Music I'm Listening to: James Ehnes with the San Francisco Symphony

I attended the January 13 San Francisco Symphony concert at Davies Symphony Hall. On the program were a new piece called Moondog by composer Elizabeth Ogonek, which introduced the piece from the stage. This was the world premiere. That was followed by Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 63 and, after intermission, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, OP. 17. James Ehnes was the soloist in the concerto. Elim Chan led the orchestra. 

I had never heard of Hong Kong native Chan – a tiny woman brimming over with energy – but she studied with the likes of Valery Gergiev and Bernard Haitink, according to the program. Overall, I very much liked her interpretations, which struck me as disciplined and precise, but fluid and musical at the same time. Ehnes offered a solid, if not exciting, rendition of the Prokofiev. He pleased the audience with two encores, the first one of the Paganini caprices, the second a movement from one of the Bach solo sonatas for violin.