Trifonov Plays Rachmaninoff with the San Francisco Symphony

June 21, 22, 23 & 24, 2018

Overview

Described as "a marvel" (The Guardian) and in possession of “monstrous technique and lustrous tone” (The New Yorker) pianist Daniil Trifonov performs Rachmaninoff’s electrifying Third Piano Concerto. The program opens with Sibelius’ final two symphonies: his Sixth, considered by many to be his finest, and the single-movement Seventh.

Concert Extras

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SIBELIUS
Symphony No. 6 1923 | 28 mins
Jean Sibelius completed his set of seven symphonies with this pair of unusual works, which he developed in parallel over several years. Some material moved from one score to the other as the pieces evolved. Each has a distinct flavor that is unlike any of his previous symphonies. The Sixth qualifies as Sibelius’s “Pastoral Symphony,” a graceful composition that doesn't rattle the rafters. It is practically unique in the annals of symphonies for being written in neither a major nor a minor key, but rather in, a harmonic pattern that many will hear as folk-like. Asked about this symphony, Sibelius said, “I do not think of a symphony only as music in this or that number of bars, but rather as an expression of spiritual creed, a phase in one’s inner life.”

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SIBELIUS
Symphony No. 7 1924 | 22 mins
Like the Sixth, Sibelius’s Seventh Symphony marches to a different drummer. Whereas all of Sibelius’s earlier symphonies comprise discrete movements of varying characters, this one unrolls as a single movement in which contrasting sections are all connected into an ever-developing span. The composer struggled over whether he should even call this work a symphony; after he conducted its 1924 premiere, he ended up changing its name to identify it as a full-fledged symphony after all. It would be his last. He still had two further orchestral works in him—the incidental music for The Tempest and the tone poem Tapiola—but he effectively retired in 1927, leaving the Symphony No. 7 as his valedictory symphony.

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RACHMANINOFF
Piano Concerto No. 3 1909 | 43 mins
Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto offers an immense challenge to the soloist in stamina and endurance; the orchestral passages that frame the Intermezzo are the pianist’s only moments of respite. To a degree truly uncommon for a concerto in the big Romantic bravura tradition, Rachmaninoff sees the soloist not merely as someone who can sing soulfully and thunder imposingly, but as an alert, flexible, responsive musician who knows how to blend, accompany, and listen. LISTEN FOR: In all his works for piano and orchestra, Rachmaninoff invented arresting beginnings. In the first measures of the Third Piano Concerto we find a quality we do not usually associate with him—simplicity.

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JAMES M. KELLER is Program Annotator and JEANETTE YU is Director of Publications at the San Francisco Symphony.

Artists

Daniil Trifonov

Piano

San Francisco Symphony

Michael Tilson Thomas

Conductor

Program

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Piano Concerto No. 3

Jean Sibelius

Sibelius’s Symphony No. 6

Jean Sibelius

Symphony No. 7

Podcast

Sibelius’s Symphony No. 6

All sound clips are from San Francisco Symphony performances and are used with permission of the SFS Players Committee.

Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3

All sound clips are from San Francisco Symphony performances and are used with permission of the SFS Players Committee.

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Trifonov Plays Rachmaninoff with the San Francisco Symphony

Thursday

June 21, 2018

11:00PM

Davies Symphony Hall

Friday

June 22, 2018

11:00PM

Davies Symphony Hall

Saturday

June 23, 2018

11:00PM

Davies Symphony Hall

Sunday

June 24, 2018

5:00PM

Davies Symphony Hall

If you would like assistance purchasing tickets for patrons with disabilities, please call the box office at 415-864-6000.

Conductor

Michael Tilson Thomas is the Music Director Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony, conductor laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra, and cofounder and artistic director laureate of the New World Symphony. He is a 12-time Grammy Award winner and has conducted the major orchestras of Europe and the United States.

Born in Los Angeles, he studied conducting and composition with Ingolf Dahl at the University of Southern California and as a young musician worked with artists including Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland. In his mid-20s, he became assistant conductor—and later principal guest conductor—of the Boston Symphony. He subsequently served as music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, principal guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and principal conductor of the London Symphony.

In 1987 he cofounded the New World Symphony, a postgraduate orchestral academy in Miami Beach dedicated to preparing young musicians of diverse backgrounds for leadership roles in classical music. He has worked with more than 1,200 NWS fellows, many of whom have gone on to major musical careers.

MTT became Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony in 1995, ushering in a period of significant growht and heightened international recognition for the orchestra. He led the Symphony in championing contemporary and American composers alongside classical masters, and as Music Director Laureate, he has returned to conduct the orchestra each season.

His discography includes more than 120 recordings, and his television work includes series for the BBC and PBS, the New York Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts, and numerous televised performances. “Michael Tilson Thomas: Where Now Is” aired on PBS’s American Masters series in fall 2020.

Throughout his career, he has been an active composer, with major works including From the Diary of Anne Frank, premiered with narrator Audrey Hepburn, and Meditations on Rilke. Both appear on SFS Media’s Grammy Award-winning recording of his music. In 2023, Yuja Wang released a recording on Deutsche Grammophon which included his You Come Here Often?
He is an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France, a member of the American Academies of Arts and Sciences and Arts and Letters, a National Medal of Arts recipient, and a 2019 Kennedy Center honoree.

Three major recording projects were released in 2024 in celebration of his 80th birthday: Grace: The Music of Michael Tilson Thomas on Pentatone; The Complete Columbia, CBS, and RCA Recordings on Sony Classical; and Complete Deutsche Grammophon & Argo Recordings on DG Eloquence.

Trifonov Plays Rachmaninoff with the San Francisco Symphony

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Trifonov Plays Rachmaninoff with the San Francisco Symphony

Trifonov Plays Rachmaninoff with the San Francisco Symphony