To be heard in San Francisco next season: Isabel Bayrakdarian, Barbara
Bonney, David Daniels, Vsevolod Grivnov, Monica Groop, Thomas Hampson,
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Christopher Maltman, Irinia
Mishura, Matthew Polenzani, Christine Schafer, James Taylor, Gabriel
Suovanen, Juga Uusitalo, Deborah Voigt, Christina Wilcox.

No, not in the War Memorial Opera House. In the San Francisco Symphony's
Davies Hall.

Michael Tilson Thomas, who will spend his ninth year with SFS, is
persisting in his rich programming of vocal music. Announcing the 2003-'04
season (the orchestra's 92nd) today in an Internet2 video conference
from Miami, where is working with the New World Symphony, MTT spoke about
the "limitless possibilities" of the technology.

His image floating on the screen, Obi Wan Kenobi-like, and the audio
portion accompanied by frequent clicks and pops, MTT said he just suggested
to Mtislav Rostropovich that on the Russian conductor's next national
tour to various cities, he could just have a single rehearsal with all
those orchestras participating via Internet2. It's not entirely clear
if the suggestion was serious.

While leading the Symphony in 19 of the 32-week subscription season, MTT
is also hitting the road, both taking the orchestra along and by himself.
There will be a conductor exchange with the Los Angeles Philharmonic's
Esa-Pekka Salonen (MTT performing the Mahler Third Symphony in the LA
Philharmonic's new hall), and an orchestra exchange with the Cleveland
Symphony, the two groups participating in each other's subscription
season.

Additionally, as one of Carnegie Hall's newly-appointed Perspectives
artist (along with Emanuel Ax, Dawn Upshaw, and Mitsuko Uchida), MTT
will take both the San Francisco orchestra and the New World Symphony
to New York. The SFS Mahler recording project (which just garnered a
Grammy) continues with the Fifth and Second symphonies, the latter with
Bayrakdarian and Hunt Lieberson to end the season here and then to be
taken on a national tour.

The SF Symphony, still operating without a deficit, continues to expand
its outreach programs, serving 26,000 children in the city's schools,
with "Adventures in Music," and bringing 35,000 students into Davies
Hall for special concerts.

The 92nd season, MTT said, "covers a wide variety of composers, nationalities
and eras," but it appears paper-thin in adventurousness. Of nearly 100
works, only six are by American composers, 11 from living composers, and
there are only two world premieres, both by British composers, Colin
Matthews and Robin Holloway.

There is even less novelty, not even a smidgen of musical challenge in
programs brought by visiting orchestras. Daniel Barenboim will conduct
the Berliner Staatskapelle in Schumann's Second and Third symphonies;
Daniele Gatti leads the Royal Philharmonic in the Brahms Piano Concerto
No. 2 (with Garrick Ohlsson) and Beethoven's Third Symphony; Herbert
Blomstedt and the Royal Concertgebouw offer two programs, of Mozart,
Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Brahms; and Murray Perahia and the Academy
of St. Martin in the Fields perform music by Bach, Mozart and Beethoven.

MTT's Carnegie Hall participation in Perspective includes performances
there by his two orchestras of works by Adams, Berio, Cage, Debussy,
Mahler, and Tchaikovsky. He will also lead workshops for young musicians
and conduct a family concert this season.

Information about the season is at
http://www.sfsymphony.org/templates/news_samp.asp?nodeid=2783&callid=16

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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