SALONEN: STRAVINSKY & OGONEK
March 10, 11 & 12, 2022
Concert Extras
Pre-Concert Talk: Join us for an informative “Inside Music” talk from the stage with Elizabeth Seitz. Free to all ticketholders, these talks begin one hour before the March 10-12 performances. Doors open 15 minutes before.
At A Glance
Elizabeth Ogonek often finds inspiration for her compositions in poetry. One of her favorite poets is the late Polish writer Wisława Szymborska, who received the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature. Szymborska’s poem “While Sleeping,” a contemplation of memory and forgetting written not long before her death, provided the impetus for Sleep & Unremembrance (2016). Much as the poem involves a collage of remembered images, Ogonek’s single-movement work came together not in chronological order but rather as a collection of fragmentary ideas that she finally molded into a unified whole. She sees her piece as “a reminder that behind every corner lurks mystery, surprise and change. Thus, the music twists and turns in search of its own memories and its true identity.”
Samuel Dushkin, who commissioned and premiered Igor Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto (1934), recalled that one day at lunch, Stravinsky “wrote down [a] chord and asked me if it could be played. I had never seen a chord with such an enormous stretch . . . and I said ‘No.’ Stravinsky replied sadly, ‘Quel dommage’ [What a pity].” When Dushkin went home and realized that it actually could be played, he immediately called the composer, who completed the concerto in six months. The chord that was so casually brought up at lunch begins each of the work’s four movements—Stravinsky called it his “passport” to the music.
The events of May 29, 1913—the premiere of Le Sacre du printemps (1913/1947) and the infamous audience riot that followed—catapulted Stravinsky, and modern music, onto a path from which there was no turning back. He described this controversial piece as a representation of pagan Russia, insisting that “it is unified by a single idea: the mystery and great surge of creative power of spring.” There are many connections to folk music, including a Lithuanian tune that is the basis of the incredibly famous, astonishingly difficult high-pitched bassoon solo that opens the piece.
After notes by James M. Keller and Michael Steinberg
Samuel Dushkin, who commissioned and premiered Igor Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto (1934), recalled that one day at lunch, Stravinsky “wrote down [a] chord and asked me if it could be played. I had never seen a chord with such an enormous stretch . . . and I said ‘No.’ Stravinsky replied sadly, ‘Quel dommage’ [What a pity].” When Dushkin went home and realized that it actually could be played, he immediately called the composer, who completed the concerto in six months. The chord that was so casually brought up at lunch begins each of the work’s four movements—Stravinsky called it his “passport” to the music.
The events of May 29, 1913—the premiere of Le Sacre du printemps (1913/1947) and the infamous audience riot that followed—catapulted Stravinsky, and modern music, onto a path from which there was no turning back. He described this controversial piece as a representation of pagan Russia, insisting that “it is unified by a single idea: the mystery and great surge of creative power of spring.” There are many connections to folk music, including a Lithuanian tune that is the basis of the incredibly famous, astonishingly difficult high-pitched bassoon solo that opens the piece.
After notes by James M. Keller and Michael Steinberg
Program
Elizabeth
Ogonek
Sleep & Unremembrance [San Francisco Symphony Premiere]
Igor
Stravinsky
Violin Concerto
Igor
Stravinsky
The Rite of Spring
THURSDAY MATINEE CONCERTS ARE ENDOWED BY A GIFT IN MEMORY OF RHODA GOLDMAN.
THIS PROJECT IS SUPPORTED IN PART BY THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS
THESE CONCERTS ARE GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY DENISE HALE IN HONOR OF ESA-PEKKA SALONEN.
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Conductor
Esa-Pekka Salonen is known as both a composer and conductor. He is currently the Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, where he works alongside eight Collaborative Partners from a variety of disciplines, ranging from composers to roboticists. He is the Conductor Laureate for the Philharmonia Orchestra, where he was Principal Conductor & Artistic Advisor from 2008 until 2021, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he was Music Director from 1992 until 2009, and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He is currently in the midst of Multiverse Esa-Pekka Salonen, a two-season residency as both composer and conductor, at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. As a member of the faculty of LA's Colburn School, he develops, leads, and directs the pre-professional Negaunee Conducting Program. Salonen co-founded— and from 2003 until 2018 served as the Artistic Director for—the annual Baltic Sea Festival, which invites celebrated artists to promote unity and ecological awareness among the countries around the Baltic Sea.
Since joining the San Francisco Symphony in 2020, Salonen’s tenure has been defined by an impulse to embrace the possibilities of the orchestra and expand the institution beyond the confines of the subscription season. In addition to an unprecedented leadership model in which he is joined by eight Collaborative Partners—whose diversity of expertise reflects the scope of experience he envisions as the future of classical music and its audience—Salonen has led a series of collaborations across disciplines and practices which unite the Symphony’s musicians, administrative staff, and hands-on facility workers into a singular engine dedicated to engaging classical music in novel ways.
Salonen also brings his longstanding affinity for emerging technologies to the Symphony. In his first two seasons, he has spearheaded a complete overhaul of Davies Hall’s complement of audio and visual recording equipment, launched the SFSymphony+ streaming platform with a series of signature projects including an AI-infused take on the music of Györgi Ligeti, and the Grammy-nominated Throughline, and reshaped the Symphony into a powerhouse of the unexpected, equally comfortable with live performance and expansive new media projects.
Salonen has an extensive and varied recording career, both as a conductor and composer. His recent recordings include Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs, recorded with Lise Davidsen and the Philharmonia Orchestra; Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin and Dance Suite, also with the Philharmonia; Stravinsky’s Persephone, featuring Andrew Staples, Pauline Cheviller, and the Finnish National Opera, and a 2018 box set of his complete Sony recordings. His compositions appear on releases from Sony, Deutsche Grammophon, and Decca; his Piano Concerto (with Yefim Bronfman), Violin Concerto (with Leila Jofesowicz), and Cello Concerto (with Yo-Yo Ma) all appear on recordings conducted by Salonen himself.
Salonen is the recipient of many major awards, including the UNESCO Rostrum Prize for his work Floof in 1992, and the Siena Prize, given by the Accademia Chigiana, in 1993; he is the first conductor to receive it. In 1995 he received the Royal Philharmonic Society's Opera Award and two years later, its Conductor Award. Salonen was awarded the Litteris et Artibus medal, one of Sweden's highest honors, by the King of Sweden in 1996. In 1998 the French government awarded him the rank of Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In addition to receiving both the Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland and the Helsinki Medal, he was named Commander, First Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland by the President of Finland. Musical America named him its Musician of the Year in 2006, and he was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2010. His Violin Concerto won the 2012 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. He was the recipient of the 2014 Nemmers Composition Prize, which included a residency at the Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University and performances by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 2020, he was appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by the Queen of England. To date, he has received seven honorary doctorates in four different countries.
Leila Josefowicz
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Violin
LEILA JOSEFOWICZ’s passionate advocacy of contemporary music for the violin is reflected in her diverse programs and enthusiasm for performing new works. She won the 2018 Avery Fisher Prize and was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2008, joining prominent scientists, writers, and musicians who have made unique contributions to contemporary life.
Ms. Josefowicz has premiered many concertos, including those by Colin Matthews, Steven Mackey, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. This season, she gives the world premiere of Matthias Pintscher’s Assonanza II with the Cincinnati Symphony. Other recent premieres include John Adams’s Scheherazade.2 with the New York Philharmonic. She enjoyed a close working relationship with the late Oliver Knussen, performing various concertos, including his violin concerto, together more than thirty times.
This season, Ms. Josefowicz performs with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, and the Finnish Radio Symphony. Other recent appearances include the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and Philadelphia Orchestra. During the pandemic, she participated in the MetLiveArts Spring 2021 series, premiering a new work by Pintscher alongside J.S. Bach’s Partita No. 2, staged among paintings by Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.
Ms. Josefowicz has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Philips/Universal, and Warner Classics, and was featured on the iPad app “The Orchestra.” Her latest recording, released in 2019, features Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Violin Concerto with the Finnish Radio Symphony. She has previously received Grammy Award nominations for Scheherazade.2 with the Saint Louis Symphony and Salonen’s Violin Concerto with the Finnish Radio Symphony. Leila Josefowicz made her San Francisco Symphony debut in 1997 and became a Shenson Young Artist in 2008.
Ms. Josefowicz has premiered many concertos, including those by Colin Matthews, Steven Mackey, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. This season, she gives the world premiere of Matthias Pintscher’s Assonanza II with the Cincinnati Symphony. Other recent premieres include John Adams’s Scheherazade.2 with the New York Philharmonic. She enjoyed a close working relationship with the late Oliver Knussen, performing various concertos, including his violin concerto, together more than thirty times.
This season, Ms. Josefowicz performs with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, and the Finnish Radio Symphony. Other recent appearances include the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and Philadelphia Orchestra. During the pandemic, she participated in the MetLiveArts Spring 2021 series, premiering a new work by Pintscher alongside J.S. Bach’s Partita No. 2, staged among paintings by Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.
Ms. Josefowicz has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Philips/Universal, and Warner Classics, and was featured on the iPad app “The Orchestra.” Her latest recording, released in 2019, features Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Violin Concerto with the Finnish Radio Symphony. She has previously received Grammy Award nominations for Scheherazade.2 with the Saint Louis Symphony and Salonen’s Violin Concerto with the Finnish Radio Symphony. Leila Josefowicz made her San Francisco Symphony debut in 1997 and became a Shenson Young Artist in 2008.
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