The San Francisco Symphony, which gave its first public concerts in December 1911, will soon be able to look back over a full century of history. Following its first music directors, Henry Hadley (1911–15) and Alfred Hertz (1915–30), it was Pierre Monteux above all who vitally contributed to the rise of the SFS during his 17-year tenure, beginning in 1935. After him came Enrique Jordá (1954–63), Josef Krips (1963–70), Seiji Ozawa (1970–77), Edo de Waart (1977–85), and Herbert Blomstedt (1985–95). Since 1995 Michael Tilson Thomas has held the position of Music Director: He is strongly committed to promoting American and Russian repertoire and has earned international acclaim for his interpretations of Mahler. The SFS’s recordings have been honored with all the leading record prizes, including numerous Grammy Awards, the French Grand Prix du Disque, the British Gramophone Award, and German Record Critics’ Award. The San Francisco Symphony can also point to successful collaborations with many prominent guest conductors, including such luminaries as Bruno Walter, Leopold Stokowski, Leonard Bernstein, and Georg Solti. Renowned composers have also led the SFS—among them, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Maurice Ravel, Aaron Copland, and John Adams, who was appointed in 1979 to a six-year term as New Music Adviser. With its Adventures in Music, the San Francisco Symphony was the first American orchestral ensemble to establish an education program which introduces school children to music; also relevant in this context is the founding of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, which followed in 1980. Since 1926 the SFS’s concerts have been broadcast via radio across the whole country; in 2008 the interactive project keepingscore.org was launched as a program that uses word, sound, and image to provide an introduction into music.
LUCERNE FESTIVAL (IMF) debut on August 25, 1990 in Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony, under the direction of von Herbert Blomstedt.
June, 2010