Table of Contents

San Francisco Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall, November 3, 2016

San Francisco Symphony featuring Yuja Wang
2016-11-03
Davies Symphony Hall
201 Van Ness, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA
8:00 PM, Thursday, November 3, 2016

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Tentative Program

Set One

[8:00 PM lights down, announcements, pause, tuning, introductory comments from MTT]

Michael Tilson Thomas: Agnegram

  1. [8:05 PM] Michael Tilson Thomas (b.1944): Agnegram (1998/2016)
    [work ends ~8:11 PM; pause to reset the stage; ready to continue at 8:15 PM]

Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2

Frédéric François Chopin (1810-1849): Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21 (1830)

  1. [8:17 PM] Maestoso
  2. [8:32 PM] Larghetto
  3. [8:41 PM] Allegro vivace
    [set ends 8:49 PM; applause and bows until 8:52, then all off for intermission]

Set Two: Bruckner: Symphony No. 7

[9:11 PM lights down, tuning]

Anton Bruckner (1824-1896): Symphony No. 7 in E major (1883/85)

  1. [9:13 PM] Allegro moderato
  2. [9:32 PM] Adagio: Sehr feierlich und sehr langsam
  3. [9:56 PM] Scherzo: Sehr schnell
  4. [10:06 PM] Finale: Bewegt, doch nicht schnell
    [show ends 10:18 PM; all off after a couple minutes of applause]

Performers

San Francisco Symphony

San Francisco Symphony

Soloist

Notes

The opening pieces tonight, MTT's Agnegram, was a jolly, rambunctious march that started things off with a real bang! I would be hard pressed to identify any of the joke insertions from the middle portion of the work, but I think I recognized at least two or three of the tunes. I bet Agnes was as pleased as punch with the musical gift!

Laura Stanfield Prichard posted an article that further elaborates on the genesis of Agnegram and it's current revival.

The main dish for tonight, Chopin's first piano concerto (yeah, it's numbered second, but it was written first … what a jokester that Chopin!), was also quite good – and Yuja looked ever so delicious in a stunning orange gown – but musically, it didn't quite knock my socks off as much as her performance in September. Not that I have any complaint with tonight's performance, mind you, I'm only commenting that it was less exciting than the previous visit. Likely this is due to the difference in the nature of the works, with tonight being more romantic and introspective whereas the Shostakovich Piano Concerto was fiery and extroverted. I'm glad I attended both – a night at the symphony is generally fun no matter what!

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