Janáček's Taras Bulba is an epic tone poem depicting the exploits of an aging war hero and his two sons as they grapple with love, honor, and death in war. Hear it alongside Smetana's ode to the Vltava River, or the Moldau, where the music follows the river through Bohemian forests, fields, and meadows, past castles, ancient ruins, peasant weddings, and beautiful river nymphs.
Floor seats start at $35*.
*Subject to availability.
Guest artist signing: Pianist Piotr Anderszewski will be available for autographs following the October 13-15 concerts. Signing takes place in the orchestra lobby, near the Symphony Store.
Inside Music, an informative talk by Laura Stanfield Prichard, begins one hour prior to concerts. Free to ticketholders. Learn More.
DVOŘÁK
Carnival Overture, Opus 92 1891 | 10 mins
Antonín Dvořák was still laboring in poverty and obscurity as he approached middle age. His lucky break came in 1877, when an influential music critic encouraged him to send some scores to famed composer Johannes Brahms. That eminence was so delighted with what he received that he recommended Dvořák to his own publisher, Fritz Simrock. Carnival depicts the high-spirited tumult of a festive carnival setting—barkers and vendors, boisterous crowds, and even, in a gentle passage, what Dvořák said was “a pair of straying lovers.” DID YOU KNOW? In a letter to Simrock, Brahms remarked that “music directors will be thankful to you” for publishing Dvořák’s overtures—and they are.
MOZART
Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major, K.453 1784 | 34 mins
1784 was the height of Mozart’s popularity in Vienna. He gave nearly twenty concerts in two months, and several involved new works. The new concertos were, as Mozart reported to his family, works to make one sweat—“at least this way I can’t get out of practice,” he said. K.453 features a characteristically Mozartian mix of gaiety and melancholy. Throughout, we find ourselves thinking, “Wait—did I really hear that?” LISTEN FOR: This concerto's operatic “finalewithinafinale” is Mozart at his greatest and funniest.
SMETANA
Vltava from Má Vlast 1874 | 12 mins
In 1874, Smetana began losing his hearing, and by October, he had lost it completely. Although he could no longer perform music, he could still write it. He plunged into composing the first two movements of Má Vlast. The subject of the second movement, Vltava, is the Bohemian river that flows north through Prague on its way to join the Elbe, which in turn leads its waters to the North Sea. LISTEN FOR: Visiting there, Smetana heard the gentle, poetic song of the two streams. . . . and within him sounded the first chords that intertwine and increase and later grow and swell into a mighty melodic stream.
JANÁČEK
Taras Bulba, Rhapsody for Orchestra 1915/18 | 23 mins
Nikolai Gogol's brilliantly written novella, Taras Bulba, on which this piece is based, is a powerful—if not unpleasant—piece of romanticized history. The hero of the story, an older Cossack and the father of two sons, is a devout believer in a few basic values: War and bloodshed are good, but peace is a tiresome bore that offers men no worthy occupation. An extremely devout Christian, he is ever ready to defend the Orthodox church. His wife is but a mechanism for the bearing of male children, and loyalty to the tribe matters more than love of his sons. Janáček set to music three episodes from this story. His musical ideas are epigrammatic, and their comings and goings are frequent and rapid. His musical language is that of an artist who can be unpredictable to the point of hovering on the edge of eccentricity, but whose discourse is entirely logical, lucid, and persuasive.
Jeanette Yu is Director of Publications at the San Francisco Symphony.
Program
Carnival Overture
Piano Concerto No. 17
Vltava (The Moldau) from Má Vlast
Taras Bulba, Rhapsody for Orchestra
Janáček’s Taras Bulba
Piano
Gilmore Award-winning pianist Piotr Anderszewski was born in Warsaw in 1969 to Polish-Hungarian parents. His collaborations with orchestra have included appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic, Berlin Staatskapelle, the orchestras of Chicago, Philadelphia, and London, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He has also given many performances directing from the keyboard, with ensembles such as the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, and Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.
Mr. Anderszewski has been an exclusive artist with Warner Classics/Erato (previously Virgin Classics) since 2000. His first recording for the label was Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, which went on to receive a number of prizes, including a Choc du Monde de la Musique and an ECHO Klassik award. He has also recorded a Grammy-nominated CD of Bach’s Partitas 1, 3, and 6, and a disc of works by Chopin. His affinity with the music of his compatriot Karol Szymanowski is captured in a recording of the composer’s solo piano works, which received the 2006 Classic FM Gramophone Award for Best Instrumental Disc. His recording devoted to solo works by Robert Schumann received an ECHO Klassik award in 2011 and two BBC Music magazine awards in 2012, including Recording of the Year. Mr. Anderszewski’s recording of Bach’s English Suites Nos. 1, 3, and 5, was released in November 2014, and won both the 2015 Gramophone Award and ECHO Klassik award. His most recent recording, devoted to the music of Mozart and Schumann, was released in February 2017.
In the 2017-18 season Mr. Anderszewski appears with the Vienna Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, and the Orchestre de Paris, among others. In recital he can be heard at Chicago’s Symphony Center, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and at the Barbican Centre in London. In spring 2018 he will resume his play/direct collaboration with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra on a European tour.
Mr. Anderszewski is the subject of two award-winning documentaries by the film maker Bruno Monsaingeon for ARTE. The first of these, Piotr Anderszewski plays the Diabelli Variations (2001) explores his particular relationship with Beethoven’s Opus 120, while the second, Piotr Anderszewski, Unquiet Traveller (2008) captures Mr. Anderszewski’s reflections on music, performance, and his Polish-Hungarian roots. A third film by Monsaingeon, Anderszewski Plays Schumann, was made for Polish television and first broadcast in 2010. He made his SFS debut in 2009.
(October 2017)
Conductor
Born in the Czech Republic, Jakub Hrůša is Chief Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony, Principal Guest Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic. He is a frequent guest with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony. The 2018-19 season sees his debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, and NHK Symphony. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in 2017.
As a conductor of opera, he has been a regular guest with Glyndebourne Festival, conducting Vanessa, The Cunning Little Vixen, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Carmen, The Turn of the Screw, Don Giovanni, and La Bohème, and serving as music director of Glyndebourne on Tour for three years. He has also led productions for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (Carmen), Vienna State Opera (a new production of The Makropulos Case), Opéra National de Paris (Rusalka and The Merry Widow), and Frankfurt Opera (Il trittico), among others.
Mr. Hrůša’s most recent recordings include Smetana’s Má Vlast with the Bamberg Symphony for the Tudor label and concertos for orchestra by Bartók and Kodály with the Berlin Radio Orchestra on Pentatone. He has also recorded Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, R. Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony and Suk’s Asrael Symphony with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra (Octavia Records); the Tchaikovsky and Bruch violin concertos with Nicola Benedetti and the Czech Philharmonic (Universal); and nine discs (for the Pentatone and Supraphon labels) of Czech repertory with PKF-Prague Philharmonia, of which he was music director from 2009 until 2015.
Mr. Hrůša studied conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague under the tutelage of Jiří Bělohlávek. He is currently President of the International Martinů Circle and The Dvořák Society, and in 2015 he was the inaugural recipient of the Sir Charles Mackerras Prize.
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