Twentieth-Century Cello Sonatas from Paris

Basile Ausländer and Jansen Ryser on the cover of their debut album

This coming Friday will see the release of a somewhat delayed debut album of two laureates of the Crescendo Young Swiss Artists. The performers are cellist Basile Ausländer and Jansen Ryser at the piano keyboard. Their “program” presents three sonatas for cellos and piano by composers that were trained in Paris during the first half of the last century. The first of these is Romanian George Enescu. The other two were French, both members of “Les Six,” Arthur Honegger and Francis Poulenc.

There is often a tendency for every new century to regard its predecessor as a distant past. Nevertheless, all three of these composers seem to have dodged that dismissal to at least a moderate extent. Closest to home, so to speak, is Enescu, whose string octet in C major was performed by musicians of the San Francisco Symphony, whose Chamber Music recital took place this past February 1. Similarly, violinist Agustin Hadelich made his debut with San Francisco Performances (SFP) as a soloist in the Shenson Great Artists & Ensemble Series this past March with a program that included Poulenc’s only sonata for violin and piano. Finally, Honegger’s 1920 sonatina (which he dedicated to Darius Milhaud) was performed at Mills College in October of 2020.

I must confess that I have had a soft spot for Les Six for some time. On the other hand, Enescu was given utterly terrible treatment by my high school music teacher (who clearly knew little more than what had appeared in the textbook he used). As a result, it took me quite some time to get to know not only that composer’s spirit but also the Romanian context in which that spirit had been cultivated. Nevertheless, in the “immediate present,” I found the performances by Ausländer and Ryser to be as refreshing as they were to the many “marks on paper” that they confronted.

Those (like myself) that feel that the last century still deserves some respect are likely to find the “program” that these performers prepared an engaging encounter.

SFP Plans for 2026–2027 Season

Last year plans for the San Francisco Performances (SFP) 2025–2026 season were announced at the beginning of April. The timing was the same for the coming 47th season, but things have been busier than usual on the “Bleeding Edge.” Nevertheless, as in the past, this site will, prior to the beginning of the season, give a series-by-series account of the programs that have been planned.

This year’s Gala will be on October 2 and will be held in conjunction with the first Great Artists & Ensembles recital of the season, which will be performed by violinist Geneva Lewis, accompanied at the piano by Joshua Mhoon. The season will again conclude at the beginning of May with a recital by pianist Fazil Say, who will juxtapose his own compositions with two of Ludwig van Beethoven’s best-known piano sonatas, Opus 13 (“Pathétique”) and Opus 57 (“Appassionata”).

The new season will also mark the beginning of a new series with the first performance in the Beethoven Anniversary Series. Over the course of two seasons, the Esmé Quartet, the SFP Artists-in-Residence, will perform all of the string quartets composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. The first half of the survey will consist of three performance, all at 7:30 p.m., on March 26, April 23, and May 6 of next year. Dimitri Murrath has replaced violist Jiwon Kim. The other three members are still the same: Wonhee Bae (first violin), Yuna Ha (second violin), and Yeeun Heo (cello). The PIVOT Festival will again return at the end of January with performances on January 27, 28 and 29. As usual, the other series will be familiar to SFP audiences:

• Great Artists & Ensembles
• Chamber
• Art of Song
• Guitar
• The Shenson Piano Series

The members of the Paul Taylor Dance Company (from the SFP event page)

Finally, following the conclusion of the season, SFP will join forces with the Presidio Theatre to present four performances by the Paul Taylor Dance Company. The program will include Taylors “Junction,” “3 Epitaphs,” and “Esplanade,” as well as “Tensile Involvement,” created by Alwin Nikolais. Further information about the program, including other works, will be announced in the fall. There will be three performances at 7:30 p.m. on May 20, 21, and 22, as well as a Saturday Family Matinee performance at 2 p.m. on May 22. All ticketing will be handled by the Presidio Theatre. All of the other SFP performances will take place in Herbst Theatre, located at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street.

Old First Concerts: August, 2026

Once again, August will be the month of the San Francisco International Piano Festival. True to the festival’s name, programs will celebrate a kaleidoscope of international voices from the present and both recent and distant past. The Festival will begin on Friday, August 21, and run through Sunday, August 30. Dates and times are as follows:

• Friday, August 21, 8 p.m.: The pianists will be Festival Director Jeffrey LaDeur and Éva Polgár, who will be making her San Francisco debut. The title of the program is Postcards, which reflects on the opening selection, Samuel Barber’s four-hand composition Souvenirs. The first half of the program will then conclude with Derek Bermel’s “Turning.” The second half of the program will be devoted to three compositions by Franz Liszt as follows:
• S. 628: Bénédiction et serment, composed for piano four-hands
• S. 175: the two Légendes: “St François d'Assise: la prédication aux oiseaux” and “St François de Paule: marchant sur les flots”
• S. 586: the four-hand arrangement of the choral setting of “Gaudeamus igitur”
• Sunday, August 23, 4 p.m.: Pianist Alexandre Dossin will present a solo recital entitled American piano music from the last 100 years. Dossin has recorded the complete works for piano by George Walker, and four of those compositions will provide the core of his program as follows:
• Prelude and Caprices
• Variations on a Kentucky Folk Song
• Guido’s Hand No. 4
• Piano Sonata No. 5

          He will begin the program with selections from the Thirteen Anniversaries suite compiled by Leonard Bernstein, which will be followed by Robert Pollock’s collection, Piano Miniatures. He will conclude with two significant works from the last century:

• the fourth of the Bachianas Brasileiras suites composed by Heitor Villa-Lobos
• the solo piano arrangement of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”
• Friday, August 28, 8 p.m.: The TNTeague Duo is a father-and-son partnership. Both of them (father Liam Teague and son Jaden Teague-Núñez) are steelpan virtuosos. Jaden will alternate between steelpan and piano. Selections will be announced from the stage.
• Sunday, August 30, 4 p.m.: The title of the program will be Symphonic Dances, which will also be the title of the final work on the program. This is also the title of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Opus 45, originally composed as an orchestral suite in three movements. The composer subsequently arrangement the score for two pianos. The performers will be pianists LaDeur and Elizabeth Dorman, making her Festival debut. This will be the final work on the program, preceded by “A Visit to Hell,” more steelpan music composed by Liam. This, in turn, will be coupled with Kevin Bobo’s “Rhapsody in Steel.” The program will begin with the two-piano version of Gershwin’s “Cuban Overture.”

Most readers probably know by now that Old First Concerts events take place at Old First Presbyterian Church. This is located at 1751 Sacramento Street on the southeast corner of Van Ness Avenue. Tickets will be available for purchase through the above hyperlinks, which are also available for live stream viewing.

Tickets Still Available for Merola Strauss

Cover of the vocal score for Ariadne auf Naxos published in Berlin in 1916 (from its Wikipedia Web page)

Merola Summer Festival performances will get under way on the evening of Thursday next week. However, readers may recall that, when I announced the season schedule, tickets for the performance of Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos were already sold out for the first of the two shows on Thursday, July 30. The good news is that tickets are still available for the second, which will take place in the afternoon at 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 1. Merola alumnus (2014) Omer Ben Seadia will direct this two-part production, the second part of which is basically an opera within an opera. (The first part is about all the bickering that takes place before the curtain rises.) The conductor will be Ann-Katrin Stöcker.

The performance will take place in the Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Most readers probably know that the venue is located in the Civic Center at 50 Oak Street. The only tickets remaining are Orchestra seats selling for $75. San Francisco Opera has created a Web page for online purchases. Tickets are being managed by the San Francisco Opera Box Office in the War Memorial Opera House at 301 Van Ness Avenue, across the street from City Hall to the east and Davies Symphony Hall to the south. The Box Office may also be reached by calling 415-864-3330.

An SFS Memorial Program for MTT at Davies

Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) became the eleventh Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) in 1995, meaning that my wife and I made our move from Singapore to Palo Alto in time to enjoy his first full season with that orchestra. This week’s performances, beginning last night, were dedicated in his memory. As might be expected, one of his own works was on the program, “Agnegram,” which he composed in 1998, giving its world premiere with SFS. This was preceded by the music of another American composer from the other end of the twentieth century. MTT clearly showed a particular fondness for Charles Ives’ “The Unanswered Question,” which served as a “prelude” to “Agnegram.” The first half of the program began with the SFS Chorus, directed by Jenny Wong, singing the fourth of the seven movements in Johannes Brahms’ Opus 45, A German Requiem. The Chorus returned following the intermission for the performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 125 (ninth) symphony in D minor, whose final movement included both chorus and four vocal soloists: soprano Jessica Faselt, mezzo Kelley O’Connor, tenor Thomas Cooley, and bass Peixin Chen.

Conductor James Gaffigan (photograph by Miguel Lorenzo, courtesy of SFS)

Taken as a whole, this was a major undertaking to honor the memory of a conductor, who was never shy about major undertakings. Conductor James Gaffigan is no stranger to SFS, and he found just the right chemistry for approaching the contrasts of the different works on the program. The members of the orchestra (many of whom were familiar with MTT) followed Gaffigan every step of the way to give each of the offerings its own uniquely well-defined statement.

Both concert repertoires and their audiences tend to approach performance as an act of the present honoring the past. Between the twentieth century of MTT and Ives and the nineteenth century of two of the “three B’s,” Beethoven and Brahms, there was more than enough to honor. However, what was most important was that Gaffigan led the performers in the spirit of the immediate present, reflecting on the past but establishing a unique voice of its own.

This program will be given two more performances, tomorrow night (Saturday) at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday (June 21) at 2 p.m.; and the offering is definitely “one for the books!”

Zephyr Symphony: The 2026–2027 Season

Don Scott Carpenter conducting in St. Mark's Lutheran Church 

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church will again serve as the home for the Zephyr Symphony led by conductor Don Scott Carpenter. The new season will present five programs (one more than last season). Three of them will involve vocal soloists, and one will have guitarist Thibault Garcia as the visiting soloist. Most readers probably know by now that St. Mark’s Lutheran Church is located at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of the corner of Franklin Street. All performances will begin on Saturday evenings at 7:30 p.m. on the following dates:

September 26, The Work at Hand: Mezzo Jamie Barton and cellist Nathan Chan will be featured in the Bay Area premiere of Jake Heggie’s song cycle The Work at Hand. The program will begin with Arvo Pärt’s “Trisagion.” The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 90 (MWV N 16), his fourth (“Italian”) symphony composed in the key of A major.

November 14, Trans Requiem: The title of the program is the title of the work to be performed during the second half, composed by Andrew Yee in 2025. Soprano Breanna Sinclairé and vocalist Katherine Goforth will be soloists performing with the Zephyr Chorus. Yee will also be cello soloist. The program will begin with Jesse Montgomery’s “Banner,” followed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 48 in C major, his four-movement “Serenade for Strings.”

December 19, Mozart’s Messiah: K. 572, is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 1789 German-language version of George Frideric Handel’s HWV 56 oratorio Messiah. This version has its own Wikipedia page, which describes Mozart’s efforts as follows:

The libretto of Mozart's adaptation was largely based on Luther's translation of the Bible. Mozart re-orchestrated about three-fifths of Handel's composition, primarily providing additional parts for an extended section of wind instruments, which was called Harmonie at the time. In general, a half-century after the inception of the work, Mozart adapted an English-language work conceived for a baroque orchestra in a public venue, to accommodate the constraints of private performances and the musical tastes of Vienna. 

The vocal soloists for this performance will be soprano Nicole Heaston, mezzo-soprano Kayleigh Decker, tenor Isaiah Bell, bass-baritone Sreten Manojlović. The chorus will be Vox Humana SF.

March 6, Sacred & Sensuous: Music of Devotion: The next performance by Vox Humana SF will be of the Missa pro defunctis (a setting of the Requiem mass) by Cristóbal de Morales. The second half of the program will be devoted to the best-known composition by Joaquín Rodrigo, his “Concierto de Aranjuez” guitar concerto. The soloist will be Thibault Garcia.

May 8: Kindertotenlieder: Music of Sorrow, Serenity, and Radiant Joy: Baritone Benjamin Appl will be the vocalist in the performance of Gustav Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder (songs on the death of children) song cycle. This will be followed by Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 92, his seventh symphony in A major. Musicologist Harry Goldschmidt has suggested that (as noted in the Wikipedia page for the symphony) the symphony “seems to be another one of his musical confrontations with Napoleon, this time in the context of the European wars of liberation from years of Napoleonic domination.” The program will begin with Anna Clyne’s “Within Her Arms.”

Jazz History at the Community Music Center

Marcus Shelby on the poster for his forthcoming visit to the Community Music Center

According to my archives, I have not written about a performance at the Community Music Center (CMC) since it hosted a performance for Ensemble for These Times in collaboration with the San Francisco International Arts Festival in May of last year. However, this summer there will be a Shenson Faculty Concert Series of free concerts. In a little over a week, bassist Marcus Shelby will host one of these events, leading a jazz trio whose other members are pianist Greg Jacobs and Jemal Ramirez on drums.

The full title of the program will be A Tribute to John Lewis and the Modern Jazz Quartet with Marcus Shelby. The Modern Jazz Quartet was formed by pianist Lewis, Milt Jackson on vibraphone, bassist Percy Heath, and Kenny Clarke on drums. Lewis, Jackson, and Clarke were all members of the rhythm section of Dizzy Gillespie's big band from 1946 to 1948; and their “spin-off” opened a door to new approaches to jazz. As might be expected, the quartet has a Wikipedia page, which provides an informative perspective on their approach to what became known as “modern jazz:”

Under Lewis's direction, they carved their own niche by specializing in elegant, restrained music that used sophisticated counterpoint inspired by Baroque music, yet nonetheless retained a strong blues feel. Noted for their elegant presentation, they were one of the first small jazz combos to perform in concert halls rather than nightclubs. They were initially active into the 1970s until Jackson quit in 1974 due to frustration with their finances and touring schedule, but re-formed in 1981.

To be fair, I should confess that my own encounters with this group have been only on the radio, rather than through the accumulation of recordings! Nevertheless, they made a significant impression on jazz listeners during the second half of the last century; and I suspect that many of the readers of this site have at least one, if not more, of the recordings they released between 1952 and 1997. Nevertheless, Shelby has not surfaced on this site since February of 2024, when he was performing at Bird & Beckett Books & Records with the Standard Issue quartet led by trumpeter Darren Johnson.

The performance will take place at the CMC Concert Hall in the Mission at 544 Capp Street. The performance will begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 25. That said, one cannot argue with a free concert; and a Web page has been created by Eventbrite for making reservations! Further information is available by calling 415-399-9544. CMC is located in the Mission at 2781 544 Capp Street.

David Russell Transcribes Couperin for Guitar

This seems to be a busy month for Omni on-Location videos to be released by the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts. The beginning of this month saw the release of a video of three guitars performing a transcription of the overture to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 492 opera, The Marriage of Figaro. The new video is another transcription, this time of keyboard music by François Couperin, “Les Barricades Mystérieuses” from the sixth “ordre” in his Pièces de Clavecin collection.

Damjan Bučić playing David Russell’s transcription of music by François Couperin

The guitarist for this performance is Damjan Bučić; and filming took place on location in Vittorio Veneto, Italy. More specifically, the venue was the Castello di San Martino. The music was transcribed for guitar solo by David Russell. The original keyboard version involves an interleaving of melodic lines that keeps both hands busy for not only the initial theme but also the two couplets that follow.

Mind you, I was more than a bit surprised that both Russell and Bučić could keep up with the interleaving polyphony; but it would be fair to say that I enjoyed listening to Bučić’s performance as much as my encounters with recorded harpsichord performances.

The Bleeding Edge: 6/16/2026

This week will see three more BIOMETRICKS performances on Thursday, June 18, Friday, June 19, and Saturday, June 20. Also, this week Pamela Z will return to the Roar Shack to perform with The Living Earth Show (TLES), the duo of guitarist Travis Andrews and drummer Andy Meyerson. That leaves the need to account for five more events taking place this week, all of which will be at venues likely to be familiar to regular readers. Specifics are as follows:

Tuesday, June 16, 7 p.m., Make-Out Room: The “action” will begin tonight with this month’s Jazz at the Make-Out Room program. Unlike last month, this month’s program will consist of three sets. Guitarist Karl Evangelista will make his next appearance in a duo performance with Lewis Jordan on saxophone. They will be followed by a solo set taken by guitarist Ross Hammond. The final set will be another duo with guitarist Jas Stade performing with Jon Bafus on drums. As usual, there will be no cover charge, meaning that donations will be accepted (not to mention welcome). For those unfamiliar with the venue, it is located in the Mission at 3225 22nd Street.

Wednesday, June 17, 8 p.m., The Lab: This will be Jas Stade’s second performance of the week. She will share sets with two other women. Wendy Eisenberg is both a virtuoso guitarist and a singer-songwriter. Mari Maurice is a Brooklyn-based sound artist and multi-instrumentalist whose repertoire ranges from ambient pop to folk and musique concrète. The venue is another familiar one, also located in the Mission, this time at 2948 16th Street.

Thursday, June 18, 8 p.m., Dead End Vintage: Once again, vintage clothing will provide a setting for free improvisation. This time there will be three sets, all by visiting performers. Shin Chida will be the most distant, since he is based in Yokkaichi, Japan. He has a repertoire of dark, atmospheric soundscapes using 8-track tape manipulation. Somewhat closer to home, Scot Jenerik will be visiting from Portland, Oregon. His projects include AUME, F-Space, and Soundtrack for the Dead. From the south, Mike Meanstreetz is based in Los Angeles, working with “drum kit/percussion, musique concrete/electronic manipulation, and acoustic-electric nylon guitar.” This is yet another venue in the Mission, located at 3370 19th Street.

Friday, June 19, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: The next Other Dimensions in Sound program, curated and hosted by Boohaabian reed player David Boyce, will be a two-set offering of solo performances. The first soloist will be saxophonist Tom Weeks. He will be followed by guitarist Karl Evangelista, who will perform the entirety of Sonny Sharrock’s Guitar album. The venue is located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street. As always, there is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book.

Poster for Rite of the Demon: Summer (from the Web page for purchasing tickets)

Saturday, June 20, 6:30 p.m., Gray Area Art and Technology: Eternal Research will present a full-evening program entitled Rite of the Demon: Summer. One of the performers will be Suzanne Ciani, one of the pioneers of electronic music. She will be joined by Fierra Ex Machina, inventors and developers of the Demon Box, who will be visiting from Los Angeles. The performance will take place in the Grand Theatre, located in the Mission at 2665 Mission Street.

Virginia Woolf as an Opera Character

It took me quite some time to catch up with Kevin Puts’ two-act opera The Hours. I missed out on seeing it in a movie theatre in 2022, in the relatively early days of the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD series. Fortunately, that broadcast was saved on video and was added to Great Performances at the Met on Public Television this past March 15. It was broadcast on KQED on March 20, and it was saved in my xfinity list of recordings.

Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming, and Kelli O’Hara as three women from three different eras (screenshot from the PBS broadcast of The Hours)

This morning was not a busy one, nor have things been particularly busy since lunch. As a result, I finally had time to view the opera in its entirety. For those that do not already know, The Hours is the title of a novel written by Michael Cunningham in 1998, which was then adapted as a film in 2002. The Wikipedia page for the opera describes the narrative as “a single day in the lives of three women.” One of those women is not fictitious, the novelist Virginia Woolf, sung by mezzo Joyce DiDonato at the Met debut. Soprano Renée Fleming sang the role of contemporary book editor, Clarissa Vaughan; and soprano Kelli O’Hara sang the third woman, Laura Brown, married to her husband Dan, bass-baritone Brandon Cedel. Their son Richie was sung by boy soprano Kai Edgar.

The narrative is rather unconventional, because all three of the women are living in different times in the twentieth century: Woolf in 1923 (when she may have begun her work on Mrs Dalloway), Brown in 1949 (not long after the end of World War II), and Vaughan in 1999, when there was a fair amount of artistry going on in New York’s West Village. Greg Pierce prepared the libretto based on Cunningham’s text, and Kevin Puts set that libretto to music. An excerpt from this opera was most recently heard in San Francisco in November of 2024, when it was included in the annual The Future Is Now concert, which showcases the rising talents of San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows.

Sadly, I was not at that performance; so my television version was my first encounter with the opera. Fortunately, I was not a total stranger to Puts’ music. My latest contact was not my only one; but in reviewing my archives, I had to reach back May of 2024, when violinist Joshua Bell played “Earth,” which Puts had composed in 2023.

I suppose what mattered most about my Met experience was that I wanted to view it from beginning to end to see what would happen. I was intrigued with the idea of interleaving different characters from different time periods. Nevertheless, this never came across as an impediment for making sense of the overall narrative. I must confess that the music was not particularly memorable; but, on the other hand, it never tried to upstage both the narrative and Stephen Daldry’s approach to staging it. As a result, I was never tempted to close my eyes and just enjoy the vocalists!

Should San Francisco Opera decide to add The Hours to its repertoire, I would have no trouble visiting this opera for a second time!

Germain Returning to Chez Hanny as Leader

Aaron Germain with his bass (courtesy of Jazz Chez Hanny)

Some readers may recall that when pianist Kerry Politzer brought her quartet to Chez Hanny this past October, her bassist was Aaron Germain. At the end of this month, Germain will return to Chez Hanny, this time leading a quartet of his own. Saxophonist Jesse Levit will be on the front line, and rhythm will be provided by Art Khu on piano and drummer Deszon X. Claiborne, who made his last visit to Chez Hanny in August of last year.

As usual, the show will begin at Chez Hanny at 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 28. As always, the venue will be Hanny’s house at 1300 Silver Avenue, with the performance taking place in the downstairs rumpus room. Admission will be $25, payable by cash, by check made out to Jazz Chez Hanny, or by Zelle through jazz@chezhanny.com. There will be two sets separated by a potluck break. As a result, all who plan to attend are encouraged to bring food and/or drink to share. Vaccination is required on the honor system, and masks are optional. Seating is first come, first served; and the doors will open at 3:30 p.m. Reservations are preferred and may be made by sending electronic mail to jazz@chezhanny.com.

Revisiting “Elektra” Through Livestream

Some readers may recall that I wrote about the first of six performances of Richard Strauss’ one-act opera “Elektra” at the San Francisco Opera (SFO) in the War Memorial Opera House over the course of this month. Today I decided that another visit to the opera would be useful; but this time I made my visit from home, thanks to livestream technology. While I have been familiar with the music for some time, I think that the current SFO production, created by Keith Warner, revived for the current round of performances by Anja Kühnhold, has been my only visual encounter with this music. As could be seen in my previous article, the stage design by Boris Kudlička almost dwarves the vocalists. Therefore, I enjoyed this afternoon at the television, because it gave me a better view of the personalities of the individual characters in the narrative.

I find it interesting that both Euripides and Sophocles wrote plays about this character in Ancient Greece. In the early twentieth century, Hugo von Hofmannsthal wrote his own play, taking Sophocles as his point of departure; and he subsequently used that play as the basis for the libretto he would write for Strauss’ opera. The opera is distilled into a single act, but there is approximately two hours of action in that act.

Warner clearly wanted to distance himself from Ancient Greece. As I previously wrote, what one first sees on the stage is a museum with Ancient Greek artifacts on display. Visitors to the museum leave the stage at “closing time," after which Sophocles’ characters come to life, expressing themselves through some of Strauss’ most intense music. Nevertheless, it struck me that Hofmannsthal’s libretto may have rambled a bit more than his play, probably because Strauss wanted to give his vocalists more music! That said, the score came close to demanding an endurance test for the role of Elektra, sung by dramatic soprano Elena Pankratova; and I was even more impressed with her staying power this afternoon than I was during my previous encounter.

Mother Klytemnestra (Michaela Schuster) and daughter Elektra (Elena Pankratova) having a heart-to-heart “kitchen talk”

What amused me the most, however, was Warner’s inclusion of a scene in a contemporary kitchen. My guess is that this would be the perfect place for Elektra and Klytemnestra to have a “heart-to-heart” talk. That episode in Hofmannsthal’s libretto was definitely better suited to a kitchen than to a museum!

That said, there are only three more performances that will be given of this production. They will all be evening events, beginning at 7:30 p.m. The dates will be Friday, June 19, Tuesday, June 23, and Saturday, June 24. Tickets may be purchased online through a single Web page.

Tobin Mueller and Tomás Martinez: Volume 2

Tobin Mueller at the keyboard of his piano

The beginning of this month saw the release of the second volume in the series entitled Blue Side. Readers may recall that the series is a collaborative project between jazz pianist Tobin Mueller and Tomás Martinez on alto saxophone. Once again, selected tracks include guest artists with Juan Torres Fernández on tenor saxophone and percussionists Ruben de Ruiter and Shahar Haziza. There is little that can be said about this album than was already documented in the article for Volume 1. Nevertheless, I was drawn to the approaches to invention on that first album; and all that matters (as far as I am concerned) is that the second volume is just as inventive!

Noe Music 2026–2027

About a month ago, Noe Music announced the ten programs that will be performed in the Mainstage series. As is usually the case, these will all take place on Sunday afternoons at 4 p.m. There will also be a special preview event for Reverberations. Composer-performers Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee Parpan will collaborate with the chamber collective Decoda for a work-in-progress preview performance of this composition, which will be given its world premiere in Carnegie Hall next season. This preview will take place at the Hosfelt Gallery, rather than the Noe Valley Ministry, which is located at 260 Utah Street, beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 10. All other performances will take place at the Noe Valley Ministry at 1021 Sanchez Street, between 23rd Street and Elizabeth Street. Summaries of the programs to be performed are as follows:

September 20: The Sekhri Piano Series will begin with the recital debut of local Gilmore Young Artist Janice Carissa. The major work she has prepared will be Sergei Prokofiev’s Opus 84 (eighth) piano sonata in B-flat major. The program will begin with works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Philip Glass, and Frederick Rzewski.

October 4: Djékady is the duo of cellist Mike Block and Balla Kouyaté, who plays the Malian balafon, both veterans of the Silkroad Ensemble.

November 1: Co-Artistic Director Owen Dalby will present a world-class string quartet.

November 29: The second Sekhri pianist will be Jeremy Denk. He will conclude his program with the last two piano sonatas composed by Ludwig van Beethoven: Opus 110 in A-flat major and Opus 111 in C minor. He will also play a recently rediscovered composition by Hélène de Montgeroult. along with études by Unsuk Chin and yet-to-be-announced music by Bach.

January 10: The Westerlies, a quartet of two trumpets and two trombones, will be joined by South African vocalist Vuyo Sotashe.

February 7: The piano trio Trio Gaia will make its San Francisco debut. They have prepared a program entitled Between Worlds, “asking what we carry when we leave home.” Details have not yet been finalized; but composers will include Antonín Dvořák and Igor Stravinsky.

February 28: Violinist Dalby will perform all three of the violin sonatas by Johannes Brahms, accompanied at the piano by Stephen Prutsman.

March 21: Karen Ouzounian and Lembit Beecher will perform Mayrig, a 60-minute performance for cello, electronics, piano, and voice.

Portrait photograph of Eric Satie by Henri Manuel (from Wikmedia Commons, public domain) 

May 2: The season will conclude with a the final Sekhri Piano Series recital. Steven Osborne has prepared a program entitled Reflections. The program will conclude with Beethoven’s Opus 120, “33 Variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli.” The first half of the program will bring together selections by Robert Schumann, Erik Satie, and Maurice Ravel.

DSO Concludes Season with Hilary Hahn

Hilary Hahn playing her Bach encore (screen shot from yesterday’s live-stream)

Last night the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) concluded its concert season with a YouTube live-stream of the performance led by Jader Bignamini. The concert soloist was violinist Hilary Hahn in a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 219 (fifth) violin concerto, known as the “Turkish.” This was the entirety of the first half of the program; and the intermission was followed by Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Opus 27, his second symphony, composed in the key of E minor. As might be expected, Hahn followed her concerto performance with an encore, the solo Sarabande movement from Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1004 partita for solo violin in D minor.

That performance was definitely the high point of the evening. Hahn’s command of Mozart’s rhetoric could not have been better, and I would not be surprised to learn that her cadenza for the second movement of the concerto was her own. Her command of unaccompanied Bach was just as engaging. All this made for a listening experience to be remembered, in contrast to the lumbering qualities of Rachmaninoff’s symphony, which is best forgotten, even if it is the most performed of his three symphonies!

As a result, the Detroit season did not conclude on the best of notes (so to speak); hopefully, the fall season will return to live-streaming with a more engaging offering.

Left Coast Chamber Plans for 2026/27 Season

The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (LCCE) released the first round of information about its 34th season a few days ago. Four programs have been planned, all of which will take place at the usual venue of the Noe Valley Ministry. The Ministry is located in Noe Valley (of course) at 1021 Sanchez Street, just south of 23rd Street. Program specifics are as follows:

Saturday, September 19, 7:30 p.m.: The title of this program will be Impossible Inventions, which will also be the title of the second work on the program. This was the winner of the 2025 Composition Contest, composed by Paul Novak. It will be preceded by Thea Musgrave’s “In the Still of the Night.” The second half of the program will be devoted to a performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 12, his first string quartet, composed in the key of E-flat major. Other world premiere performances by emerging composers participating in the Pathways Program will be announced at  later date.

Saturday, November 21, 7:30 p.m.: Left Coast clarinetist Jerome Simas will be featured in the second half of the program with a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 581 clarinet quintet in A major. Simas will also perform in the first half of the program in a new work by his fellow clarinetist, Jonathan Russell. The program will begin with Thea Musgrave’s “Narcissus.”

“Wayfarers” in the banner for the Web page for the January concert

Monday, January 18, 4 p.m.: The first half of the program will be devoted to a performance of Gustav Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (songs of a wayfarer), a cycle of four songs with Mahler’s own texts. The second half of the program will present six new works, each by a different composer, collected under the title What is Home? The entire collection was co-commissioned by Collage New Music, Eighth Blackbird, LCCE, and the Korean Cultural Society of Boston.

Sunday, May 23, 4 p.m.: The title of the final program will be Ephemera: Rebecca Clarke and Friends. Clarke will be represented on the program by her piano trio. This will be preceded by “The Egrets have Landed,” composed by her “friend,” Thea Musgrave. The composers in the second half will both be “male friends,” Patrick Castillo (“Ephemera”) and Jeffrey Mumford (“Undiluted Days”).

As of this writing, tickets may only be purchased through a full subscription. The price is $155, but students will receive a $50 rate. That said, no more than twenty subscriptions may be purchased. A Web page has been created for online purchases.

Conductor Tianyi Lu Debuts with SFS in Davies

Last night Chinese-born New Zealander Tianyi Lu made her debut in Davies Symphony Hall on the podium of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). The program was a conventional overture-concerto-symphony performance, but Lu took a refreshing approach to the convention. Her “overture” was an SFS debut, “Zhiân,” followed by violinist María Dueñas as soloist in Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Opus 35, his only violin concerto composed in the key of D major. The “symphony” following the intermission was Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Opus 35, his symphonic suite entitled Scheherazade.

The program was somewhat uneven, but the progress was a positive one. The word “Zhiân” means “life” in Kurdish and both “indignant” and “formidable” in Persian. Composer Imam Habibi was born in Tehran but is of Kurdish descent. His music was inspired by the many protests he had encountered both inside and outside Iran. Reflecting on his own state of mind through music was a noble undertaking; but, to the “outside observer” the results of his efforts amounted to little more than sound and fury signifying you-know-what. His approach to dynamics also suggested that he might have been paid by the decibel.

Poster for The Adventures of Robin Hood with Korngold’s name in the smallest type font (from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

I was much more satisfied with the account of the Korngold concerto. I have had a long-time interest in Korngold’s music, which is just as interesting as his biography. (He was able to escape the rise of the Nazis in Europe and was fortunate enough to find both refuge and work in Hollywood. He had no trouble getting jobs to write music for the movies, one of which was The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn in the title role. The story goes that Korngold liked to tell his friends that Robin Hood rescued him from the Nazis!) Mind you, his music would go on a bit too long from time to time. Nevertheless, Dueñas gave a thoroughly engaging account under Lu’s baton, which never felt that the duration was too much. Dueñas then gave a solo encore; and, as so often seems to be the case, she never bothered to introduce the composer and title to the audience.

Scheherazade, of course, does not require such introduction! Indeed, Lu’s command of the music was so solid that she did not require a score. Furthermore, in the third (and most lyrical) movement, “The Young Prince and the Young Princess,” she led the ensemble without her baton. This composition may be in the “old chestnut” category, but Lu definitely knew how to make the attentive listener sit up and take notice! Having enjoyed her debut offering, I am looking forward to her returning to Davies.

Opera Repertoire for 2026–27 SFO Season

I see that it is almost exactly a year ago that I ran an article announcing the repertoire for the 2025–26 season of the San Francisco Opera. During the fall of the coming season, there will be four opera productions, the annual Opera in the Park event, and a concert performed by the SFO Orchestra under the baton of Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim. For that concert, Kim has prepared a program of three compositions by Richard Strauss, beginning with one of his most familiar orchestral works, his Opus 28 tone poem, “Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks.” Equally familiar will be a suite of music from the opera Der Rosenkavalier, in a new arrangement for orchestra by Philippe Jordan and Tomáš Ille. Between these “bookends” soprano Adela Zaharia will be the solo vocalist in a performance of the six songs that Strauss collected for his Opus 68, sometimes known as the Brentano Lieder for the poems by Clemens Brentano. In “order of appearance,” the full-opera productions will be presented as follows:

Simon Boccanegra, Giuseppe Verdi: Once again, the season will begin with a Verdi opera conducted, as in past Verdi productions, by Kim. Katherine M. Carter will be the Revival Director for staging originally conceived by Claus Guth. As was the case last season, the title role will be sung by Mongolian baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat.

Mary, Queen of Scots, Thea Musgrave: This will be a co-production with the English National Opera of a staging by Stewart Laing, who will be making his SFO debut. Conductor Clelia Cafiero will also be debuting. However, the title role will be taken by a soprano familiar to San Francisco, Heidi Stober.

Soprano Ellie Dehn in the title role of the “balloon scene” in Massenet’s opera Manon (photograph by Cory Weaver, courtesy of San Francisco Opera)

Manon, Jules Massenet: This will be a revival of the production shared with the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, which gave the premiere in Vilnius in September of 2015, and the Israeli Opera. Staging was conceived by Vincent Boussard, who will return as Director. Kim will conduct.

Le nozze di Figaro (the marriage of Figaro), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: This will be another revival, going back to the 2019–20 season when Michael Cavanagh staged productions of all three of the Mozart operas based on librettos by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Shawna Lucey will direct the production, and Sebastian Weigle will make his debut as conductor. Bass-baritone Peter Kellner will make his SFO debut in the title role.

Das Rheingold, Richard Wagner: As a “preview” for the complete production of Der Ring des Nibelungen (the ring of the Nibelung), which will be given three full cycles in June of 2028, May and June will see seven performances of the first opera in the cycle; and Kim will conduct the return of the staging directed by Francesca Zambello.

Tosca, Giacomo Puccini: This is the very first opera that Kim conducted after she was appointed Music Director. Shawna Lucey will return as Director. However, for this revival, the conductor will be Clelia Cafiero. Soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen will be making her title role debut.

As is always the case, this site will do its best to provide further information as the opening dates of these productions draw nearer.

125 Years Since Duke Ellington’s Birth!

Artistic Director Charlie Young leading the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra (photograph by Murphy Mochetta)

Today the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra released an album of live performances of Duke Ellington’s music, recorded between 1940 and 1968. The title of the album is, appropriately enough, Ellington Masterworks; and it is now available for CD purchase through an Amazon.com Web page. The advance material I received described the compositions being performed as “rare,” and I certainly agree! Unless I am mistaken, the only familiar track on the album was the last one: “Jack the Bear.”

In reviewing my archives, I found it interesting to be reminded that, at the beginning of this season in September, Ellington’s music was performed both at Jazz Chez Hanny and (somewhat more surprising) Davies Symphony Hall. In the latter setting, Ellington’s “Harlem” (which I described as an “extended jazz composition”) rubbed shoulders with two major works by George Gershwin, “Concerto in F” and “An American in Paris.”

The eight tracks for Ellington Masterworks were recorded on a single day, April 6, 2024, at MCG Jazz in Pittsburgh. These were all “live” (as opposed to edited) takes. The ensemble is a large one: four saxophones, five trumpets, three trombones, and the usual rhythm section of piano, bass, and drums. For what it is worth, the drummer, Ken Kimery, is also the Executive Producer; and the conductor, Charlie Young, is also the Artistic Director. Since my own interest is in piano, I was particularly drawn to the solo piano performance by Tony Nalker that began the fourth track on the album, “Madness in Great Ones.” Even though the track is one of the shortest on the albums (only four and a half minutes), this is the sort of performance that is likely to raise eyebrows among those thinking that they knew all there was to know about Ellington!

Personally, I am curious about whether the Smithsonian will come up with any further disruptions for those of us thinking that we know “all about” certain musical topics!

August will Begin with SF Bach Festival

American Bach has finalized the five programs to be performed during the San Francisco Bach Festival, which will take place at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music during the first full week of August. The first four programs on August 5, 6, 7, and 8 will begin at 7:30 PM, followed by an afternoon performance on August 9 at 4 p.m. to conclude the Festival. Each program will have its own theme, captured by the event’s title; and there will be considerable diversity in the offerings. Specifics, including the title of each program, the venue, and the works to be performed, are as follows:

Wednesday, August 5, 7:30 p.m., Sol Joseph Recital Hall: Intimate Bach will present four compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach involving three different solo instruments. The program will begin with the BWV 1006 solo violin partita in E major. This will be followed by the BWV 1034 sonata for flute in E minor with continuo accompaniment. The next solo offering will be BWV 1009, the solo cello suite in C major; and the program will conclude with BWV 1017, the C minor sonata for violin and harpsichord.

Thursday, August 6, 7:30 p.m. Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall: The program will begin with a composer and violinist based here in San Francisco, Ericsson Hatfield. His selection will be Trio in A Minor, which he composed in the Italian Baroque style. There will be a second living composer on the program, Nicola Canzano, whose ninth trio sonata, in the key of C major, will be performed. Bach will be represented by the trio sonata composed to complete his BWV 1079, The Musical Offering. There will be two additional sonatas, both by contemporaries of Bach, Henry Purcell and Giuseppe Tartini.

Friday, August 7, 7:30 p.m., Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall: The title of this program will be Around the World in 80 Minutes, and each of the works will have been composed in a different country. The first composer left continental Europe to live and work in England. The program will begin with a set of variations on the English song “John, come kiss me now,” composed by Thomas Baltzar. The remainder of the program will be devoted to “usual suspects:” a concerto entitled “Polonois” by Georg Philipp Telemann, a set of “Trios pour le coucher du Roi” (loosely translated as “trios to put the king to sleep”) composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully, the last of the twelve concertos in Antonio Vivaldi’s Opus 1 collection, a set of variations on the “Folia” theme, and Bach’s BWV 212, best known as the Peasant Cantata, but called by Bach himself Cantate burlesque.

Saturday, August 8, 7:30 p.m.: This will be another program devoted entirely to Bach, Vivaldi, and Telemann, consisting of concertos involving a diversity of instruments. The three Bach concertos will be BWV 1042 for violin in E major, BWV 1055 for harpsichord in A major, and BWV 1060R for oboe and violin in C minor. The Vivaldi violin concertos will be RV 234 in D major, “L’inquietudine,” and RV 565 in D minor, the penultimate concerto in the Opus 3 collection. The only Telemann selection will be his flute concerto in D major.

George Frideric Handel, whose music had to wait for the final program of the Festival (portrait attributed to Balthasar Denner)

Sunday, August 9, 4 p.m.: Both Telemann and Bach will return for the final program. The former will begin the program with his TWV 54 concerto in A major for four violins. The Bach selection will be the familiar BWV 1068, the third of his four orchestral suites, this one in the key of D major. The second half of the program will be devoted to George Frideric Handel’s HWV 76 cantata, given the title Ode for St. Cecilia's Day.

A First Encounter with Eduard Tubin

1958 photograph on Eduard Tubin, taken by Aarre Ekholm (from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Every now and then I find myself encountering a previously-overlooked album, which interests me enough to catch up on lost time, so to speak. This was the case with The Early Years of Eduard Tubin, which was released by Orchid Classics almost exactly three month ago. Tubin was born on June 18, 1905, in Torila in Tartu County, located in the Governorate of Livonia, then part of the Russian Empire. His music education began at the Tartu Teacher’s College in 1920. He studied under the Estonian composer Heino Eller and would later be influenced by Zoltán Kodály, whom he met in 1938 during a visit to Hungary.

The album presents performances of two of Tubin’s major compositions. These are presented in chronological order, beginning with the four-movement Suite on Estonian Motifs, followed by his second symphony, given the title “Legendary.” There are also two additional tracks of solo piano preludes. Mihhail Gerts is both conductor of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and also pianist. The entire duration of the album is slightly longer than an hour.

Tubin’s approach to instrumentation definitely makes this album “worth the price of admission” (as P. T. Barnum would have put it). Awareness of his work was only recently revived with the creation of an annual Tubin Festival in 2021, held in Estonia in both Tartu and Tallinn. It will be interesting to see if Orchid Classics will continue with further releases of Tubin’s music, allowing listeners to assess his talents with more than an hour’s work of experience.

Evening of Art Song Coming to the Sunset

Yesterday this site wrote about the duo of violinist Kenneth Renshaw and pianist Keisuke Nakagoshi returning to the Incarnation Episcopal Church, which is located in the Sunset at 1750 29th Avenue, at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, June 19. On their last visit to the venue, they presented a program that brought Amy Beach together with Claude Debussy and  Sergei Prokofiev, beginning with a recent (2021) composition by Emma Greenhill. I have now received word from this venue that there will be an equally promising program that will take place next month.

Pianist Paul Dab (courtesy of the San Francisco Community Music Center)

The title of the program will be Art Song: Summer Evening, which basically describes the event. The vocalist will be tenor Corey Head, accompanied at the piano by Paul Dab. Flutist Jessica Miller will also contribute to the program. Content has not yet been finalized; but the announcement made note of “favorites” by Johannes Brahms, Benjamin Britten, Claude Debussy, and Henry Purcell, as well as others. The duration is expected to be about two hours.

This recital will take place on Saturday, July 11, beginning at 7:30 p.m. General admission will be $28.52 with a $23.18 rate for students and seniors. Tickets may be purchased online through Eventbrite.

This Year’s Emerging Composer Concert

The ARTZenter poster of the latest Emerging Composer Grant winners

As was announced a week ago, the ARTZenter Institute joined forces with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (SFCMP), led by Artistic Director & Conductor Eric Dudley for another concert of world premiere performances made possible by the Emerging Composer Grant Program. I can now present the order of works on the program as it was performed last night:

1. Euna Joh: A Grief Observed
2. Jackson A. Waters: my rage is quiet
3. Luca Pasquini: Memories of Storm & Light
4. Eric Estrada Valadez: Divided Realities

As in the past, the composer’s were all present, providing brief but informative introductions for each of the pieces. The size of the ensemble was generous enough to fill the stage, but there were enough imaginative approaches to instrumentation to make for an engaging evening.

Joh’s composition struck me as a study in the diverse aspects of mathematical noise. For those unfamiliar with the term, it involves a sequence of random numbers; and there is a whole sub-discipline in mathematics involving what makes a series of integers really random. Mind you, I have no idea how much mathematics influenced Joh; but “A Grief Observed” came across as an étude conceived to defy the usual predictability one associates with a musical composition. The duration was just long enough for the attentive listener to appreciate that challenge of predictability. Waters’ “my rage is quiet” was also a “noise étude.” He described his approach as “bottled tension,” and his program note suggested that this was a reflection on his own personal dispositions.

The title “Memories of Storm & Light” came across as a description of instrumentation. The “storm” emerged from a fair amount of the score being devoted to the bass drum. The “light,” presumably before the storm, began the performance with an extended violin solo. The result was an engaging study in contrasts that never came across as too academic. “Divided Realities” was also a title that spoke for itself. A wide diversity of sonorities emerged from all the different locations in the ensemble, and the superposition of those sonorities came across as an intense conflict. This performance left me leaving Herbst Theatre with a sigh of relief but also with a sense of a journey well taken.

Renshaw and Nakagoshi to Return to Sunset

Kenneth Renshaw and Keisuke Nakagoshi, who will give their next performance in a little over two weeks’ time (photograph from the recital’s event page)

Violinist Kenneth Renshaw and pianist Keisuke Nakagoshi gave their last duo recital at the Incarnation Episcopal Church, which is located in the Sunset at 1750 29th Avenue, almost exactly two years ago. This month the concert series began this past Saturday with the duo presenting a program that brought Amy Beach together with Claude Debussy and  Sergei Prokofiev, beginning with a recent (2021) composition by Emma Greenhill. They will give a second recital at the same venue one week from Friday, June 19, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Whether or not they will play the same selections for this second round has not yet been announced. General admission will be $39.19 with a $33.85 rate for students and seniors. Tickets may be purchased online through Eventbrite.

The Voice and Musicianship of Harpo Marx

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

Harpo Speaks! The Riverside Symphony Concert is the “only official voice recording” of Harpo Marx. Unless I am mistaken, every Marx Brothers movie included an episode in which Harpo gave a solo harp performance; and the closest he ever came to verbal communication amounted to honking a bicycle horn. The concert recorded on this album took place six months prior to his death in 1964.

The vocal side of his performance was the narration for Sergei Prokofiev’s Opus 67, “Peter and the Wolf,” given the subtitle “A Symphonic Tale for Children.” I have lost count of the number of narrators that have contributed to recordings of this composition; but I know that my own first encounter was with Basil Rathbone, who knew just the right way to endow each episode of the story with the right disposition. Nevertheless, since Harpo expressed himself only through mime and music in all of those Marx Brothers movies, this concert album is definitely “one for the books!” He also collaborated with his brother Groucho for their own unique account of the narration.

The program began with a performance of the “Toy Symphony,” which was originally attributed to Joseph Haydn but, according to more recent musicological research, was probably composed by Haydn’s younger brother, Michael. This was followed by a few popular and traditional songs (concluding with Stephen Foster), after which Harpo added one of his own compositions, “Guardian Angels.” Taken as a whole, the album is an engaging one, providing a welcome opportunity to appreciate Harpo’s musicianship.

I get the impression these days that the Marx Brothers are not as appreciated as they were during the second half of the last century. Personally, for the better part of my life, I could not get enough of them! Since I did not even know about Harpo’s Riverside concert when it took place, I have enjoyed making up for lost time in listening to this new album.

The Bleeding Edge: 6/8/2026

This is one of those weeks when the number of new events is only one more than that of events previously announced. Where Audium is concerned, there will be two more BIOMETRICKS performances on Friday, June 12, and Saturday, June 13. In addition, there will be the next concert of world premiere performances made possible by the Emerging Composer Grant Program presented by the ARTZenter Institute taking place tomorrow (June 9). Finally, this week will see the first two concerts of the month taking place at the Center for New Music, the Kra Pao recital on Friday and the monthly pancake event at noon on Saturday. Specifics for the remaining events are as follows:

Monday, June 8, 8 p.m., Dead End Vintage: This was announced in last week’s Bleeding Edge, which just shows that the end of one week is the beginning of the next. To save readers trouble with hyperlinks, the text will be repeated as follows: “Once again, vintage clothing will provide a setting for free improvisation. This time there will be an abundance of seven sets, and at least some of the performers are likely to be familiar to readers. They will be as follows: Ava Koohbor, Kanoko Nishi-Smith, Danishta Rivero, Jordan Blankenship, K Francis Messer, Kaitlin McSweeney, and Domi Nigro. Each will present a unique take on improvisational noise. Doors will open at 7:30 p.m., and admission will be $10. Nevertheless, no one will be turned away for lack of funds.”

Thursday, June 11, 7 p.m., Mr. Tipple’s Jazz Club: This will be a special performance by ensembles from the Jazzschool Advance High School Workshop. The first set will be a quintet of five student musicians. The front line will be shared by Victor Taraboukhine on tenor saxophone and pianist Max Roston-Saul. Rhythm will be provided by Levi Friedman on bass and drummer Benjamin Gleason. The second set will be a quartet of three students led by their instructor Peter Horvath on piano. Student Carl Schultz will lead on tenor saxophone, with rhythm bringing together Essiet Okon Essiet on bass and drummer Jason Lewis.

Thursday, June 11, 8 p.m., Peacock Lounge: Unfortunately, the students will not be able to make it to the Peacock Lounge for this four-set performance. Bob Ostertag will perform a solo set of sound captured by handmade and “virtual” synthesizers, samplers, and “a multivalent mind.” The second set is likely to emerge as a collision of choices of resources selected by Jacob Felix Heule and Antimatter, respectively. Philip Perkins, who previously performed with The Residents, will give a solo set. Finally, Anti-Ear is the brainchild of polymath Tyler Harwood.

Friday, June 12, 7:30 p.m., Gray Area Art And Technology: Paradessence is a full-length performance to be presented by Visible Cloaks; and, as might be guessed, not very much content about what to expect is visible!

Saturday, June 13, 7:30 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: The four members of the Rova Saxophone Quartet will give their first concert in nearly two years. They will present two sets of new and recent works. Presumably, the membership will still be Jon Raskin, Larry Ochs, Steve Adams, and Bruce Ackley.

Will Bernard with his guitar (on the home page of his Web site)

Sunday, June 14, 7:30 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: This will be a “double header” at Bird & Beckett. The second program will devoted entirely to a trio led by saxophonist Beth Custer. She will be joined by two guitarists: Will Bernard and Ken Emerson.

“Elektra” Returns to San Francisco Opera

Yesterday afternoon saw the first of six performances of Richard Strauss’ one-act opera “Elektra” to the San Francisco Opera in the War Memorial Opera House. The running time was only one and two-thirds hours, but the resources are abundant. The orchestra consisted of 95 musicians including two timpanists (one doubling on percussion), three additional percussionists, and four Wagner tubas. There is an offstage chorus of 45 vocalists, and sixteen characters on the stage.

Hugo von Hofmannsthal prepared the libretto, using the Sophocles “Electra” play as his source. Sophocles may have drawn upon the earlier “Electra” play by Euripides, which, in turn, mined sources from the Oresteia trilogy by Aeschylus. There are sixteen vocalists in Hofmannsthal’s cast, but the title role dominates all others from beginning to end. Even as the curtain first rises, there are five maidservants talking about Elektra.

The narrative itself is one of vengeance. Prior to the beginning of the story, King Agamemnon was assassinated by his wife Klytemnestra. Elektra is their daughter, and she joins forces with her brother Orest to murder their mother for the crime she has committed. As already stated, all of this fits into a single uninterrupted act with a large diversity of instrumental sonorities to keep things moving. The good news is that the vocalists on stage could hold their own against conductor Eun Sun Kim’s intense management of the orchestra. Given Strauss’ reputation for “pulling out the stops,” Kim’s technique would have made the composer (or his spirit) proud.

Elektra (Elena Pankratova) dwarfed by the excessive stage design by Boris Kudlička

The production by Keith Warner, revived for this performance by Anja Kühnhold, was another matter. Rather than trying to establish an Ancient Greek setting, he situated the performance in a museum with Ancient Greek artifacts on display. Personally, I felt that the staging would have benefited from a bit more focus. Too many things were happening (either through projections or “in the flesh”) to keep the viewer attentive to Sophocles’ narrative. It is one thing when Strauss’ music and Hofmannsthal’s libretto navigate us through Elektra’s thoughts and deeds and quite another when the navigation has to contend with superfluity.

In performances in 1991 and 1997, this opera was directed by Andrei Serban. This was a director who was often criticized for “going over the top;” but, every now and then, he knew just how to hit the nail on the head. Watching that production kept me on the edge of my seat. Yesterday, I felt that I was just clocking off the episodes from Sophocles’ play.

Peter Whelan to Begin Tenure with PBO in July

Peter Whelan will curate his first season as Music Director of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale (PBO) in a little over a month’s time. San Francisco will see a series of six concerts beginning next month and continuing through April of next year.  As in the past, in addition to full-season subscriptions, there will be Choose-Your-Own subscriptions for five, four, or three concerts. Also as in the past, all San Francisco performances will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Herbst Theatre, located at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. Subscriptions are now on sale, and a Web page has been created, which provides separate hyperlinks for the available options. The San Francisco dates are as follows:

Thursday, July 23, Handel’s Tolomeo: The season will begin with a semi-staged production of George Frideric Handel’s opera seria, Tolomeo, re d'Egitto (Ptolemy, King of Egypt), HWV 25. The advance material I received describes the production as  a “historically informed performance with theatrical elements to heighten the drama.” Countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen will perform the title role. Other vocalists will be countertenor Kangmin Justin Kim, sopranos Lauren Snouffer and Nicole Heaston, and bass-baritone Dashon Burton.

Friday, November 13, Handel’s The Power of Music: The five-concert subscription series will begin with the United States premiere of the 1772 Dublin version of the HWV 75 ode, Alexander’s Feast; vocal soloists will be soprano Sherezade Panthaki, mezzo Rachael Wilson, and tenor James Way with Valérie Sainte-Agathe leading the Philharmonia Chorale.

Friday, December 4, Baroque Brilliance: The program will begin with more Handel, this time limited to a single aria, “Let the Bright Seraphim” from the HWV 57 three-act oratorio Samson performed by soprano Kathryn Mueller. The second half of the program will present two members of the Bach family. It will conclude with the BWV 51 cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. This will be preceded by a concerto composed by his son, Carl Philipp Emanuel, his Wq. 172 concerto for cello in A major. This, in turn, will be preceded by the last of the three orchestral suites composed by Georg Philipp Telemann, the TWV 55:G10 Burlesque de Quixotte. In the first half of the program, Mueller will also sing the West Coast premiere of “O virgo, cui salute debet orbis,” composed by Marianna Martines, whose keyboard music was recently recorded by Signum Classics on an album release this past April.

Friday, February 5, Vivaldi and the Oud: I suspect that it is very unlikely that Vivaldi knew anything about the oud. However, Philharmonic Baroque Composer-in-Residence Tarik O’Regan has composed a concerto for it with accompaniment by strings and percussion (perhaps with a nod to Béla Bartók). This new work will be both preceded and followed by works by Antonio Vivaldi. The program will begin with the overture to RV 725, the three-act dramma per musica entitled L'Olimpiade. The second half of the program will survey selected movements from L'estro armonico, Vivaldi’s Opus 3 collection of twelve concertos for string instruments.

Friday, March 5, Baroque on Stage: The first half of this program will survey a selection of works composed for staged performances by Henry Purcell and Jean-Philippe Rameau. It will conclude with a set of variations on the “Folia” theme, composed by Francesco Geminiani in an arrangement by Michi Wiancko. There will also be a concerto in E minor by Antonio Vivaldi, which will apparently be a “synthesis” of RV 273 and RV 278. The second half of the program will begin with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Wq. 182:5, a symphony in B minor.

William Blake’s The Ancient of Days, a depiction of the angel Urizen planning the Creation

Friday, April 9, The Creation: Having began the season with an opera, PBO will conclude with an oratorio. This will be The Creation, the Hoboken XXI:2 oratorio by Joseph Haydn. The vocal soloists will be soprano Lucy Crowe, tenor Nicholas Phan, and bass-baritone Enrico Lagasca. Valérie Sainte-Agathe will again lead the Philharmonia Chorale.