San Francisco Symphony

Michael Tilson Thomas had a lifelong relationship with Stravinsky, dating back to performing in Stravinsky's presence during Tilson Thomas's student days in Los Angeles. This all-Stravinsky program promises spectacular orchestral colors, rhythmic vitality, unique melodies, and plenty of excitement. Stravinsky’s ballet Pétrouchka is a thrilling masterpiece where Russian folk tunes enliven brilliant musical tableaux, while the savage rhythms, earthy melodies, and drama of Le sacre du printemps make it a cornerstone of 20th-century music. Another side of Stravinsky shines in his witty Violin Concerto, a four-movement dazzler where pungent harmonies, beautiful song-like passages, and jazzy syncopated rhythms challenge the soloist and captivate the listener.

Gautier Capuçon, Cello
Yuja Wang, Piano

Franck's and Rachmaninoff’s sonatas move from the pensive to the passionate. Franck’s is a work of great originality, particularly the third-movement Recitativo with its tentative rhythms and shifting tonalities that lead to a triumphant finale. Rachmaninoff’s sonata also culminates with jubilation, but only after brooding clouds are swept away by rapturous melody.

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Two “lost” works bookend this all-Russian program. Stravinsky’s recently discovered Funeral Song is a memorial to his tutor Rimsky-Korsakov, drawing on the elder composer's harmonic style while also looking ahead to Stravinsky's own early ballet scores. There’s also Rachmaninoff’s symphony, a notorious disaster at its 1897 premiere, which was never performed again in the composer’s lifetime. It is now justly recognized for its youthful Romantic fervor and driving ferocity. The Stravinsky and Rachmaninoff works frame Prokofiev’s most popular concerto, beloved for its biting wit, romantic interludes, and fiery solo part, played here by Beatrice Rana, called one of “the most faultless of young pianists today” (The Washington Post).