Elim Chan fires up the San Francisco Symphony in her debut as Music Director Designate

United States Various: Sasha Cooke (mezzo-soprano), San Francisco Symphony / Elim Chan (conductor). Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, 5.6.2026. (HS)

Wagner – Prelude and ‘Liebestod’ from Tristan und Isolde
Berlioz – Les Nuits d’été
Encore: Tilson Thomas – from Meditations on Rilke
Debussy – La mer

Elim Chan’s debut as Music Director Designate with the San Francisco Symphony made a powerful impression. Slight in physical stature, she delivered big music that emerged from a clearly energized orchestra, and she established a strong bond with an audience that filled all 2,734 seats in Davies Symphony Hall.

There was electricity in the air as the hall filled with people who were clearly excited to be there, dressed for the occasion, smiling to each other, chattering enthusiastically. A standing ovation greeted the 39-year-old, who was announced as the orchestra’s new conductor only two weeks ago. A two-year search for a successor to Esa-Pekka Salonen, who opted out of his contract in 2024, emerged with the Hong Kong-born Chan, who was principal conductor of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra from 2019–2024, principal guest conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra between 2018–2023 and was recently appointed artistic partner with the Vienna Symphony. Chan had only three previous concert engagements with this orchestra: in 2023 leading the world premiere of Elizabeth Ogonek’s Moondog, a Symphony commission; Holst’s The Planets in 2024; and an all-Tchaikovsky program in 2025. This concert underlined what a promising choice she was.

Before picking up her baton to lead Wagner’s Prelude and ‘Liebestod’ from Tristan und Isolde, she had a few words to offer. ‘Thank you for showing up for your San Francisco Symphony’, she told the audience. ‘This is my new home and new musical family, and that includes all of you. After all, without you, why are we working so hard to do this?’, acknowledging the roar of welcome with a finger-formed ‘air heart’. The enthusiastic response from those in the hall seemed to draw a tear or two from her. She turned around to the orchestra and took a few moments to gather herself before leading the quiet, hesitant opening measures.

Her command of the details in Wagner’s orchestration and resistance to lagging made the music flow. The subtle colors surrounded with open spaces felt eloquent, and there was always a sense of movement as the music gathered itself into waves of expansion and contraction. Climaxes felt well-earned, and the final measures had a particularly gorgeous glow.

Her conducting style was precise and expressive. Through the entire concert, which included Berlioz’s song cycle Les Nuits d’été and Debussy’s outsized tone poem La mer, she displayed no need to cue every entrance, knowing that these professionals were well prepared. Her gestures focused on shaping the sound, the harmonic texture and where the emphasis should be from measure to measure. Clear communication was evident with the Wagner-size orchestra.

Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, an accomplished opera star, has the rare ability to make classical vocal music feel conversational without losing any of the focused sound and musical clarity it requires. That was evident in the first Berlioz song, ‘Villanelle’, in which she took delight in an accomplished storyteller’s gestures, both physical and vocal. Especially striking was Cooke’s and Chan’s deft communication of the recurring phrase ’Reviens, reviens ma bien-aimée!’ in the wistful ‘Absence’, which set the tone for the song’s bittersweet atmosphere. Throughout the cycle, the connection with the orchestra felt light and breathed easily, as Cooke shaped each song with marvelous introspection. The final song, ‘L’Île inconnue’, painted a delicate picture of potential joy, with its references to where the adventurous girl in the lyrics might want to go. It settled musically with an aura of spaciousness. Any allusion to Chan’s journey with this orchestra was, of course, intentional.

Introducing her encore, Cooke told the audience this was her 68th concert with the orchestra, and likened Chan’s ‘joy and huge heart’ to her recollection of Michael Tilson Thomas with whom she performed often in San Francisco during his 25 years here. It was Chan, she said, who suggested she sing something composed by MTT, and they chose ‘Ich lebe mein Leben in wachsenden Ringen’, which she translated as ‘I live my life in ever-widening circles’. It is from his Meditations on Rilke which she debuted with him just before everything shut down for COVID. It was a touching moment on several levels, honoring the memory of a longtime friend and referencing Chan’s seven-year tenure, which begins in September 2027. They performed it with exquisite grace, its jazz-ballad-like coda especially day-dreamy.

Chan spoke again in introducing the second half. Noting that her most recent appearance focused on Russian music, she said she programmed these French and German works because they centered on love. She picked La mer, in particular, because it seemed appropriate for a city surrounded on three sides by water.

The outsized La mer requires a steady hand to keep it focused. That she accomplished, conjuring surges of the ocean, which vary from moment to moment, from the quiet undertows reflected in the very first measures to the towering waves that crash through the swelling music at climactic points in the score. It is also a piece that MTT conducted several times during his tenure. Her approach may have exuded less French atmosphere than his, but it made its points with precision. The required flexibility of tempo was there but never exaggerated. Although the sheer sound of this orchestra in full cry would have been thrilling enough, these details suggested that there may be plenty of excitement in future evenings under Chan’s baton.

At the end, a huge bouquet of roses was brought out to Chan. She wasted little time distributing them to the musicians, first to the string section principals and then offering the rest to the woodwinds to share with the orchestra. Symbolically, it was a gesture of unity with the musicians but it also spoke to her sense of generosity. It was there in the music too.

Harvey Steiman

Featured Image: Elim Chan sends out love to an enthusiastic audience after her debut as Music Director © CM Howard