff, both in Lucerne . Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, lauded internationally for her mastery of French music, joins Tilson Thomas and the Orchestra for Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été in Lucerne and Milan. The Orchestra will also perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2 and Valses nobles et sentimentales, Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture, and Wagner’s Overture to Der fliegende Holländer. These are the Orchestra’s first concerts in Europe since 2007 and their first appearance in Milan since 1987. Their last visit to Turin was in 2004.

The Lucerne Festival concerts cap the Orchestra’s multi-year residency at one of the most important classical music festivals in Europe. The residency began in 2006 with three concerts, including performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 (Symphony of a Thousand), and continued with three more in September 2007, with performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 7. MTT and the Orchestra’s recordings of both Mahler symphonies won multiple Grammy Awards in 2007 and 2009, including Best Classical Album.

During the 2010-11 season, Tilson Thomas and the Orchestra are also marking the anniversaries of Mahler’s birth and death with performances of his music at home in Davies Symphony Hall, and with the September 2010 international release of Songs with Orchestra, the final recording of its Grammy Award-winning Mahler cycle, featuring Susan Graham and baritone Thomas Hampson. The Symphony’s new third season of its Keeping Score PBS Television series, hosted by MTT and scheduled to air in spring 2011, is devoted to Gustav Mahler. In May 2011, the Orchestra returns to perform Mahler Symphonies Nos. 2, 6, and 9 on tour throughout Europe , including a rare four-concert engagement at the famed Vienna Konzerthaus as part of the city’s commemoration of the Mahler anniversaries.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In ...
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

Teaching Composition – What are we trying to achieve

By -
In the process of learning composition I have spent time with a number of instructors who have encouraged me to write twelve-tone, pitch-class, electro-acoustic and other forms of experimental techniques. No matter how much I might understand and appreciate the work of other composers in the genres, these are not forms of music I resonate with. They are simply not forms of music I listen to and I struggle with the idea of writing them. However, in a Master Class by Libby Larsen she made the comment, “Learn them all, because all forms of music have something to offer.” This I very much agree. There are elements of each of the above mentioned forms (and others) that I do resonate with. Berg’s Violin Concerto is a beautiful twelve-tone work, although it is possible to look at numerous sections of the music with a “tonal” analysis. Another composer friend, Gary Bachlund commented that using these techniques can narrow the choices for how to compose a piece of work. If you look at ...
Read more