Overview

French pianist Alexandre Kantorow makes his debut with the San Francisco Symphony in Prokofiev’s fiendishly difficult Third Piano Concerto, conducted by Karina Canellakis. Prokofiev’s music leaps from Paris to Pavlovsk, from the 19th century to the 20th and beyond. Not quite neoclassical, the concerto is too sly to be Romantic, too approachable to be Modern. Sibelius was inspired by nature and by the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, to create his own deeply personal form of folk expression. This fiercely original, arguably autobiographical music reclaimed the cultural birthright of a nascent people—and stirs the hearts of non-Finns, too. Dvořák composed Scherzo capriccioso while mourning his mother. Complex and dynamic, it guides listeners through the many stages of grief to the catharsis of an ecstatic coda.