Anton Bruckner never heard his Sixth Symphony performed in full, but he proudly described it as his “boldest symphony.” Still overlooked today, it is awash in beautiful themes and imaginative twists and turns. Opening this program led by Esa-Pekka Salonen, pianist Conor Hanick premieres an SF Symphony commission by Samuel Adams, known for his expressive, innovative, and genre-bending music.
Samuel Carl Adams’s No Such Spring, a San Francisco Symphony commission heard this week in its world premiere, manifests the composer’s thinking about direct communication without falling back on conventions. At first glance, the prominence of the solo piano part in tandem with orchestra, together with the piece’s three-movement design, might suggest the concerto format. But Adams resists such typecasting. “My intention was first and foremost to create a virtuosic symphonic work with the piano acting as the orchestra’s inner voice.”
Anton Bruckner began his life as a symphonist at age 42, after careers as a schoolteacher and organist, and as he went, leaned more and more toward the monumental. In that progression his Symphony No. 6 is a step off the main road, and is less often performed. Bruckner himself, in fact, never heard it played in its entirety—but its beauties can take listeners aback, particularly those of the Adagio, which are unsurpassed in his work.
Program
No Such Spring
[San Francisco Symphony Commission, World Premiere]
The world premiere of Samuel Adams’s No Such Spring is sponsored by Michèle and Larry Corash.
Conor Hanick’s appearance is supported by the Phyllis C. Wattis Fund for Guest Artists.
OPEN REHEARSALS ARE ENDOWED BY A BEQUEST FROM THE ESTATE OF KATHARINE HANRAHAN.
Conductor
Piano
Pianist Conor Hanick is regarded as one today’s most inquisitive interpreters of music new and old. He has recently performed at the Gilmore Festival, the New York Philharmonic, Caramoor, Cal Performances, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and the Park Avenue Armory, and has performed with the Seattle Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Orchestra Iowa, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut on a chamber music concert in 2015.
A fierce advocate for the music of today, Mr. Hanick has premiered more than 200 pieces and collaborated with composers ranging from Pierre Boulez, Kaija Saariaho, and Steve Reich to the leading composers of his generation, including Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, Tyshawn Sorey, Matthew Aucoin, and Christopher Cerrone. In the 2022–23 season, Mr. Hanick appears with soprano Julia Bullock at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in Messiaen’s Harawi and performs recitals at the Library of Congress, Hancher Auditorium, Ensemble Music Society of Indianapolis, and the 92nd Street Y. With the American Modern Opera Company, Mr. Hanick served as an artistic director of the Ojai Festival in 2022. He is the director of solo piano at the Music Academy of the West and serves on the faculties of the Peabody Institute and the Juilliard School.
©2025 San Francisco Symphony | Privacy Statement & Terms and Conditions
