Avi Avital to Return to Philharmonia Baroque

Mandolinist Avi Avital

Next week will see the one Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra concert of the season that will not be auditioning a Music Director candidate. Instead, the ensemble will be led by mandolinist Avi Avital. The program will consist entirely of compositions by Antonio Vivaldi in celebration of the 400th anniversary publication of The Four Seasons. As might be expected, the principal violin solo parts will be played by Avital on his mandolin. The four concertos in that collection will be preceded by a “warmup” concerto for the string ensemble, RV 156 in G minor.

The second half of the program will feature soprano Esteli Gomez. She will sing the aria “Le seguitai felice” from the RV 725 “dramma per musica” L’Olimpiade. This opera was first performed in 1734, using a libretto by Pietro Metastasio, which had been used the previous year for an opera with the same title by Antonio Caldara. Indeed, over 50 composers created operas from this libretto, the best known of whom would have been Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, whose opera was performed in 1735! In the spirit of Vivaldi’s Venetian reputation, Gomez will conclude the program with a selection of popular gondola songs.

The San Francisco performance of this program will take place this coming Thursday, November 7, beginning at 7:30 p.m. As usual, the venue will be Herbst Theatre, located at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. Ticket prices range from $40 to $132. City Box Office has created a Web page, which includes a diagram showing where seats are currently available.

Neuma Releases Drew Whiting’s Second Album

Cover of the album being discussed (from its Amazon.com Web page)

All In is the title of the second album of performances by saxophonist Drew Whiting, released by Neuma Records. Whiting has a strong and secure command of saxophones of all sizes; and, over the course of the five selections on this album, he plays soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone. Two of the selections are solo performances, Whiting’s own “They are obviously sounds; that why they are shadows,” completed last year and played on tenor; and Yaz Lancaster’s two-movement suite among Verticals, composed for alto. An “almost solo” composition is Pamela Z’s Four Movements, which she scored for cello and delays. Whiting performs the cello part on baritone saxophone. One of the selections is a three-movement sonata for alto saxophone and piano by John Mayrose, for which Whiting is accompanied at the piano by Kirstin Ihde. The album begins with the two of them joined by clarinetist Laura McLaughlin in a performance of Ed Martin’s “Shadow Dance,” completed in 2015. Whiting plays a soprano instrument for this selection.

The great asset of this album is the diversity of those selections. This is not just a matter of having drawn upon the efforts of five decidedly different composers. Because each size of saxophone has its own unique affordances, the variations in sonority are as rich as the unique perspectives of each composition. Indeed, taken as a whole, the contents of the album could almost stand just as well as a recital performance by “Whiting and Friends.”

I do not think I have played a saxophone of any size since my days in high school. The alto was my primary instrument in the jazz band, but I enjoyed the opportunity to explore the sonorities of the baritone instrument. It goes without saying that those experiences as a performer were a far cry from the technical challenges that Whiting had to confront in making the recordings for this album. There was much to engage in exploring each of the individual selections, and I have to confess that I was glad to encounter another instance of Z’s music played by someone other than Z! (My last encounter was with pianist Adam Tendler this past July.)

TLES to Revive Collaboration with Post:ballet

Towards the middle of this month, The Living Earth Show (TLES), the duo of guitarist Travis Andrews and drummer Andy Meyerson, will again join forces with the dancers of Robert Dekkers’ Post:ballet. The performance will be a revival of the full-evening composition Lyra, 65 minutes in duration with no intermission. The performance will take place at the Roar Shack, which has been the new “home base” for TLES since the venue opened this past September 20.

Travis Andrews and Andy Meyerson performing the music for the “Hades and Persephone” episode in Lyra (from the YouTube video of this performance)

For those that missed the world premiere performance of Lyra, it is an extended dance interpretation of the myth of Hades’ abduction of Persephone into the Underworld, choreographed by Vanessa Thiessen. The choreography was created and executed in the outdoor settings of the arid landscapes of Eastern California, where it was captured on video by filmmaker Benjamin Tarquin. As a result, the performance synthesizes the coordination of TLES playing in “real time” with the “documented” actions in the video. The music was composed by Samuel Carl Adams, and the choreography was created by Dekkers.

The Roar Shack is located in the heart of the Mid-Market district at 34 Seventh Street. There will be two performances on Thursday, November 14, and Friday, November 15. Doors will open for drinks at 6:30 p.m., and the performance itself will begin at 7:30 p.m. Those attending can then enjoy a “Postshow Hang” with the performers after Lyra has concluded, and the evening will conclude at 9:30 p.m. Admission will be a “Pay What You Can” amount between $1 and $100. Eventbrite has created separate Web pages for advance payment on Thursday and Friday.

Daniel Pardo’s Bolero Album

Flutist Daniel Pardo on the cover of the album being discussed (from the Amazon.com Web page)

One week from today will see the release of Ese Momento, consisting of twelve tracks of “classic” boleros performed by flutist Daniel Pardo. I deployed those scare quotes because many (if not most) listeners probably have misconceptions about the bolero. This is because they know it only through the music of Maurice Ravel, which, it turns out, has its own misconception about the Latin dance form.

Even those that cannot read music probably know that there are three beats to the measure in Ravel’s “Bolero.” That alone makes his title a misconception! The bolero dates back to Cuba in the late nineteenth century. It was originally a dance in 2/4; but, as the genre matured, more sophisticated versions expanded to 4/4 time. Bearing in mind that I have not examined any of the charts for the performances on Ese Momento, I can say (with at least moderate confidence) that 3/4 time never shows up on the album!

That said, I must confess that there is such a rich diversity of themes, harmonies, and rhythms that I have not yet gotten my head around the concept of a “classic” bolero! The good news is that my shortcomings have not detracted from the pleasure I have taken from listening to each of Pardo’s tracks. Indeed, the only tune familiar to me on the album was “Besame Mucho.” Within the context of a rhythm that almost seems to play with the downbeat, Pardo drew upon recording technology to concoct a “choir” (as it were) of fourteen flute parts. The charts for this arrangement might make for a thoroughly engaging “live” performance at an end-of-term conservatory recital!

Pardo is clearly the sort of performer that likes to play with the music, rather than just play it. What is interesting is that he can exercise this playfulness not only in combo settings (whose membership was not made available to me in the material I received) but also in performing with the Czech National Symphony in an orchestrated version of Ernesto Duarte’s “Como Fué.” In other words, this is an album that will definitely hold up to multiple listening experiences.

According to the Amazon.com Web page that has been created, the album will be available one week from today. However, as is usually the case, that Web page is processing pre-orders, with one track available for “preview listening.” Nevertheless, as of this writing, the only available option is for MP3 downloads.