San Francisco
(Bay Area)

Music Director Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) returns to conduct the San Francisco Symphony in two weeks of concerts at Davies Symphony Hall featuring two longtime collaborators. January 20–22 concerts include Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2 performed by cellist Gautier Capuçon and January 27–29 concerts feature pianist Yuja…

WELCOME HOME, MAESTRO THOMAS There are concerts and, then, there are concerts. The first of the two programs marking the return of Michael Tilson Thomas, after serious brain surgery, belongs to the latter category. This was an occasion that might even be counted among the more significant events in the history of the San Francisco…

LUDOVIC MORLOT JOINS MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS TO CONDUCT SF SYMPHONY NOVEMBER 18–20 Ludovic Morlot joins Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) to conduct part of the November 18–21 San Francisco Symphony concerts at Davies Symphony Hall. Morlot — recently appointed Music Director of the Barcelona Symphony — will conduct the first half of the program, including Maurice…

OCTOBER SURPRISE The last of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s four October concerts was, to put it as succinctly as possible, quite wonderful. The draw was Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and the audience, there to hear master pianist Yefim Bronfman, wholeheartedly responded — with rapt silence at first and finally cheers — to Bronfman, whose sonorous and…

THESE LIEDERS ARE NOW ON MY LISZT Something incredibly special is happening in Santa Monica. The Broad Stage has reopened this week with live performances from German Tenor Jonas Kaufmann last night and The Danish String Quartet last Saturday, both of whom are in extraordinary demand in their fields of opera and chamber music. Both…

BRYCE DESSNER AND PEKKA KUUSISTO: AN EXTRAORDINARY TEAM Last night, I had the rare and honored experience of being present at what I think may have been an historic musical event. It was the first United States performance of Bryce Dessner’s Violin Concerto (2021) which was co-commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony, and which, under…

EXOTIC BIRDS, 47 SPECIES OF BIRDS, AND DEBUSSY BY LAND AND BY SEA Esa-Pekka Salonen walked slowly to the podium and when he arrived, he stood, frozen, for an extended period of time, as if he were calling upon a moment of silence and so, when the first bars of Claude Debussy’s Prélude í   L’Après-midi  d’un faune…

TO BREAK FREE, SHE HAD TO BREAK IN San Francisco Opera’s return to live performances in the War Memorial Opera House continues October 14–30 with a bold, new production of Ludwig van Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio. Caroline H. Hume Music Director  Eun Sun Kim conducts this monumental work in which love and courage overcome tyranny. Director  Matthew…

SAN FRANCISCO OPERA’S FREE OPERA STREAMS IN AUGUST Wagner’s  Die Meistersinger von Ní¼rnberg  August 7–8 Donizetti’s  Roberto Devereux  August 14–15 San Francisco Opera is returning to the War Memorial Opera House stage for the opening of its 99th season, which begins with Puccini’s Tosca on August 21. In anticipation, the Company has added two weekly, free opera streams for…