Estonian-American conductor Paavo Järvi’s return to Davies Symphony Hall delivers passion and pyrotechnics aplenty with Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2, which showcases the Berlin-based Russian-American pianist Kirill Gerstein.
Mahler’s Seventh Symphony opens with a slow and shadowy first movement and closes with a euphoric, tempo-switching, Mozart-quoting rondo finale that has always been hater bait, but who cares? Let the boring killjoys blabber on about incoherence while the rest of us bask in its brilliant sunshine.
// Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave. (Civic Center); tickets are available at sfsymphony.org.
