November 23, 2019, marks the 20th anniversary of the release of the quintuple platinum Metallica–San Francisco Symphony album “S&M”. The idea for the symphonic and metallic collaboration came from Metallica’s late Cliff Burton. Burton passed away in 1986 but his idea lived on in his bandmates and came to fruition years later when they performed on April 21 and 22 of 1999 at Berkeley Community Theater. In celebration of that epic musical contribution on September 6 and 8 of 2019, the San Francisco Symphony will be appearing with Metallica again to perform the symphonic accompaniment originally composed by late conductor Michael Kamen. The performance commemorates the opening of the Chase Center in San Francisco as well as the final season of legendary conductor Michael Tilson Thomas. With Thomas conducting, these will be the first live performances of the arrangements in 20 years. On October 9 audiences will have the opportunity to experience the show as a modern-day big screen concert as S&M² debuts in cinemas worldwide.
