Center for New Music: November, 2026

Poster design for the first GOODBYE 55 event

This month will be the last November for the Center of New Music (C4NM) at 55 Taylor Street. As was announced in yesterday’s Bleeding Edge article, there will be three performances this week. These will be the contemporary American art song recital by soprano Jill Morgan Brenner at 8 p.m. on Friday, November 6, the monthly G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|N|O|I|S|E|P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S event at noon on Saturday, November 7, followed by Nat Evans and the Electronic Guitar Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. The month will then conclude with two GOODBYE 55 performances, which will also take place at 7:30 p.m. as follows:

Friday, November 20:  The founders of C4NM, composers Brent Miller and Adam Fong, will present their final performance at the Taylor Street venue.

Tuesday, November 24: The Cornelius Cardew Choir will present a memorial program to celebrate the life and music of composer Pauline Oliveros.

Tickets may be purchased through the hyperlinks on the above dates.

Walter’s Double Dose of a Schumann Symphony

1919 cover of a score for The Bartered Bride (from a Wikipedia Web page, public domain)

It would probably be fair to say that the account of Robert Schumann in the Warner Classics box set of performances by conductor Bruno Walter is even “skimpier” than its single-CD treatment of Franz Schubert. Once again, there is only one CD, which begins and concludes with two different performance of the same composition, the composer’s Opus 120 (fourth) symphony in D minor. The earlier of the performances, recorded in 1928, is performed by the Mozart Festival Orchestra, while the second, recorded a little less than ten years later, saw Walter on the podium for the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). These two versions are separated by another LSO performance, the overture to Bedřich Smetana’s comic opera, The Bartered Bride (whose overture is much better known than the opera itself).

Some readers may recall that the Schumann symphony was on the program for the first performance in Davies Symphony Hall for this season’s San Francisco Symphony (SFS) concert series. My familiarity with the music goes all the way back to my student days, and I am pretty sure it was performed by the student orchestra of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Nevertheless, there was little about the two recordings on Walter’s CD that would leave me to take compare-and-contrast approach to the different performances. On the other hand, I appreciated the idea of separating the two versions with the vigorous account of Smetana’s overture. Nevertheless, the prospect of back-to-back listening to the same Schumann symphony has never particularly appealed to me!

Walter Focuses on Late Schubert in Warner Box

Wilhelm August Rider’s 1825 watercolor portrait of Franz Schubert (from a Wikimedia Web page, public domain)

Once again, the adjective “skimpy” arises in the Warner Classics box set of performances by conductor Bruno Walter. This time it involves a single CD for Franz Schubert. The good news is that most of the album is devoted to the last of the composer’s two symphonies, D. 759, known as the “Unfinished,” since it has only two movements, and the four-movement D. 944, named “The Great.” These two performances are separated by D. 797, two sets of ballet music to be included in the performance of Rosamunde, a play by Helmina von Chézy.

Walter conducted the recording of D. 944 in 1938, which was also the year in which he also recorded the Rosamunde music. He led the London Symphony Orchestra for these performance. The account of D. 759 is earlier, having been recorded in May of 1936 with the Vienna Philharmonic. In spite of the early technology, all of the tracks were remastered to provide engagingly clear accounts. Mind you, I still live by Leonard Slatkin’s precept: “You can never conduct enough Haydn or Schubert;” but, where the recordings are made with early technology, I was definitely impressed with the quality of the sound, even if the quantity was far less than I would have preferred!

The Bleeding Edge: 11/3/2026

This week there will be six events on the Bleeding Edge, but they will be divided evenly between Friday and Saturday. Only one of them has been previously announced: the performances of the Eternities duo of Katie Porter and Bob Bellerue and Xopher Davidson’s Antimatter project at The Lab on November 6. It is worth noting that half of these six offerings will take place at the Center for New Music (C4NM). 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. As usual there will be hyperlinks for date, time, and venue provided by the BayImproviser Web site  for the remaining five events as follows:

Friday, November 6, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: The next Other Dimensions in Sound offering to be curated by “Boohaabian multi reed player extraordinaire David Boyce” will performed by Taqsim. No further information has been provided, but the name may be that of the Arabic electronic and experimental duo of Layan Srour and Yvonne Pruneau. As many (most?) readers probably know by now, 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.

Friday, November 6, 8 p.m., Center for New Music: The first C4NM program will present soprano Jill Morgan Brenner accompanied at the piano by Paul Dab. In 2015 Brenner initiated a commissioning project entitled I Sing Words: The Poetry Project to expand the contemporary art song repertoire. Contributing composers will be Emily Shisko, Kyle Hovatter, Nicolás Lell Benavides, Julie Barwick, and Joseph M. Colombo. There will also be excerpts from Brooke DeRosa’s opera The Yellow Wallpaper, in which Brenner performed the lead role of Jane in the West Coast premiere. General admission will be $15 with a discounted rate of $10 for C4NM members and students.

Saturday, November 7, noon, Center for New Music: The second program will be the monthly G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|N|O|I|S|E|P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S event. There will be five sets, beginning with Chris Brown performing as cbmuse. The other four performers will be Ma++ Ingalls, Matt Robidoux, David Leikam, and Clarke Robinson. General admission will be $10, and the discounted rate will be $6.

Chris Trinidad working simultaneously with guitar and synthesizer (photograph by Noah Rosen, from the BayImproviser Web page for this Saturday’s performance)

Saturday, November 7, 7:30 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: Chris Trinidad plays a diversity of instruments, including synthesizers, for his latest project called Chroma Tonic. His sources of inspiration included two ambient music pioneers, Brian Eno and Robert Fripp. There will be a $25 cover charge at the door for this performance with a $10 student rate. Since the shop has limited space, reservations are advised and can be made by calling 415-586-3733. This is another familiar venue for readers, located at 653 Chenery Street, a short walk from the Glen Park station for both Muni and BART.

Saturday, November 7, 7:30 p.m., Center for New Music: Nat Evans will share the final C4NM program with the Electric Guitar Ensemble. Evans will perform selections from his new album, What Are Days For, which involves a series of landscapes for guitars, synthesizers, field recordings, and other sources. The members of the Ensemble are Rodrigo Barriga, Nathan Clevenger, Christopher Pierandozzi Everingham, James Mossa, and Sean Keenan; and they will perform works by Catherine Lamb, Rodrigo Barriga, and others. General admission will again be $15 with a discounted rate of $10 for C4NM members and students.

The Lab: December, 2026

Some readers may recall that all of the musical performances at The Lab in November will take place during the first half of the month. As of this writing, it appears that there will be fewer performances in December; but it is not too early to account for them! As most regular readers know by now, The Lab is located in the Mission at 2948 16th Street. This is particularly convenient for those using public transportation, since it is a short walk from the corner of 16th Street and Mission Street. Busses stop at that corner for both north-south and east-west travel, and downstairs there is a station for the BART line running under Mission Street. Doors will open at 8 p.m. prior the performance beginning at 8:30 p.m. Background material for each of the events and a hyperlink for ticket purchases are as follows:

Thursday, December 3: This will be a two-set evening with an emphasis on electronics. Jeremiah Chiu will give a solo performance with his synthesizer gear. The other performer will be r beny, creating ambient environments through the use of synthesizers, samplers, and other electronic instruments. Admission will be $23 but will be either free or discounted for members of The Lab.

Marguerite Brown performing solo with her gear (from her photograph on her Web page for The Lab)

Friday, December 18: The second concert will also be shared by two sets. The first set is the trio of Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, and Macie Stewart who, as a group, combine string instruments with their own voices and manual playback of recorded tapes. They will be followed by a solo performance by Marguerite Brown, who will perform the latest version of her composition “tuning.” This piece has been described as “an ever-evolving solo set that explores the electric guitar as a celestial body using a curated set of planetary tuning forks, hardware, and unconventional performance techniques.”

Warner Releases of Bruno Walter’s Mozart

1926 engraving by Ferdinand Schmutzer of Felix Weingartner conducting a rehearsal of the Vienna Philharmonic (from a Wikipedia Web page, public domain)

Having taken Warner Classics to task for its “skimpy” account of recordings of Bruno Walter conducting music by Gustav Mahler, I am afraid that the treatment of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is only somewhat less skimpy! To be fair, however, it accounts for the last four of the 41 symphonies: K. 504 (“Prague”) in D major, K. 543 in E-flat major, K. 550 in G minor, and K. 551 (“Jupiter”) in C major. There are also four opera overtures: K. 196 (La finta giardiniera, “The Pretend Garden-Girl”), K. 492 (The Marriage of Figaro), K. 620 (The Magic Flute), and K. 621 (La clemenza di Tito). Furthermore, K. 525, the four-movement serenade best known under the title “Eine kleine nachtmusik” (a little night music), received two recordings, the first made with the British Symphony Orchestra in 1931, followed by the 1936 account with the Vienna Philharmonic.

The one vocal offering is the K. 626 setting of the Requiem text. Soloists Elisabeth Schumann (soprano), Enid Szánthó (mezzo), Anton Dermota (tenor), and Alexander Kipnis (bass) perform with the chorus of the Vienna State Opera. Similarly, there is only one of Mozart’s piano concertos, K. 466 (the twentieth) in D minor; but this is definitely an interesting offering, since the pianist is Walter himself! The only other Mozart offering is the K. 605 set of three German dances, the last of which has the title “Die Schlittenfahrt” (the sleigh ride), whose instrumentation includes five sleigh bells.

I have now been around long enough to appreciate that every generation seems to have its own way of approaching Mozart’s music. Nevertheless, if the interpretations sometimes come across as “dated” when compared with current performances, one can still appreciate Walter’s keen sense of detail. Personally, I was most interested in K. 626, since Dermota was the only soloist I could recall from my vinyl days of listening!

Mind you, after Walter moved to the United States, Mozart received far more attention in his Columbia Symphony Orchestra recordings. Nevertheless, I appreciate the diversity among the three Warner CDs, as well as my encounters with ensembles that were previously unknown to me. Where Mozart is concerned, I suspect that I shall occasionally set aside time for “side-by-side” listening!

The Second SFS Chamber Music Recital

This afternoon Davies Symphony Hall hosted the second Chamber Series performance presented by members of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). The high point took place after the intermission with a performance of Johannes Brahms’ Opus 114, his only clarinet trio. The clarinetist was SFS Principal Carey Bell, accompanied by Amos Yang on cello and pianist John Wilson. This was Brahms’ first venture into chamber music for clarinet, and it would be followed by the Opus 113 quintet for clarinet, two violins, viola, and cello and the two Opus 120 sonatas for clarinet and piano. Bell led the trio with a solid command of Brahms’ rhetorical expressiveness, which made the afternoon offering well worth the visit.

Sadly, the first half of the program was not as engaging. It began with a relatively recent (1995) composition for harp and bassoon by harpist Bernard Andrès entitled Chants d’arrière-saison (songs of seasons past). There was much to appreciate in the combined sonorities of the two instruments; but, while each of the seven movements had its own characteristics, the overall listening experiences was not particularly engaging.

Katherine Siochi with her harp (courtesy of SFS)

On the other hand, it was performed with a clarity by harpist Katherine Siochi and Joshua Elmore on bassoon that sustained listener attention. This was decidedly preferable to the following offering, an arrangement by Rudolf Leopold of Richard Strauss’ “Metamorphosen,” performed by pairs of violins, violas, and cellos, along with a double bass. Some readers may recall that this music was programmed by the string performers of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble this past February. Those players captured the transparency of Strauss’ rhetoric while this afternoon’s account was disappointingly muddled.

The good news is that the program saved the best of its offerings for the last!

SFS to Conclude November with a Unique Trio

Hilary Hahn with her violin (from the SFS Web page for her recital)

Violinist Hilary Hahn will return to Davies Symphony Hall at the end of this month. She will be joined by baritone Matthias Goerne and Gloria Chen at the piano. Details are relatively limited; but, presumably, the three of them will join forces as a trio to perform “Wir,” composed by Reena Esmail on a commission from the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). Goerne will also sing arias from two cantatas composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. The first of these will be “Hier in meines Vaters Stätte” from the BWV 32 cantata Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen. It will be followed by “Welt, ade, ich bin dein müde” from BWV 158, Der Friede sei mit dir. Presumably, these will also be trio performances.

The program will begin with Chen accompanying Hahn in the performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 24 (fifth) violin sonata. Composed in the key of F major, it has been given the title of “Spring.” Chen will then accompany Goerne for a series of Beethoven songs: “Adelaide,” “Mailied,” and “Der Liebende.” These will be followed by the composer’s only song cycle, his Opus 98 An die ferne Geliebte.

This will be the fourth program in this season’s SFS Great Performers series. As always, the venue will be Davies Symphony Hall. Tickets will be available for purchase through an SFS Web page; as usual, tickets may also be acquired at the Box Office, which is at the entrance to Davies on the south side of Grove Street, between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street.

Shawna Lucey Revives Mozart Opera for SFO

Last night the War Memorial Opera House saw the return of San Francisco Opera (SFO) for the first of ten performances of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 492 comic opera The Marriage of Figaro. This was the first of three operas Mozart composed for librettos by Lorenzo da Ponte, the other two being the K. 527 Don Giovanni and the K. 588 Così fan tutte (thus do all women). Less than a decade ago, Michael Cavanagh had conceived of a “trilogy production,” situating all three operas in a common setting, which Cavanagh called “the Great American House of Mozart and Da Ponte.” The Revival Director for the current performance of K. 492 is Shawna Lucey.

The conductor for this production is Sebastian Weigle, who made his SFO debut last night. His account of the overture made any serious opera lover sit up and take notice. For my own part, I was delighted to encounter the prominent role that the bassoon played in that performance, almost as if the sounds of the ensemble would prepare the audience for the elaborate and witty narrative that would unfold over the course of four acts.

Susanna (Slávka Zámečníková) and Figaro (Peter Kellner) preparing for their wedding (photograph by Cory Weaver, courtesy of SFO)

In that same context, it is worth noting that the first voice we hear after the overture is the title character. Bass Peter Kellner delivered his opening duet with Slávka Zámečníková singing the role of his bride-to-be Susanna. The freshness of their coming wedding is a sharp contrast against the married noble couple that they serve. Those familiar with The Barber of Seville know that the countess (soprano Olivia Smith) is now the wife of the Count Almaviva (baritone Thomas Mole). In Rossini’s opera, the Count was hopelessly smitten with Rosina before she became his wife; but it is clear from the outset of Mozart’s opera that the Count’s passion has been dulled by marriage.

As a result, he is less interested in celebrating the coming wedding of Susanna and Figaro and more in regret that he had willingly rejected droit de seigneur (right of the lord), described on its Wikipedia page as “a supposed legal right in medieval Europe, allowing feudal lords to have sexual relations with any female subject, particularly on her wedding night.” At the conclusion of The Barber of Seville, Almaviva is clearly indebted to Figaro; and that rejection of droit de seigneur was a way of honoring that debt. Nevertheless, Almaviva is more fixated on Susanna than he is with his wife.

What I have always found interesting about K. 492 is the way in which Mozart’s music leads the attentive listener through the complexities that these characters must endure. As a result, Weigle’s skills as a conductor were just as critical in accounting for the narrative as Cavanagh’s staging was. Without trying to sound too technical, I feel that there are ways in which opera is the genre that requires the most intricate “machinery;” and Mozart had just the right partnership with Da Ponte to make that “machinery” run smoothly. Last night’s performance of a complicated narrative could not have been smoother in its unfolding through the combined efforts of conductor and director.