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Evgeny Kissin delights an overwhelmingly enthusiastic San Francisco audience with Chopin and Shostakovich, but his Bach is less convincing. 

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

On a tour of the United States, Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields perform Mendelssohn, Schumann and Vince Mendoza in Davies Symphony Hall. 

Dexterity, beauty, technical prowess and mastery, most expectations were met: most expectations were met in this duo recital in Davies Symphony Hall. 

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. 

Fabio Luisi and the DNSO did not disappoint audiences in San Francisco, presenting a captivating program of Beethoven, Strauss and Nielsen.

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. 

A fantiastic walk through Bohemia guided by the PKF Prague Philharmonia conducted by Emmanuel Villaume, with an excellent performance from Gautier Capuçon.

A recital from one of the world's most celebrated violinists took the audience on a tour of periods in classical music. 

Young prodigy Serena Wang delights audiences in her performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. 1 while the China Philharmonic's cautious approach falls flat.

Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic deliver a successful mix of the old and new at Davies Symphony Hall. 

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.

A near flawless performance by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra capturing the soul of Brahms and Schumann. A fitting tribute on Brahms' birthday.

Before the NY Philharmonic even arrived in San Francisco, skeptics were complaining about the 'hackneyed" repertoire they were bringing on tour. But there was nothing commonplace about their interpretations, power, technical skills or performances. 

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

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.

Hélène Grimaud, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic impress in a colourful programme of 20th century gems. 

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

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.

The San Francisco Symphony recently returned from an exhausting six-city, ten-concert tour of Asia and now enter the month of December with a selection of seasonal, festive performances.

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.

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.