Charles Ives was such an avant-garde composer in his time, his place in the musical canon still has to be explained. To us. By MTT. Yet, it's a testament to his lasting influence that living composers keep being inspired. This week, Victor Kissine will append a Post-Scriptum to Ives's Unanswered Question. This commission from the SF Symphony will have its world premiere tomorrow under the baton of MTT.

The program also includes Ravel's Valses Nobles et Sentimentales (discussed expertly here by the newly announced SF Symphony composer-in-residence for 2011, John Adams) and such crowd pleaser as Tchaikovsky violin concerto, performed by violin wunderkid Christian Tetzlaff. You can refresh your ears with a clip of the first movement performed by the Jesus of the violin, Jasha Heifetz.

Did you see that Guarnieri violin? It starred in the last performance of a piece by Kissine in SF, his violin concerto Aftersight, held this time by SF Symphony concertmaster Sasha Barantschik. A Russian-born composer (in St Petersbourg in March 1953), Kissine found his way to Belgium by happy chance, he says, where he now lives near Brussels and teaches at the Mons Royal Conservatory. We shot him an email to know more about Post Scriptum