Classical Music World Premieres By Wainwright, Kissine, Larcher, Adams, Golijov, And Lieberson Scheduled For San Francisco Symphony Next Season

"The San Francisco Symphony's 2009-10 season will include six commissioned world premieres and inaugurate Project San Francisco, a new initiative featuring two-week residencies by cellist Yo-Yo Ma and composer George Benjamin. ...

Among the commissions in the coming season is "Five Shakespeare Sonnets," a group of orchestral songs by the pop singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright. He is long known for his interest in opera and classical music, and will perform the songs April 7-10 with guest conductor Edwin Outwater.

Also on the roster is a work by the Russian-born Victor Kissine, whose violin concerto "Aftersight" was performed in 2007 with concertmaster Alexander Barantschik as soloist.

"He inhabits this interesting world between Alfred Schnittke and Morton Feldman," Thomas said. "I was so impressed by the sound of the orchestra in his concerto, and I thought, this is someone we definitely should know better."

Other commissioned works include an orchestral score by Austrian composer Thomas Larcher and pieces for pianist Emanuel Ax by John Adams, Osvaldo Golijov, and Peter Lieberson.

Thomas described the Project San Francisco residencies as similar to the two-week residency by Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina that concluded last week. "We thought we could begin to develop projects for artists who love the orchestra and the city, in which they could stretch out and show us what they really do. The idea was to give them carte blanche, to say, 'If you could spend some time with us, what would you want to do?' " …

Joshua Kosman and Jesse Hamlin "San Francisco Symphony's 2009-10 season" San Francisco Chronicle March 3, 2009

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Photo credit: 'Samson and the Lion' by Pinsel. Lviv Museum of Sacral Art, Lviv, Ukraine, Future European Union. Copyright controlled.