The music is pure expansiveness in this mythologically themed concert titled “Heaven + Earth.”
The conductor burnishes her resume with strong performances of music by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Jessie Montgomery.
The new piece, written for Emanuel Ax, is bookended by two familiar staples.
At SF Performances, the group premieres a new quintet that has its moments, with Andres on piano.
Sheku Kanneh-Mason takes on Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto, while Dudamel leads a Villa-Lobos ballet and Stravinsky’s Firebird.
The San Francisco Symphony plays Naïve and Sentimental Music, plus a new violin concerto with soloist Pekka Kuusisto.
The maverick saxophonist and composer busts open the recital format and makes it exciting with his multidirectional improvisations.
Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet and Gabriel Fauré’s Piano Quintet No. 2 make for an intriguing pairing.
The company’s shows are always a bit of a trek but so worth it.
And they’re mostly for the better, judging by the orchestra’s opening program under guest conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya.
