BERLIOZ: ROMEO ET JULIETTE

Discover powerful and moving music by Tchaikovsky in this all-new release from Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony. With the heroic Symphony No. 5 and the passionate Romeo and Juliet, featuring one of the best-known love themes ever written, this thrilling, live recording is the perfect addition to any music collection.

This recording features two of the works that helped cement Beethoven's reputation as a creative genius like none other. Internationally acclaimed pianist Emanuel Ax joins Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony in a dynamic performance of Beethoven's robust Piano Concerto No.3. Then, MTT leads the GRAMMY-winning San Francisco Symphony Chorus and musicians in a rarely performed work, Beethoven's sublime Mass in C major.

This release from Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony features Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 coupled with the Leonore Overture No. 3. One of his most stirring works and also one that he considered among his best, Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 was immensely popular from it's first playing. Recently, it's powerful second movement was used to great dramatic effect in the seminal moments of the Oscar-winning movie the King's Speech. While Beethoven wrote only one opera, he wrote multiple overtures for it, and the third of the series fully captures the joyful outcome of the story. Both recordings were taken from live in concerts held at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.

HOLIDAYS SYMPHONY / APPALACHIAN SPRING

Winner of the 2020 GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Compendium!

In celebration of Michael Tilson Thomas' 25th and final year as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, SFS Media presents the premiere recordings of MTT's first and most recent compositions for voice and orchestra. MTT's From the Diary of Anne Frank and Meditations on Rilke feature narrator Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, and bass-baritone Ryan McKinny. Inspired by and based on the words and compassionate spirit of Anne Frank, From the Diary of Anne Frank opens with a flourish and culminates in a solemn yet hopeful vision for the future. Meditations on Rilke takes listeners on an emotional and evocative journey befitting the lyrical sweep of Rainer Maria Rilke's poems. This album will be available June 26, 2020 for digital download and streaming and July 17, 2020 in studio master-quality double SACD set.

In September 2011, Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony launched the Orchestra's milestone Centennial Season with a celebratory gala concert at Davies Symphony Hall dubbed "Fanfare for a New Century." the gala concert was broadcast nationally on PBS in March and April 2012 as part of their Great Performances series. The gala was hosted by Bay Area author Amy Tan and directed for television by Gary Halvorson and features one of the leading artists of our time, violinist Itzhak Perlman performing Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor. The concert opens with Aaron Copland's vivid portrayal of American prairie life, the Billy the Kid ballet suite and concludes with Britten's orchestral showpiece the Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. Capping off the concert is an encore of Bay Area composer John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine featuring moving images of San Francisco projected throughout Davies Symphony Hall. San Francisco Symphony at 100 also includes historical documentary features narrated by Amy Tan highlighting the orchestra's early beginnings, it's rich history of touring and it's commitment to young people and innovations in media.

The Grammy Award-winning team of Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony releases a premium edition two-disc recording of the complete symphonies of Robert Schumann, one of the most evocative composers of the Romantic era. Michael Tilson Thomas’ nuanced approach accentuates the tender, simple, and vulnerable side of Schumann’s symphonies, which MTT calls a “preserve for endangered emotions.” Recorded live, these performances of Schumann’s symphonies are hailed as “nothing short of magnificent” by the San Francisco Chronicle. Produced by the Symphony’s in-house record label SFS Media in the highest quality audio, and packaged in a deluxe 82-page hard-bound book.

All works recorded in PCM 192 kHz/24-bit audio live at Davies Symphony Hall—a venue of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center, City and County of San Francisco, California Symphony No. 1 (November 19-22, 2015), Symphony No. 2 (March 30-April 2, 2016), Symphony No. 3 (November 13-15. 2015), and Symphony No. 4 (May 19-22, 2016)

In September 2011, Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony launched the Orchestra's milestone Centennial Season with a celebratory gala concert at Davies Symphony Hall dubbed "Fanfare for a New Century." the gala concert was broadcast nationally on PBS in March and April 2012 as part of their Great Performances series. The gala was hosted by Bay Area author Amy Tan and directed for television by Gary Halvorson and features one of the leading artists of our time, violinist Itzhak Perlman performing Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor. The concert opens with Aaron Copland's vivid portrayal of American prairie life, the Billy the Kid ballet suite and concludes with Britten's orchestral showpiece the Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. Capping off the concert is an encore of Bay Area composer John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine featuring moving images of San Francisco projected throughout Davies Symphony Hall. San Francisco Symphony at 100 also includes historical documentary features narrated by Amy Tan highlighting the orchestra's early beginnings, it's rich history of touring and it's commitment to young people and innovations in media.

Directed by David Kennard, Joan Saffa.

Directed by David Kennard, Joan Saffa. Starring San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas.

Shostakovich may have hidden a subversive cipher beneath the surface of his life-saving Symphony No. 5. After his opera Lady MacBeth was publically condemned as immoral by Pravda, the Soviet newspaper, Shostakovich knew he only had one chance to redeem himself. When he penned this fifth symphony, the composer was literally writing for his life. Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony explore the hidden language of this masterwork. As a bonus, the DVD includes a full-length concert performance of this symphony.

Directed by David Kennard, Joan Saffa. Starring San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas.

Classical Music

This special release from SFS Media features conductor Donato Cabrera leading the world-renowned San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in a recording of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No.1, performed live at the Berlin Philharmonie during the Orchestra's eighth European tour. This album features one of the finest youth ensembles in the world, comprised of more than one hundred of the Bay Area's most talented young instrumentalists. Mahler's colorful symphony provides ample chance for these future stars to shine.

Directed by Gary Halvorson, David Kennard, Joan Saffa.

SYMPHONY 7

This powerful new recording from Michael Tilson-Thomas and the Grammy Award winning San Francisco Symphony and Chorus pairs Beethoven's colossal Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II with his playful, upbeat Symphony No. 2. Rarely performed or recorded, Beethoven's gripping and profoundly moving funeral cantata proved a revelation during the Symphony's May 2013 Beethoven Project concert series. The recording features a glorious solo quartet - soprano Sally Matthews, mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford, tenor Barry Banks and bass-baritone Andrew Foster-Williams. Presented as a premium quality hybrid multi-channel SACD, this album is the latest addition to the San Francisco Symphony's ongoing series of Beethoven recordings.

RITE OF SPRING / FIREBIRD SUITE EXCERPTS

As seen on PBS, the San Francisco Symphony's ongoing series, Keeping Score, explores Berlioz's romantic masterpiece, Smymphonie Fantastique. This orchestral sonic spectacular, written to win the heart of a beautiful actress, demanded sacrifice from it's author and his audience. From romantic daydreams to displays of devotion, the symphony relates an "episode in the life of an artist," that artist being the love-obsessed composer himself. This DVD includes as a bonus a full-length concert performance of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.

SYMPHONY NO. 3

SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE

SYMPHONY 5 / PIANO CONCERTO 4

Directed by Gary Halvorson, David Kennard, Joan Saffa. Starring Michael Tilson Thomas.

Directed by Gary Halvorson, David Kennard, Joan Saffa. Starring San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas.