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The January 27 concert of the San Francisco Symphony was loaded with extra-musical import. Michael Tilson Thomas, music director of the orchestra for 25 years and now its music director laureate (and conductor laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra), led his final subscription concert. It came 50 years after his debut with the orchestra in 1974. Then, he conducted a Mahler symphony (No 9). This time, it was Mahler again, the Symphony No 5.

It was a beautiful performance, surely if deliberately shaped, led and superbly played, in the terrific acoustics of Davies Symphony Hall. But that was not the extra-musical import. In 2021 Tilson Thomas was diagnosed with an aggressive, incurable brain tumour, and it is very much in doubt, month to month, how long he can still perform. Two scheduled subscription series before this one had been cancelled. The orchestra leaves open the possibility that he can return for special occasions, but no more subscription series are planned.

So this seemed like a farewell. The audience gave Tilson Thomas standing ovations at the beginning and end. The orchestra wore blue lapel ribbons and waved blue poppies during the final applause, blue being Tilson Thomas’s favourite colour. His husband and partner of 40 years, Joshua Robison, emerged with a bouquet of red roses and their latest dog. Tilson Thomas singled out individual players before beckoning the entire orchestra to rise.

All this in honour of his innumerable contributions to this city (where he has long lived) and its orchestra. He upgraded the quality of performance, conducted the standard repertory with increasing mastery, broadened and revitalised the programming (with special attention to West Coast composers and to American mavericks), recorded, himself composed, and introduced all manner of programmatic experiments, including semi-staged operas. The block in front of Davies Hall was recently renamed MTT Way.

The performance proved fascinating. The score lay untouched on the podium. Tilson Thomas’s gestures were restrained, his left hand occasionally reaching behind him to a railing for support. Everything sounded unusually slow, 10 minutes longer than his 2016 recording with this same orchestra. The Adagietto — the music Leonard Bernstein took to his grave — lasted 13 minutes.

But the music seemed not enervated but savoured. The grand climaxes rang out, but it was the myriad delicate details, exquisitely articulated by the players, that caught the heart.

Was it really a farewell? No one knows, very much including Tilson Thomas. At the very end, after all the flowers and ovations, he quieted the crowd and spoke softly. He said he’d be back. One wants and hopes to believe him.

★★★★★

sfsymphony.org

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The San Francisco Symphony announces two upcoming performances with iconic singer-songwriter and composer Sting at Davies Symphony Hall on February 14 & 15, 2024.

The 17-time Grammy Award winning artist will perform his most celebrated songs reimagined for orchestra, accompanied by the San Francisco Symphony with conductor Edwin Outwater. Selections will include fan favorites such as “Englishman in New York,” “Fragile,” and “Every Breath You Take,” among others.   

Tickets for An Evening with Sting and the SF Symphony start at $75 and go on sale to the public on Friday, October 13, at 10am PT on sfsymphony.org. A pre-sale for SF Symphony subscribers begins on Wednesday, October 11, at 10am PT. Sting.com fan club pre-sale begins Thursday, October 12, at 10am PT.   

Composer, singer-songwriter, actor, author, and activist Sting was born in Newcastle, England before moving to London in 1977 to form The Police with Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers. The band released five studio albums, earned six Grammy Awards and two BRIT Awards, and was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.

One of the world’s most distinctive solo artists, Sting, managed by Martin Kierszenbaum/Cherrytree Music Company, has received an additional 11 Grammy Awards, two BRIT Awards, a Golden Globe, an Emmy, four Oscar nominations, a Tony nomination, Billboard Magazine’s Century Award, and MusiCares 2004 Person of the Year. In 2003, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for his myriad contributions to music.

Also a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, he has received the Kennedy Center Honors, The American Music Award of Merit, and The Polar Music Prize. Sting has been awarded honorary Doctorates of Music by the University of Northumbria (1992), Berklee College of Music (1994), University of Newcastle upon Tyne (2006), and Brown University at its 250th Commencement ceremony (2018). Throughout his illustrious career, Sting has sold 100 million albums from his combined work with The Police and as a solo artist.

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(Source: Source: Brittany Hosea-Small)

Kaija Saariaho died in early June 2023. Her opera “Adriana Mater” was premiered a few days later with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. The semi-staged performance itself appeared to be a ritual in honor of the well-known Finnish composer.

The tale of human suffering at war was staged with depth and finesse by San Francisco music director Esa-Pekka Salonen. Four singers and a choir sang the roles in French, and renowned director Peter Sellars was on hand to present the work in moving detail. Both Salonen and Sellars were friends and colleagues of Saariaho. It was clear to everyone that they brought both their personal and artistic feelings to the production. It was more than moving. The text by Amin Maalouf, born in Lebanon in 1949, told the story of the war. Originally the opera was about the Bosnian war and the violence in striking detail, but it also told the story of Adriana’s rape.

A special work

“Adriana Mater” extends over two acts with seven scenes. Each scene has a special focus and reveals a unique story. For example, the first act contains “Clartés (Light)”, “Tenebres (Darkness)” and “Deus coeurs (Two Hearts)”. The second act includes “Aveux (Confessions)”, “Rages”, “Duel” and “Adriana”. The overall theme was, “Time is the present in a country that is about to go to war.” The plot centered on the conflict between Tsargo and Adriana. The outbreak of violence between them. The outbreak of violence in the world around her and the need to deal with the child born of Tsargo’s attack on Adriana. Additional tension was created by the anger of Adriana’s sister Refka, who is “worried about the unborn child” and worried “whether the child will resemble Cain or Abel.”

The language was both metaphorical and literal. It was both expressive and informative. One of the central and most telling images is Adriana’s concern for the two hearts beating in her chest. She then spoke of “the fields of my heart” and “the right to sit on my bed.” “How can you forget the war when you carry my child?” “You are my revenge.” “The war ended for me the day you were born.” The peculiarities of the narrative easily transferred to other countries and others transmit wars. That was one of the significant effects.

The structure of the music emerged from this language, paired with an array of instruments that did an excellent job of expressing the intense feelings and associations of the story. There was a wide range of string, wind and brass instruments, as well as a wide range of percussion instruments, including glockenspiels and tubular bells, tom-toms, hanging cymbals, bamboo glockenspiels, vibraphone, celesta, temple blocks, fife and electronics. Each instrument offered a rich sonority and sonority. The ringing of the bell at crucial intervals always pulled the listener back to the heart of the story and conveyed an undercurrent of Saariaho’s recent death. Although the pacing was excellent, the richness of the haunting narrative made it difficult to fully digest all the emotional and musical richness of the piece. Content issues came quickly. Emotionally, it was difficult to process them all. Nonetheless, Salonen knew this music well and made sure we all heard it, fascinated or not. Certainly more than just two or more hearings were required.

Beautiful voices

The voices were both well blended and distinctive. Among the four singers was Adriana, sung by the extraordinary mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron. She is a mentee of Barbara Hannigan. The depths she sang from was a perfect place for the sadness and sadness from which she told her part of the story. The gentle depth of her singing gives her presentation a dreamlike aura. This literally expressed her dream as she sang the realistic details. Physically, in the first half, she communicated vulnerability and self-exploration with compassion for herself and others. The legato of her voice held us spellbound no matter what she was describing. At times she reminded me of the character Perdita from Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. She was one of the lost who would one day be redeemed.

In the second act and in the finale she seemed to say and convey too much. Scenes six and seven took a little too long. There was too much of too much so instead of deepening we were rushed with more information and variations on it. Her hope seemed to be reinforced rather than discovered. Even when the text ended the story, her smile, while adequately convincing, wasn’t entirely.

Sister Refka, sung by Axelle Fanyo, had a strong voice and offered rich power. It formed a striking contrast to the indescribable sound of Adriana. Fanyo was often rich and defiant, aptly playing off her sister’s defiance and self-declared protective instinct. Their bond broke the spell Adriana’s introspective explorations had cast. She forced us to consider the needs of the world around her. This strengthened the importance of opera as a whole. Both were necessary. She remained devoted all the while, thoughtful in her pleading, appropriately vindictive, fearful, and filled with regret. I liked their sound and their feel.

“Tsargo”, sung by baritone Christopher Purves, began with a deep, powerful and euphonious sound. It was a surprise if you followed the music and the two voices until then. While his lines remained vicious, his seduction through protection as he sang “I’ll come to the roof and look for danger” worked his magic. Who among us could resist such an offer? Especially in times of extreme danger? And yet we felt his anger build and erupt because we knew what he was up to. We watched carefully. He was reserved. Yet his voice never lost its lyricism, despite being urgent and demanding.

Yonas, Adriana’s son, was sung by tenor Nicholas Phan. He appeared at the beginning of the second act at the age of 18. His anger and frustration dictated most of his storyline and sound. His melancholy stayed adeptly in the background until, in the final moments of Act II, all the vulnerabilities of the characters were united in an energy of hope. That was good and touching. While it was understandable that his anger and pain dominated his presentation, Yonas was hard to deal with. Especially at the beginning of the second act he focused too much on his problems. He showed little sympathy to his mother and later to his aunt. Even when it came to the attempted murder of his father, he seemed to play a role rather than expressing actual anger. Holding the gun longer than seemed necessary emphasized this point. We spent time contemplating when he would pull the trigger rather than feeling a crescendo toward his intent. This, too, after he had “given up”. But why so long? What happened to his intention? Where did he “go” with this ban? That broke the anger. As a result, his recognition of the need for compassion, while sincere, felt less solid and grounded than it could be. As he sang and revealed his softer sensibilities, he was very moving.

The San Francisco Symphony Chorus was conducted by guest director Jenny Wong. She added another dimension throughout. This strengthened and accentuated the inner emotional life of the characters. In the final tableau, scene seven, the doubled repetitions of ‘I Should Have’ between chorus and soloists heightened the work’s emotion and its relation to our own human foibles. However, when we try to resolve our conflicts, we often feel a sense of lack, perhaps even failure. If only. Who among us can overcome this? Especially in fights as massive and overwhelming as what Saariaho presented on stage?

Simple and perfect

Being a semi-staged version, the simple platforms and props were perfect. The costumes, designed by Camille Assaf, looked like jazzed up streetwear. The lighting, created by James F. Ingalls, emphasized what needed to be told. Violence was red and orange, introspection and sadness were purple and pale blue. For the before and the before, there were brighter, whiter lights. For an opera of this intensity, the simplicity of the setting was outstanding. It gave us a chance to focus on what we needed to focus on and reminded us of the overproduction of many productions these days. How many projections do we need to see a full story of violence, jealousy, or death? How literal do we have to make our opera in order to feel and hear the beating heart of Otello or Death in Venice? A recent concert performance of Die Walküre with Lise Davidson and Jonas Kaufmann is another example of the beautiful simplicity of a simple concert performance. However, we also don’t want to miss out on a scene in the cabin from “Nowhere,” with a long-haired heroic tenor clad in silver-plated armor and a dramatic soprano with her matching flowing hair.

Saariaho’s music was great. The story described by the sound was great. Its importance was undisputed. It allowed us to delve into its heaviness and importance. Several musical themes reminded me of Britten’s Peter Grimes, with the haunting sounds of loss and disruption of human connection, particularly as Grimes hovered between the human and the suspect. This fundamental need for human connection and its rupture through violence. This inevitable shrinking of our emotional spectrum and our consequent isolation was shown and hinted at in Saariaho’s work, as well as in so much of Grimes’ and other Britten’s work. I remain a fan

Saariaho’s offer kept us there. It was appropriate to honor and thank her for the extraordinary power of her work.

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Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem continues to send a powerful message long after it was first performed in 1961. The modernist masterpiece presents enormous challenges of scale, challenges embraced and conveyed by the San Francisco Symphony with guest conductor Philippe Jordan, the Silicon Valley-based Ragazzi Boys Chorus, soprano Jennifer Holloway, tenor Ian Bostridge and baritone Brian Mulligan, a Last minute replacement for Iain Paterson who was kept away due to visa issues.

The Requiem was commissioned to mark the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral in England, which was destroyed along with the rest of the city in a bombing raid in 1940. Britten’s music, performed in the new cathedral next to the ruins of the old church, was then as now a bitter cry about what the text calls “the pity of war” – the terrible effects of aggression on human lives.

The Requiem sets the Latin text of the Catholic funeral mass to music, using a large orchestra with a correspondingly large choir and a soprano soloist. Far from the stage, a children’s choir echoes from the Latin Mass (in this case, from the corridor behind the second floor of Davies Hall). In Britten’s hands, the liturgy offers some moments of comfort, such as at a funeral, but moments of peace are often drowned out in horrifying apocalyptic scenarios.

Benjamin Britten rehearses his War Requiem in the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral

Britten’s masterpiece in crafting a requiem for the war-torn 20th century was to contrast the liturgical with a more personal, secular perspective. He drew on the poems of Wilfred Owen, who died in World War I just a week before the armistice. Britten, a master at setting English poetry to music, brings out the painful range of emotions of a soldier in the trenches – fear, sadness, longing and tenderness. Owen’s lyrics are performed by a smaller chamber orchestra playing in intimate counterpoint with the tenor and baritone soloists.

The Requiem was the only piece on the program that was performed without an intermission. Jordan directed these many forces with alert precision and control, keeping steady beat where needed, as in the wild fugue Britten wrote for the Latin text “Quam olim Abrahae promisti” (Which thou [God] once promised to Abraham). The orchestra was full of lively percussion – bells, drums and all sorts of clacks and gongs. The brass made a tremendous contribution with bugle calls and ominous trumpets. As the choir sang Judgment Day, the orchestra murmured and swayed in powerful counterpoint to the terrified voices. The chorus skillfully handled Britten’s extraordinarily wide dynamic range – from the softest whisper to the loudest screech. Guest choir director Joshua Habermann prepared the symphony choir.

Britten counterpoints God’s promise of protection at the hour of death and on the day of judgment with Owen’s poem about Abraham and Isaac, sung by the baritone and tenor soloists. Abraham is commanded to sacrifice his son Isaac, and he dutifully prepares. In the biblical account, the command is revoked by an angel who offers a ram in place of the boy. In a tender duet, the two soloists expressed the angel’s intervention in a moving way. But Owen writes: “The old man would not do that, but killed his son. . .” and the music follows with a relentless reiteration of the gruesome consequences: “. . . and half the seed of Europe, one at a time.”

Ian Bostridge | Photo credit: Kalpesh Lathigra

Brian Mulligan’s confident, full baritone accentuated Owen’s tone of hopelessness and regret, particularly in the work’s moving final episode, in which a dead German soldier meets his English enemy and greets him as ‘my friend’. By contrast, Ian Bostridge tended to emphasize the irony of war, his notes devoid of sentimentality and seeming suffused with pain, swaying up and down the scale with manic glissandi. I will not soon forget Bostridge’s powerful rendition of ‘Move him into the sun’, Owen’s Pietà for a Dead Friend. The chamber orchestra contributed lively soundscapes of trench warfare – the howling of shells and the anxious drama of life in the trenches.

The powerful clarity of soprano Jennifer Mulligan brought a soulful tension to the Latin liturgy – there is no superficial religiosity here! Her proclamation of Sanctus – “Holy” – pierced the din of drums and bells like a beam of light across a dark battlefield.

The guys from the Ragazzi Chorus were excellently prepared by their artistic director Kent Jue and sang beautifully, spatially and musically far removed from the dark imaginations and struggles of the people in the war.

On opening night, when I heard the Requiem, there were a few glitches in the early sections – the orchestra was not as rhythmically tight as it could have been, the choir trembled at the Kyrie’s very difficult intonations. It took some time for Mulligan to find his consonants and for Bostridge to stop singing into his score. But as soon as the play really got going, the insecurities of the first evening disappeared.

The rest was magnificent, a complex and deeply human indictment of aggression and military force that is still—or perhaps increasingly—needed in these times.

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Geoffrey Gallegos conducts the Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra in Orinda on May 21st

On May 21st, conductor and music director Geoffrey Gallegos and the Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra will repeat a rousing concert after being postponed to the end of February due to a certain known virus. The orchestra does not want to withhold this enchanting and enriching musical experience from the concertgoers and offers an encore that is worth the twelve-week wait.

The first discovery on the program is a spirited piece entitled ‘Jubilee Overture’ by accomplished Antioch-based composer Anthony Doherty. Doherty’s many compositions have been performed around the world, including two notable commissions from Bay Area orchestras.

Also on the program is Max Bruch’s opulently romantic and carefree Concerto for clarinet, viola and orchestra. This rarely performed composition will be a rediscovery for some listeners and a revival for others.

The concert concludes with Howard Hanson’s lyrical and uplifting Symphony No. 2, also called “Romantic”. Since its premiere in 1930, this work has been performed many times in traditional orchestral settings and then rediscovered, revived and reconfigured as part of the soundtracks for the films Alien, ET the Extra-Terrestrial and Boss Baby.

Sunday, May 21, 4:00 p.m., St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 66 St. Stephen’s Drive, Orinda

Tickets: ContraCostaChamberOrchestra.org or at the door (adults, $20; seniors, $15; students, $7)

Source: CC Chamber Orchestra

About the Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra

The Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra consists of volunteer musicians ranging in age from teenagers to octogenarians. Among them are a scientist, lawyer, X-ray technician, engineer, plumber, accountant, physicist and a graphic designer, as well as sales representatives, students, housewives, teachers and artists.

The Orchestra’s mission is to provide multi-generational amateur musicians with opportunities for lifelong learning, collaboration and fun, while providing high quality, affordable entertainment and enrichment to their communities.

The orchestra was formed in the late 1970s and has established a strong presence in the county. The group performs both well-known and unusual musical works, often with a professional soloist. In addition to performances at the historic El Campanil Theater in Antioch, the orchestra performs at the magnificently converted St Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Orinda and at special events for residents in Rossmoor. The group also performs annually at a sing-along to Handel’s Messiah at various locations around the county.

The organization is a 501(3)c non-profit organization and relies entirely financially on ticket sales, grants and contributions from players and viewers. To donate, go to www.ContraCostaChamberOrchestra.org/support.

About Geoffrey Gallegos

A native of San Francisco, Geoffrey Gallegos is a sixth-generation Californian. He has been a fixture in the San Francisco Bay Area music community for over 30 years. From 1985 to 1990, Maestro Gallegos was Associate Conductor of the San Francisco Chamber Players Orchestra. In 1991 he was appointed Principal Conductor of the San Francisco Concerto Orchestra, a position he held until 1993. From 2000 to 2006 he resumed his collaboration with the SFCO as Principal Guest Conductor. In 2003 he was hired as Assistant Conductor of the Peninsula Symphony Orchestra (N.CA), a position he held until 2008. Also in 2003, Maestro Gallegos made his debut at the Golden Gate Opera in San Francisco, conducting I Pagliacci and was subsequently invited to become Music Director and Principal Conductor. During this tenure he conducted most of the GGO productions including Gianni Schicchi, The Telephone, Madama Butterfly, Carmen, Suor Angelica, Hansel and Gretel and the world premiere production of Lincoln & Booth. In 2004, after an extensive search, Maestro Gallegos was invited to become music director and conductor of the Kensington (CA) Symphony Orchestra, only the third in the orchestra’s 44-year history, a position he currently holds. In 2015, after a year-long search, Maestro Gallegos was hired to become the music director and conductor of West County Winds, a symphonic wind and percussion ensemble based at Contra Costa Community College and serving West Contra Costa County. He has been invited to guest conduct the opening of the 49th season of the Diablo Symphony Orchestra (CA) and has also guest conducted numerous ensembles throughout the Bay Area, the United States and Europe.

Maestro Gallegos is heavily involved in music education. In 2001, he was appointed Music Director and Conductor of the Golden Gate Philharmonic, a San Francisco metropolitan youth orchestra that offers an integrated program of orchestral and chamber music performances and music theory. More recently he has assumed the new titles of Artistic Director and Principal Conductor and Acting Executive Director of the GGP. He also participated in the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts (SOTA) Artist-in-Residence program from 2001-2010, where he served as guest conductor of the orchestra and wind ensembles and taught music theory and sight singing. In the 2000-01 academic year, Maestro Gallegos was appointed Conductor of the San Francisco State University Symphonic Wind Ensemble. In the summer of 2002 he was invited to the Cazadero Music Camp as guest conductor of the orchestra and engaged again for the 2004 summer session. From 2007 to 2010, Maestro Gallegos served as Instrumental Music Coordinator and Liaison at Nueva School, Hillsborough, where his responsibilities included directing the renowned Menuhin/Dowling Instrumental Music Program and organizing and directing the Menuhin/Dowling Young Musician Competition. Maestro Gallegos has been a judge at numerous youth competitions, master classes and workshops throughout the Bay Area and has been invited to serve as a jury member for the annual 2014 Parade of Orchestras Festival in Honolulu.

Maestro Gallegos studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Preparatory School and San Francisco State University and received his Bachelor of Music degree with honors in instrumental pedagogy and conducting. Advanced studies in orchestral and operatic conducting continued at the University of Iowa School of Music, where he received a Master of Arts degree with honors and served as conductor of the University Chamber Orchestra. He has received four scholarships to the prestigious Conductors Institutes at West Virginia University and the University of South Carolina, selected from a large international pool of applicants. In 1991, Maestro Gallegos was nominated for the Annual Conductor’s Guild Thelma A. Robinson Award. He has served on the board of directors of the Community Music Center in San Francisco since 2005, where he began taking trumpet lessons at the age of nine. He currently resides in San Francisco with his wife Julie.

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Thursday, July 21 at Davies Symphony Hall

SF Symphony Presents Gershwin: An American in Paris

Provided by SF Symphony

Pianist Inon Barnatan joins conductor Ludovic Morlot and the SF Symphony for the virtuosic thrill and soaring Romanticism of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. George Gershwin’s An American in Paris takes up a jaunty ride through the City of Light while Maurice Ravel’s Boléro hypnotizes with visions of Spain.

WHEN
July 21, 2022
Check-in time: 6:30 p.m
Event start time: 7:30pm

WHERE
Davis Symphony Hall
201 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA 94102

Ten (10) winners will each receive two tickets, which will be emailed before the day of the event. Only active San Francisco Chronicle members are eligible to win. To enter, please fill out all of the fields in the form before noon on Tuesday, July 19. Multiple entries will not be considered. Winners will be drawn at random and notified via email by 5:00 pm on Tuesday, July 19.

Note: You will need to know the account number of your subscription in order to enter this raffle. If you do not have it, please contact customer service at 800-310-2455, by email, or go to the Subscriber Services site.

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Michael Tilson Thomas

Michael Tilson Thomas, longtime music director of the San Francisco Symphony before he retired last year, announced Friday that he was diagnosed with a brain tumor that required immediate surgery.

Retired after 25 years as the symphony’s music director, Thomas won 12 Grammys for his recordings during his tenure and received the National Medal of Arts and 2019 Kennedy Center Honors.

On Friday morning, Thomas wrote on Twitter that he recently returned home from UCSF Medical Center after being diagnosed with a brain tumor and having surgery he deemed successful, but will have to cancel all upcoming public appearances until October if he breaks up recovered.

“I plan to return to the stage in November,” he wrote. “I am very fortunate to be looked after by the excellent UCSF team and their national and international employees. Thank you for your love and prayers. See you later!”

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In a world that has been plagued by great losses in the past 15 months, there may be some who do not complain about the long stifling of the performing arts. But for those crowds who find incalculable rewards in live performances, some of the recent emotions in the Golden State are almost inspiring.

At the beginning of this month, on June 6th, the Los Angeles Opera presented Stravinsky’s “Oedipus Rex” in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion with an orchestra, choir and soloists of 99, almost half exposed, in front of 675 spectators in a moving and contemporary performance.

Now, in the north, the San Francisco Symphony has started the inauguration of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s music directorate, which had stalled until then. Mr Salonen’s tenure was due to begin last fall with a variety of imaginative programs and a much-touted partnership with eight cutting-edge cultural figures. But the pandemic thwarted these plans. Instead, recently based in Europe, Mr Salonen has unexpectedly returned to the US to oversee several programs throughout the summer that are neither part of the discarded 2020-21 season nor an early start to the soon-to-be-announced 2021 season. 22nd season.

The first bill, which belatedly marks the public debut of Mr Salonen as music director of this orchestra, came yesterday evening and will be repeated this evening. It represents something significantly more than just dipping a toe into familiar waters, but less than fully immersing it. The original program, which was later changed, included Bach, Bernstein, and the work of an aspiring British composer named Daniel Kidane. But as restrictions eased – masked music lovers occupied 946 of the 2,743 seats in the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall on Thursday – the orchestra welcomed more of its members back onstage, though it meant sacrificing some of the novelty of this original program. And so Bach (“Brandenburg” Concerto No. 3) and Bernstein (his underrated “Serenade”) made way for Richard Strauss and Brahms, although Mr. Kidane’s “Be Still” and the soloist of the program, the esteemed European-American violinist Augustin Hadelich stayed.

The play by Mr. Kidan, which received its American premiere, could hardly have been replaced because, as Mr. Salonen explained from the stage, “Be Still” was written in response to the pandemic, and its first performance took place in January via a live Stream held from Manchester, England. Almost entirely for strings, the work is meditative, but not sluggish. It tenses and relaxes repeatedly until a twisted version of its subject takes hold (perhaps a manifestation of our collective fear). A crescendo also destabilizes things. The coda begins when the first violinist performs a kind of duet with a nearby percussionist, who, with a bow against Crotales, evokes the faintest tinted tabulations until an abrupt silence ends the nine-minute work. It may sound like a joke to say that the music seemed to last longer on this occasion, but the observation is intended as a compliment.

This was preceded by Strauss’ Serenade in E flat major, Op. 7, for 13 wind instruments, including four of the French horns that this composer so revered. Such works of his youth – he was only 17 when he wrote them – are usually not worth rehearsing, but this work is an exception, a Mozart confection that mixes different timbres wonderfully. Mr Salonen led it with cool, elegant pull, the record was remarkable considering how long these players were absent from each other’s company.

Normally a break would have separated Brahms’ violin concerto from the rest of the program, but Covid-19 protocols still exist here. (The symphony rules also require masks for the strings and percussionists, but how long is unclear.) It gathered 55 members of the orchestra, the most allowed so far and closest to the pre-pandemic numbers.

The fact that the gifted Mr. Hadelich was the soloist only made the moment even more expensive. His assertive temperament matched his grand tone, yet he crafted his phrases carefully, even in an outwardly defiant performance like this. The closed and powerful sounding orchestra complemented him completely. And it was a pleasure to have the violinist perform his own dazzling cadences. The slow second movement was particularly touching, and the lively finale combined open optimism with an almost breathless quality. After a well-deserved, if predictable, standing ovation, Mr. Hadelich offered an unexpected solo encore, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s “Louisiana Blues Strut,” which he sent off with no less authority than he gave to the Brahms.

Mr Salonen will bring a similarly extensive program by Gabrieli, Strauss and Schumann to Davies on June 24th and 25th, if the audience restrictions are completely removed. He will continue this mode in July while dividing his concerts into indoor and outdoor locations. With September comes the new season and the likelihood of ever greater flexibility in programming. Progress has been slow and there have been setbacks, but the performing arts are steadily regaining lost ground here and elsewhere.

-Mr. Mermelstein writes for the journal for classical music and film.

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