Faure’s Requiem

Consolation and communion are this concert’s common themes. Conductor Kazuki Yamada leads the SF Symphony and Chorus in Fauré’s tenderly radiant and humane Requiem, an underrated stunner. Hailed for her sensitive and insightful interpretations, pianist Hélène Grimaud performs Ravel’s sprightly Piano Concerto in G major. In 1931, as he was finishing the concerto, Ravel explained that it was “written very much in the same spirit as [concertos by] Mozart and Saint-Saëns.”