Orchestra

Valery Gergiev, one of the heavyweights on the international music scene, does have his detractors. Just within the context of his Sunday-Monday appearances in Davies Symphony Hall, leading the London Symphony Orchestra in two eventful concerts, there were numerous items possibly contradicting what may well be a general enthusiasm about the conductor.

George Cleve is best-known these days as director of the Midsummer Mozart Festival, but in person, with his beard and his solid presence at the podium, he looks rather like Johannes Brahms. Born in Vienna, though long a resident of the Bay Area, he’s a conductor who actually specializes in both these great Viennese composers.

Is it a sign of things to come? After announcing his hopes to eventually expand the San Francisco Opera Orchestra’s scope to include orchestral performances, SFO Music Director Designate Nicola Luisotti stepped before the San Francisco Symphony for the first time in an all-orchestral program at Davies Symphony Hall.

You think things are worse now than in the days of Franz Joseph Haydn?

Estonian-born Arvo Pärt is especially prized for the universal resonance of his haunting blend of Russian Orthodox Christian mysticism and modern harmonies. Even those with strong aversions to the Church’s long history of reactionary and punitive intervention in social and political affairs are often transported by the transcendental nature of the 74-year-old composer’s music.

The program that Evgeny Kissin played at Davies Symphony Hall on Thursday brought together Sergei Prokofiev, a flamboyant 20th-century extrovert — the “Russian Liszt” (as Francis Poulenc called him) — and Frederic Chopin, a reticent bard of the 19th-century piano.

“The man breathes music,” exclaimed one longtime San Francisco Opera Orchestra member after Music Director designate Nicola Luisotti conducted performances of Puccini’s La Bohème a few months back. Since Luisotti clearly has the grand sweep of music in his blood, why should he limit himself to opera?

Symphony Silicon Valley's chorale is one of its best features, so the opportunity to hear them led by the renowned choral conductor Vance George, retired San Francisco Symphony choirmaster, should be a local highlight — especially when the program features the elegant and airy Requiem of Gabriel Fauré. This concert is not part of the regular Symphony Silicon Valley season.