The San Francisco Bay Area is home to one of the richest, most varied classical music scenes in the United States. I only attended a fraction of what was on offer this year, and here are some of my favorite moments, starting with the world premiere in January at the San Francisco Symphony of
After The Fall, a new piano concerto by Bay Area composer John Adams. He wrote the concerto for Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson who gave an incredible performance with David Robinson conducting.
Also in January, the
New Century Chamber Orchestra gave a wonderful concert at the Presidio Theatre, highlighted by a performance of the Shostakovich
First Piano Concerto with pianist Inon Barnatan and trumpeter Brandon Ridenour as soloists.
The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale have been fairly rudderless since Nicholas McGegan stepped down as Music Director and his replacement didn't work out. In March,
the 47-year-old Irishman Peter Whelan conducted a delightful performance of Handel's Alceste. Soon after, he was named the new Music Director, starting in the 2026-27 season.
The San Francisco Conservatory of Music offers free concerts on almost every day of the week, and there are treasures abounding. In April, I went to an orchestral concert led by student conductors that featured
a thrilling performance of John Adams's incredibly difficult Chamber Symphony, led by Chih-Yao Chang.
I've never been particularly moved by
La Boheme, Puccini's sentimental weepie about young artists in mid-19th century Paris, but the San Francisco Opera production this summer actually moved me to tears with its fine ensemble cast and production.
The saddest artistic news of the year was the penny-wise, pound-foolish behavior of the SF Symphony Board which managed to so alienate Esa-Pekka Salonen that he refused to renew his contract as Music Director. His final concert was a
barn-burning performance of Mahler's huge Resurrection Symphony in June.
The happiest artistic news of the year was the literal last-minute rescue by a venture capital family foundation of The Oasis, a nightclub at 11th & Folsom Streets specializing in drag shows, performance art, cabaret and whatever catches the fancy of D'Arcy Drollinger, its hardworking genius impresario. I caught a
sophisticated, filthy cabaret show there in June called Noctornal Omissions featuring John Coons and Jonah Wheeler.
Verdi's
Requiem was scheduled to open the 2024-2025 season last year with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting, but there was a walkout by the SF Symphony Chorus after serious mistreatment by the SF Symphony Board. Finally, an anonymous donor contributed a few million dollars so that the union choristers could continue to be paid, and at the very end of the season, the
Requiem was finally performed with James Gaffigan conducting. Even though I'm a longtime Verdi worshiper, I had never warmed up to the massive choral work until
this performance at the end of June, which was magnificent.
The Merola Opera Program for aspiring opera professionals put on an
absolutely gorgeous production in August of a rarely performed Rossini opera, Le Comte Ory. This was the composer's penultimate opera, written right before his swan song
William Tell, and the music is some of the best he ever composed. The young cast did it full justice.
In Oakland,
West Edge Opera commissioned and nurtured Dolores, a new opera by Nicolás Lell Benavides about the California labor organizer Dolores Huerta. The titular heroine is still alive in her 90s and attended a number of the performances. Even better, Benavides's music for a small orchestra and voices was consistently brilliant.
The annual Other Minds Music Festival, headed for decades by founder Charles Amirkhanian, took place in October at the Brava Theater on 24th Street this year. One evening of the new music festival's programs was dedicated to
composer Samuel Adams performed by a full roster of Bay Area musicians, including Sarah Cahill and the Friction Quartet. It was a perfectly joyful evening.
Also in October, the American Bach Soloists gave a
wonderful early music concert called The Grand Tour at St. Mark's Church on Cathedral Hill. Featuring works by Handel, Vivaldi, and J.S. Bach, it was a reminder of why this group under Music Director Jeffrey Thomas is such a treasure.
The San Francisco Opera finished its shortened fall season with two productions that the company conceived and built themselves, and both were invigoratingly successful.
First up was Wagner's final opera, Parsifal, with tenor Brandon Jovanovich giving a sensitive performance as the title character and a supporting cast that was pretty much flawless. Music Director Eun Sun Kim conducted the four-hour-plus score beautifully.
Next up was
the world premiere of The Monkey King, a new opera by composer Huang Ruo with a libretto by David Henry Hwang. Much of its sold-out success can be attributed to a fantastic production involving thousands of yards of silk, puppetry, dancing, flying, and ingenious staging by director Diane Paulus and puppeteer/designer Basil Twist. Plus, the tenor Kang Wang in the title role was sensationally good, heading up a strong cast and chorus playing gods, monks, undersea creatures, and monkeys. It exceeded everyone's expectations.
