The 24th (and penultimate) season of Michael Tilson Thomas leading the San Francisco Symphony has been announced, and it starts with a flurry of activity: a gala season opener, a program inspired by concerns about climate change, a two-week Stravinsky festival with three of his best-loved scores for ballet, and that’s just September. Then they travel to New York to open Carnegie Hall’s season. The lineup of soloists, guest conductors, guest orchestras, recitals, and other returning programs has something for just about all tastes.
There’s more information about the season at the San Francisco Symphony website.
Among the soloists this season: pianists Yuja Wang, Javier Perianes, Gabriela Montero, András Schiff, Lars Vogt, Cédric Tiberghien, Emanuel Ax, Hélène Grimaud, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Nikolai Lugansky; violinists Itzhak Perlman, Leonidas Kavakos, Ray Chen, James Ehnes, Karen Gomyo, Gil Shaham, Christian Tetzlaff, Vilde Frang, and the symphony’s concertmaster, Alexander Barantschik; plus cellists Truls Mørk, Mario Brunello, and Johannes Moser. There are recitals through the Great Performers series featuring Evgeny Kissin, Hilary Hahn, Gautier Capuçon with Jean-Yves Thibaudet (who will also play with Midori), Leif-Ove Andsnes, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Marc-Andre Hamelin, and the super trio of Joshua Bell, Steven Isserlis, and Jeremy Denk. Guest conductors this season will be Manfred Honeck, Jakub Hrůša, Pablo Heras-Casado, Jane Glover, Daniel Harding, François-Xavier Roth, Andrey Boreyko, Fabio Luisi, James Gaffigan, Marek Janowski, Krzysztof Urbanski, Juraj Valčuha, Jaap van Sweden, Cristian Măcelaru, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, and Christian Reif. And some visiting orchestras include Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra in October, Semyon Btchkov and the Czech Philharmonic with Alisa Weilerstein, and the Russian National Orchestra, led by Mikhail Pletnev, with piano soloist George Li.
Familiar series return, like the fifth season of Soundbox, Music for Families, the Chamber Music series at the Legion of Honor, and the film series, this season with Jurassic Park, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Mary Poppins, La La Land, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In addition to the Carnegie Hall tour in September, the orchestra will be going on an 8-city national tour next March.
