San Francisco Symphony - Dvorak and Prokofiev

Fire and friovolity

After making a splash with his San Francisco Symphony debut last year, Manfred Honeck returns to conduct this program featuring Dvorak's lively Eighth Symphony and Prokofiev's rarely performed labor of love for the Cello, Sinfonia Concertante.

Taking just two and half months to complete, Dvorak's Eighth is often overshadowed by his more stormy blockbusters like its predecessor, but his intention was to create something more fun and cheerful, an aim this Bohemian folk-infused work more than delivers on.

By contrast, Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante's gestation entered two decades from start to finish. First sketched in 1933, he abandoned the project after a disastrous first performance, only returning to adapt it in 1952 for Mstislav Rostropovich. Norwegian cellist Truls Mork will join the orchestra to breath life into this vivacious gem.