San Francisco Symphony’s All-Bernstein Carnegie Hall Concert to be Broadcast Nationally on Great Performances on PBS October 29
Hampson, Upshaw, Tilson Thomas, Ma and Ebersole with the San Francisco Symphony performing Ya Got Me
A Celebration of Leonard Bernstein: Carnegie Hall Opening Night 2008 DVD to be released on SFS Media
The San Francisco Symphony (SFS)’s September 24 all-Bernstein gala concert opening the Carnegie Hall 2008-09 season will be broadcast nationally Wednesday, October 29* on Thirteen/WNET New York’s GREAT PERFORMANCES on PBS (check local listings) and released on DVD, on the Symphony’s SFS Media label. Bay Area audiences can watch Carnegie Hall Opening Night 2008: A Celebration of Leonard Bernstein on KQED Channel 9 and KQED-HD at 9 p.m. on October 29. The 90-minute program will repeat at 3 a.m. Thursday, October 30. It will also be broadcast on KQED Life on Thursday, October 30 at 8 p.m. and repeated on Friday, October 31 at 2 a.m.
The DVD of the concert also includes SFS Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) interviewing soprano Dawn Upshaw, baritone Thomas Hampson and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, each of whom performed with the Orchestra. The DVD will be available for sale beginning October 29 exclusively through the SFS online store at www.sfsymphony.org/store and www.shopthirteen.org, and beginning Tuesday, January 13 through iTunes, Amazon.com, and other online and retail outlets.
The Orchestra’s sold-out Carnegie Hall concert kicked off a New York City-wide tribute to composer Leonard Bernstein, who would have celebrated his 90th birthday this year. Airing in high definition and 5.1 surround sound, the performance features music from a wide variety of Bernstein’s stage works, from such early triumphs as West Side Story and On the Town to later works Mass and A Quiet Place. MTT leads the SFS in Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and Danzón from Three Dances from Fancy Free. Frequent SFS collaborators Dawn Upshaw and Thomas Hampson join the Orchestra for selections from A Quiet Place, and Hampson and Yo-Yo Ma perform “To What You Said” from Songfest. Ma also performs Bernstein’s Meditation No. 1 from Mass.
Upshaw is featured as soloist on “What a Movie” from Trouble in Tahiti, and vocal and drama students from The Juilliard School perform “Gee, Officer Krupke” from West Side Story. Broadway star Christine Ebersole sings “I Can Cook, Too” from On The Town, and Upshaw, Hampson, Ma, and Ebersole unite to perform the rousing finale, “Ya Got Me,” from the same show.
Carnegie Hall Opening Night 2008: A Celebration of Leonard Bernstein inaugurates the hall’s 118th season and is a production of Carnegie Hall and Thirteen/WNET New York in association with the San Francisco Symphony. Directed by Gary Halvorson, it is produced by John Walker and Mitch Owgang, with David Horn as Executive Producer. The DVD is available on SFS Media.
WHEN: BROADCAST: Carnegie Hall Opening Night 2008: A Celebration of Leonard Bernstein Michael Tilson Thomas, Music Director San Francisco Symphony with Christine Ebersole, vocalist Thomas Hampson, baritone Yo-Yo Ma, cello Dawn Upshaw, soprano and students from The Juilliard School Presented by Thirteen/WNET New York’s GREAT PERFORMANCES KQED Channel.
