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Sayaka Shoji and Salonen remain in close dialogue in a riveting performance of Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto. 

As the news breaks that Esa-Pekka Salonen will be leaving at the end of his San Francisco Symphony tenure, he conducts the music of his fellow Finn, Jean Sibelius. 

After 50 years of performances with the San Francisco Symphony, including a quarter-century tenure as Music Director, Michael Tilson Thomas chooses Mahler’s Fifth Symphony for his final subscription concert. 

An exquisite rendition of Mendelssohn's Lobgesang makes one wonder why the work is not part of the regular repertoire.

In a program including both modernist and neoclassical works, Michael Tilson Thomas and the SFO emphasized the common traits characterizing Stravinsky's entire ouevre.

Michael Tilson Thomas, Sasha Cooke, and choristers from the Pacific Boychoir and San Francisco Chorus come together in a phenomenal performance of Mahler's all-encompassing Third Symphony. 

Vanska celebrates Finland's musical heritage with the San Francisco Symphony

Violinist Veronika Eberle has a successful San Francisco debut with the tricky Schumann concerto while the SF Symphony sounds somewhat limp under Robert Abbado with Busoni's Turandot and Mendelssohn's Scottish. 

Charles Dutoit and the SFS brings us a night of Sibelius, Mozart, de Falla and Debussy, giving us a wonderful taste of Europe in one sitting. 

Michael Tilson Thomas is one of the few great Mahlerians active today.

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, joined by cellist Gautier Capuçon, presented modern, post-war masterworks in their first of two nights in Stern Auditorium.

Gil Shaham and Juraj Valčuha join the San Francisco Symphony for electrifying performances reminding listeners of the true joy of dialogic music-making and the excitement of high-caliber ensemble collaboration.

Beethoven’s call to joy and brotherhood left much to be desired if not for a fantastic chorus in the final movement. 

 The San Francisco Symphony wound up its Asian tour in Tokyo with a program (Sheng, Shostakovich, Mahler) and soloist (pianist Yuja Wang) well calculated to generate strong audience response.

Alisa Weilerstein teams up with Pablo Heras-Casado and the SFS to deliver superb Schumann at the Davies Symphony Hall. 

Yuja Wang’s blazing Shostakovich First Piano Concerto and MTT’s stellar Firebird blended into a cohesive narrative at Davies Hall that showed us how successful performances can coincide with successful programming. 

Not a single note, nor a single orchestral member, is superfluous in MTT's interpretation of Mahler's Second Symphony.

The SFS presents the US première of Widmann’s work alongside an impressive renditions of CPE Bach and Brahms.

James Conlon led the SFS from the sombre moods of Britten to the gaiety of Dvořák.

Bernstein's On the Town is luxuriously cast, crisply played, and impressively danced in a much-more-than-semi-staged production at the San Francisco Symphony.

An overall commendable performance dampened only by a ho-hum Beethoven. 

Michael Tilson Thomas, leading the San Francisco Symphony in an invigorating performance of works by both Schubert and Mahler, emphasized the idea of repetition as an evolution rather than a lie.

San Francisco Symphony presents Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde in all its glory. The addition of Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony filled out the program, but seemed very much an afterthought.

Provocative and abstract Copland paired with resolute Schumann proved to be a tastefully refreshing combination; especially when coupled with the seasoned chemistry of MTT and the SFS.

An enthralling account of Brahms’ Fourth Symphony by Itzhak Perlman and the San Francisco Symphony.

Another low-energy second half let down a strong first in the San Francisans' second appearance at the Proms under Michael Tilson Thomas.

Although Michael Tilson Thomas's reading of Mahler's First Symphony left a little to be desired, Jeremy Denk joined them for an utterly convincing reading of Cowell's Piano Concerto. 

Maestro Tilson Thomas led the San Francisco Symphony in a unique program that fell just short of expectations.

Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas deserves credit for this excellent semi-staged version of Britten's Peter Grimes performed with the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall.

Michael Tilson Thomas brings together the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the ladies of the London Symphony Chorus and choristers of St Paul's Cathedral in an astounding performance of Mahler's great Symphony no. 3.

Michael Tilson Thomas leads the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus in Mason Bates’ explosive Liquid Interface and Beethoven’s Mass in C.

So much myth has accreted to Mahler’s Ninth Symphony that it is difficult to know where to begin any more.

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony have made a partnership from playing with expectations, and this first of two Carnegie Hall concerts this season was yet another example of their craft.In a programme of Beethoven, Copland, and Steven Mackey, perhaps the most amazing subversion here was that by far the most interesting performance came in a Mozart piano concerto.

When a conductor decides to lead a performance without a score, it really means two things. One is obvious: a deep and intimate familiarity with the music. Less obvious, though, is the implication of trust in the musicians of the ensemble. On Friday, young Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado delivered a spectacular interpretation of Mendelssohn’s Symphony no.

Faced with ageing audiences, dwindling funding and slashed budgets, many fine orchestras feel besieged at home these days, let alone being able to embark on costly tours overseas – all the more reason why the San Francisco Symphony’s ambitious tour of six cities in Asia is a cause for celebration.

With the official season at a close, the San Francisco Symphony’s “Summer and the Symphony” is well underway with a collection of concerts designed to attract and welcome all audiences. Friday night’s offering was a collaboration with circus troupe Cirque Musica, partnering classical and popular repertoire with a variety of dazzling cirque acts.

Master violinist and conductor Itzhak Perlman has done it all. He has appeared with every major orchestra throughout the world, is the recipient of four Emmy awards, has collaborated with composer John Williams as violin soloist in Steven Spielberg’s Schinder’s List and featured at the inauguration of President Barack Obama along with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and clarinetist Anthony McGill.

Bravo to Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony for blowing the dust off of some of the boldest innovators America has produced. As part of a mini-festival at Carnegie Hall of 20th- and 21st-century composers who stretched musical and formal boundaries (to put it mildly), the program on Tuesday night was packed with rarely-played wonders.

For last Sunday’s concert, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony chose a programme with a distinctly Eastern European flavour spanning almost a century and a half. They began with Liszt’s Prometheus, an overture to a set of choral pieces Liszt wrote for a festival celebrating the life and works of German literary philosopher Gottfried von Herder in 1850.

Poétique plus que métaphysique, le Mahler de Michael Tilson Thomas et du San Francisco Symphony a largement convaincu le public de la salle Pleyel ; l'excellence de l'orchestre et la beauté des voix ont compensé sans peine l'apparente sobriété de l'interprétation pour transporter les auditeurs.