Fantasy and Adventure

Phillipe Jordan leads the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and renowned pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet in Saint-Saens's elegant Piano Concerto No. 5, "The Egyptian"! Composed in Cairo when the composer was looking back upon his multiplicity of adventures around the world, its exotic color is intended by Saint-Saens to take the audience on a journey not just across Egypt, but across Africa, Asia and America.

 Following Thibaudet's performance, the evening climaxes in a stirring conclusion with Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. A dreamlike, almost psychedelic flight of orchestral arranging, Symphony Fantastique narrates the composer's romantic pursuit of his eventual wife Harriet Smithson, a Shakespearean actress, from poignant opium-induced unrequited love and despair to effervescent sonic joy. The rich program also includes the brilliance of Claude Debussy's Prlude l'aprs-midi d'un faune, one of the most evocative orchestra pieces in the canon, opening the evening with dreamy grace.