program
Symphony No. 39
Symphony in C major, The Great
performances
If you would like assistance purchasing tickets for patrons with disabilities, please call the box office at 415-864-6000.
Thursday mantinee concerts are endowed by a gift in memory of Rhoda Goldman.
Event Description
Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt and the San Francisco Symphony perform Mozart’s groundbreaking and brilliant Symphony No. 39, a work rife with melodies, dissonance, and colors that pushed symphonic writing farther than it had ever gone before. This is Mozart at his most mature, most introspective, and most emotionally complex. Then, the grandeur of Schubert takes center stage with the monumental Symphony in C major, aptly nicknamed The Great. At the time of its premiere, audiences were not accustomed to such a long work. He described its length as “heavenly,” but critics didn’t agree. Later, composers of epic works—Mahler and Bruckner among them—would take inspiration from The Great and write their own monumental works.
