IGOR LEVIT PLAYS BUSONI

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Artists

Esa-Pekka Salonen

Conductor

Igor Levit

Piano

San Francisco Symphony Chorus

San Francisco Symphony

program

Piano Concerto
[San Francisco Symphony Premiere]

Ferruccio Busoni

DIGITAL PROGRAM BOOK

performances

Thu, Jun 22, 2023 at 10:00AM

Thu, Jun 22, 2023 at 7:30PM

Sat, Jun 24, 2023 at 7:30PM

Sun, Jun 25, 2023 at 2:00PM

If you would like assistance purchasing tickets for patrons with disabilities, please call the box office at 415-864-6000.

Event Description

Artist-in-residence Igor Levit joins Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Orchestra for Ferruccio Busoni’s towering Piano Concerto, one of the most outsized works ever written. Combining piano soloist, chorus, and a substantial orchestra, the piece gains momentum and excitement as evocations of Busoni’s musical forebears pile atop one another. Requiring formidable technique and showcasing breathtaking scope, it is without a doubt one of music’s overlooked wonders.

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Please note: San Francisco’s Pride Celebration is on June 24 and 25. Please allow extra travel time to Davies Symphony Hall for those concert dates since traffic will be heavy and parking limited. The Pride Parade will take place on June 25, going down Market Street from the Embarcadero to the celebration at Civic Center.

These concerts, a part of the Barbro and Bernard Osher masterworks series, are made possible by a generous gift from Barbro and Bernard Osher.

These concerts are supported by the Wattis special performance fund.

Open rehearsals are endowed by a bequest from the estate of Katharine Hanrahan.

At A Glance

Since Ferruccio Busoni was a distinguished composer as well as an acclaimed keyboard wizard at the turn of the 20th century, it was probably inevitable that he would write a Piano Concerto—but nobody could have predicted a piano concerto like this one. You might think of this immense work in five connected movements as part concerto and part symphony: it makes terrifying technical demands of the soloist and it includes sections that spotlight the pianist’s virtuosity, yet it often incorporates the piano as an obbligato instrument within the detailed symphonic texture. The inclusion of a chorus of low voices in the finale left early reviewers bewildered, but it adds much to the transcendent spirit that caps this extraordinary musical voyage.

Concert Extras

A pre-concert talk hosted by Laura Prichard will be presented from the stage one hour before the Open Rehearsal on Thursday, June 22 from 9:00am–9:30am. Free to all ticketholders.