WHAT’S IN A NAME:
MTT & AGNES ALBERT
In spring 1998, MTT and the Orchestra give the world premiere of Agnegram, a 90th-birthday musical gift for Agnes Albert, the San Francisco Symphony’s longtime friend, mentor, patroness, and muse. Agnes, one of the most influential Board members in SF Symphony history, was a confidante of every music director and had known virtually every artist who had performed with the Orchestra since the 1940s. MTT is the last music director to serve during her lifetime. His birthday card to her, Agnegram, is a portrait of her “sophisticated and indefatigably enthusiastic spirit,” and his affection and inventiveness is on show throughout this jazzy and jubilant work derived from the musical letters/notes of her name.