The Music of Haydn and Beethoven

Description

San Francisco Symphony Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt will lead the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) in two weeks of concerts February 18-26 at Davies Symphony Hall. On February 18, 19 and 20, the Orchestra will perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, Eroica, and Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1 featuring the SFS debut of Joshua Roman. Beethoven’s Eroica is the subject of Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony’s PBS documentary, Keeping Score, available on DVD from sfsymphony.org/store. On February 24, 25 and 26 Blomstedt will conduct the SFS in Mozart’s Symphony No. 36, Linz, and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 6. The SFS last performed Bruckner’s Symphony No. 6 in 1990 under Blomstedt’s baton while he was Music Director.



Before embarking on a solo career, Joshua Roman was principal cellist of the Seattle Symphony for two seasons, a position he won in 2006 at the age of 22. Roman’s 2009-10 season engagements include debuts as concerto soloist with the Albany, Arkansas, and Santa Barbara symphonies, and the New Philharmonic Orchestra in Illinois. In April 2009, he was the only guest artist invited to play an unaccompanied solo during the YouTube Symphony Orchestra’s debut concert at Carnegie Hall. In addition to his solo work, Roman has enjoyed chamber collaborations with Earl Carlyss and Christian Zacharias, as well as the Seattle Chamber Music Society and the International Festival of Chamber Music in Lima, Peru. He often joins forces with other young soloists and performers from New York’s contemporary music scene, including Alarm Will Sound, So Percussion, and artists from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two. In spring 2007, he was named Artistic Director of TownMusic, an experimental chamber music series at Town Hall in Seattle. Roman’s versatility as a performer and his ongoing exploration of new concertos, chamber music, and solo cello works have given birth to projects with composers such as Aaron Jay Kernis, Mason Bates, and Dan Visconti. One of his current undertakings is an online video series called “The Popper Project”: wherever he and his laptop find themselves, he performs an étude from David Popper’s “High School of Cello Playing” and uploads it, unedited, to his YouTube channel. Roman’s endeavors have taken him to Uganda with his violin-playing siblings, where they played chamber music in schools, HIV/AIDS centers, and displacement camps, communicating a message of hope through music. Joshua Roman was named “Musical America’s New Artist of the Month” in August 2009. He performs on an 1899 cello by Giulio Degani of Venice.



WHERE & WHEN:



Thursday, February 18 at 2:00 p.m.

Friday, February 19 at 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, February 20 at 8:00 p.m.



Herbert Blomstedt, conductor

Joshua Roman, cello

San Francisco Symphony








Davies Symphony Hall

201 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco



PROGRAM:

Haydn / Cello Concerto No. 1 in C major, H.VIIb:1

Beethoven / Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Opus 55, Eroica



BROADCAST: Portions of these concerts will be broadcast on CLASSICAL 102.1 KDFC at 8:00 p.m. on

Tuesday, March 2.



PRE-CONCERT TALK: Susan Key gives the “Inside Music” talks one hour prior to the concerts. Free to all concert ticket holders; doors open fifteen minutes prior.



TICKETS: $15-$145; available through SFS Ticket Services at (415) 864-6000 or online at sfsymphony.org.