The San Francisco Symphony (SFS) can look back over a history spanning more than 100 years, beginning with its first concerts in December 1911. Following the first two music directors, Henry Hadley (1911–15) and Alfred Hertz (1915–30), it was above all Pierre Monteux who fundamentally contributed to the SFS's ascent during his 17-year tenure, which began in 1935. Succeeding him were 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 served as Music Director, championing the American and Russian repertoire in particular and winning international attention for his interpretations of Mahler. The SFS's recordings have garnered some of the world’s most prestigious honors, among them numerous Grammy Awards, the Grand Prix du Disque, the Gramophone Award, and the German Record Critics’ Prize. The San Francisco Symphony also has a legacy of successful collaborations with many eminent guest conductors: Bruno Walter, Leopold Stokowski, Leonard Bernstein, and Georg Solti, to name a few. In addition, the SFS has been led by such famous composers as Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Pro-
kofiev, Maurice Ravel, Aaron Copland, and John Adams, who was appointed New Music Adviser in 1979 for a six-year term and who has continued to enjoy a close relationship with the SFS up to the present day. Its Adventures in Music initiative is the longest-running American education program, and a related effort, the SFS Youth Orchestra, was established in 1980. Broadcasts of the SFS’s concerts began in 1926 and are heard across the country; keepingscore.org, a project that uses interactive multimedia to make music accessible, was launched in 2006.
LUCERNE FESTIVAL (IMF) debut on 25 August 1990, with Herbert Blomstedt conducting Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony.
August 2015