BACK-ROW PLAYERS COMING TO THE FOREFRONT
BURLINGAME, CA—-Give an orchestra a physical exam, doctor, and it proves very revealing. An ensemble of San Francisco Symphony players, none of them plucked from the front rows, gave a strong program here at the Kohl Mansion notable for cohesion, dramatic fire, and unassailable tuning, thereby underlining the strong fiber embodied unobtrusively within the ranks of the SFS. Adding to their challenge March 6 was a slate of obscure pieces by, largely, unheralded composers, spotlighting two black women composers from…