Poesis Quartet Coming to Noe Music

Poesis Quartet members Max Ball, Drew Dansby, Sarah Ma, and Jasper de Boor (from the ensemble’s Web site)

Next month will see the third program to be presented this season by Noe Music. The performance will be by the Poesis Quartet, whose members are violinists Sarah Ma and Max Ball, Jasper de Boor on viola, and cellist Drew Dansby. The ensemble is currently the Graduate Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. At the same time they are also studying under the Arie Quartet.

The oldest selection on the program will be Sergei Prokofiev’s Opus 92 (second) string quartet in F major; and the most recent will be the result of a new commission by Kevin Lau. The program will also include “Pisachi,” composed by Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, inspired by his Chickasaw heritage. The remaining work on the program will be Sky Macklay’s “Many Many Cadences,” which promises to be a witty reflection on past classical conventions.

This performance will begin at 4 p.m. on Sunday, November 9. All tickets for reserved seating have been sold. First-come-first-serve general admission tickets are available for $45 with a $15 rate for students. They may be purchased through a Web page on the Noe Music Web site. For those that do not already know, the performance will take place in the Noe Valley Ministry, which is located at 1021 Sanchez Street, just north of 24th Street. Sanchez is two blocks to the west of the trolley stop at 24th and Church Street.

Halloween in the Green Room: the Fifth Season

Last night in the Green Room of the War Memorial Veterans Building, pianist Ronny Michael Greenberg presented the fifth installment of his annual Halloween-themed concert, Death by Aria. In addition to serving as Master of Ceremonies, Greenberg accompanied four vocalists at the piano: soprano Maria Valdes, mezzo Nikola Printz, and tenors Christopher Oglesby and Jesse Rex Barrett, who also gave an oboe performance with Greenberg of the third movement of Camille Saint-Saëns’ oboe sonata, preceded by a somewhat loopy account of Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 565 toccata in D minor (without the following fugue).

The Majestic Theatre in New York showing the mask associated with The Phantom of the Opera (photograph by ajay_suresh, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license)

Two other Baroque selections framed the evening. Valdes began the program singing Cleopatra’s aria “Piangerò la sorte mia” from George Frideric Handel’s HWV 17 opera Giulio Cesare, while “Dido’s Lament” at the conclusion of Henry Purcell’s Z. 626 opera Dido and Aeneas was given an “all hands” performance. Printz, on the other hand, delivered the most diverse repertoire, taking on one of Lady Macbeth’s arias from Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth, “Pirate Jenny,” Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, and “Loathing” from Stephen Schwartz’ musical Wicked. The Halloween spirit was also honored by “Point of no Return” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical The Phantom of the Opera, sung by Valdes and Oglesby (complete with mask).

Taken as a whole, this was a something-for-everyone entertainment. However, Greenberg is a first-rate accompanist; and his chemistry with all of the vocalists was consistently engaging. Death by Aria is becoming an annual tradition to poke a bit of fun at the more serious art song recitals. Nevertheless, all of the vocalists delivered solid and convincing accounts of their selections, always blending with the astute support of their accompanist. Death by Aria is well worth repeating annually.

Choices for December 6, 2025

It may seem a bit early; but, prior to the usual seasonal rush, serious listeners will have to make a choice for the first Saturday in December. There are currently two options, which will overlap. One will be the latest installment in pianist Ian Scarfe’s Suspended Harmony programs and the other will be a birthday celebration by the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony (BARS). Specifics are as follows:

7 p.m., Monument SF: Once again, Scarfe and cellist Kendra Grittani will share the program with circus performers. Contributions from the latter will amount to (in the words of the announcement on the Groupmuse Web page) “a variety of performers and dancers on Pole, Aerial Silks, Lyra, Mime and Clowning, and Tap Dance!” The music to be performed will include Sergei Prokofiev’s Opus 119 cello sonata and a “Best of Beethoven” selection. The Monument event space is located in SoMa at 140 9th Street. As in the past, ticketing is being managed by the aforementioned Groupmuse Web page.

Photograph of the first act of the original Imperial Ballet production of The Nutcracker, made around December of 1892 (scanned from the 1997 book The Life and Ballets of Lev Ivanov, public domain in the United States, from Wikimedia Commons)

7:30 p.m., San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM): The BARS celebration will be that of composer David Conte’s 70th birthday. He will be honored with the first suite he extracted from his 1992 tone poem “The Masque of the Red Death.” Cellist Hans Brightbill will be soloist in a performance of Ernest Bloch’s “Schelomo,” given the subtitle “Rhapsodie Hébraïque for Violoncello and Orchestra.” The entire program will be framed by the music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, beginning with “Romeo and Juliet,” described as a “Fantasy Overture.” The program will conclude with excepts from first act of the ballet The Nutcracker. (Most of the movements of the familiar suite extracted from the ballet score come from the second act.) Cyrus Ginwala will be guest conductor.

The venue will be the SFCM Concert Hall at 50 Oak Street, a short walk from the Van Ness Muni station. tix has created a Web page for processing ticket sales.Ticket prices range between $43.50 and $12. The Web page includes a chart showing which seats are available at what prices.

Existentialism is not Mumbo Jumbo!

The Temple of the Grail in the first act of the current San Francisco Opera production of Parsifal (photograph by Cory Weaver, courtesy of SFO)

I was glad to have a schedule that allowed me to attend the first of five San Francisco Opera performances of Richard Wagner’s final opera, Parsifal, and then have all my thoughts in a row and documented prior to 8 AM the following morning. Sadly, I was not able to see what the San Francisco Chronicle had to say about it until relatively late this morning. The account was written by Joshua Kosman, identified as the Chronicle’s “former classical music critic.” This was not the first time that the two of us had significantly different opinions, but I was more perplexed than usual by what I read in this morning’s paper.

More specifically, this is the account that set my juices flowing:

In tackling Wagner’s final and most enigmatic operatic creation, the company has deftly bypassed all the piece’s most intractable challenges – its static dramaturgy, its talkiness, its indecipherable religious framework – and opted instead to dazzle the eyes and ears.

This, I think, is the correct “Parsifal” strategy. There’s no obligation to take seriously the opera’s air of sacramental mumbo jumbo, with its babble about sin and redemption and purity, just because Wagner and his followers have done so. While there is always room for a diversity of opinions, those two paragraphs struck me as a need for a response to a call, or, at least, a need to take on existential adjectives such as “enigmatic” and “correct.”

Where the latter case is concerned, I always remember a Second City routine that was set in the Art Institute of Chicago. Two people are looking at the same painting. One says, “I don’t like it.” The other snaps back, “Well, you’re wrong!” When it comes to interpreting narrative, there will always be situations in which there is no “correct strategy.”

One does one’s best to identify events and how they impact each other, but sometimes coming to a conclusion can be elusive. In reflecting on my own experience of Parsifal, I would say that the opera involves the human condition as it applies to the qualities of loss (Amfortas’ wound) and enlightenment (Parsifal’s influence on Kundry). One may be perplexed by how these characters come to be influenced; but they are flesh and blood, rather than puppets of “sacramental mumbo jumbo.”

I suppose what matters most is that the Parsifal narrative is far from “a walk in the park.” That is why I invoked the phrase “journey of enlightenment” in the conclusion of my “morning after” writing. Perhaps, in the context of my metaphors, I should simply accept the fact that, in our respective visits to San Francisco Opera this past Saturday afternoon, Kosman and I found ourselves walking down entirely different paths that may never meet!

Having now put two stakes in the ground (one for each article), I can confess that I am looking forward to seeing this production a second time this coming Sunday!

Sainte-Agathe to Conduct PBO in December

Valérie Sainte-Agathe has been Artistic Director of the San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) since 2013. According to my archives, my first encounter with her came at the end of February of 2014, when SFGC contributed to a performance by the San Francisco Symphony of Gustav Mahler’s third symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. She has served as Chorale Director of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale (PBO) since 2022; and she will make her debut conducting both the ensemble and the chorale at the beginning of December.

Banner design for the Gloria Web page on the PBO Web site

That debut will be a “seasonal” program, best typified by the performance of the eighth of the twelve concerti grossi in Arcangelo Corelli’s Opus 6 collection, composed in the key of G minor and given the title “Christmas Concerto.” This will be balanced by the second half of the program, which will be a performance of Antonio Vivaldi’s best known choral composition, his RV 589 setting of the “Gloria” portion of the Mass. The remainder of the program will consist of two premiere performances. The opening selection will be the world premiere of “Quem Pastores Laudavere,” composed by Roderick Williams. The remaining selection on the program will be the United States premiere of “The Holdfast,” composed by Caroline Shaw. She prepared her own libretto, weaving original texts with excerpts from Thomas Hardy’s poem, “The Darkling Thrush.”

As usual, this performance will take place in Herbst Theater, located at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, December 5. (At 6:45 p.m. Sainte-Agathe will lead a performance by SFGC in the lobby.) Ticket prices range from $40 to $125, with a $20 rate for those under the age of thirty. They may be purchased through a City Box Office Web page, which includes a diagram showing where seats are still available.

SFS Youth Orchestra Season: 2025–26

Radu Paponiu conducting SFSYO (from the Web page for this season’s performance on May 17)

This season will see five concerts in Davies Symphony Hall performed by the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra (SFSYO) led by Wattis Foundation Music Director Radu Paponiu. As usual, tickets will be available at the Davies Symphony Hall Box Office, which is at the entrance on the south side of Grove Street, between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street; and hyperlinks are available below for online purchases. As was previously announced at the beginning of this month, the first of those performances will take place a 2 p.m. on Sunday, November 23, featuring an overture by Johannes Brahms, a concerto by Felix Mendelssohn, and a symphony by Antonín Dvořák. Details about the remaining four events in the season, which will also take place on Sundays, are as follows:

December 14, 2 p.m.: As usual, the holiday season will be celebrated with the annual performance by SFSYO of Sergei Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf.” This year the narrator will be Joshua Dela Cruz. There will also be selections from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker, and the program will conclude with a “sing-along” of traditional Christmas carols. Ticket prices will range from $19.50 to $149.

January 18, 3 p.m.: SFSYO will host the Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival. The other participating ensembles will be the California Youth Symphony, the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra, and the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra. Each participating ensemble will perform a selection, and the program will conclude with an “all-hands” performance by the Festival Orchestra. The program will include overtures by Giuseppe Verdi (Nabuco) and Johannes Brahms (“Academic Festival”), movements selected from three symphonies by, respectively, Antonín Dvořák (Opus 88, the eighth in G major), Sergei Prokofiev (Opus 100, the fifth, in B-flat major), and Dmitri Shostakovich (Opus 93, the tenth in E minor). The program will also include “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” by Paul Dukas and the “Pinkillo Serrano” movement from Gabriela Lena Frank’s Apu: Tone Poem for Orchestra. Ticket prices will range from $25 to $70.

March 8, 2 p.m.: Soprano Hanna Cho will be guest artist, performing in the final movement of Gustav Mahler’s fourth symphony in G major. The first half of the program will begin with Jean Sibelius’ “Finlandia,” followed by “blue cathedral,” composed by Jennifer Higdon. Ticket prices will range from $40 to $75.

May 17, 7:30 p.m.: The season will conclude with a “two symphonies” program. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 47, his fifth symphony in D minor. The first half will conclude with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 21, his first symphony in C major. The “overture” for this program will be Dylan Hall’s “Scherzo for Orchestra.”

Omni Video: Guitar, Oboe, and Cello

Following up on last Friday, I can now account for the second of the two new videos produced by OMNI on-Location. The music being performed was the Opus 146a by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, an “Aria” movement scored for oboe, cello, and piano. This was extracted from the Opus 146 “Concerto da camera,” composed in 1950 and scored for oboe and strings with optional parts for three horns and timpani.

By way of full disclosure, I have never had an opportunity to listen to Opus 146 in its entirety. However, just in this year I have encountered Castelnuovo-Tedesco in two previous chamber music settings through the release of Omni videos. The end of April saw a performance of the Opus 206 “Ecloghe,” a four-movement composition scored for flute, English horn, and guitar. This was followed at the end of July with a three-movement sonatina for flute and guitar.

Guitarist Giovanni Masi, oboist Elena Branno, and cellist Raffaella Cardaropoli, performing on a path at the Santuario de Santa Maria Assunta (screen shot from the video being discussed)

Both of these were “indoor” performances. The new release was filmed on the outdoor grounds of the Santuario de Santa Maria Assunta in the Italian town of Solofra. The camera work is generous in choosing a variety of backgrounds, one of which includes mountains in the distance. It would be fair to say that video director Fabio De Piano took an inventive approach to balancing the rich diversity of scenery against Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s relatively brief (seven and a half minutes) “Aria.” That said, the serenity of the music is well served by the different perspectives of a natural setting.

The Bleeding Edge: 10/27/2025

After last week’s relatively quiet one on the Bleeding Edge, this week will compensate with a generous number of offerings. Only one event has already been taken into account, the Halloween program that the Kronos Quartet has prepared for San Francisco Performances this coming Friday, October 31 (of course), beginning at 7:30 p.m. The remaining seven events of the week are as follows:

Monday, October 27 (tonight!), 7 p.m., Artists Television Access: Rewards Program is an improvisational trio, which will provide the soundtrack for a “three-projector celluloid meditation” created by experimental filmmaker Ellie Vanderlip. The keyboardist of the trio is James Wallace, who performs under the name Skyway Man. Zekarias Musele Thompson contributes “sonic composition” to the trio. Miles Lassi is an interdisciplinary artist; but, for this performance, he will probably be the percussionist. The venue is located in the Mission at 992 Valencia Street on the northwest corner of 21st Street.

Wednesday, October 29, 6 p.m., Bar Maritime: Saxophonist Kasey Knudsen will lead a trio whose other members are John Wiitala on bass and drummer Eric Garland. They will be jamming over the course of three hours. The bar is located at 417 Stockton Street.

Wednesday, October 29, 7 p.m., Make-Out Room: Knudsen’s trio will overlap the monthly Jazz at the Make-Out Room performance. The opening set will be taken by the Dave Slusser Trio, led by saxophonist Slusser. Rhythm will be provided by Erich Hunt on acoustic bass and drummer Donald Robinson. They will be followed at 8:15 p.m. by the Plonsey Scheme quartet, led by Dan Plonsey, who plays a variety of different saxophones. He is joined by vocalist Mantra Plonsey with Tomek Sinclair on guitar. Mic Gendreau will alternate between electronics and drums. For those unfamiliar with the venue, it is located in the Mission at 3225 22nd Street.

Thursday, October 30, 6:30 p.m., Mercury Cafe: Shimmering Leaves is a quartet that performs original compositions and improvisations. It is led by drummer Dave Mihaly, who also plays piano and sings. Michael Cavaseno plays a variety of guitars and invokes acoustic effects. Saxophonist David Boyce will alternate on drums. Jeff Hobbs will divide his time among alto saxophone, violin, and cornet. The venue is located at 201 Octavia Boulevard.

Thursday, October 30, 7 and 8:45 p.m., Mr. Tipple’s Jazz Club: Knudsen will play her second gig of the week leading a sextet. Wiitala will again be her bassist, but this time Jon Arkin will play the drums. Knudsen will share the front line with trumpeter Henry Hung and Danny Lubin-Laden on trombone. Dahveed Behroozi will be the sextet’s pianist. For those that do not yet know about this venue, Mr. Tipple’s is located at 39 Fell Street, on the south side of the street between Van Ness Avenue and Polk Street. Reservations for admission may be made through Web pages for the first and second sets. Both food and drink are available and may be purchased separately.

Friday, October 31, 7 p.m. at 9 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: Reed player David Boyce, who curates Other Dimensions in Sound, is preparing “a very special Halloween surprise of a horrifically melodious musical nature.” He is calling this program The Spooky ooky Edition. Further details will probably not be announced to keep the surprise. 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.

Percussionist André Custodio (from the BayImproviser Web page for his performance this week)

Friday, October 31, 8:30 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: For those hoping to escape the Halloween spirit, this venue will present two adventurous sets involving some familiar suspects. Dreambounders is the duo of experimental percussionist André Custodio and Lx Rudis, formerly a member of the “synthpunk pioneers,” The Units. There will also be a vocal set by Winston Tong. The venue, as always, is at 653 Chenery Street!

American Bach: A Tale of Four Cities

Late yesterday afternoon American Bach presented the first concert in its 2025–2026 season in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church. The title of the program was A Grand Tour, with each of the four works on the program associated with a different European city: London, Leipzig, Venice, and Rome. Jeffrey Thomas led the American Bach Soloists & Cantorei, the latter providing six solo vocalists: sopranos Julie Bosworth and Morgan Balfour, contralto Ágnes Vojtkó, countertenor Kyle Tingzon, tenor Jon Lee Keenan, and baritone Jesse Blumberg.

Queen Anne of Great Britain, for whom HWV 74 was composed (artist unknown, public domain, from Wikimedia Commons)

The entire program was framed by choral compositions by George Frideric Handel. It began with the secular cantata Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne (HWV 74), which takes the first line, “Eternal source of light divine” as an alternative title. This was probably performed for the first time on February 6, 1713. The “Roman” composition was HWV 232, the Dixit Dominus setting of Psalm 110, completed in April of 1707. In the first half of the program, Handel was coupled with Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1066, the first of his four orchestral suites, this one composed in the key of C major. The intermission was then followed by Antonio Vivaldi’s best known choral composition, his RV 589 setting of the “Gloria” portion of the Mass.

From my vantage point I could not see an empty seat in the church. American Bach has clearly built up an audience that was just as attentive as it was loyal. For my part, I was familiar with both the Bach and Vivaldi selections, while the two Handel offerings were new to me. Thomas definitely knew how to get things off to a good start, since the first entrance of the chorus in HWV 74 had me scribbling “burst of polyphony!” in my program book! Indeed, the entire program proceeded at a fair clip; and for any attentive listener there was never a dull moment.

This is American Bach’s 37th season. It is definitely off to a good start. My wife and I have always begun New Year’s Eve with the annual Baroque New Year’s Eve at the Opera program in Herbst Theatre. I am already looking forward to it!

Romeros Returning to San Francisco Next Month

Romero sons Lito and Celino performing with their fathers Pepe and Celin (courtesy of SFP)

In a little less than a month’s time, the guitar quartet known as The Romeros will return to San Francisco. Most readers probably know by now that this ensemble was originally founded in 1960 by Celedonio Romero and his sons Celin, Pepe, and Angel. Celin and Pepe are still performing, but the other two members are now Celin’s son Celino and Angel’s son Lito. Their return program will include the world premiere performance of “La Cita,” composed by Douglas Cuomo for soprano and guitar quartet. The soprano will be Amy Goymerac. As is usually the case, most of the program will consist of arrangements of works from the Renaissance period to those of contemporary composers. However, it will conclude with a composition by Pepe entitled “De Cadiz a la Habana (Colombianas).”

As usual, this event will be presented jointly by San Francisco Performances (SFP) and the OMNI Foundation for the Performing Arts. It will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 22. Ticket prices will be $85, $75, and $65. They may be purchased online through an SFP Web page. They may also be purchased by calling 415-392-2545. They will also be available at the door along with 50% off student rush tickets and 20% off senior rush tickets.

Wagner’s “Sacred Festival Stage Play” at SFO

Yesterday afternoon at the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco Opera (SFO) presented the first of five performances of Richard Wagner’s final opera, Parsifal. Wagner himself rejected calling this work an opera, describing it, instead, as Ein Bühnenweihfestspiel (a sacred festival stage play). That said, this is a creation that has found its way into performances around the world. Furthermore, because Good Friday is a major factor in the narrative, many opera companies are inclined to schedule performances in conjunction with the celebration of Easter.

The title character dates back to the twelfth century in Perceval ou le Conte du Graal by the twelfth-century trouvère Chrétien de Troyes and the thirteenth-century Middle High German chivalric romance Parzival of the Minnesänger Wolfram von Eschenbach. Both of these involve the Arthurian knight (usually known as Percival) and his quest for the Holy Grail. Wagner’s Parsifal, on the other hand, is a far cry from the Arthurian legends. Rather, he embodies the character of a “holy fool.”

Kundry (Tanja Ariana Baumgartner) under the spell of Klingsor (Falk Stuckmann) in the second act of Parsifal (photograph by Cory Weaver, courtesy of SFO)

Nevertheless, the Grail itself serves as the “backbone” of the overall narrative. It is guarded by an order of knights led by their king, Amfortas (baritone Brian Mulligan). He guarded the Grail with a sacred spear, which was stolen by the sorcerer Klingsor (bass-baritone Falk Stuckmann); and he now suffers a wound that will not heal. According to a prophecy, only an “innocent fool” can end his suffering. That “innocent fool” is Parsifal (tenor Brandon Jovanovich), who kills a swan and is reprimanded by Gurnemanz (bass Kwangchul Youn), one of the knights guarding the Grail. That confrontation leads to an elaborate path involving seduction (Kundry, sung by mezzo Tanja Ariana Baumgartner), frustration, and, ultimately, the healing of Amfortas.

One can appreciate why Wagner refused to call this an opera. The narrative of guarding the Grail is secondary to the emergence of the “innocent fool” and his impact on the social structure created around the Grail itself. The “primary” path of the narrative is the enlightening transformation of Parsifal and the impact of his enlightenment on Kundry, an enlightenment that parallels the curing of Amfortas’ wound.

It goes without saying that the narrative for this opera is a convoluted one. Nevertheless, the staging by Director Matthew Ozawa provided a clear path along which one came to know all of the personalities and the problems they confront, many of which are satisfactorily resolved. It would be unfair to say that this is a plot with a happily-ever-after conclusion. The journey of enlightenment does not always lead to happiness, but it can still take us into a world in which we can live with at least some satisfaction. That is the world in which Amfortas is finally healed!

SFO: Two Concerts in One Weekend

This past June, when I first wrote about plans for the 2025–26 season of the San Francisco Opera (SFO), I announced that, in addition to the four opera productions of the fall season, there would be one concert. I am happy to report that, a little over a week ago, I learned that there would be two concerts during the fall season, both of which will take place on the same weekend. The titles of these events are The Future is Now: Adlers in Concert and San Francisco Opera Chorus in Concert. Each will take place in a different venue in the Veterans Building of the San Francisco War Memorial at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. The first will be in Herbst Theatre, whose entrance is on the ground floor, and second will be in the Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater on the fourth (top) floor. Program details have not yet been entirely finalized, but current information is as follows:

Friday November 21, 7:30 p.m.: This will be the annual showcase for SFO’s resident artists. The program will include both arias and selected opera scenes. Staging will be directed by Omer Ben Seadia, and the SFO Orchestra will be conducted by Ramón Tebar. Ticket prices range from $69 to $34, and each of those levels has space for wheelchair seating.

2022 photograph of John Keene leading the SFO Chorus (from the Web page for this year’s event)

Sunday, November 23, 2 p.m.: The second program will be conducted by SFO Chorus Director John Keene; and, when necessary, keyboard accompaniment will be provided by SFO Associate Chorus Master Fabrizio Corona. The program will include both opera excerpts and selections of both sacred and secular choral compositions. This will be a 75-minute program without an intermission. The program has not yet been finalized. All seating, including wheelchair accessibility, will be general admission for $45.

Tickets may be purchased in advance online through the hyperlinks on the above dates or by calling the SFO Box Office.

Wayne Shorter Debut Album Remastered

I first became aware of saxophonist Wayne Shorter through his membership in the Miles Davis Quintet during the period from 1965 to 1968. Trumpeter Davis formed this quintet, whose other members were pianist Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter on bass, and drummer Tony Williams. It was through the diversity of the Davis repertoire that I first began thinking of jazz as “chamber music by other means.”

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

It would not surprise me if Shorter came to Davis’ attention with the release of his debut album, Introducing Wayne Shorter. There were six tracks on the album, the first five of which were Shorter originals. The “outlier” was the final track, Shorter’s take on “Mack the Knife” from the music that Kurt Weill composed for Bertolt Brecht’s “play with music,” The Threepenny Opera. These were all recorded on November 9 and 10 of 1959.

Introducing Wayne Shorter is also a quintet album. Shorter is joined on the front line by trumpeter Lee Morgan. Rhythm is provided by pianist Winton Kelly, Paul Chambers on bass, and drummer Jimmy Cobb. All three of them had performed in Davis’ “First Great Quintet” in 1958. At that time, his saxophonist was John Coltrane. Introducing Wayne Shorter was remastered at the end of this past August and is available for MP3 download through an Amazon.com Web page.

There have been many jokes about Davis chiding Coltrane about the length of the saxophonist’s solo takes. On Introducing Wayne Shorter it is clear that the saxophonist had a clear sense of when enough was enough. Of the six tracks on the album, only one, “Down In The Depths,” exceeded ten minutes. Both Shorter and Morgan had a keen sense of knowing when they had said enough!

I am not ashamed to admit that, given all the different approaches that one now encounters in the name of “jazz,” all of the tracks on Shorter’s debut album deliver “jazz as I like it.” I might almost say that I am as devoted to the period of jazz in the second half of the Sixties as I am to the First Viennese School of Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven! It might be an exaggeration to say that every note counted in both of these settings, but I doubt that the exaggeration would be a great one. After leaving Davis, Shorter would go off into a generous number of different directions; but my personal interests will always, for better or worse, reside in the Sixties!

Two Centuries of Russian Composers at Davies

Last night in Davies Symphony Hall German conductor David Afkham made his debut in leading the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). He presented a program based entirely on two Russian composers from the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. The evening began with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 35, his only violin concerto composed in the key of D major in 1878. The second half of the program was devoted to Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 65, his eighth symphony in C minor, composed in 1943, a time during World War II when the Red Army was beginning to take the offensive over Nazi Germany.

The concerto soloist was Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan. As is often the case, Tchaikovsky’s score provided rich instrumentation for the ensemble; but, under Afkham’s leadership, the balance between Khachatryan and the ensemble could not have been better. However familiar this music may have been to most of the audience, last night’s performance made for both an engaging blend of sonorities and a “grand tour of dispositions,” which unfold over the course of the concerto’s three movements.

Less familiar, however, was Khachatryan’s approach to taking an encore. He performed an improvisation on music associated with the Armenian duduk. This is a double reed instrument, which is usually played in pairs. A melodic line unfolds against a steady drone, which, in this case, was provided by Associate Concertmaster Jason Issokson. I would not be surprised if this was “something completely different” for the entire audience; but it was an engaging listening experience, which received a generous round of applause.

Dmitri Shostakovich as fireman during the Second World War (from the “Fireman Shostakovich” article in the London Review of Books, January 2, 2016)

Given the context in which Shostakovich’s Opus 65 was composed, it is not surprising that this is one of his darkest compositions. Indeed, the Largo fourth movement, structured as a passacaglia, was clearly intended as a funeral march. While the music was clearly conceived by the composer as patriotic support, the darkness did not go down well with the Soviet authorities.

Things were not much better on this side of the pond. SFS did not perform this music until February of 1994, when it was conducted by Herbert Blomstedt. The most recent performance was conducted by Juraj Valčuha at the end of May of 2019. Afkham accounted for the many different shades of darkness; and, while the rhetoric was unrelenting, he clearly knew how to engage with the attentive listener. One may not have left Davies with an upbeat disposition, but one could still relish the memories of the listening experience. Nevertheless, the unrelenting intensity is such that encountering this music once in a decade should be enough.

Omni Video: Marco De Biasi as Composer

This month has seen the release of two new videos produced by OMNI on-Location. Today was my first opportunity to catch up with one of them. Ironically, the music being performed is “Toccata Ritoccata,” composed by Marco De Biasi. This was not the first De Biasi video. At the end of last year, the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts recorded him performing all three movements of La Catedral, the three-movement suite by Agustín Barrios. As I observed at that time, De Biasi had been contending with focal dystonia since 2000.

Leonardo De Marchi playing music by Marco De Biasi in a printing press museum (screen shot from YouTube video courtesy of the Omni Foundation)

“Toccata Ritoccata” was originally composed for six-string guitar. However, the polyphony was so rich that it was subsequently adapted for ten-string guitar by Maurice Ohana and Narciso Yepes. This is the version that was performed by Leonardo De Marchi for OMNI on-Location. It was captured on video at Tipoteca Italiana, a printing press museum in Cornuda, Italy. As can be seen in the screen shot, the printing gear is on display just as the guitarist is.

What is probably most important about this performance is that more strings allow for more sympathetic resonance among those strings not immediately being plucked. This makes for richer sonorous qualities, and De Biasi consistently knows how to elicit those sonorities. Thus, while encountering a composition for the first time is always a “journey of discovery,” this particular journey involves not only the notes being played by the guitarist but also the sympathetic response by the strings themselves. Most likely, the journey will yield new discoveries with subsequent visits to this video.

Choices for November 16, 2025

As a sign that this season has gotten off to a busy start, I have already written two “Choices” articles for this month, the second accounting for tomorrow, and one for next month. The date for next month is November 14, with the Ars Minerva production of the opera Ercole Amante (Hercules in love) also performing on the evening of November 15 and the afternoon of November 16. That afternoon performance will begin at 2 p.m., which is the same time that the Century Club will be hosting its next chamber music recital. Furthermore the 55th season of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (SFCMP) will begin later that afternoon at 4 p.m. Specifics for those two events are as follows:

Century Club of California, 2 p.m.: According to my records, for his last visit to the Century Club, Ian Scarfe was joined by cellist Kendra Grittani. When he returns this month, he will perform with violinist Mads Tolling. They will perform Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 100, his four-movement sonatina in G major. This will be preceded by the last of Edvard Grieg’s three duo sonatas, his Opus 45 in C minor. These will, in turn, be preceded by selections from the ten volumes of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces collections for solo piano. The program will begin with an arrangement of “Morning Mood,” one of the incidental music pieces composed for the performance of Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt. George Gershwin will lead off the second half of the program with his three solo piano preludes and selections from the opera Porgy and Bess, both arranged for violin and piano, most likely by violinist Jascha Heifetz. The remainder of the program will consist of works selected by Tolling.

For those that do not already know, the Century Club is located at 1355 Franklin Street, between Post Street and Sutter Street. However, all arrangements must be made through a Groupmuse Web page. Ticket prices begin at $25, with $5 to hold a reservation. Doors will open at 1:30 p.m. Drinks will be provided (both with and without alcohol). However, the club itself is not wheelchair accessible.

Members of SFCMP in performance (from the City Box Office event page for the performance taking place next month)

Brava Theatre Center, 4 p.m.: The title of the first concert of the new SFCMP season is American Reflections: Exuberance. One of those reflections will be the father-and-son relationship between composers John Adams and Samuel Carl Adams. The program will conclude with one of the “father’s” favorites, the “Chamber Symphony,” which he composed in 1992. The “son” will conclude the first half of the program with “First Work,” which will be receiving its West Coast premiere and co-commissioned by SFCMP. The piece is a song cycle, and the vocalist will be soprano Winnie Nieh. The second half of the program will begin with the celebration of Terry Riley’s 90th birthday with a performance of “Dias de los Muertos,” originally commissioned by SFCMP guitarist David Tanenbaum. The entire program will begin with Shulamit Ran’s “Soliloquy.”

The venue is located in the Mission at 2781 24th Street. Tickets are being sold through a City Box Office event page. General admission will be $45 with a $18 rate for students. There will be an “Under the Hood” pre-concert talk beginning at 3:15 p.m.

Telegraph Quartet to Return to Noe Valley

Telegraph Quartet members (clockwise from upper left) Eric Chin, Jeremiah Shaw, Pei-Ling Lin, and Joseph Maile (photograph by Lisa Marie Mazzucco, from the TicketSource Web page)

Some readers probably know already that I have been following the Telegraph Quartet since its inception in 2013 and continue to do my best to keep up with them. Indeed, I was delighted to declare, about half a month ago, my delight at the fact that all four of the performers are still the founders: violinists Joseph Maile and Eric Chin, Pei-Ling Lin on viola, and cellist Jeremiah Shaw. Currently, they are the Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Michigan; but their touring schedule will take them back to San Francisco early next month. They will be joined on that tour with five selected Michigan students.

That tour will take them back to San Francisco. More specifically, all nine performers will visit the Noe Valley Ministry to present a program of chamber music from the early twentieth century (almost). That parenthesis accounts for the fact that the final work on the program will be Arnold Schoenberg’s Opus 4, “Verklärte Nacht” (transfigured night). Schoenberg completed it in 1899, but it was not given its first performance until March of 1902, This will be complemented at the beginning of the program with Anton’s Webern’s Opus 5 string quartet, given simply the title “Fünf Sätze” (five pieces). This piece, which is almost microscopic, will be followed by the lengthier three-movement string quartet, Béla Bartók’s Opus 27 (Sz. 67), the second of the six that he composed.

The performance will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 6. The venue will be the Noe Valley Ministry, which is located in Noe Valley at 1021 Sanchez Street, just south of 23rd Street. There will be no charge for admission, but reservations are advisable. TicketSource has a created a Web page for making those reservations. As of this writing, over 50 tickets are available.

Berkelium String Quartet Coming to St. Aidan’s

Berkelium String Quartet members Dan Flanagan, Karen Shinozaki Sor, Jacob Hansen-Joseph, and Michael Graham (from the Eventbrite Web page for their coming recital)

The Berkelium String Quartet is a new ensemble formed last year by members of the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ballet, New Century Chamber Orchestra, and Oakland Symphony. It is led by first violinist Dan Flanagan performing with Karen Shinozaki Sor on second violin, violist Jacob Hansen-Joseph, and Michael Graham on cello. They will begin with a program entitled The Bow and the Brush. This will be a mixed-media performance of music with curated paintings projected behind the performers.

Two of the works on the program will be Flanagan’s own compositions reflecting on art: “Tamayo” and “Water Lilies.” These will be preceded by two of the best-known string quartets from the Classical period. The program will begin with Joseph Haydn’s Hoboken III:30 quartet in E-flat major. This is the second of his Opus 33 quartets, best known through its nickname “The Joke,” which manifests itself in the final movement. It will be followed by one of the more serious late quartets by Ludwig van Beethoven, his Opus 127 in E-flat major. Period paintings will be projected during the movements of both of the Haydn and Beethoven quartets.

The performance will be presented by Music on the Hill, taking place at St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church. The church is located near the Glen Canyon Park Recreation Center at 101 Gold Mine Drive. It is best approached by taking the 52 bus from the Forest Hill Station on Market Street. Tickets are $25 with a $15 rate for students between the ages of thirteen and eighteen. They may be purchased online through the Eventbrite Web page.

Sunset Music and Arts: October, 2025

Information from Sunset Music and Arts continues to be “a sometime thing;” but, this past Sunday, I learned of two recitals that will take place at the end of this month. The first will involve a pianist giving duo performances with a baritone and a trumpet. The second will present a pianist who is also a composer.

Both of these will be evening performances, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Both of them have Web pages through which tickets may be purchased, and the hyperlinks to those pages will be attached to the dates. For those not familiar with this concert series, it takes place at the Incarnation Episcopal Church, which is located in the Sunset at 1750 29th Avenue. General admission will be $25 with a $20 rate for seniors and students. Specifics are as follows:

Poster design for the first of the two performances taking place this month (courtesy of Sunset Music and Arts)

Saturday, October 25: The pianist will be Gretchen Hull, who will accompany baritone Chad Runyon and trumpeter Jonathan Knight. The program will begin with a trio performance of “… to Cast a Shadow Again” by Eric Ewazen. The trumpet selections will be “Variations on the Agincourt Carol” by Gretchen Hull and Anthony Plog’s “Animal Ditties.” Runyon will sing a collection of songs compiled by John Jacob Niles and Thomas Merton.

Thursday, October 30: The principal composer on this solo piano recital by Tomasz Kamieniak will be Franz Liszt. The most familiar of the selections will be the S. 215 “Valse oubliée,” the first in that collection of waltzes. Liszt’s skill at transcription will be featured at the conclusion of the program with his S. 442 arrangement of the overture to Richard Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser. More interesting may be the performance of S. 242, the nineteenth composition given the title “Magyar rapszódiák,” which became the first version of S. 244/8, the eight of the more familiar Hungarian Rhapsodies collection. The program will begin with two three-movement tongue-in-cheek compositions by Erik Satie, the first entitled Les Trois Valses distinguées de précieux dégoûté (the three distinguished waltzes of a jaded dandy), followed by Embryons desséchés (desiccated embryos). There will also be ballades by two lesser known composers, Walter Niemann (Opus 49) and Joachim Raff (Opus 74). The remaining composition on the program will be Charles-Valentin Alkan’s “En rhythme molossique” (in Molossian rhythm), the second of his Opus 39 collection of twelve études accounting for all of the minor keys.

The Bleeding Edge: 10/20/2025

This will be a relatively quiet week with only four events taking place during the second half. All of the venues should be familiar to readers by now. Specifics are as follows: 

Poster design for Resident Electronic Music! 

Thursday, October 23, 8 p.m., Noisebridge Hackerspace: Noisebridge continues to host the monthly open mic event, Resident Electronic Music! As has already been reported, this takes place on the fourth Thursday of the month. Set duration is limited to twenty minutes. The hosts for this month will again be Franck Martin, TanukiSpiderCat, Jah’s Tin, and Sycamore Willow. The full account of performers has not yet been finalized. Performers can set up their preparations beginning at 7 p.m., and the BayImproviser Web page includes the necessary requirements for participants. There is also a Web page where they can sign up for participation. The performance will be free, but donations are suggested! Noisebridge is located in the Mission at 272 Capp Street. The program will also be live-streamed through a YouTube Web site.

Friday, October 24, 6 p.m., Mr. Tipple’s Jazz Club: Pianist Erika Oba will lead a trio, whose other members are Chris Bastian on bass and drummer Jeremy Stein Koler. As they say, “That’s all she wrote!” For those that do not yet know about this venue, Mr. Tipple’s is located at 39 Fell Street, on the south side of the street between Van Ness Avenue and Polk Street. Reservations for admission may be made through the Web page for the venue. Both food and drink are available and may be purchased separately.

Friday, October 24, Medicine for Nightmares, 7 p.m.: This week’s Other Dimensions in Sound program will offer a two-set program. The “double dose of musical medicina” will be provided by Angel and Identity Crisis. As always, the venue is 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.

Saturday, October 25, Center for New Music, 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.: There will be two performances of “Silver Mantis,” a 50 minute electro-acoustic presentation, performed with software and sampling, theremin and prepared piano. The performance is described as “elastic,” meaning that those really interested may want to attend both performances! There will also be a visual projection created by Swedish visual artist Sten Backman. Admission will be $20 with the reduced rate of $15 for students and members. As most readers probably know by now, the venue is located at 55 Taylor Street, half a block north of the Golden Gate Theater, which is where Golden Gate Avenue meets Market Street.

An Evening of Excess with Marc-André Hamelin

Marc-André Hamelin (photograph by Sim Cannety-Clarke, courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony)

French-Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin is no stranger to San Francisco. He was one of the recitalists to contribute to the 45th Season Favorites series presented by San Francisco Performances this past February. Last night he returned to Davies Symphony Hall to give his first Great Performers Series recital since March of 2019.

As I observed at the beginning of this season, Hamelin “does not shy away from ambitious undertakings.” Putting aside any need to “warm up” the audience, he launched last night’s recital immediately with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 106 piano sonata in B-flat major, known best by the title “Hammerklavier.” As might be guessed, this was the entire first half of the program. Things calmed down after the intermission with a straightforward account of the calmer rhetoric encountered in Robert Schumann’s Opus 82 suite, Waldszenen. Then it was “back to the races” with a “no holds barred” approach to the finger-busting demands of Maurice Ravel’s suite Gaspard de la nuit.

One would have thought that, after so much sound and fury, enough was enough. However, Hamelin returned to present five encores. The first of these was the C-sharp minor étude, the first of the three pieces collected in Alexander Scriabin’s Opus 2 set of three pieces. This was followed by Hamelin’s own composition “Music Box” and a jazzy tune given no introduction. He then (I think) moved on to one of the Claude Debussy preludes, leading up to the final encore, which I could document only as “something with a lot of notes!”

Hamelin’s performances tend to be like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates: You never know what you are going to get! I suppose he chose to begin with Beethoven’s Opus 106 because he wanted listeners to approach it with fresh minds, rather than echoes of other pieces of music. However, selecting Ravel for the other “bookend” almost seemed like a you-ain’t-heard-nuthin-yet gesture. A Hamelin program always seems to come across as promising a hearty meal … until the listener has to deal with digesting it!

SFCS to Pair Ola Gjeilo with Vaughan Williams

Poster design for the program being announced (from a City Box Office Web page)

Some readers may recall that, a little less than two years ago, the San Francisco Choral Society (SFCS) introduced the Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo to its audience. Artistic Director Robert Geary conducted the world premiere of Brontë, a choral work in eight movements scored for four-part (SATB) chorus, strings, and piano, setting excerpts from poems by Emily Brontë. Next month SFCS will revisit this composition for another performance, coupling it with an earlier work, by about a decade, that Gjeilo composed. The title of that work is “The Lake Isle,” which will conclude the next SFCS program; and, for that performance, SFCS will be accompanied by the California Chamber Symphony, joined by Maxwell Gibbs on guitar and pianist Keisuke Nakagoshi. The program will begin with “Dona nobis pacem,” a cantata in six continuous movements composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams. This will also involve accompaniment by the California Chamber Symphony, along with vocal solos by soprano Michele Kennedy and baritone Kenneth Goodson.

This program will be given two performances at 7 p.m. on Saturday, November 15, and 4 p.m. on Sunday, November 16. The venue will be Trinity+St. Peter's Episcopal Church, which is located at 1620 Gough Street, between Bush Street and Pine Street. Tickets may be purchase through City Box Office using the above hyperlinks. Ticket prices range from $40 to $60. The Sunday performance will be available for livestream at a charge of $40 up until 1 PM. A separate Web page has been created for this option, limited to one ticket per email address.

Pamela Z Explores Simultaneity on New Album

Cover design for the album being discussed (from its Bandcamp Web page)

This coming Friday will see the release of an album presenting a single composition by Pamela Z entitled “Simultaneous.” She began working on this project in 2019 during her Rome Prize Fellowship. During that period, she made over 30 recordings of interviews with her Fellowship colleagues, all involved with accounts of synchronous experiences. The composition was then the product of combining segments from those interviews with electronic synthesis. The original plan involved “live” performance of the result; but the pandemic compelled her to realize the performance through a recording, whose duration was a little less than 45 minutes. That recording is the only track on the new album, which (of course) also has the title Simultaneous.

As a result of my background in digital technology, I have been following Z’s work for several years with great interest in how her vocal work is enhanced through electronics. As might be expected, most of the post-recording synthesis work has involved overlapping the content she had captured. The result seems to have been not so much a narrative thread as an exploration of different aspects of how simultaneity is achieved. Given that there are several aspects to explore, the overall duration amounts to an appropriate “fit” for the overall journey.

One might even say that Z’s venture into simultaneity could be taken as a “response” to the “call” of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s essay, “… how time passes …”!

Detroit Symphony Orchestra in High Spirits

Once again, my wife and I settled down to dinner yesterday while watching the latest “free live HD webcast” presented by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) conducted by Jader Bignamini. Since I seem to receive a steady stream of electronic mail from DSO, I am almost certain that this was the first livestream of the new season. The program was structured around two highly-contrasting compositions.

The first of these was Wynton Marsalis’ four-movement violin concerto in D major, given its world premiere by British violinist Nicola Benedetti in November of 2015, performing with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Gaffigan. Last night’s violin soloist was Giuseppe Gibboni, who took an encore performance of Francisco Tárrega’s “Recuerdos de la Alhambra,” which may have been his own solo arrangement of music composed originally for guitar. The intermission was followed by Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 70, his ninth symphony. Curiously, this also received its first performance in November; but this time it was in 1945! This, too, was coupled with an encore, the “Russian Sailors Dance” from Reinhold Glière’s music for the ballet The Red Poppy.

Violinist Gibboni “jamming” with drummer Becker (screen shot from last night’s YouTube video of the webcast)

Decca released a recording of Benedetti playing the Marsalis concerto in the summer of 2019. My account of it was not particularly enthusiastic, and I had pretty much forgotten about it until I began to prepare background material for writing this article! To some extent, watching the performance made the music at least a bit more palatable. Indeed, the third movement included a duet for violin and drum kit; and I was delighted to see Gibboni leave his front-and-center position to wander over to the side of the stage where drummer Joseph Becker had set up his kit. They may not have been “jamming,” but the duo work marked a high point of spontaneity!

Those high spirits spilled over the intermission into Bignamini’s “Russian half.” Shostakovich tended to be consistently good at making sure that all of the members of the orchestra were satisfied with their parts. I am afraid that the camera work could not always keep up with his pace in bouncing themes from one instrument to another; but, for the most part, the video work allowed the attentive listener to follow most of the details. There was similar diversity in the Glière account, which was basically instrumental variations on a basic theme. The variations were not particularly imaginative, meaning that the viewing tended to be more engaging than the listening (as often tends to be the case with ballet)!

SFO to Present World Premiere Next Month

Composer Huang Ruo and librettist David Henry Hwang (courtesy of SFO)

As was announced this past spring, next month San Francisco Opera (SFO) will present the one world premiere production of the current season. The Monkey King will be an opera in two acts (separated by an intermission) composed by Huang Ruo. David Henry Hwang, known for the Broadway play M. Butterfly, prepared a libretto based on the first seven chapters of Journey to the West, the Chinese novel published in the 16th century attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It is best know to English-speaking readers through Arthur Waley’s 1942 translation.

The overall narrative is one of extensive adventures, ranging from the depths of the sea to an epic battle with the gods in heaven. Those that have followed SFO for some time know that Hwang is no stranger to the history of Chinese literature. He had previously written the libretto for Bright Sheng’s Dream of the Red Chamber, which was first performed in 2016 and revived in 2022. The Monkey King is more supernatural in nature, and the scope of that broader perspective will be facilitated with puppetry designed and director by Basil Twist.

Following up on the four hours and 50 minutes of Parsifal, the duration of The Monkey King is likely to be a bit more accommodating. As of this writing, the estimated run time will be two hours and twenty minutes with a single intermission. Thus, planning for the arrival at the War Memorial Opera House will go back to “business as usual!”

Eight performances have been scheduled, two beginning at 2 p.m. on Sundays, November 16 and November 30. The evening performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, November 14, Tuesday, November 18, Thursday, November 20, Saturday, November 22, Tuesday, November 25, and Friday, November 28. Ticket prices range from $29 to $447.

All tickets may be purchased in the outer lobby of the War Memorial Opera House at 301 Van Ness Avenue or by calling the Box Office at 415-864-3330. Box Office hours are 10 a.m.–5 p.m. on Monday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday through Saturday. In addition, there will be a livestream of the November 18 performance; the charge will be $25. Web pages are available both for tickets to the Opera House and for the livestream.

Ustvolskaya’s Brutalism Beyond Architecture

Portrait of Galina Ustvolskaya on the cover of the album of her five symphonies (from its Amazon.com Web page)

Once again, I find myself writing about the release of a new BIS album taking place one week from today. However, while Franz Schreker, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and Ernst Krenek were major composers during the first half of the twentieth century, Galina Ustvolskaya found her own approach to modernism during the second half. One week from today, BIS will release its recording of her five symphonies, the earliest (which included vocal work by two boys) composed in 1955 and the fifth, given the title “Amen,” completed in 1990. It is probably worth mentioning that some of the vocal passages for the two boys were a cappella.

What may be most important to Ustvolskaya was her strong commitment to religion. This did not go down well with the Soviet authoritarianism that dominated the middle of the twentieth century. She was never openly censured for her commitment to her faith; but, as her Wikipedia page puts it, she was accused by Soviet authorities “of being unwilling to communicate and of ‘narrowness’ and ‘obstinacy.’” When one reviews the catalog of her works, one can appreciate that commitment; but one consequence is that her compositions were only recognized and performed after her death.

That commitment is most evident in the subtitles she gives to the second, third, fourth, and fifth symphonies. Indeed, one wonders whether she decided to assign the title “Amen” to her final symphony knowing that it would be her last. Nevertheless, my own listening impressions of these five symphony, all performed by the London Philharmonic under the baton of Christian Karlsen, were unabashedly secular.

Mind you, at least some readers probably know by now that I have been an atheist for pretty much the second half of my life. Thus, when I listen to these five symphonies, I am listening primarily to Ustvolskaya’s imaginative approaches to sonorities. I am willing to acknowledge the titles associated with the last four of the symphonies and the declamation of texts in the second and third; but my focus is on the interplay between the instrumental writing and those texts.

My primary impression is that Ustvolskaya found an approach to composition with a spirit that was akin to the brutalist movement in architecture. In many ways, that made for a unique approach to the act of listening. The question is whether, having prepared my “listening chops” to account for this album, I shall return for future listening engagements!

Clerestory to Begin Season Inspired by Light

Poster design for the beginning of the new Clerestory season (from the Eventbrite Web page from which tickets may be obtained)

The Clerestory vocal chamber ensemble will begin its new season in less than a month’s time. The title of the first program will be Light Unhindered. This has been described in the advance material that I received as “a transcendent journey from shadow to brilliance,” which “weaves together a contemplative program of a cappella works that invoke celestial illumination and spiritual awakening.” The earliest work on the program will be the “Exultemus Domine” setting for double choir by Benedetto Bagni. Little is known about this composer; but, according to his Web page on the Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL) Web site, he “was probably born in Ferrara, and active in Bologna around 1609.” The most recent work on the program will be “Surge Illuminare,” composed by Michael John Trotta.

The San Francisco performance of this program will take place on Friday, November 14, beginning at 8 p.m. The venue will be St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, which is located on Cathedral Hill at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of the intersection with Franklin. Tickets may be purchased through an Eventbrite Web page with prices of $35 for general admission, $25 for seniors, and $5 for students.

SFS: Music from the First Two Quarters of 20C

Léon Bakst’s set design for the first part of Michel Fokine’s “Daphnis et Chloé” ballet, which complements the rhetoric of Ravel’s music (Houghton Library at Harvard University, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Yesterday afternoon, the German conductor Jun Märkl made his debut leading the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). He was born in February of 1959 the son of a Japanese pianist mother and a German violinist father. He was a pupil of Sergiu Celibidache and also studied under Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa.

He prepared a program with music from the first two quarters of the twentieth century. He began with Béla Bartók’s second violin concerto, composed in 1938. The soloist for this performance was violinist Leonidas Kavakos. The second half slipped back about a quarter of a century for music Maurice Ravel provided for the ballet choreographed by Michel Fokine, “Daphnis et Chloé.” The rhetorical contrast of these two selections was significant; but, with the intervention of an intermission, one could easily appreciate (if not enjoy) the more-than-evident distances.

The latter composition tends to be better known for the two orchestral suites that Ravel extracted (particularly the second). However, between the notes in the program book and the titles for the episodes in each of the three score Parts, one could enjoy the spirit of the narrative, if not the “flesh” of how the ballet was performed. It would be fair to say that much of Ravel’s expressiveness had its roots in his keen sense of instrumentation. As a result, it may be possible that observing how the music unfolds could be just as interesting as the story that Fokine’s choreography conveyed.

Thus, while the performance of the ballet filled about one hour, that duration was just as well spent watching how Märkl elicited every rhetorical significance from all of the SFS musicians. Those acts of signification were just as evident in the abstractions of Bartók’s concerto. Those familiar with the composer would probably enjoy how his musicological studies of Hungarian folk music provided what might be called a “rhetorical context.” One might say that the spirit was lurking in the background, but the flesh had its own approaches to expressiveness!

Kavakos was clearly in his element in presenting that expressiveness to his audience. Mind you, Bartók’s approaches to instrumentation were as inventive as Ravel’s. As a result, the orchestral passages in the concerto basically provided the soloist with a rhetorical setting. Kavakos could then explore the dispositions of that setting, while, at the same time, negotiating more than a few technically tricky passages for good measure!

Both of these selections were probably familiar to those that have been attending SFS performances for some time. Mind you, my wife and I have been making regular visits to Davies Symphony Hall ever since we moved from Singapore back to the United States in 1995. By the time we had arrived, we had already committed ourselves to ticket for both SFS and San Francisco Opera. I suppose one of the things that makes such commitment rewarding is the opportunity to experience how a given piece of music can be interpreted in a variety of different ways.

Märkl took on two different rhetorical settings and knew exactly how to elicit convincing interpretations, and that approach to conducting is what makes for a satisfying listening experience.