World premieres by an array of American and international composers at various stages in their careers, a two-week festival of horror-themed music around Halloween, and the continuation of a four-year collaboration with famed American theater director Peter Sellars — featuring a staged production of Kaija Saariaho’s acclaimed 2006 opera “Adriana Mater” — are among the highlights of the San Francisco Symphony’s 2022-23 season, the second under Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen.
The season schedule, announced Tuesday, March 29, features premieres by two younger American composers —Elizabeth Ogonekand Berkeley native塞缪尔·亚当斯— as well as Finnish composer and Salonen’s longtime associate Magnus Lindberg. It includes a new work by American composer Trevor Weston, which grew out of theEmerging Black Composers Projectco-sponsored by the Symphony and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Also in the lineup are the first Symphony performances of commissioned works by Danny Elfman, Julia Wolfe and Daniel Kidane, a residency by pianist Igor Levit, orchestral debuts by five conductors, and appearances by four of the orchestra’s eightCollaborative Partners.
The season is slated to open on Sept. 23, with a gala program still to be announced — evidently a permanent shift from the decades-long tradition of opening the season on the Wednesday after Labor Day — and runs through July 1, 2023.
Salonen and the orchestra plan to also undertake their first tour together, a nine-day excursion in March 2023 to France, Luxembourg and Germany. Salonen is expected to lead the orchestra in 15 weeks of programming, with repertoire ranging from Beethoven and Berlioz through Florence Price and Gabriella Smith.
“I have never thought that the entire season of a symphony orchestra should reflect one idea, or be able to be summarized under one narrative,” Salonen told The Chronicle in a phone interview. “The most important principle is to try to make sure that every concert has all the elements we look for — challenge, satisfaction, all the other things that cannot be named.
“Otherwise, the season reflects an interest in the new. And obviously we are doing our best to diversify the concert programming and the artist roster, which is still a work in progress.”
The season features a new profusion of music by women and composers of color, including works by Wynton Marsalis, Hannah Kendall, Outi Tarkiainen, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Reena Esmail, Stacy Garrop and Anna Meredith. The debuts of conductors Elim Chan and Dalia Stasevska and the returns of Jane Glover and Xian Zhang will add to the number of women on the podium.
Music Director LaureateMichael Tilson Thomasis scheduled to conduct four programs, including music by Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Debussy and Mahler. Other returning guest conductors include Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt, Juraj Valcuha, Cristian Macelaru and Manfred Honeck.
The collaboration with Sellars — whom Salonen called “maybe my most important collaborator over the years” — is scheduled to begin during the current season, with semi-staged performances in June of Stravinsky’s “Oedipus Rex” and “Symphony of Psalms.”
In addition to “Adriana Mater,” an opera about motherhood in the midst of a war zone, the partnership will bring productions of Messiaen’s “La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ,” (2024) and Janácek’s opera “The Cunning Little Vixen” (2025), withCollaborative Partner Julia Bullock在标题的作用。
The Symphony’s European schedule, built around four-day stays in Paris and Hamburg, reflects what Salonen considers the new model for orchestral touring.
“My sense is that a certain kind of touring — the one-night stand, whirlwind tour of 15 cities in 17 days — is not coming back. It’s difficult to justify for all sorts of reasons,” he said. “I think when touring happens now it’s going to be based more on residencies and partnerships, where the orchestra can show the full depth of what they’re doing. It has to have a deeper meaning than just strutting your stuff in remote locations.”
客人艺术家the schedule include pianists Yuja Wang and Pierre-Laurent Aimard, cellist Gautier Capuçon, soprano Golda Schultz, and saxophonist Branford Marsalis.
SoundBox, the orchestra’s experimental series presented in a casual, club-like venue, is slated to feature programs curated by Collaborative Partners Pekka Kuusisto, Nico Muhly and Nicholas Britell, as well as Esmail and pianist-composer Conrad Tao.
Above all, Salonen seemed relieved and delighted to be able to program a full season after the COVID -driven shutdown and partial offerings of the past two years.
“It’s a real season, with live music for live people — which is quite a nice concept,” he said. “When it’s taken away, you realize what a luxury it is. It’s good to be back.”