Merola Opera Program Announces 2025 Season

The San Francisco Opera will begin its “summer” season this coming Tuesday with the first performance of John Caird’s staging of Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème. For many opera lovers, this is a “harbinger” of the other major operatic event of the season, the 2025 Merola Summer Festival, presented by the Merola Opera Program. For those that do not yet know, this is a training program for those aspiring to opera as a profession, including the full range of vocalists, pianists serving as coaches, and (usually) one budding stage director. The general public benefits from this undertaking with four performances, one of which is a full-length fully-staged opera. Details are usually provided on a performance-by-performance basis on this site; but, for those that believe in “saving the date” sooner, rather than later, here is the list of dates, times, and places:

June 26, 7:30 p.m., Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall: As in the past, the season will begin with a vocal chamber recital that explores the narrative arc of song. The program will be curated by pianist Ronny Michael Greenberg, who will also serve as accompanist. (Greenberg is a Merola alumnus from the summer of 2014.) All of the selections will be sung in English.

July 10, 7:30 p.m., and July 12, 2 p.m., Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall: The Schwabacher Summer Concert is an annual offering of extended scenes from beloved operas. This year the focus of the repertoire will be on Gaetano Donizetti, Giacomo Puccini, and Charles Gounod. Two Merola alumni will contribute to staging the scenes, Omer Ben Seadia (2014) and Elio Bucky (2025). The San Francisco Opera Center Orchestra will be conducted by William Long. Subtitles will be provided.

Poster design for Le Comte Ory (courtesy of the Merola Opera Program)

July 31, 7:30 p.m., and August 2, 2 p.m., Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall: This year’s full-opera performance will present Le Comte Ory with music composed by Gioachino Rossini. Like the more familiar Rossini operas, this is a comedy, with mistaken identities as a key element of the plot. Staging will be by Garnett Bruce, and the conductor will be Pierre Vallet. The performance will be sung in the original French with English subtitles provided.

August 16, 7:30 p.m., War Memorial Opera House: As a reward for their efforts of the summer, the Merola trainees get to present the results of their efforts in the venue for the San Francisco Opera. All of the participating young artists will gather for staged performances of well-known operatic scenes. Staging will again be by Bucky, and the conductor will be Kelly Kuo. English subtitles will be provided for the entire program.

A single Web page has been created for purchasing tickets. This year Merola will be offering tickets to those 25 and under for only $10 for the final August program and for $18 for the preceding three offerings. All other ticket prices will range between $38 and $68 (with extended options in the War Memorial Opera House between $95 and $18). Tickets will also be available for a reception following the Grand Finale. The reception will begin at 10 p.m., and the price will be $85. A separate Web page has been created for purchasing tickets to this reception.

ECM: Jarrett’s 2016 Tour Advances to Vienna

courtesy of Crossover Media

Those following this site for some time probably know by now that my knowledge of performances by pianist Keith Jarrett is due entirely to albums released by ECM. Since 2019 that label has been chronicling documents of the music performed during his final European solo tour in 2016. (In 2018 he endured two strokes, after which he could play piano only with his right hand.) That journey began with the release of Munich 2016 in November of 2019, followed by Budapest Concert and Bordeaux Concert. This month the pendulum swung back to the east with the release of New Vienna, recorded in the Golden Hall of that city’s Musikverein.

As readers might guess, this is not the Vienna of the Strauss family! Indeed, the Musikverein was a major venue for the Second Viennese School, where compositions by Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils, Alban Berg and Anton Webern, were given premiere performances. Those familiar with Jarrett’s style probably know that it is a far cry from the achievements of those three composers. Rather than meticulous calculation, his performances explore the wide diversity of approaches to spontaneity. The results of those approaches are so abstract the Jarrett identifies his tracks simply as “Part” followed by a Roman numeral; but each of those tracks discloses its own approach to expressive disposition.

When I wrote about the Bordeaux album, I made the observation that I had “listened to enough Jarrett tracks to know that the last thing I want to do is try to analyze any of them to death.” The alternative that I proposed was one of “spontaneous listening.” That proposal is as valid for New Vienna as it is for its three predecessors. When I wrote about Bordeaux Concert, I invoked T. S. Eliot for a final bit of advice. At the end of the day, however, the only real advice that counts for any of these live Jarrett albums is: “Shut up and listen!”

SFS to Conclude Season with Verdi and Getty

Most readers probably know by now that Esa-Pekka Salonen will give his final performance as Music Director in the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) Orchestral Series Concerts on Saturday evening, June 14, with the last of the three performances of Gustav Mahler’s second symphony, given the title “Resurrection.” However, the season will conclude the following week with two performances on Friday, June 20, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 22, at 2 p.m. This concluding program of the season will also be the last to include the SFS Chorus, directed by Jenny Wong.

James Gaffigan, conductor of the final Orchestral Series Concerts program (photograph courtesy of SFS)

There has been a slight change in plans since this program was announced on this site about two weeks ago. The performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 618, the “Ave verum corpus” is no longer on the program. Instead, the first half of the program will be devoted entirely to premiere performances of three compositions by Gordon Getty:  the concert premiere of the intermezzo from his Goodbye, Mr. Chips opera, the world premiere of “St. Christopher,” and the first SFS performances of “The Old Man in the Snow.” The second half of the program will still consist entirely to Giuseppe Verdi’s setting of the Latin Requiem text. The conductor for this program will be James Gaffigan; and the vocal soloists will be soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen, mezzo Jamie Barton, tenor Maria Chang, and bass Morris Robinson.

Salonen & Beethoven: Symphony & Concerto

Yesterday afternoon in Davies Symphony Hall, Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen led the San Francisco Symphony in a program of two works composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in the same year (1806) with consecutive opus numbers. The first half of the program was devoted entirely to Opus 60, the fourth symphony in B-flat major. This was followed in the second half by Opus 61, the violin concerto in D major with Hilary Hahn as soloist. (This was also the year of Opus 59, the three “Razumovsky” string quartets.)

Where the canon of the nine symphonies is concerned, Opus 60 finds itself flanked by Beethoven exercising his dramatic chops. The third symphony is Opus 55, the “Eroica” in E-flat major, the first of the Beethoven symphonies to explore the intense dispositions that were just beginning to emerge in what is now called the Romantic era. On the “other side,” so to speak, Opus 60 is followed by Opus 67 in C minor, recognized for its rhetorical intensity so readily that most simply refer to it as “the fifth.”

While the rhetoric of Opus 60 is far from modest, one also gets the sense that Beethoven opted for a more traditional underlying structure. Indeed, I have always been amused by the fact that the trio in the third movement could be used to scan a quatrain that had previously been set to music by Henry Purcell:

Tis women makes us love
Tis Love that makes us sad,
Tis sadness makes us drink,
And drinking makes us mad.

Beethoven seems to have had a fair amount of interest in English songs, so it should not surprise anyone for his seizing upon one to add a little zest to the Scherzo movement. That zest does much to “lighten up” Opus 60’s discourse without letting it be overshadowed by Opus 55 and Opus 67. In yesterday afternoon’s performance, Salonen clearly knew how to capture this lighter side of Beethoven’s rhetoric.

The soloist for Opus 61 was Hilary Hahn, and her account of the violin concerto could not have been more satisfying. Her interplay with the ensemble, as led by Salonen, was consistently engaging; and her command of the virtuoso passages was just as consistently solid. For the cadenza in the first movement, she settled on Fritz Kreisler’s version (which is, by far, the most popular option). Kreisler was of course, the ultimate show-off when it came to technical challenges; and Hahn’s account of the many polyphonic passages he wove into the cadenza was as rock-solid as it was lovingly delivered. This may have been as “traditional” an approach to Opus 61 as one could expect, but there was consistently an engaging freshness in Hahn’s delivery of one of the most familiar war horses in the repertoire.

Hilary Hahn Playing “Through my Mother’s Eyes” as an encore for her performance with the National Youth Orchestra at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Texas (screenshot from the YouTube video of her performance)

The encore solo selection was “Through my Mother’s Eyes” composed by Steven Banks for Hahn on a commission by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which had a calming effect after the intensity of Beethoven but did little to raise very much attention.

SFCMP’s “Emerging Composers” Finalists

Luca Robadey, the first of the six competing composers for an Emerging Composers Completion Grant

Some readers may recall that, in addition to presenting its annual concert season, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (SFCMP) joins forces with the ARTZenter Institute to provide a platform for the awarding of Emerging Composers Completion Grants. ARTZenter arranged performances of two chamber orchestra programs, which were presented this past September and January. Six of the twelve competing finalists were then selected to give world premiere performances for an audience. Each of them has received a $3000 grant to cover travel to San Francisco and accommodations. The compositions will be performed over the course of two days next month.

Both of these recitals will take place at 7:30 p.m. They will take place in Herbst Theatre, whose entrance is on the ground floor of the Veterans Building. located on the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and McAllister Street. Composers, composition titles, and dates are as follows:

Wednesday, June 18

• Luca Robadey: Stained Glass
• Laura Cetilia: Unless
• Daniel Cui: Nanjing Fragments

Friday, June 20

• Gabriel Duarte: Färgstark
• Sofia Jen Ouyang: Burst
• Angel Gomez: Synecdoche

Old First Concerts: June, 2025

Once again, Old First Concerts will present four events next month, the last two of which will be performances of the same program by a piano trio. This will involve the returns of three ensembles. These events will remain “hybrid,” allowing both live streaming and seating in the Old First Presbyterian Church at 1751 Sacramento Street on the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue. Each of the event pages (which include hyperlinks for streaming) provides specific price information. The following dates and times provide hyperlinks to those event pages as follows:

The Kitka vocalists (from the Web page for their Old First Concerts recital)

Saturday, June 14, 8 p.m.: The Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble is best known at Old First for its traditional Wintersongs program. However, they will return this year for the Summer Solstice. As usual, the repertoire will draw upon Balkan, Baltic, Caucasus, and Slavic sources, along with new material. The vocalists will be Janet Kutulas, Kelly Atkins, Kristine Barrett, Erin Lashnits Herman, Maclovia Quintana, Katya Schoenberg, Stacey Barnett, Charlotte Finegold, and Talia Skeen, led by Executive and Artistic Director Shira Cion.

Sunday, June 22, 4 p.m.: When they last visited Old First, at little less than a year ago, Le Due Muse, whose members are cellist Sarah Hong and pianist Makiko Ooka, presented a program of Latin American composers. The title for next month’s program will be Russian Romantic. They will perform duo sonatas by Nikolai Myaskovsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Following the intermission, they will be joined by violinist Fumino Ando for a performance of Anton Arensky’s piano trio.

Saturday, June 28, 8 p.m., and Sunday, June 29, 4 p.m.: The month will return with two performances by the Sixth Station Trio, whose members are pianist Katelyn Tan, Anju Goto on violin, and cellist Federico Strand Ramirez. Once again, they will challenge the boundaries of what a classical piano trio can do. When they visited last year, they presented their own arrangement of Joe Hisaichi's score for the Japanese animated fantasy film Spirited Away. This time they will perform music composed for the video game Stardew Valley.

The Bleeding Edge: 5/27/2025

This will be a relatively quiet week on the Bleeding Edge. There will be only four events of note this week. Two of have already been announced, both taking place at familiar venues on the final day of the month:

1. The two-set evening of jazz at the Center for New Music performed with the LMNts Trio with saxophonist Aaron Bennett as guest artist.
2. The other two-set evening at The Lab with art rock band Gumby’s Junk opening for the performance of The Four Louies by Bill Orcutt.

The remaining two events will take place over the course of the last two days of the month as follows:

Friday, May, 30, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: Curator and reed player David Boyce will join Francis Wong and Nora Free for a tenor saxophone trio performance. As always, the venue is the bookstore located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street. There is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book.

 

Darren Johnston with his trumpet (from his BayImproviser event page)

Saturday, May 31, 7:30 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: This will be a performance by the Double Scorpio quartet led by trumpeter Darren Johnston. He is joined on the front line by Marcus Stephans on tenor saxophone. Rhythm will be provided by Bassist Sam Bevan and Michael Mitchell on drums.

Like the usual weekend offerings, this performance will take place in the shop but will probably also be live-streamed to the Bird & Beckett sites on both YouTube and Facebook. For those planning to attend “physically,” the shop is located at 653 Chenery Street, a short walk from the Glen Park station that serves both BART and Muni. Doors will open at 7:20 p.m. Admission will be $20 in cash for the cover charge. Given that only a limited number of people will be admitted, reservations are necessary and can be made by calling 415-586-3733. The phone will be answered during regular store hours, which are between noon and 6 p.m. on Tuesday through Sunday. Proof of vaccination will be required for entry, and masks will be necessary in the shop. Those holding reservations must claim them by 7:30 p.m. After that anyone waiting for a seat will be allowed to take what is available.

K. 366 to Return to SFO (over a decade’s wait!)

One of the original score pages for K. 366, showing how Mozart had to manage without an eraser (public domain, from Wikimedia Commons)

Where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 366 opera Idomeneo is concerned, the first thought that comes to mind is Rodney Dangerfield. He is best known for the catchphrase “I don't get no respect!” So it was when, in my undergraduate years, I attended a seminar in the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Over the course of the semester, we took deep dives into the “big five” operas: Die Entführung aus dem Serail (the abduction from the seraglio, K. 384), Le nozze di Figaro (the marriage of Figaro, K. 492), Don Giovanni (K. 527), Così fan tutte (women are like that, K. 588), and Die Zauberflöte (the magic flute, K. 620). During our first session, the professor made a passing reference to K. 366, saying nothing about it other than its title.

Since that time, I have enjoyed a generous number of opportunities to compensate for that negligence. They include the historic recording of excerpts from a 1951 performance at Glyndebourne included in the Warner Classics Fritz Busch at Glyndebourne release and, more recently, a live-stream performance from Opera San José in April of 2020. However, San Francisco Opera (SFO) has not performed K. 366 since October of 2008, when Donald Runnicles conducted the revival of a staging by John Copley.

Mind you, the libretto by Giambattista Varesco is certainly not up there with the imaginative wit and narrative skills of Lorenzo Da Ponte. It is set on the island of Crete, where Idomeneo is king. His son, Prince Idamante, is in love with Ilia, daughter of King Priam, who was just defeated in the Trojan War. Both Trojans and Cretans welcome the return of peace; but that peace is disrupted by Electra, daughter of the Greek King Agamemnon. She has designs on preventing Ilia from becoming the Queen of Crete. Meanwhile, Idomeneo has survived a violent storm; through the grace of Neptune (god of the sea), he is washed up on a beach in Crete. As thanks to Neptune, he vows to sacrifice the first living creature he encounters. As fate would have it, that “creature” is Idamante. Nevertheless, over the course of three acts, these complications are resolved; and Idomeneo passes his crown to Idamante, who will rule with his bride Ilia.

Next month’s performance will be staged by Lindy Hume, who will be making her SFO debut. The production itself has already been performed by Opera Australia and Victorian Opera. Music Director Eun Sun Kim will conduct. The title role will be sung by tenor Matthew Polenzani, mezzo Daniela Mack will sing the role of Idamante, Ilia will be sung by soprano Ying Fang, and the role of Elektra will be taken by soprano Elza van den Heever.

As usual, a generous amount of background information will be available through the home page for this production. This Web page also includes hyperlinks for purchasing tickets for the 7:30 p.m. performances on June 14, 17, 20, and 25 and the 2 p.m. matinee on June 22. However, as of this writing, there is only limited availability for the matinee tickets. However, there will also be a livestream available at 7:30 p.m. on June 20, with on-demand streaming beginning at 10 a.m. on June 23 and running through 10 a.m. on June 25. Further information is available from the Box Office, which is open on Monday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It located at the entrance to the San Francisco Opera House at 301 Van Ness Avenue, and it can be reached by calling 415-864-3330. On the date of each performance, the Box Office will be open through the first intermission.

Voices of Music: Eighteenth-Century Amsterdam

Unless I am mistaken, my busy schedule has not allowed me to set aside time for a Sunday Mornings at Ten video compiled by Voices of Music since August of last year. The title of today’s offering, Episode 18 in the current (fifth) season of the series, was Amsterdam music printing in the 18th century. More specifically, the selections were from publications by Estienne Roger, a French Huguenot who escaped to Amsterdam to avoid the implications of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.

Trumpeter Dominic Favia playing Torelli’s concerto with the Voices of Music ensemble (screenshot from the video of his performance)

As might be guessed, most (if not all) of those publications involved Italian sources. Today’s program presented published works by three of the best known Italian composers: Antonio Vivaldi, Arcangelo Corelli, and Giuseppe Torelli. The selections from the first two of those composers involved only the VoM strings (with harpsichord continuo provided by Hanneke van Proosdij). However, the Torelli selection was a concerto in D major for trumpet and strings, entry 188 in the catalog compiled by Estienne Roger. The soloist was Dominic Favia, who delivered all the intricacies of his part with engaging confidence.

Each of the videos was recorded during a different performance. The “program,” as it was presented this morning, was a compilation of those sources. The “unity” involved Roger’s publications, which included the Vivaldi and Corelli selections and may also have included the Torelli concerto.

SFCA Goes to the Dogs (and Other Animals)

Poster design for the performance being discussed (from the Web page for ticket purchases)

San Francisco Choral Artists, led by Artistic Director Magen Solomon, will conclude its 40th season with a program whose full title is Welcome to the Zoo! A Musical Menagerie. The selections will span a wide range of music history with a Renaissance madrigal by Adriano Banchieri (“Contrapunto bestiale alla mente”) at one end and two world premiere performances at the other. One of those, “Seal Lullaby,” will feature the work of this season’s Composer-in-Residence Zoe Yost. The program will be arranged into seven sections with the following titles:

1. Serious Birds
2. Very Small Animals
3. Reptiles & Creatures of the Waters
4. Silly Birds
5. Cats and Dogs and Bandicoots
6. Large Four-Legged Creatures with Fur
7. Animals of the Ark

The San Francisco performance of this program will take place at 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 8. The venue will be St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, which is located at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of Franklin Street. A Web page has been created for online ticket purchases on a pay-what-you-will basis. Tickets at the door will be sold for $35 with a $30 rate for seniors and $15 for those under the age of 30.

harmonia mundi to Release New Ligeti Album

György Ligeti is one of those composers that intrigued me upon “first contact,” which, in my case, was “Atmosphères.” Leonard Bernstein recorded his performance with the New York Philharmonic shortly after having given the New York premier with the New York Philharmonic early in 1964. My interest was reinforced when the music surfaced in the soundtrack for 2001: A Space Odyssey; and, for all I know, Kubrick used the Bernstein recording after having rejected the original score that Alex North had composed for him. Fortunately, my awareness of Ligeti was reinforced by conductors that understood him better, such as Pierre Boulez and the pianist Yuja Wang, who included three of his études in her Berlin Recital album. 

György Ligeti on the cover of the album being discussed

The end of this month will see the release of a new harmonia mundi album devoted almost entirely to Ligeti. It will begin with his five-movement violin concerto (first conducted in its final version by Boulez) and conclude with his piano concerto, also in five movements. In the center of the program, so to speak, there is a performance of one of his earliest works, the “Concert românesc,” completed in 1951. Scored for a small orchestra, this amounts to an engaging account of “Ligeti before he became Ligeti!” Interleaved among the three Ligeti selections are two of the five Aus der Ferne compositions by György Kurtág, scored for string quartet.

The primary soloist on this album is violinist Isabel Faust, since she performs the Aus der Ferne movements as well as the violin concerto. The other quartet members are violinist Martial Gauthier, Carole Roth on viola, and cellist Robin Michael. The soloist for the piano concerto is Jean-Frédéric Neuburger. The orchestra is Les Siècles, conducted by François-Xavier Roth. As most readers will probably expect, Amazon.com has already created a Web page for processing pre-orders for this album.

One of the things I like about Ligeti is that he is just as capable of being prankish as he is of being cerebral. This is most evident in the violin concerto, in which one of the solo violin passages is accompanied by four ocarinas. (The more time I spend listening to Ligeti, the more I recognize that there is never a dull moment!)

I was somewhat amused to be writing this while Faust is currently visiting San Francisco to perform with the San Francisco Symphony. For that occasion she prepared Alban Berg’s violin concerto. Most likely, both Ligeti and Kurtág were influenced by Berg; so I took some pleasure in having the opportunity to write a post-Berg article! Nevertheless, both of the composers on this new harmonia mundi album have distinguished themselves with “voices” decidedly different from Berg’s. I continue to look forward to new “contacts of discovery” in Ligeti’s catalog, and I enjoyed the decision of the producers to draw upon Kurtág to provide “spacing” between the Ligeti selections.

Once you get used to the dissonance, you will find that this album serves up an engaging journey of discovery.

LCCE Concluding Season by Welcoming

Jeff Anderle, Liana Bérubé, and Allegra Chapman (courtesy of LCCE)

The final program in the 32nd season of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (LCCE) will take place at the beginning of next month. The title of the program is Spring Contrasts; and it will showcase the contrasting timbres of violin (Liana Bérubé), clarinet (Jeff Anderle), and piano (Allegra Chapman). The most familiar work to be performed will be Béla Bartók’s “Contrasts,” whose clarinet part was first performed by Benny Goodman (who also commissioned the work). This will be preceded by two compositions by Roberto Sierra, excerpts from his Cinco Bocetos: Cancion de la Montana & Cancion del Campo and the first movement of his sonata for violin and piano. The other works on the program will be “Processional” by Hannah Kendall, Mel Bonis’ Opus 59, “Suite en Trio,”  and “Unquiet Waters” by Kevin Day.

The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, June 9. As usual, the venue will be the Noe Valley Ministry, which is located in Noe Valley (of course) at 1021 Sanchez Street, just south of 23rd Street. General admission will be $35 with a $15 rate for students. There is also a special “Arts Access” rate of $5. Tickets may be purchased online through a Tix Web page.

A Memorable Evening with Salonen at SFS

As we approach the final month of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s tenure as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS), it becomes more and more evident just what we shall be missing with his departure. The program he prepared for this week’s concert spans a century from the early twentieth century to the early 21st. The selections were presented in reverse chronological order, beginning with the first SFS performance of Magnus Lindberg’s “Chorale” (2002), followed by Alban Berg’s 1935 (only) violin concerto. The intermission was then followed by Igor Stravinsky’s first major undertaking for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, the score for Michel Fokine’s “The Firebird,” a ballet in one act with two scenes.

Those familiar with Berg’s concerto quickly recognized how Lindberg’s selection served as an overture. This was his personal setting of the Lutheran chorale “Es its genug” (it is enough), the same chorale that Berg had previously deployed in his violin concerto as a reflection on the death of Manon Gropius. Lindberg did not deploy the fierce percussion expletives in Berg’s concerto. Instead, he relied on a rich choir of winds and brass to capture the poignancy of the full text. The solemnity of his rhetoric became the perfect “overture” for the Sturm und Drang (storm and stress) of the narrative behind Berg’s concerto.

The concerto soloist was Isabelle Faust. She is no stranger to San Francisco and has consistently taken fearless approaches to engaging undertakings in both concerto and recital settings. If Berg cast his concerto in the abstractions of atonality, Faust knew how to mine expressiveness out of every one of his phrases and cadences. One might think of the music as a contemplation on confronting death, which is not the sort of context one expects for a concerto. Nevertheless, Faust clearly commanded the rhetorical foundation and the wealth of “technical details” that Berg summoned for his memorial rhetoric. Having become quite familiar with this music through both recordings and performances, I came away from Faust’s partnership with Salonen with more appreciation of Berg’s music than I had previously imagined.

Set design for “The Firebird” by Aleksandr Golovin (public domain, from Wikimedia Commons)

There is, of course, a wide gulf between the orchestral rhetoric of Berg’s music and that of Stravinsky’s. Nevertheless, both of them were highly skilled in deploying large ensembles. The instrumentation for “The Firebird” is just as rich in diversity as Berg’s. Indeed, it is so rich, it is hard to imagine how it could be crammed into an orchestra pit for a ballet performance!

Fortunately, it was presented last night without a ballet setting. As a result, one could relish the sonorities of every instrument within eyesight, not to mention the menacing trumpets of the monstrous Koschei deployed on audience side. The program sheet provided the full episode-by-episode account of the narrative, and Salonen knew exactly how to manage the pace through those episodes. The triumphant chord progressions of the final “General Thanksgiving” episode provided just the right mood the conclude the evening that had previously confronted the darkness of death.

Taken as a whole, this was an evening of Salonen at his finest.

The Lab: June, 2025

Five concert events have been announced for next month, one of which will involve three different performances between the middle of June and the middle of July. For those that do not yet know, The Lab is located in the Mission at 2948 16th Street. This is particularly convenient for those using public transportation, since it is a short walk to the corner of 16th Street and Mission Street. Busses stop at that corner for both north-south and east-west travel, and downstairs there is a station for the BART line running under Mission Street. Doors open half an hour in advance of the performance; and specific information for each event, including a hyperlink to the Web page that provides both background material and hyperlinks for ticket purchases, is as follows:

Saturday, June 7, 8 p.m.: The month will begin with an album release celebration. The album is Land’s End Eternal, six tracks of original compositions by saxophonist Cole Pulice. She will lead a trio with guitar and piano, who performers have not yet been announced. The title was inspired by the geography of the Bay Area. There will also be a set by Julius Smack, bringing dance, keyboard work, and vocals to projected video. The other performer will be DJ Zully Adler, who will probably provide an “overture” (of sorts).

Friday, June 13, 5 p.m.–Saturday, July 12, 9 p.m.: Aine Nakamura will present the result of a year-long research project at The Lab. The result is hands on tape, an installation in which there will be a series of performances. The underlying theme is silk, involving the labor of both women and silkworms. Current specifics for the performances are as follows:

• Friday, June 13, 6 p.m.: A duo performance by Nakamura with Ava Koohbor
• Saturday, June 28, 7 p.m.: One set will be another duo, this time with Kanoko Nishi-Smith, followed by a collaborative performance with Hyeyung Sol Yoan.
• Saturday, July 12, 7 p.m.: The closing performance will include a duo with percussionist Jacob Felix Heule.

Saturday, June 14, 8 p.m.: John Davis will curate a program of “expanded cinema.”

Thursday, June 19, 8 p.m.: Bassist Lisa Mezzacappa will lead a set of improvisations joined by Aaron Bennett, Kyle Bruckmann, Mark Clifford, Brett Carson, and Jordan Glenn; the other set will be taken by Fred Frith, a pioneer of the extended electric guitar.

Moons quartet members Judith Berkson, Katie Porter, Christine Tavolacci, and Laura Cetilia (ISSUE photograph by Cameron Mcleod, from the event page for the program they will perform)

Friday, June 27, 8:30 p.m.: The final performance of the month will be by the Moons quartet. This is actually a collective, rather than a chamber music ensemble; and their debut album consists of a composition by each of the members. The players are Judith Berkson (vocals and keyboards), cellist Laura Cetilia, Katie Porter on clarinet, and flutist Christine Tavolacci. Their performances tend to coalesce around shared concerns for sustained, meditative sounds, often with unusual tunings.

Chanticleer to Conclude SF Season in Noe Valley

Some readers may recall that the current (47th) season of Chanticleer has been a “moveable feast” where its performances in San Francisco are concerned. Two of the previous concerts took place in the Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall, while A Chanticleer Christmas was celebrated in St. Ignatius Church, which is located on the edge of the University of San Francisco, north of the Panhandle. For their final program, the vocalists (all male) will move to a venue that will probably be familiar to most readers, the Noe Valley Ministry.

Banner for the Web page with the details of Chanticleer’s final program for its 47th season

The full title of the program to be presented there will be Chanticleer and the Fox: An Evening of Renaissance Music Theatre. Many readers know that Chanticleer is the name of a fictitious rooster in fables that probably precede the Middle Ages. Where music is concerned, the narrative is probably best known through Igor Stravinsky’s chamber opera-ballet in one act, whose full title is “Renard: histoire burlesque chantée et jouée” (The Fox: burlesque tale sung and played).

The basic narrative involves a conflict between a rooster and the fox that intrudes on his turf. Usually, the rooster outwits the fox. The story is at least as old as Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, where it can be found in “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale.” Chanticleer will provide the “soundtrack” for this story with a program consisting of Renaissance madrigals and motets.

This program was conceived with “children of all ages” in mind. As a result, children aged twelve and younger will be granted admission without charge. The only qualification is that they must be accompanied by a ticketed adult. Tickets are currently available for online sale. There will be two performances in San Francisco, both on Saturday, June 7, the first at 1:30 p.m. and the second at 4 p.m. General admission will be $25 with an $18 rate for seniors and students. There will also be a Premiere Seating area (without specific seats) for $65 with a $60 rate for seniors and students. Tickets may be purchased online through the hyperlinks attached to the two times. The venue will be the Noe Valley Ministry, which is located in Noe Valley at 1021 Sanchez Street, just south of 23rd Street.

Another Uneven Shenson Spotlight Piano Recital

Pianist Tony Siqi Yun (from his event page on the San Francisco Symphony Web site)

The third recitalist for this year’s Shenson Spotlight Series presented by the San Francisco Symphony in Davies Symphony Hall was another pianist, Tony Siqi Yun. As was the case last month, the results were uneven; but, as least as far as I am concerned, there was at least one bright spot. It has been almost two years since I have had an opportunity to listen to the music of Ferruccio Busoni in performance; and, as fate would have it, that last occasion took place in Davies. That was when pianist Igor Levit, Artist-in-Residence for the 2022–23 SFS season, played Busoni’s Opus 39 piano concerto. (This was the first time SFS presented the work.) The high point of last night’s recital came with the performance of “Berceuse” (lullaby), the last of Busoni’s set of seven solo piano pieces collected under the title Elegies.

Every Busoni composition involves a delicate balance between introverted expressiveness and extroverted technical fireworks. That balance made Levit’s account of Opus 39 “click;” and things “clicked” again in Yun’s performance of “Berceuse.” To a great extent, that same balance could be found in the opening selection of the program. Johannes Brahms Opus 18b is a set of variations on a theme transcribed for solo piano from its original version as a movement in the Opus 18 (first) string sextet in B-flat major. (As some readers might guess, that transcription was dedicated to Clara Schumann.) This was my first encounter with this arrangement, and I wish more pianists would give it the attention it deserves.

On the other hand, I fear that I am beginning to tire of up-and-coming pianists deciding to lay their emotional expressiveness bare with yet another performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 57 (“Appassionata”) sonata in F minor. All that Yun seemed to convey in his performance was that he could be both heavy-handed and frantic at the same time. This may have done justice to any of those “scowling Beethoven” portraits, but it was far from a satisfying account of the music itself. Things were a bit better over the course of the full journey through Robert Schumann’s Opus 13, given the title “Symphonic Études.” The good news was that the overplayed outbursts were fewer in number, but the overall listening experience felt like a slog long before the music’s halfway mark.

Fortunately, Yun chose an encore that would quiet things down after his Sturm und Drang approach to Schumann. He turned to Johannes Brahms’ Opus 118 collection of six solo piano pieces, composed in 1893. He chose the second of these, an intermezzo in the key of A major. This is the one of the six that tends to receive the most attention. (I had to analyze it in one of my undergraduate classes.) As had been the case with his Busoni selection, Yun found just the right expressive approach to this music, allowing me to depart from an evening of mixed results with an optimistic disposition.

Volti to Conclude Season at Z Space

Poster design for the event being discussed illustrating a “musical reflection” on Yggdrasil (from the Web page for purchasing tickets)

Next month will begin with three performances of the final program in the 46th season of the Volti vocal ensemble. The major work on the program will be the completed version of “The Guardians of Yggdrasil” by composer-in-residence Mark Winges. For those unfamiliar with Norse mythology, Yggdrasil is the great tree of all life. The narrative of the libretto that Lisa Delan prepared for Winges’ music explores what happens when the protectors of the tree become restless and negligent, serving as a metaphor for the many ways in which contemporary behavior has neglected the stewardship of our own planet.

There will be only one other work on the program. This will be a reprise performance of Caroline Shaw’s “Ochre.” Those familiar with the previous performance probably already know that Shaw set a text that similarly addresses how our actions in the present will affect the planet in the future.

This program will be given three performances beginning at 8 p.m. on Friday, June 6, and Saturday, June 7, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 8. The venue will be Z Space, located in NEMIZ (the North East Mission Industrial Zone) at 450 Florida Street. Ticket prices range from $15 to $75. They may be purchased through a Z Space Web page. Volti can be reached by telephone at 415-771-3352.

Gershwin++ from Thibaudet and Feinstein

Michael Feinstein at his club Feinstein's/54 Below in 2017 (photograph by Lepestate taken on June 8, 2017, from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license)

Last night was one of those rare occasions when the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) performs in Davies Symphony Hall for a Great Performers Series program. The “great performers” were two pianists with highly different backgrounds. Jean-Yves Thibaudet first performed with SFS in 1994 and has been a frequent visitor to Davies since then. Michael Feinstein, on the other hand, has a nightclub at the Nikko Hotel called (what else?) Feinstein’s at the Nikko. He also often adds vocals to his piano work.

The title of last night’s program was Two Pianos: Who Could Ask for Anything More? Those recognizing the question as words from a song were probably not surprised that the second half of that program was devoted entirely to George Gershwin, who also occupied a generous portion of the first half. The other composers contributing to that portion were (in order of appearance), Richard Rogers, Leslie Bricusse, George Gershwin, Vincent Youmans, and Leonard Bernstein.

Both Thibaudet and Feinstein were well enough established in their reputations to deliver performances in which the music mattered more than the musicians. Their approaches to repertoire may have been different; but their delivery was consistently solid, whether it involved an arrangement of one of Gershwin’s piano preludes or an instrumental account of an affectionate standard, such as “The Man I Love.” Most importantly, while the program was more than abundant over the course of the entire evening, there was never the slightest feeling that things might be going on for a bit too long.

I must confess that, more often than not, I tend to shy away from the “pops” approach to many of the best selections of popular music from the twentieth century. Too many orchestral arrangements tend to overwhelm the spirit of music that required little more than a combo for backup. That said, Keith Lockhart’s approach to leading the SFS ensemble captured the spirit behind the many tunes that Thibaudet and Feinstein had selected.

In spite of the diversity of composers in the first half, last night’s program was very much a tribute to Gershwin and his legacy. Feinstein has been committed to keeping the flame of that legacy burning, and last night it was clear that Thibaudet was just as eager to keep that commitment. My guess is that anyone from my generation in the audience relished every moment; and, on the basis of audience response, there is some hope that at least one more generation will be willing to carry the torch.

Matt Renzi to Return to Chez Hanny as Leader

Matt Renzi (from a Chez Hanny Web page for a trio performance he led in 2006)

If my archives are accurate, the last time I wrote about multi-reedist Matt Renzi was in August of 2023, when he gave a Chez Hanny performance in a jazz quintet led by pianist and composer Alon Nechushtan. Renzi will return to Chez Hanny at the very beginning of next month, this time leading his own quartet. Once again, his instruments will be tenor saxophone, oboe, and cor anglais. Rhythm will be provided by pianist and composer Dahveed Behroozi, Josh Thurston-Milgrom on bass, and drummer Tim Bulkley.

As regular readers probably know, these events begin at 4 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon. This one will take place on June 1. The “house” for this house concert is located at 1300 Silver Avenue. This is best reached by public transportation by taking the Muni 44 bus going east from Glen Park Station. For those thinking of driving, parking tends to be available on Silver Avenue, Silliman Street, one block south of Silver, and Holyoke Street, which connects Silver and Silliman.

Final Earplay Recital Highlights Flutist Tod Brody

The second half of last night’s Earplay recital presented the world premiere of a work commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for the benefit of composer Benjamin Sabey. Sadly, the occasion felt as if Sabey wanted to spend more time talking about his music than allowing it to be performed. Mind you, the full title was also a lengthy one: “Dream Suite for sextet in six, cyclic, attacca movements.” The performers were flutist Tod Brody, Peter Josheff on both treble and bass clarinets, the string trio of Terrie Baune (violin), Ellen Ruth Rose (viola), and Leighton Fong (cello), and pianist Margaret Halbig. They were conducted by Mary Chun. Sadly, the music was a drearier slog than the composer’s verbal introduction; and it was disappointing that the full efforts of the season should conclude with such disappointment.

Terrie Baune, Margaret Halbig, Thalia Moore, and Tod Brody playing “El bailongo” (screenshot from last night’s video steam of the final Earplay recital of the season)

Fortunately, the first half of the program was far more engaging. All three selections were performed by flutist Tod Brody. He began with a solo performance of Carolyn Chen’s “Stomachs of Ravens,” which was distinguished by its wide diversity of different approaches to breath techniques. This was followed by the winner of last year’s Earplay Vibrant Shores Composition Competition. The composer was Edna Alejandra Longoria, whose “El bailongo” was scored for flute, cello (Thalia Moore), violin, and piano. This emerged as a series of playful fragments, which explored the different combos that could emerge from the four performers. Finally, Brody performed a duo with Rose, “Friction,” completed by Mei Fang Lin in 2009 on an Earplay commission.

I have been following Brody’s contributions to Earplay for as long as I have been aware of the ensemble. Over those many years, I have been consistently impressed by his technique and his approaches to new repertoire. Last night’s focus on his instrument made for one of my most satisfying encounters with the ensemble.

The Bleeding Edge: 5/19/2025

This week will be relatively quiet. All of the items will be new additions to the calendar, most at familiar (or, at least, previously encountered) venues. Specifics are as follows:

Tuesday, May 20, 6 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: This will be a familiar venue with an unfamiliar time and day of the week. Lost Letters from Gaza will be presented in association with Gallery Habibi, which has a Web site that provides no information about a physical presence! The performance will be a collaboration between musician Asma Ghanem and choreographer Stephanie Sherman; and, as the title suggests, the performance will reflect on personal experiences of the occupation of Palestine. As always, the venue is the bookstore located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street. There is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book.

Friday, May 23, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: The second performance at this venue will be more familiar (at least to most readers). It will be the weekly Other Dimensions is Sound concert curated by David Boyce. This week will be a quintet performance by familiar “bleeding edge” performers: Darren Johnston (trumpet), Lisa Mezzacappa (bass), Larry Ochs (saxophone), Kjell Nordeson (percussion), and Kyle Bruckman (oboe).

Vocalist Maria Somerville, visiting from Ireland (from her BayImproviser event page)

Friday, May 23, 8 p.m., Gray Area Art And Technology: Vocalist Maria Somerville will perform in a setting of post-industrial pulse, hypnotic drones, and folk-etched melodies. She will be preceded by an opening set taken by Leila Abdul-Rauf, whose style is “dark ambient.” She alternates between trumpet and voice against a drone “continuo.” The venue is located in the Mission at 2665 Mission Street.

Saturday, May 24, 7 p.m., Mary Sano School of Duncan Dancing: I was not previously aware of this venue, but it will be hosting the 28th Annual Dionysian Festival. This will be a celebration of the birth of Isadora Duncan with the participation of a wide cross-section of movement and sound artists. There will be six of the latter: Mutsuko Dohi, Tony Sano Chapman, Merrill Collins, Scott Thompson, Hideo Sekino, and Suki O'Kane. The dancers will be Mary Sano, Megan Nicely, Courtney Ramm, and Nancy Perez. The school is located at 245 5th Street in SoMa, between Howard Street and Folsom Street.

Paponiu Concludes SFS Youth Orchestra Season

Yesterday afternoon in Davies Symphony Hall Wattis Foundation Music Director Radu Paponiu led the final program of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) Youth Orchestra. This was a bit of a departure from the conventional overture-concerto-symphony program, because there was no concerto, only music for the full ensemble. There was, however, a concluding symphony, which was Hector Berlioz’ Opus 14, given the title “Symphonie fantastique.” The “concerto slot” was taken by the Petite Suite de concert, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Opus 77. The “overture” was the most recent work on the program, Anna Clyne’s “This Midnight Hour.” The music was inspired by two poets, the latter having been born about a quarter century after the former’s death. The poets were Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) and Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881–1958).

The Berlioz selection was definitely the most familiar offering, and I have to confess that I was delighted that Paponiu included the repeat of the symphony’s lengthy first movement. Given the title “Reveries, Passions,” this is the one movement in which reflection overpowers narrative. (In that context the decision to repeat reinforced those grounds for reflection.) Each of the remaining movements has its own narrative, each unfolding a path of descent, concluding in the depths of the “Dream of a Witches Sabbath,” whose darkness is reinforced with the “Dies irae” (day of wrath) Latin hymn from the thirteenth century Requiem setting. Paponiu knew exactly how to tap into the neurotic intensity of Berlioz’ score without ever letting his ensemble overplay its hand.

Photograph of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor taken around 1905 (photographer unknown but photograph restored by Adam Cuerden, available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division, from Wikipedia)

Coleridge-Taylor’s Opus 77 suite consists of four relatively short movements, each with a subtitle that suggests an underlying narrative. There is no shortage of expressiveness in the composer’s rhetorical approach to each of those movements. Nevertheless, I made a note that Paponiu’s steady hand kept the schmaltz from getting out of order.

Where Clyne is concerned, I have no trouble acknowledging the wealth of education behind her efforts as a composer. Nevertheless, I inevitably come away from listening to one of her pieces thinking that, while she may have had a massive Lego set at her disposal, she had yet to assemble the pieces in an engagingly imaginative way. It almost seems as if her command of music history is so extensive and so solid that she still has yet to forge a path of her own. As a result, while she may have been significantly inspired by such major poets and Baudelaire and Jiménez, she is still fumbling around for inspiration of her own, as she has been doing over the last several decades in which I have listened to her compositions.

San Francisco Opera’s “Summer” Season

When I was growing up, the first day of summer was June 21, which is when the period of daylight was the longest. However, I see from the Wikipedia page for summer that this is the date of the beginning of the “astronomical” season, while the “meteorological” season will begin on June 1. In this context, this year’s “summer season” of the San Francisco Opera (SFO), is definitely meteorological! It will begin on June 1 and conclude on June 27. There will be two full-length operas, the second a new production, and a concert at the very end of the season. Specifics are as follows:

Giacomo Puccini, La Bohème, June 3–21: This performance will be the staging by John Caird of a production shared with the Houston Grand Opera and the Canadian Opera Company. The revival with be directed by Katherine M. Carter, making her SFO debut. The conductor will be Ramón Tebar. A Web page has been created, which provides hyperlinks for in-depth Web sites for information about the opera, the performers, and the director. There will also be a livestream of the performance on June 10, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. A period of on-demand streaming will begin at 10 a.m. on June 16 and run through 10 a.m. on June 18. Tickets are currently available for the 7:30 p.m. performances on June 3, 7, 10, 12, 13, 18, 19, and 21. Tickets for the 2 p.m. matinee on June 16 are limited and no longer available for online purchase. Those hoping to attend are advised to call the Box Office at 415-864-3330, which is open on Monday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. On the date of the performance, the Box Office will be open through the first intermission.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Idomeneo, June 14–25: Lindy Hume will be making her SFO debut in staging this production shared with Opera Australia and Victorian Opera. Music Director Eun Sun Kim will conduct. Once again, all necessary information will be available through the home page for this production. The livestream will be available at 7:30 p.m. on June 20, with on-demand streaming beginning at 10 a.m. on June 23 and running through 10 a.m. on June 25. Tickets are currently available for the 7:30 p.m. performances on June 14, 17, 20, and 25 and the 2 p.m. matinee on June 22. Further information from the Box Office is available as stated above.

Celebrating SFO at the 2023 Pride Parade

Pride Concert, June 27: The season will conclude with a celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community. The SFO Orchestra will perform with Kim sharing the podium with Robert Mollicone. There will be three vocal soloists, mezzos Jamie Barton and Nikola Printz and baritone Brian Mulligan. The composers selected for the program reflect the “Pride spirit” with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky at one end and Jake Heggie at the other. The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m.

SFO Orchestra: Final Community Concert

Richard Wagner (1868 photograph of Richard Wagner by Jules Bonnet, public domain, from Wikimedia Commons)

Yesterday afternoon the San Francisco Opera (SFO) Orchestra presented the second of the two community concerts to be performed in San Francisco. In contrast to the Music and Flowers program of chamber music, presented at the Minnesota Street Project, today’s program involved the entire ensemble led by its Music Director Eun Sun Kim. The program began with one of the few chamber music compositions by Richard Wagner, expanded to the resources of the string section, and concluded with an instrument-by-instrument account of the full ensemble.

The Wagner offering was “Siegfried Idyll,” scored for an ensemble of thirteen instruments: flute, oboe, two clarinets, bassoon, two horns, trumpet, two violins, viola, cello, and bass. He composed it as a birthday present for his wife, leading a performance of it on the stairs of their Tribschen villa on Christmas morning of 1870. (This was one of the more engaging episodes in Tony Palmer’s Wagner film, much of which was far less memorable!) Kim’s conducting could not have been more sensitive; and, while the venue at Saint Joseph’s Arts Society was a large one, the attentive listener could still appreciate what may have been Wagner’s most intimate undertaking.

The remainder of the program could be described as “cause and effect.” The “effect” was Benjamin Britten’s Opus 34, “The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra.” This was composed for a documentary film entitled “Instruments of the Orchestra,” which introduced the viewer to both the individual instruments and also the ways those instruments were grouped into wind, brass, strings, and percussion sections. These were all presented as variations on a single theme, a Rondeau that Henry Purcell included in the incidental music he composed for the play Abdelazer by Aphra Behn. I was particularly impressed that Kim deployed the two violin sections to face each other for their interplay in Britten’s score. I was even more delighted to listen to her account of Purcell’s “source” music to prepare her audience for Britten’s theme-and-variations approach.

The program was prepared to last for only about an hour, performed without an intermission; and the finale of the Britten selection was so invigorating that I had no doubt that my time had been well spent!

SFS in June: All the Options in Davies

Next month Davies Symphony Hall will see the conclusion of this season’s San Francisco Symphony (SFS) Orchestral Series Concerts, which will include the already-reported final programs to be conducted by Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen. June will also see the final performances in the Great Performers Series, the Shenson Spotlight Series, and the Chamber Series. Once again, in the spirit of facilitating planning, the events will be presented in chronological order. As usual, each of the dates will be provided with a hyperlink to facilitate ticket purchases. Tickets may also be purchased at the Box Office, which is at the entrance on the south side of Grove Street, between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street.

Sunday, June 1, 7:30 p.m.: The final Great Performers recital will see the return of cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason. A little less than a year ago, he made his Orchestral Series debut playing the first of Dmitri Shostakovich’s two cello concertos (Opus 107) with Salonen conducting SFS. He will be accompanied at the piano by his sister Isata. The first half of the program will present “first” duo sonatas by Felix Mendelssohn (Opus 45 in B-flat major) and Gabriel Fauré (Opus 109 in D minor). The program will conclude with Francis Poulenc’s only cello sonata. This will be preceded by “Tor Mordôn” by Natalie Klouda.

Tuesday, June 4, 7:30 p.m.: The Shenson series will conclude with a solo double bass performance by Xavier Foley. He will perform nine of his own compositions. He will also include his interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1011 (fifth) suite in C minor, originally written for solo cello.

Friday, June 6, and Saturday, June 7, 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, June 8, 2 p.m.: As previously reported, this will be Salonen’s penultimate performance as SFS Music Director.

Thursday, June 12, Friday, June 13, and Saturday, June 14, 7:30 p.m.: Salonen will conclude his tenure with Gustav Mahler’s second symphony, given the title “Resurrection,” performing with the SFS Chorus, under the direction of Jenny Wong, joined by two vocalists Heidi Stober (soprano) and Sasha Cooke (mezzo).

Sunday, June 15, 2 p.m.: The composition that will conclude this season’s Chamber Series will probably be the most familiar work on the program, Johannes Brahms’ Opus 67 (third) quartet in B-flat major. This will be complemented at the end of the first half by another quartet. However, Anton Arensky’s Opus 35 (second) quartet was scored for violin, viola, and two cellos! Each of these quartets will be preceded by a much more recent composition. Caroline Shaw’s “Entr’acte” will “introduce” the Arensky quartet; and the intermission will be followed by Aleksey Igudesman’s Latin Suite, scored for two violas.

Friday, June 20, 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, June 22, 2 p.m.: The final program of the season to incorporate the SFS Chorus, directed by Jenny Wong, will be framed by two familiar works of sacred music. It will begin with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 618, the “Ave verum corpus;” and the second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Giuseppe Verdi’s setting of the Latin Requiem text. These pieces will “frame” three compositions by Gordon Getty, the world premiere of “St. Christopher,” the concert premiere of the intermezzo from his Goodbye, Mr. Chips opera, and the first SFS performances of “The Old Man in the Snow.”

from the San Francisco Public Library Web page for Make Music Day

Saturday, June 21, 3 p.m., Main Library: This is a special event, which will be presented by two SFS musicians, Assistant Principal Cello Amos Yang (holding the Urbanek Chair) and Charles Chandler on bass. They will celebrate Make Music Day with a visit to the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library. The performance will take place in the Atrium of the building; and, as will probably be expected, there will be no charge for admission. The library building is located at 100 Larkin Street at the northeast corner of Grove Street.

Opera Parallèle “Reimagining” Harvey Milk Opera

One of the first things my wife and I did after moving from Singapore to Palo Alto was to become subscribers to the San Francisco Opera (SFO). At that time Lotfi Mansouri was General Director, and he was not shy about commissioning new works. The first of those works that we saw was Harvey Milk, composed by Stewart Wallace with a libretto by Michael Korie. The production was shared by the Houston Grand Opera (whose General Director, David Gockley, would move to SFO in 2005) and New York City Opera.

I had seen the documentary The Times of Harvey Milk shortly after it was released in 1984, so I had no trouble following Korie’s narrative. I was not that enthusiastic about the music, but I was content enough to allow that it served the libretto well. Thus, when I learned about a month ago that the next Opera Parallèle production would be entitled Harvey Milk Reimagined, I could not be anything other than curious! The original three-act version had been (to mix metaphors) “tightened up” and “distilled” into a two-act libretto; and the score has been revised to accommodate changes in both cast and action.

Michael Kelly in the role of Harvey Milk (courtesy of Opera Parallèle)

The performances will take place at the Blue Shield of California Theater in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA). Yerba Buena will also present a display, which will include both “historical ephemera” and a selection of some of Milk’s personal artifacts. The latter will include both photographs and campaign materials. The title role will be sung by baritone Michael Kelly; and tenor Christopher Oglesby will portray Milk’s assassin, Dan White.

This production will receive four performances at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 31, and Friday, June 6, 3 p.m. on Sunday, June 1, and 5 p.m., on Saturday, June 7. All tickets may be purchased through a single City Box Office Web page. Ticket prices are from $66 to $188 with a special $35 rate for those under the age of 35.

BRISTLE on Queen Bee Records

BRISTLE performers Cory Wright, Lisa Mezzacappa, Murray Campbell, and Randy McKean (from their Web page for Edgetone Records)

This morning saw the latest release from Queen Bee Records, the “micro-label” run by bassist and composer Lisa Mezzacappa. The title of the album is Archimera, and it consists of six tracks of performances by the BRISTLE quartet, which is “led” by reed player Randy McKean. As might be expected, Mezzacappa plays bass; and Cory Wright, who specializes in low reed instruments (such as alto clarinet and basset horn), is joined by violinist/oboist Murray Campbell. (Note the scare quotes with regard to leadership. This quartet may not be anarchic; but it seems to take the concept of democracy to extremes not encountered in most, if not all, political institutions!)

What I find interesting are the ways in which each player can find his/her own “path of invention” without stepping on the toes (so to speak) of the other players. Indeed, there are any number of instances of homophony with the occasional unison. More important than who does what, however, is the extent to which high spirits prevail over all six of the selections on the album. My guess is that the full scope of individual invention is the product of a shared sense of humor!

“Nobody expects a Spanish Inquisition!”

Mine is the generation that faithfully watched every episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Indeed, the most faithful among us could easily exchange key quotations in the course of just about any conversation. Ironically, those fond memories were piqued this morning by an article by Jessica Flores for the San Francisco Chronicle given the headline “Trump appoints S.F. archbishop to new Religious Liberty Commission.” As I began to work my way through this article, it did not take me long to free-associate with the Monty Python quote that I selected for the above headline! One thing about such quotations is that they inevitably trigger free associations. The one that was just triggered comes from Will Rogers:

With Congress, every time they make a joke, it's a law, and every time they make a law, it's a joke.

Stasevska Returns: More Sibelius and a Premiere

Conductor Dalia Stasevska (from her Web site)

Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska made her debut with the San Francisco Symphony almost exactly two years ago, at the end of April of 2023. Her program emphasized Finnish composer Jean Sibelius with Joshua Bell as soloist in a performance of the violin concerto (Opus 47 in D minor), followed by the second symphony (Opus 43 in D major) for the second half of the program. Last night she returned to Davies Symphony Hall, concluding her program with another Sibelius symphony, Opus 82, the fifth in E-flat major. The first half of the program presented the world premiere of “Before we fall,” composed for cello and orchestra by Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir with Johannes Moser as soloist. The program began with Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis,” composed for three string ensembles, a large one on stage, a smaller one in one of the Terrace areas, and a string quartet.

“Before we fall” was the most disappointing of the selections. The program book included two extended quotations from Thorvaldsdottir. Sadly, these said more about the music than the music could say about itself. Mind you, there were many impressive demands on Moser’s cello skills, and he handled them all confidently and adeptly. Nevertheless, there was little to mine from the engagement between soloist and ensemble; and, as is often the case in such situations, the entire affair outstayed its welcome long before the halfway mark of the overall 25-minute duration.

Once again, the listening experience was far more satisfying through the previous century than with the recent past. The Vaughan Williams and Sibelius selections were composed within five years of each other (1910 and 1915, respectively). They could not have been more different; but, under Stasevska’s attentive control, they made for thoroughly engaging “bookends.”

Her conducting skills could not have been better in balancing the three ensembles in the Tallis fantasia. Where Sibelius was concerned, it was a matter of pace and phrasing. There is almost a sense of stream-of-consciousness meandering that pervades the three movements and the final coda feels almost as if it had been deliberately conceived to provoke. One wonders just how this music should be interpreted, but Stasevska seems to have found the path to delivering an account that let the music speak for itself.

To be fair, however, Sibelius composed this symphony in 1915. He revised it one year later, and revised it again in 1919. (When the Sibelius Edition of recordings was released, it included both the 1915 and 1919 versions.) Stasevska opted for the original one from 1915. Personally, I appreciated her making that choice!