San Francisco Symphony October 2024 Programming

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony begin October with two Orchestral Series programs, including Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with Sayaka Shoji on October 4–6 and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, Pastoral, Claude Debussy’s La Mer, and Salonen’s own Cello Concerto featuring SF Symphony Principal Cello Rainer Eudeikis on October 18–20. 

Thomas Wilkins conducts an Orchestral Series program featuring George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with pianist Michelle Cann on October 25–26 and a Music for Families concert on October 26. October also features a chamber concert at the Gunn Theater at Legion of Honor on October 27, a Great Performers Series concert featuring Emanuel Ax in a solo piano recital on October 27, and Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho live-to-picture, conducted by Scott Terrell on October 31. 

Orchestral Series
October 4–6: Salonen Conducts Brahms 4
Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the Orchestra in Dmitri Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1, which premiered several years after it was written due to government censorship. These performances feature violinist Sayaka Shoji, who makes her Orchestral Series debut. Salonen also conducts Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 4, his final symphony. The finale, an interpretation of the ancient passacaglia form, incorporates Bach’s Cantata No. 150, “For Thee, O Lord, I Long.”

October 18–20: Salonen Conducts Beethoven’s Pastoral
Principal Cello Rainer Eudeikis joins Salonen and the Orchestra in his Orchestral Series solo debut for the first San Francisco Symphony performances of Salonen’s own Cello Concerto. Salonen explained that the Cello Concerto, which he wrote for Yo-Yo Ma, was born “when I decided to spend a few months researching for new kinds of textures without a concrete plan how to use them.” The program features two additional works that evoke the natural world: Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, Pastoral, which Beethoven described as “more an expression of feeling than painting,” and Claude Debussy’s La Mer, which was inspired by seascapes in literature and art. 

Inspired by Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony and Debussy’s La Mer, “Nature in Art. Art in Nature,” a photography exhibit featuring works of art by young photographers from San Francisco nonprofit First Exposures, will be displayed in the Davies Symphony Hall First Tier lobby from September 12 to November 2. San Francisco Symphony community partner First Exposures provides an accessible space for youth impacted by social and economic inequity to learn photography in a community-based setting with support from a photographer who serves as both a mentor and a positive adult role model. By leveraging the power of mentoring relationships and photography, First Exposures’ programs empower young people to thrive, express themselves creatively, and become leaders in their communities. To learn more, visit firstexposures.org. 

October 25–26: Wilkins Conducts Rhapsody in Blue
Thomas Wilkins, Principal Conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, conducts a program of 20th century American music, including two iconic pieces by George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue, featuring pianist Michelle Cann in her Orchestral Series debut, and Porgy and Bess, A Symphonic Picture. The Orchestra also performs Leonard Bernstein’s Suite from Candide, based on the novel by Voltaire, and the first San Francisco Symphony performances of William Grant Still’s Wood Notes, inspired by the landscapes of the American South and the poetry of Joseph Mitchell Pilcher.

Family-Friendly Programming
October 26: Music for Families
In addition to his Orchestral Series program, Thomas Wilkins conducts a Music for Families concert. Alongside his role at the Hollywood Bowl, Wilkins is the Germeshausen Youth and Family Concerts Conductor and the Artistic Advisor of Education and Community Engagement of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The program includes music from Bedřich Smetana’s Dance of the Comedians from The Bartered Bride; John Williams’ Flight to Neverland from Hook; Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4, Italian; Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4; Edvard Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King from Peer Gynt Suite No. 1; Antonín Dvořák’s Slavonic Dance No. 1 in C major, Opus 46; Johannes Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G minor; and Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio espagnol. This concert is best suited for children ages 5 to 12. 

Chamber Series & Great Performers Series
October 27: Chamber Music at Gunn Theater at Legion of Honor
In the first Legion of Honor Chamber Series concert of the season, SF Symphony Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik, former Symphony cellist Peter Wyrick, and guest pianist Anton Nel perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonata in A major for Violin and Harpsichord, BWV 1015; Bach’s Sonata No. 3 in G minor for Viola da gamba (Cello) and Harpsichord, BWV 1029; and Franz Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat major, D.929. This season marks 22 years of San Francisco Symphony’s partnership with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

October 27: Emanuel Ax Piano Recital
The Great Performers Series kicks off October 27 with a recital featuring beloved pianist Emanuel Ax. The program includes Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 13, Opus 27, no.1, Quasi una Fantasia and its more well-known counterpart, Piano Sonata No. 14, Opus 27, no.2, Moonlight. The concert also features John Corigliano’s Fantasia on an Ostinato, based on music from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7; Robert Schumann’s wistful Arabeske in C major, Opus 18; and Schumann’s Fantasy in C major, Opus 17, originally dedicated to Franz Liszt.

Film Series
October 31: Psycho—Film with Live Orchestra
Scott Terrell, Associate Professor of Orchestral Studies at the Louisiana State University School of Music, conducts Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, composed by Bernard Hermann, live-to-picture on Halloween. Starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh, the 1960 film helped pioneer the slasher film genre. Terrell makes his San Francisco Symphony debut in this concert.

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