ArtsSF

Writing a symphony, composers are like architects designing a new city. But not Gustav Mahler. In his Symphony No. 3, he created a musical metropolis, @ 100 minutes running the length of two or three normal symphonies. The oversize 111-member orchestra, with doubled winds and harps, a paired set of timpani within a seven-member augmented percussion group, plus singers, add up to a bulging score more like four symphonies in one. The extravagance was unprecedented, with no regard for production…

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An enigmatic all-Russian program is winding down the S.F. Symphony season, raising provocative questions while posing as provocative protest pieces. All but a Tchaikovsky selection were written under the strict thought control of the Soviet Union in the 20th century. But, as musicians well knew, when neither literature, news media nor stage works permitted deviation from the party line, music was one viable dissent possibility if threaded skillfully. None fit this elusive mold more than the “Fairytale Poem” composed for…

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Paying a generous end-of-season dividend, the San Francisco Symphony provided the patrons with a triple bill: Orchestra, a colossal vocal drama and a modern dance troupe, all compressed into a single program. And the vocal part unleashed the most exciting operatic voice heard all year, Mary Elizabeth Williams, acting out the Arnold Schoenberg monodrama “Erwartung” (Expectation) in passionate, semi-coherent detail. Music director Esa-Pekka Salonen carried off this budget-busting cornucopia of musical treats in the last month of his penultimate season,…

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