It’s always exciting to see performers making their first Bay Area appearances. The San Francisco Symphony has two French artists on the program this week – conductor François-Xavier Roth and pianist Cédric Tiberghien, both appearing with the orchestra for the first time.
In performances March 7-9 in Davies Symphony Hall, Roth conducts a program that features Tiberghien in Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major. The program also includes Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 in D Major and Schumann’s “Manfred” Overture.
Roth is general music director of the German city of Cologne and founder of Les Siècles, an ensemble that plays era-spanning programs on modern and period instruments. Tiberghien, who made his Berlin Philharmonic debut earlier this season, launched his career with a win at the Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris. Details: 8 p.m. March 7-9, Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; $20-$156; 415-864-6000; www.sfsymphony.org.
A FINAL GRAND TOUR: The S.F. Symphony’s Michael Tilson Thomas, meanwhile, is preparing the orchestra for their final national tour together before he concludes his 25-year tenure as music director (he will become music director laureate at the end of the 2019-20 season.)
The eight-city tour includes stops in Seattle; Boston; Chicago; Champaign, Illinois; Washington, DC; Kansas City, Missouri; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Ames, Iowa. Tour repertoire includes Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, with the great Christian Tetzlaff as soloist (Alexander Kerr plays the Mendelssohn concerto in Champaign, Lincoln and Ames.) Additional tour rep includes Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony, Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2 and Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin.
Bay Area audiences can get a preview when Tilson Thomas conducts four pre-tour performances in Davies Symphony Hall, featuring Tetzlaff in Mozart’s concerto. The Ravel and Sibelius works complete the program. Details: 8 p.m. March 14-16; 2 p.m. March 17, Davies Symphony Hall; $20-$165; 415-864-6000; www.sfsymphony.org.
PHILHARMONIA BAROQUE 19/20: A world premiere by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, two fully staged Baroque operas and appearances by top artists, including countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, bass-baritone Davóne Tines and soprano Vėronique Gens, will be featured in the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra’s 2019-20 season, scheduled to run Oct. 17, 2019, to April 19, 2020.
The season – Nicholas McGegan’s final as the period instrument orchestra’s music director – opens Oct. 17 with the world premiere of Shaw’s “The Listeners,” with contralto Avery Amereau and bass-baritone Dashon Burton joining McGegan, the orchestra and the Philharmonia Chorale. Handel’s “Eternal Source of Light Divine” completes the program. “Mozart’s Musings” (Nov.13-17) features Jeannette Sorrell conducting the composer’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor and the Concerto for Oboe in C Major, with Gonzalo Ruiz as soloist. “Judas Maccabaeus” (Dec. 5-8) stars tenor Nicholas Phan in the title role of Handel’s oratorio.
2020 offerings include Handel’s “Aci, Galatea e Polifemo” (Jan. 22-Feb. 1) in the Bay Area premiere of a co-production by Philharmonia and National Sawdust first presented in New York in 2017. Directed by Christopher Alden, the cast includes Costanzo, Tines and soprano Lauren Snouffer. “The Well-Caffeinated Clavier” (Feb. 7-12) features Philharmonia’s music director designate, Richard Egarr, leading an all-Bach program; McGegan returns to the podium for “Romantic Reflections” (March 11-15, 2020), featuring works by Mendelssohn, Schubert, and Cherubini. The season closes with Leclair’s “Scylla et Glaucus” (April 15-19, 2020.) With Gens in her San Francisco debut, McGegan leads a fully staged production by the creative team of director-choreographer Catherine Turocy and the New York Baroque Dance Company, who contributed to Philharmonia’s brilliant 2017 performances (and subsequent recording) of Rameau’s “The Temple of Glory.” The orchestra’s popular “Sessions” series and a Shakespeare-themed tour program with stops in Livermore and Carmel complete the season. Subscription tickets are $90-$660; single tickets go on sale at a later date. 415-295-1900; www.philharmonia.org.
A BIG PRIZE FOR JOHN ADAMS: Congratulations to Bay Area composer John Adams, who has been named to receive the Erasmus Prize by the Dutch Praemium Foundation. The prestigious award, which includes a cash prize of €150,000 (about $170,000), goes each year to an individual or organization “that has made exceptional contribution to the humanities, the social sciences or the arts in Europe and beyond”; previous winners include artist Marc Chagall, film director Ingmar Bergman, composer Olivier Messiaen and stage director Peter Sellars.
Adams, a Berkeley resident, is one of the most frequently performed living composers; his works include operas, oratorios and concertos (San Francisco Opera has performed his “Nixon in China,” “Doctor Atomic” and, most recently, “Girls of the Golden West.”) The announcement said that he was chosen to receive the prize “because he has created a new musical idiom by fusing elements from jazz, pop and classical music” and has made “contemporary classical music communicate again, important at a time when this genre has increasing difficulty in finding a following.” He’ll receive the award from King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands in a November ceremony.
Contact Georgia Rowe at growe@pacbell.net.