<<

SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY Susanna Phillips soprano

BERG Violin Three Pieces for , Op. 6

© Symphony, 2021 MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS laureate and conductor

ALBAN BERG (1885–1935)

Violin Concerto (1935) 29:09 Three Pieces for Orchestra, Opus 6 (1929 revision) 21:51 Gil Shaham violin 10. Praeludium: Slow 5:48 1. Andante—Allegretto 12:02 11. Reigen: A little hesitant at first—Light and winged 5:51 2. Allegro—Adagio 17:07 12. Marsch: Moderate march tempo 10:11 Seven Early Songs (1905–08 / 1928) 16:09 Susanna Phillips soprano 3. Nacht 3:56 4. Schilflied 2:15 5. Die Nachtigall 2:14 6. Traumgekrönt 2:53 7. Im Zimmer 1:08 8. Liebesode 1:50 9. Sommertage 1:52

2 BERG © San Francisco Symphony, 2021 ALBAN MARIA JOHANNES BERG BORN: February 9, 1885. , / DIED: December 24, 1935. Vienna, Austria

THE BACKSTORY that his imagination apparently could not work on anything but songs. . . . He was absolutely did not get off to a promising start. A incapable of writing an instrumental movement or terrible student, he had to repeat two separate years inventing an instrumental theme.” of high school before he could graduate. A fling Schoenberg’s tutelage had done its job, and with the family’s kitchen-maid led to his attaining Three Pieces for Orchestra, Opus 6 (1913–15, fatherhood at the age of seventeen. Though revised 1929) marked Berg’s decisive emergence passionate about music, he was clearly not cut out to full maturity as a . Having conquered for academic success, and he sensibly accepted a the demands of large-scale structure, he would position as an unpaid intern for some civil-service now direct almost all his energy toward generously position. proportioned compositions, whether in opera The decisive step toward his eventual career (, ) or instrumental music (Chamber arrived in the autumn of 1904, when he and Concerto, , ). These signed up for composition lessons works, along with Three Pieces for Orchestra, with , who had placed a underscore Berg’s ongoing reputation as a master newspaper advertisement in the hope of attracting of spacious expression. pupils. Schoenberg, who was a little more than ten years older than Berg and was not yet famous, stopped offering formal classes after a THE MUSIC ALBAN BERG year, frustrated that most of his pupils showed no aptitude for composition. But the talented Concerto for Violin and Orchestra students, including both Webern and Berg, stuck In the spring of 1935, Alban Berg received with him. Schoenberg did not mandate that his word that Gropius, the eighteen-year- students adopt his own compositional methods; old daughter of Werfel (widow of indeed, Webern and Berg developed strikingly Gustav) and the well-known architect Walter individualistic voices. Gropius, had died of polio. Berg had adored the Berg made immense progress during his girl since her earliest childhood, and, harnessing formal studies with Schoenberg, which continued the creative energy that tragedy can inspire, he from 1904 until 1911. Writing to his publisher resolved to compose a musical memorial. “Before in 1911, Schoenberg remarked: “Alban Berg this terrible year has passed,” he wrote in a letter is an extraordinarily gifted composer, but the to Alma, “you and Franz [Werfel, her current state he was in when he came to me was such husband] will be able to hear, in the form of a

3 BERG © San Francisco Symphony, 2021 score which I shall dedicate ‘to the memory of an The concerto’s most astonishing section is more cheerful aspect of Manon, even to the point angel,’ that which I feel and today cannot express.” doubtless its conclusion: a set of variations on the of Berg’s introducing a Carinthian folk melody, Berg immediately turned his entire focus to the Lutheran “Es ist genug! Herr wenn es Dir played by solo horn. musical memorial, which took the form of a violin gefällt.” (It is enough! Lord, if it pleases You). After Following this pastoral reverie, the second concerto. Leaving off work on the final act of his the piece was already well along, Berg discovered movement seems macabre and nightmarish. It opera Lulu (which would remain incomplete), he that the opening notes of that chorale, which he begins in energetic, rhapsodic phrases that lead moved to a summer cottage on the Wörthersee. knew through its harmonization in J.S. Bach’s to a musical climax. This introduces the chorale It was at the Wörthersee that Mahler had built Cantata No. 60, corresponded exactly to the final melody, which sounds almost shocking in its a summer getaway—at Maiernigg, on the lake’s four notes of his . The chorale melody is twelve-tone context, followed by two variations on southern shore. And, as Berg was delighted to striking in that it begins with a succession of three the melody. After a musical and dramatic struggle point out, it was at the Wörthersee that Johannes whole tones, which together describe a tritone between soloist and orchestra, a metaphor for the Brahms had written much of his Violin Concerto, (the interval of the augmented fourth), anciently struggle of the living soul against the insistence while staying at a hotel in Pörtschach, on the forbidden as the “devil in music.” Berg quickly of death, the Carinthian folk song wafts through northern side. realized that his current project enjoyed not just again, this time as if from a distance, and then the Berg worked feverishly on the concerto. a musical connection to the chorale, but a poetic chorale appears one last time. In the final bars, the Normally he required two years to write a large- one as well, since the text of the chorale supremely solo violin, as if solving the puzzle presented by the scale work; the Violin Concerto was completed expressed an emotion he was wanting to articulate two disparate approaches to harmony, articulates in less than four months. At the head of the about ’s inevitable resignation to the entire twelve-tone row simple and unadorned, manuscript he inscribed “To the Memory of an untimely death: from its lowest note to its highest, three octaves Angel,” just as he had promised. The name of above. As the violin ascends in this ultimate , the Ukrainian-born, -based It is enough! gesture, the other instruments of the orchestra violinist who commissioned the work, was also Lord, if it pleases You, descend to their lowest registers, a world away from appended to the score as dedicatee. Unshackle me at last. the soloist. This piece, Berg’s only solo concerto, evolved My Jesus comes; according to the twelve-tone principles that he had I bid the world goodnight. Seven Early Songs learned from Arnold Schoenberg and championed I travel to the heavenly home. When Berg organized and orchestrated his Seven as only a great composer could—which is to I surely travel there in peace, Early Songs, in 1928, he was reaching back say, by using those principles as a means toward My troubles left below. through two decades that had deeply transformed articulating a unique world of expression. Within It is enough! It is enough! his musical style. With his setting of “Schliesse mir his tone row (that is, the series of twelve pitches die Augen beide ” (1925, the only song of his later on which a composition is based), Berg chooses The concerto occupies two movements, each years) and his Lyric Suite (1925–26), he had firmly to emphasize those pitches that correspond to the in two parts, in the overall sequence of Andante— entered the world of twelve-tone composition, and open strings of the violin, yielding a harmonic Allegretto / Allegro—Adagio. A nostalgic, he was about to begin work on his monumental basis that makes perfect sense in terms of the forces dreamy quality pervades the first section, whose (and uncompleted) opera Lulu. The Seven Early involved. These are intoned at the very outset of improvisational spirit belies its rigid musical Songs project was to some extent an exercise in the concerto. organization. The ensuing Allegretto recalls a nostalgia, an opportunity to revisit his formative

4 BERG © San Francisco Symphony, 2021 years under his great teacher, with whom he strings. “Traumgekrönt ” points ahead to a very and slow movement (in that order!),” and Marsch sometimes enjoyed a rocky relationship despite the Modernist sound; the gem-like “Im Zimmer ” uses as a symphonic finale—at least if one wanted to respect each felt towards the other. After Arnold the orchestra without strings; the highly chromatic view it as a “fictitious symphony.” Certainly this Schoenberg heard the Seven Early Songs at their “Liebesode ” stands near the breaking point of work’s proportions and thematic treatment are very premiere in the spring of 1929 he sent tonality; and “Sommertage ” reflects the nervous different from those of traditional symphonies. Berg a congratulatory telegram, to which Berg energy and soaring ecstasy of Strauss, whose opera Berg pushed the symphonic envelope very far. responded with great humility: “The fact that had recently taken European stages by Praeludium begins and ends with the sounds these songs are so intimately connected with the storm. of percussion, soft and shadowed. In between, time of my studies with you, makes them for me the music builds through several episodes more valuable than they actually are. And that I Three Pieces for Orchestra, Opus 6 (passing through a solo violin passage of arresting succeeded in scoring these songs in such a Three Pieces for Orchestra, Opus 6, fully beauty) and reaching an impressive sonic climax way that you found they sounded well, has brought demonstrates Berg’s fluency in manipulating a in the middle—a large-scale arch that is easily this past still nearer to me.” huge orchestra toward an expressive end. Direct apprehended by the listener. The seven songs, which Berg originally inspiration for the piece seems to have come from Berg suggested that Reigen—usually translated composed in piano-and-voice versions from 1905 Berg’s witnessing the posthumous premiere of into English as “Round-dance” and sometimes as to 1908, fit comfortably into the great tradition ’s Ninth Symphony in . “Rounds”—served as the point of departure for of the German-Austrian song. Although we may One might fairly say that he picked up where the Inn Scene (Act II, Scene 4) in his Wozzeck, occasionally spy Berg’s individualistic voice in Mahler left off; Three Pieces for Orchestra takes the opera he had set aside temporarily in order them (particularly in the orchestrations), we are Mahlerian transformation and exaggeration to an to compose Three Pieces for Orchestra. Its hazy just as likely to light on similarities to such slightly extreme, all overlaid upon a structure of traditional opening gradually coalesces into a drunken earlier figures as , , dance-types, such as ländler, waltz, and march. waltz—a nineteenth-century ideal run amok in the and , not to mention certain Everything is meticulously organized in these period of (thus prefiguring Maurice operatic passages of . They are, in complex movements, which are unified by the Ravel’s La Valse, composed only a few years later). sum, a gorgeous summation of the possibilities of careful interweaving of thematic material. The Marsch is a jaw-dropping conclusion to this set, song style at the turn of the century. In “Nacht ” we first two pieces perfectly balance the length of sonically powerful, emotionally concentrated, and find soaring phrasesà la Strauss, but the prevalence the third. In fact, the first two movements were tipping its hat to Mahler by including hammer- of a whole-tone scale, put to both melodic and premiered as a pair (not until 1923), but even strokes to intensify the sense of catastrophe, much harmonic use, brings to mind then Marsch had to be delayed due to insufficient as Mahler had done in his Sixth Symphony. (and foreshadows Béla Bartók), while a muted rehearsal time and was not heard until seven years brass passage before the final quatrain sounds later. (The published score allows that the first two —James M. Keller straight out of Gustav Mahler. “Schilflied ”owes movements may be presented without the third.) James M. Keller is the longtime Program Annotator of the much to Wolf, its sense of the miniature reinforced Three Pieces for Orchestra grew out of a project San Francisco Symphony and the . by a chamber-like scoring in which strings are Berg had intended to be a symphony, and he never reduced to one-on-a-part. “Die Nachtigall ”seems entirely relinquished that connection. almost a reincarnation of Brahms, with its elegant When the set was premiered in its entirety, in counterpoint (which Berg was then studying with 1930, he characterized Praeludium as a symphonic Schoenberg) and a rich accompaniment of divided first movement,Reigen as encompassing a “scherzo

5 BERG © San Francisco Symphony, 2021 Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony

6 BERG © San Francisco Symphony, 2021 Sieben frühe Lieder Seven Early Songs

Nacht Night Die Nachtigall Dämmern Wolken über Nacht und Tal, Clouds grow dim over night and valley, Das macht, es hat die Nachtigall It was because the nightingale Nebel schweben, Wasser rauschen sacht. a mist is floating, water softly rushing by. die ganze Nacht gesungen; sang all night long; Nun entschleiert sich’s mit einemmal: Now, all at once, the veil is lifted: da sind von ihrem süssen Schall, from its sweet sound, O gib acht! Gib acht! Oh take heed! Take heed! da sind in Hall und Widerhall in echo and re-echo die Rosen aufgesprungen. the roses have burst into bloom. Weites Wunderland ist aufgetan. A wide wonderland has opened up. Silbern ragen Berge traumhaft gross, Mountains loom large and silver, as if in a dream. Sie war doch sonst ein wildes Blut; Once her blood ran wild; stille Pfade silberlicht talan Quiet silver-lit paths lead toward the valley nun geht sie tief in Sinnen, yet now she walks deep in thought, aus verborgnem Schoss; from a hidden source; trägt in der Hand den Sommerhut she carries her summer hat in her hand, und duldet still der Sonne Glut, and calmly bears the heat of the sun, und die hehre Welt so traumhaft rein. The world is sublime, as pure as a dream. und weiss nicht, was beginnen. and doesn’t know what to do next. Stummer Buchenbaum am Wege steht schattenschwarz, A silent beech tree stands by a road, in black shadow, ein Hauch vom fernen Hain einsam leise weht. a breeze from a distant grove drifts by, gently and lonely. Das macht, es hat die Nachtigall It was because the nightingale die ganze Nacht gesungen; sang all night long; Und aus tiefen Grundes Düsterheit And from the gloom, deep down, da sind von ihrem süssen Schall, from its sweet sound, blinken Lichter auf in stummer Nacht. lights start to twinkle in the silent night. da sind in Hall und Widerhall in echo and re-echo Trinke Seele! Trinke Einsamkeit! Drink, o soul! Drink solitude! die Rosen aufgesprungen. the roses have burst into bloom. O gib acht! Gib acht! Oh take heed! Take heed! —Theodor Storm —Carl Hauptmann

Schilflied Song of the Reeds Traumgekrönt Crowned by a Dream Auf geheimem Waldespfade Taking a secret path through the forest, Das war der Tag der weissen Chrysanthemen That was the day of white chrysanthemums, schleich’ ich gern im Abendschein I like to sneak away in the evening light mir bangte fast vor seiner Pracht . . . I was afraid of their splendor . . . an das öde Schilfgestade, To desolate reedy riverbank, Und dann, dann kamst du mir die Seele And then, then you came to me Mädchen, und gedenke dein. and think of you, my girl. nehmen tief in der Nacht. to take my soul, deep in the night. Wenn sich dann der Busch verdüstert, As the bushes grow dark, Mir war so bang, und du kamst lieb und leise, I was so afraid, and you came lovingly and gently, rauscht das Rohr geheimnisvoll, the reeds rustle mysteriously, ich hatte grad im Traum an dich gedacht. I had just been thinking of you in that dream. und es klaget und es flüstert and their moaning and whispering Du kamst, und leis’ wie eine Märchenweise You came, and softly the night rang out dass ich weinen, weinen soll. makes me weep and weep. erklang die Nacht. like a fairy tale. Und ich mein’, ich höre wehen And I think I hear the sound of your voice — leise deiner Stimme Klang, gently wafting over me und im Weiher untergehen and your lonely song deinen lieblichen Gesang. glides down to the pond. —Nicolaus Lenau

7 BERG © San Francisco Symphony, 2021 Im Zimmer In the Room Herbstsonnenschein. Autumn sunlight. Der liebe Abend blickt so still herein. The lovely evening peers inside so quietly. Ein Feuerlein rot knistert im Ofenloch und loht. A little red fire crackles in the stove and flares up. So! Mein Kopf auf deinen Knie’n, so ist mir gut. So! My head is on your knees, so all is well with me. Wenn mein Auge so in deinem ruht, When my eyes rest upon yours, wie leise die Minuten zieh’n. how gently the minutes pass. —Johannes Schlaf

Liebesode Ode of Love Im Arm der Liebe schliefen wir selig ein. In the arms of love we fell blissfully asleep. Am offnen Fenster lauschte der Sommerwind, At the open window the summer wind listened, und unserer Atemzüge Frieden trug er hinaus and it carries the calmness of our breathing in die helle Mondnacht. out into the bright, moonlit night. Und aus dem Garten tastete zagend sich And from the garden, a scent of roses ein Rosenduft an unserer Liebe Bett timidly felt its way to our bed of love und gab uns wundervolle Träume. and gave us wonderful dreams. Träume des Rausches, so reich an Sehnsucht. Dreams of ecstasy, so rich with yearning. —Otto Erich Hartleben

Sommertage Summer Days Nun ziehen Tage über die Welt, Now days spread over the world, gesandt aus blauer Ewigkeit, sent forth from blue eternity. im Sommerwind verweht die Zeit. In the summer wind, time is blown away. Nun windet nächtens der Herr Now at night, the Lord’s blessed hand Sternenkränze mit seliger Hand weaves garlands of stars über Wander- und Wunderland. Above a wanderer’s wonderland. O Herz, was kann in diesen Tagen So then my heart, in these days, dein hellstes Wanderlied den sagen What can your brightest wanderer’s song say von deiner tiefen, tiefen Lust: about your deep, deep happiness? Im Wiesensang verstummt die Brust, The heart falls silent at the meadows’ song; nun schweigt das Wort, wo Bild um Bild words are mute. Here you absorb image fter image zu dir zieht und dich ganz erfüllt. and you are totally fulfilled. —Paul Hohenberg Translations: Peter Grunberg

8 BERG © San Francisco Symphony, 2021 Susanna Phillips and Michael Tilson Thomas

9 BERG © San Francisco Symphony, 2021 The SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY gave its first concerts in December 1911. Its music directors have included Henry Hadley, , , lssay Dobrowen, , Enrique Jordá, , , , , and, Michael Tilson Thomas, who now serves as the Orchestra’s first Music Director Laureate. Esa- Pekka Salonen began his tenure as San Francisco Symphony Music Director in September 2020. The Symphony has won such recording awards as France’s Grand Prix du Disque, Britain’s Gramophone Award, ’s ECHO Klassik, and the ’s Grammy. Releases on the Symphony’s own label, SFS Media, include a cycle of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies that has received seven Grammys, several volumes devoted to the works of , and ’s and Short Ride in a Fast Machine, which won a 2013 Grammy for Best Orchestral Performance, and the 2013 ECHO Klassik. Other recent recordings on SFS Media include Grammy-nominated albums of ’s orchestral works and ’s and John Adams. The San Francisco Symphony to make accessible to people of all complete symphonies. For RCA Red Seal, Michael Youth Orchestra, founded in 1980, has become ages and backgrounds, the Symphony launched Tilson Thomas and the Symphony have recorded known around the world, as has the San Francisco Keeping Score on PBS-TV, DVD, radio, and scenes from ’s , a Symphony Chorus, heard on recordings and on online. San Francisco Symphony recordings are collection of ’s ballets, and Charles the soundtracks of such films as Amadeus and The available online and at the Symphony Store in Ives: An American Journey, among others. Godfather, Part III. For more than two decades, Davies Symphony Hall. Some of the most important conductors of the Symphony’s Adventures in Music program has the past and recent years have been guests on brought music to every child in grades 1 through the San Francisco Symphony podium, among 5 in San Francisco’s public schools. San Francisco them , , Leonard Symphony radio broadcasts, the first in the US Bernstein, and Sir , and the list of to feature symphonic music when they began in who have led the Orchestra includes 1926, today carry the Orchestra’s concerts across Stravinsky, , , the country. In a multimedia program designed

10 BERG © San Francisco Symphony, 2021 the orchestral concert experience with multimedia Tilson Thomas’s recordings have won and creative staging, showcasing the works of numerous international awards, including American composers, and attracting new audiences 12 Grammys, 11 for San Francisco Symphony to orchestral music, both at home at Davies recordings. In 2014, he inaugurated SoundBox, Symphony Hall and through the Orchestra’s the Symphony’s alternative performance space extensive media projects. and eclectic live music series. His television credits A native, Tilson Thomas include the New York Philharmonic Young studied with John Crown and at People’s Concerts and Keeping Score on PBS- the University of Southern , becoming TV, which he and the San Francisco Symphony Music Director of the Young Musicians launched in 2004. His compositions include From Foundation Debut Orchestra at nineteen. He the Diary of Anne Frank and Meditations on Rilke, worked with Igor Stravinsky, , both recorded with the San Francisco Symphony , and Aaron Copland at and released on SFS Media in June 2020; Shówa/ the famed Monday Evening Concerts and was Shoáh ; settings of poems by and conductor for the Piatigorsky and and Walt Whitman; Island Music ; Notturno ; and Heifetz master classes. In 1969, Tilson Thomas Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind. Tilson was appointed Assistant Conductor of the Boston Thomas was a 2019 recipient of the Kennedy Symphony Orchestra (BSO). Ten days later he Center Honors, was Musical America ’s Musician came to international recognition, replacing Music and Conductor of the Year, and was inducted into Director in mid-concert at the . He has been elected Lincoln Center, going on to become the BSO’s to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Principal Guest Conductor. He has also served the American Academy of Arts and Letters, was MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS as Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic; inducted in the , and was Conductor, composer, and educator Michael Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles awarded the by President Tilson Thomas is Music Director Laureate of Philharmonic; and as Principal Conductor, Obama. Tilson Thomas was named an Officier in the San Francisco Symphony, Co-Founder and Principal Guest Conductor, and now Conductor the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in June Artistic Director of the New World Symphony, Laureate of the Symphony Orchestra. 2020, recognizing his continued contributions to and Conductor Laureate of the London Symphony Tilson Thomas is also Artistic Director of the global culture and the vast impact of his 25 years Orchestra. In June 2020, he completed a New World Symphony, which he co-founded as as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony. remarkable 25-year tenure as Music Director of the an orchestral academy dedicated to preparing San Francisco Symphony. gifted graduates of distinguished music programs Beginning with his debut in 1974, Tilson for leadership roles in classical music. Since its Thomas and the Symphony developed what is inception in 1987, the New World Symphony widely considered one of the most dynamic and has helped launch the careers of more than 1,200 productive partnerships in the orchestral world, alumni worldwide, including more than 15 notable for innovative programming, enhancing members of the San Francisco Symphony.

11 BERG © San Francisco Symphony, 2021 GIL SHAHAM was born in 1971 in Illinois and grew up in Israel, where Alabama-born soprano SUSANNA PHILLIPS, recipient of the he studied at the Rubin Academy of Music. He made his debut at age ten ’s 2010 Beverly Sills Artist Award, continues to establish with the Symphony and Israel Philharmonic, and the following herself as a sought-after singing actor and recitalist. She is a regular guest at year, took the first prize in Israel’s Claremont Competition. He then became the Metropolitan Opera, where she has appeared in roles such as Musetta in a scholarship student at Juilliard, and he also studied at . La bohème, Micaëla in , Donna Elvira in , Fiordiligi in Mr. Shaham made his San Francisco Symphony debut in 1990 as a Shenson Così fan tutte, Rosalinde in , and Clémence in the company Young Artist and has since returned often. premiere of ’s L’amour de loin. Highlights of Ms. Phillips’s Recent season highlights include performances with the Berlin previous opera seasons include the role of the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, at Cincinnati Opera and debuts at the Gran Teatro del Liceu as Pamina in , New York Philharmonic, and Orchestre de , Die Zauberflöte, and at Opernhaus Zürich and Opera as Donna as well as multi-year residencies with the of Montreal, Stuttgart, and Anna in Don Giovanni. In concert she has appeared with the Royal Stockholm Singapore. His exploration of violin of the 1930s has included the Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Baroque, La Jolla works of , Béla Bartók, Alban Berg, , Music Society’s SummerFest, and the , among many and Sergei Prokofiev, among many others. others. She also paired with bass-baritone Eric Owens for a recital program of Mr. Shaham has recorded more than two dozen CDs, earning multiple music by , which they have also taken on tour with members , a Grand Prix du Disque, Diapason d’Or, and Gramophone of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Gilmore Festival, and Philadelphia Editor’s Choice award. Many of these recordings appear on Canary Classics, Chamber Music Society. A native of Huntsville, AL, she made her San the label he founded in 2004. Notable releases include the two-volume 1930s Francisco Symphony debut in 2012. Violin Concertos, Virtuoso Violin Works, Elgar’s Violin Concerto, Hebrew Melodies, The Butterfly Lovers, J.S. Bach’s complete sonatas and partitas for solo violin, and many more. Mr. Shaham was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1990 and won the Avery Fisher Prize in 2008. He was named Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America in 2012. He plays the 1699 “Countess Polignac” Stradivarius violin, and lives in with his wife, violinist , and their three children.

12 BERG © San Francisco Symphony, 2021 Producer: Jack Vad Engineering Support: Jason O’Connell, Gus Pollek, Greg Moore, Dann Thompson, Denise Woodward Post-Production: Mark Willsher Mastering: Gus Skinas Cover photo: iStock by Getty Images / Golero Booklet photos: Brandon Patoc and Kristen Loken Booklet Photo Pg 4: Max Fenichel / {{PD-US}} Graphic Design: Karin Elsener

All editorial materials © San Francisco Symphony, 2021. All rights reserved. San Francisco Symphony, Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, CA 94102

Total Playing Time: 01:07:09

All works recorded in PCM 192 kHz/24-bit audio live at Davies Symphony Hall—a venue of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center, City and County of San Francisco. Violin Concerto (March 22–25, 2018) Seven Early Songs (November 23–25, 2018) Three Pieces for Orchestra (January 21–23, 2015)

Visit the San Francisco Symphony at sfsymphony.org Gil Shaham and Michael Tilson Thomas Unauthorized reproduction by any means is forbidden without prior written permission from SFS Media®. Text and images © San Francisco Symphony, 2021. All rights reserved. San Francisco Symphony, Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, CA 94102

[email protected]

13 BERG © San Francisco Symphony, 2021