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

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2016 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2016 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

• Michael Tilson Thomas: Agnegram
• Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2
• Bruckner: Symphony No. 7

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

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]

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]

[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]

San Francisco Symphony

• Michael Tilson Thomas: conductor, music director;
• symphony members vary by program; see the current list.

• Yuja Wang: piano.

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!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2016 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2016 event list! ☸ On to the next event!