Joshua Kosman May 7, 2021Updated: May 11, 2021, 12:33 pm
Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the San Francisco Symphony’s first live, indoor performance at Davies Symphony Hall since the pandemic hit. Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle
Priscilla Geeslin, the San Francisco Symphony’s new board president, could barely get the words out. “My heart is pounding,” she said, looking visibly flustered on the stage of Davies Symphony Hall on Thursday, May 6. “I’m so excited to be here!”
She wasn’t alone. Not a soul among the 360 or so invited guests scattered around the hall could have felt any differently.
The program of music for strings was short (75 minutes with no intermission) and relatively subdued. But in its own way, this was a celebratory bombshell.