The Second Summer Concert Program in Davies

Conductor Nicolas Ellis (from the Web page for last night’s performance)

Yesterday evening Davies Symphony Hall saw the second Summer Classics program performed by the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) as part of the Summer with Symphony concert series. The title of the program was A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Both my wife and I have fond memories of the Davies concert that presented all of the music that Felix Mendelssohn had composed for William Shakespeare’s play interleaved with a semi-staged performance of all of the texts associated with that music.

Sadly, this approach to Mendelssohn and Shakespeare did not take place last night. Instead, Midsummer was reduced to the three most familiar movements from the full score, the overture, the nocturne, and (of course) the “Wedding March.” This began the second half of the program, and Shakespeare prevailed with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Fantasy-Overture,” “Romeo and Juliet.” The first half of the program was framed by opera, beginning with the “Forest Murmurs” episode from the second act of Richard Wagner’s Siegfried and concluding with the “Carmen Fantasy” by Franz Waxman. This was originally composed for the movie Humoresque and was subsequently arranged for violin and symphony orchestra by violinist Jascha Heifetz. These two operatic offerings framed the performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending.” Violinist Geneva Lewis was the soloist in both this selection and the “Carmen Fantasy.”

Nicolas Ellis made his debut as conductor. Sadly, things got off to a shaky start with the forest more mushy than murmuring. Fortunately, Ellis managed to get his mojo working before Lewis took the stage. Their shared chemistry for “The Lark Ascending” could not have been more engaging, and their shared take on Georges Bizet’s opera could not have been more dazzling. Following the intermission, Ellis’ command of the podium was just as satisfying. Even if I have lost count of the number of times I have listened to Tchaikovsky’s take on Shakespeare, there was a freshness in Ellis’ interpretation that kept my attention from beginning to end.

Summer Begins at Davies Symphony Hall

Conductor Chloé Van Soeterstède on the Web page for last night’s performance

Yesterday evening saw the beginning of the Summer with Symphony series of concerts in Davies Symphony Hall. A few performances by the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) are interleaved with a diversity of “pops” repertoire event. Fortunately, things got under way with a Summer Classics SFS performance. Chloé Van Soeterstède made her debut on the Davies podium; and the concerto soloist was violinist Paul Huang, who made his SFS debut in February of 2024. The overall program followed the usual overture-concerto-symphony structure, with the intermission between the concerto and the symphony.

The concerto selection was Max Bruch’s Opus 26 violin concerto in G minor. I am not sure I can account for how many recordings I currently have of the concerto, but I am pretty sure I first came to appreciate it through my “complete works” collection of the recordings Jascha Heifetz made for RCA. My guess is that there are many discophiles that would declare that the Heifetz version is the “gold standard” of recordings of Opus 26. While I appreciate its historical significance, I am always interested in what new soloists bring to the table, so to speak.

Sadly, Huang did not have very much to bring, but, to be fair, neither did Van Soeterstède. Mind you, I have had many enjoyable encounters of performances of Opus 26; and I always appreciate a violinist with enough inventiveness to “go beyond Heifetz.” Last night, on the other hand, was little more than a here-we-go-again account of a warhorse. Mind you, the audience, as a whole, was receptive; but Huang’s performance left me hungry for a more engaging listening experience, which, sadly, was not delivered in the encore selection, whose title he failed to announce.

Following the intermission, my quibbles about Huang transmogrified into quibbles about Felix Mendelssohn. The second half of the program was devoted entirely to his Opus 107 symphony in D major, given the title “Reformation.” The title of this symphony is realized in the final movement, which involves a fantasia on Martin Luther's hymn “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott.” However, where musical rhetoric is concerned, the overall succession of four movements is more than a bit of a slog or, as I scribbled in my program book, “desperately in need of ‘reformation!’”

The overture for the program was given its first SFS performance. It was a concert overture written in the key of D major in 1873 by the Swedish composer Elfrida André. This perfectly served its role as a “warm up” for what was to follow, but it turned out to be the most engaging selection on the entire program! This is a composer that deserves a good biography to provide further examination of her musical talents. Of course, that biography would have to account for how she persuaded the Swedish government to hire women as telegraph operators!

SFS: A “Summer Classic” in Mid-July

Geneva Lewis, violinist for the selections by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Franz Waxman (from the event page for her performance)

“Serious” music tends to take a back seat in Davies Symphony Hall during the summer months. However, in a few week’s time the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) will present a program in its Summer Classics series given the title A Midsummer Night’s Dream. That title will refer to the music the Felix Mendelssohn composed for a performance of the play by William Shakespeare of that title. This will begin the second half of the program, and it will be followed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet,” which he called a “Fantasy-Overture.” The program will begin with the instrumental “Forest Murmurs” excerpt from Richard Wagner’s opera Siegfried, arranged for concert performance by Hermann Zumpe. This will be followed by Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending.” The program will then return to opera with Franz Waxman’s “Carmen Fantasy,” edited for violin and orchestra by Jascha Heifetz. The soloist will be Geneva Lewis, and the conductor will be Nicolas Ellis.

The San Francisco performance of this program will take place in Davies Symphony Hall at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, July 17. As usual, a Web page has been created for purchasing tickets online, showing availability and prices for the different seating areas. 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.

Summer with the Symphony: Only One Concert

Summer is when the repertoire presented by the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) broadens to prioritize “entertainment” for its listeners. As a result, among the seven performances that will take place between July 1 and August 1, only one (the first) will present a basic “nuts and bolts” concert program. Fortunately, that offering should be well worthy of attention.

Conductor Chloé Van Soeterstède (from the Web page for her SFS performance)

Somewhat to my disappointment, the conductor has not yet earned herself a Wikipedia page. Chloé Van Soeterstède is the founder and director of Arch Sinfonia, a chamber orchestra based in London. She is also the Principal Guest Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Her Web page gives no indication of any previous performances in the United States; but, following her performance here, she will present almost the same program with the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center in the David Geffen Hall. The concerto will be Max Bruch’s Opus 26, his first violin concerto in G minor, with soloist Paul Huang. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 107, his fifth symphony in D major, given the title “Reformation.” Her San Francisco program will begin with the first SFS performance of a concert overture in D major by Elfrida Andrée.

This program will be given only one performance in Davies Symphony Hall. It will begin at the usual time, 7:30 p.m., on Wednesday, July 1; and a Web page has been created for seat selection, showing the prices for the different sections of the house. Ticket prices begin at $29 and range to $99. 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.

SF Symphony Announces New Music Director

Conductor Elim Chan in San Francisco Bay with the San Francisco skyline behind her

This morning the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) announced that Elim Chan will become its next Music Director. She will be the thirteenth conductor to hold that position over the course of the orchestra’s 115-year history. Her tenure will begin in September of 2027 for an initial six-year term.

Fortunately, those interested in her capabilities will not have to wait long. She will assume the SFS podium for the program that will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, June 5, and Saturday, June 6. The soloist for that occasion will be mezzo Sasha Cooke, who will sing both the song cycle Les Nuits d’été by Hector Berlioz and the “Liebestod” from the conclusion of Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde. The program will conclude with Claude Debussy’s “La Mer,” providing Chan with the opportunity to display her command of a diversity of sonorities.

Following the Friday performance, all ticket-holders are invited to a post-concert welcome celebration. Both light food and beverages will be served. There will also be more music, but the performers and their repertoire have not yet been announced.

Tickets may be purchased for both of the concerts through the above hyperlink. Most readers probably also know that tickets may also be acquired at the Box Office for Davies Symphony Hall, which is on the south side of Grove Street, between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street. Those interested in learning more about Chan’s achievements as a conductor will find useful background material on her Wikipedia Web page.

Shunske Sato Disappoints on PBO Podium

Shunske Sato with his violin (from the PBO event page for last night’s performance)

Last night in Herbst Theatre, violinist Shunske Sato led the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (PBO) in the final program of its 2025/26 season. The title of that program was Kinks and Quirks and, over the course of the evening, it became apparent it was served with a rhetoric that was more annoying than engaging. Sato performed on his violin throughout the program, but his instrument never managed to yield satisfying intonation while the full ensemble was clearly taking care of themselves.

The selections accounted for a prodigious spread of music history with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach at one end the Felix Mendelssohn at the other. The latter was represented by his MWV O 3 concerto for violin and strings in D minor. The low number identifies this as a very early work, and the composer completed it at the age of thirteen. Unfortunately, Sato’s intonation never managed to fit in with the ensemble work, making the listening experience a frustrating one.

Indeed, frustration was the order of the evening. The excerpts of the K. 345 music Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed for Baron Tobias Philipp von Gebler’s Masonic drama Thamos, König in Ägypten were given a brutal account under Sato’s leadership. Just as disappointing was the Bach selection, his H 665 (Wq 183:3), the first in a set of four symphonies given the collective title Orchester-Sinfonien mit zwölf obligaten Stimmen. At the other end of the evening, the program concluded with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 21, his first symphony composed in the key of C major. This was the clearest account of the evening, but the performance was still undermined by the liberties Sato took with tempo.

To be fair, the program was true to its name, almost warning the attentive listener not to expect a substantive listening experience.

PBO to Close Season with “Kinks and Quirks”

Conductor Shunske Sato (photograph by Elvira Demerdzhy, courtesy of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra)

The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra will conclude its 2025/26 season with a program entitled Kinks and Quirks. Violinist Shunske Sato will lead the ensemble, also serving as soloist in the performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s D minor concerto. Note that this is not the Opus 64 concerto in E minor, completed in 1844. The D minor concerto was composed in 1822 when the composer was thirteen years old!

The remaining works on the program will be more “mature.” It will begin with the third (in the key of F major) of four symphonies that Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach composed for the Baron Gottfried van Sweiten in the 1770s. This will be followed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 345, incidental music composed for Thamos, King of Egypt, a play by Tobias Philipp von Gebler. The program will conclude with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 21, his first symphony, composed in the key of C major following his study of Emanuel Bach’s An Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments.

As usual, the San Francisco 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 Thursday, April 23. Ticket prices range from $20 to $125. They may be purchased through a City Box Office Web page, which includes a diagram showing where seats are still available.

Edgar Meyer Returns to SFP Along with Dover

Edgar Meyer with his bass (photograph by Jim McGuire, courtesy of SFP)

Bassist Edgar Meyer presented his first recital with San Francisco Performances (SFP) in December of 1991, long before writing about the performance of music ever entered my mind. He returned last night making his twelfth appearance in Herbst Theatre. He contributed two of his own compositions, a set of two duets for cello and bass and a piece entitled “Quintet for Strings.” He was joined by the Dover String Quartet, whose members are violinists Joel Link and Bryan Lee, Hezekiah Leung on viola, and cellist Camden Shaw. Meyer’s addition was a departure from the usual string quintet.

Each of Meyer’s pieces was preceded by music from an earlier century. The program began with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 136 divertimento in D major. This is usually performed by a string ensemble, but the one-to-a-part performance by Dover struck me as a more engaging approach. The quartet also performed Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 80 (sixth) quartet in F minor. This was the one offering on the program that struck me as overwrought, possibly because it was composed in a dark period near the end of the composer’s life.

Meyer’s name will probably be familiar to those that have followed this site (as will as its Examiner.com predecessor) for some time. His performances have been consistently engaging, and his music has been performed by others here in San Francisco. Indeed, a little less than two years ago, two movements from his 1999 Concert Duo were performed by San Francisco Symphony bassist Daniel G. Smith and violinist David Chernyavsky. Sadly, the sense of playfulness that Smith and Chernyavsky evoked never quite came to the surface last night, whether in Meyer’s own music or in the earlier compositions.

Perhaps Dover did not provide the right partnership for Meyer, and I am hoping that I shall not have to wait too long to encounter both his music had his approach to performance in a more conducive setting.

DSO’s Mendelssohn-Schumann Connection

Jörg Widman on the DSO podium (screen shot from last night’s YouTube’s video feed of the performance)

Once again, dinner at home provided the setting for the latest live-streamed performance by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) yesterday evening. The title of the program was simply Mendelssohn and Schumann, the former providing the concerto and the latter concluding the evening with the symphony. The “overture” for the occasion was composed by the visiting conductor, Jörg Widman, a musical whirlwind entitled, appropriately enough, “Con brio.”

The concerto was, of course, Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 64 in E minor. This was his mature effort, following up on an earlier (1822) concerto in D minor (which is almost never encountered in performance). The soloist was Robyn Bollinger, who usually occupies the Concertmaster’s chair. Mendelssohn composed no end of technical hoops to challenge the soloist, and Bollinger deftly sailed through all of them. Given her “day job,” her engagement with her colleagues could have not been better, as was her awareness and responsiveness to Widman’s conducting technique. As might be expected, the audience demanded an encore after Bollinger took her bows. Mendelssohn’s career included a strong commitment to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, so it was appropriate to select an encore from that composer’s repertoire. Bollinger’s choice could not have been more familiar, the opening “Preludio” movement to the third of the solo violin partitas (BWV 1006 in E major); and, once again, the crowd in the audience roared with approval.

The spirit of Mendelssohn lingered on after the intermission. He had conducted the premiere performance of Robert Schumann’s Opus 28, his first symphony given the title “Spring.” This has a relatively extended Andante un poco maestoso introduction, which came across as a bit shaky under Widmann’s baton. However, all was in order by the time the Allegro molto vivace got under way; and sailing through all four movements could not have been more enjoyable. On the other hand, the title of Widman’s composition was never quite captured in the performance and quickly overstayed its welcome.

DSO Streams Beethoven and Mendelssohn

Screen shot of Jonathan Biss at the keyboard performing with Delyana Lazarova conducting the DSO

Early yesterday evening my wife and I once again enjoyed our dinner while watching a live-stream of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO). Conductor Delyana Lazarova prepared a straightforward overture-concerto-symphony program, with an intermission prior to the symphony. That symphony was Felix Mendelssohn’s Op. Posth. 90, his fourth symphony given the title “Italian.” The concerto soloist was Jonathan Biss, performing Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 19 (second) piano concerto, composed in the key of B-flat major. The program began with the overture that Carl Maria von Weber composed for this three-act opera Oberon.

Biss used to make regular appearances in San Francisco. One of my earliest articles on this site was written in March of 2007, when I wrote about a recital he performed with particular attention to Robert Schumann’s “Kreisleriana.” That selection was preceded by compositions by both Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven; and I was struck by how Biss made one of the Mozart selections, movements from the K. 533 piano sonata in F major, sound as if they has been composed by Schumann!

I am happy to report that, yesterday evening, Biss made Beethoven sound like Beethoven. Opus 19 is an early work, and Beethoven composed it in high spirits. Biss found just the right sensitivity in his touch to convey those spirits without overplaying them. This often involved cheerful interjections of comments from the ensemble, and Lazarova knew just how to play her side of the dialogue. As might be expected, Biss responded to the audience applause with an encore. Sure enough, he selected more Beethoven: the Adagio cantabile (second) movement from one of the composer’s early piano sonatas, Opus 13 in C minor, given the title “Sonata Pathétique.”

Lazarova’s approaches to the instrumental selections were as spirited in rhetoric as the sonata was. Weber’s opera took a French medieval tale and seems to have examined it through the lens of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream. These days, the opera (when it is performed at all) is more likely to be presented in concert, rather than in a staged version. Nevertheless, the overture stands well on its own and tends to be popular among most concert lovers. That includes the audience for last night’s DSO performance!

In introducing her program, Lazarova declared Mendelssohn to be “the only composer to make a minor key seem heavy.” I assume she had in mind the tarantella movement that concludes the “Italian” symphony. She clearly enjoyed conducting this music; and, for the most part, the DSO musicians seemed to enjoy her enjoyment! I must confess that this is one of those compositions that I feel I have encountered too many times, but the freshness of Lazarova’s interpretation definitely got the better of me!

This is a conductor I would be happy to encounter again under other circumstances (in case anyone in Davies Symphony Hall happens to be reading this)!

Second OFS Concert will be “Supernatural”

OFS violinists on the banner for the Web page for the One Found Sound Supernatural program

Early next month will see the second of the four concerts to be presented during the thirteenth season of One Found Sound (OFS). Many (most?) readers know that this ensemble calls itself the “conductorless, collaborative, chamber orchestra,” which has cultivated a consistently engaging repertoire that spans from the Baroque period of Johann Sebastian Bach to the “immediate present.” The title of next month’s program will be Supernatural, presenting “an evening of sound inspired by the natural world and what lies just beyond it.”

The span of this particular program will not go all the way “back to Bach.” Rather, the “time line” will begin in the nineteenth century with Felix Mendelssohn’s Op. Posth. 90, his fourth symphony in A major, known as his “Italian” symphony. The program will begin with a twentieth-century selection, Igor Stravinsky’s Concerto in E-flat for chamber orchestra, given a subtitle named after the Dumbarton Oaks estate building in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Two “natural” compositions will be situated between these “bookends.” One of them will be Missy Mazzoli’s “Violent, Violent Sea;” and the other will be “Wings,” composed by Darian Donovan Thomas for electronics along with the instrumentation.

This concert will begin at 8 p.m. on Saturday, February 7. The venue will be familiar to those who have attended past OFS concerts, Heron Arts in SoMa, located at 7 Heron Street on the block between 7th Street and 8th Street, All tickets are being sold for $30. They may be purchased online through a Ticket Tailor event page.

SFS Youth Orchestra Off to an Engaging Start

Yesterday afternoon Davies Symphony Hall saw the beginning of the 2025–26 season of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) Youth Orchestra led by Wattis Foundation Music Director Radu Paponiu. The program followed the traditional overture-concerto-symphony structure, with the exception that, for this particular program, each half had its own overture: one for the concerto and one for the symphony. These latter major works were both composed in the nineteenth century, Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 64 violin concerto in E minor prior to the intermission and Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 88 (eighth) symphony as the final offering.

That symphony, completed in 1889, was preceded by its own overture, Johannes Brahms’ Opus 80, the “Academic Festival Overture” composed in the summer of 1880. In the first half of the program, the concerto was preceded by the most recent work on the program, “Kayumari,” completed in 2021 by Gabriela Ortiz. I have to confess that my first impression of the recent work was somewhat mixed. There was an abundance of both energy and fun in Ortiz’ rhetoric, but those high spirits tended to be undermined by too much repetition. At the risk of sounding too old-fashioned, I have to confess that, when it comes to preparing the audience for the music that is to follow, Brahms gave a far more satisfying account than Ortiz did.

On the other hand, all of the nineteenth-century selections were thoroughly engaging. Aaron Ma was the soloist for the Mendelssohn concerto, and his command of the score could not have been better. The same can be said of his interplay with the ensemble passage.

However, the coupling of Brahms with Dvořák was definitely the high point of the afternoon. In that context it is worth recalling that Brahms first became aware of Dvořák when the former served on the jury of an Austrian State Competition in 1874. Brahms was so impressed with Dvořák’s skills as a composer that he recommend Dvořák to his publisher, Nikolaus Simrock, who gave Dvořák a commission that resulted in the Opus 46 Slavonic Dances collection.

As was announced about a month ago, today’s concert was the first of five. The next one will be the annual performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” at 2 p.m. on December 14. The remaining events will take place next year as follows:

• January 18, 3 p.m.: Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival
• March 8, 2 p.m.: Gustav Mahler’s fourth symphony in G major with soprano Hanna Cho as vocalist for the final movement
• May 17, 7:30 p.m.: Two major symphonies: Beethoven’s first (Opus 21 in C major) and Dmitri Shostakovich’s fifth (Opus 47 in D minor)

Two Kahanes for the SFP 46th Season Gala

Father-and-son photographs of Jeffrey and Gabriel Kahane by E.G. Marton Productions and Jason Quigley, respectively (courtesy of SFP)

Last night San Francisco Performances (SFP) celebrated its 46th season with the usual Gala Performance. Those of us attending only the performance itself came to Herbst Theatre to attend a father-and-son piano recital. As in the past, Gabriel Kahane supplemented his piano contribution with vocal work, while his father, Jeffrey, limited himself to the second piano on the stage.

I have to say that the evening was at its most satisfying when Jeffrey was giving solo performances. His “sweet spot” is the nineteenth century; and, listening to his account of the final movement (“Abschied”) of Robert Schumann’s Opus 82 Waldszenen (forest scenes) made, for me at least, the high point of the evening. He was equally at home with two selections from Felix Mendelssohn’s Song Without Words (Lieder ohne Worte), as well as “Le tic-toc-choc” from Ordre 18ème in the Troisième Livre (third book) in François Couperin’s collection of keyboard compositions. These were all thoroughly engaging, oases of relief in the barren landscape of the music composed and performed by Gabriel, particularly the endurance test of the eighteen minute “Final Privacy Song,” which concluded the program and was followed with a Joni Mitchell encore.

Taken as a whole, the program made a clear case that Gabriel had forged a path significantly distant from that of this father. That originality deserves to be acknowledged. Nevertheless, nothing along Gabriel’s path could rise to the heights of Jeffrey’s, including the son’s ambitious eighteen-minute account of “Final Privacy Song,” which deserved more privacy and less audience exposure!

PBO: a Coffee Break in the Financial District

As was reported at the end of last month, this morning saw a “preview” performance by eight musicians in the string section of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (PBO). This was a “double string quartet,” whose members were violinists Kati Kyme, Maxine Nemerovski, Noah Strick, and Aaron Westman, violists Maria Caswell and Anna Washburn, and cellists Laura Gaynon and William Skeen, the latter doubling as Master of Ceremonies. The top of the program proclaimed (in a large type font) “Freshly Brewed Baroque;” but Skeen gave the audience a more appropriate overall title:  A Leipzig Lineage: 1615–1845. In other words, the program consisted entirely of music that had been performed in Leipzig over that span of 30 years.

The Flute Concert of Sanssouci, a painting by Adolph von Menzel depicting Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach accompanying Frederick the Great playing the flute (from the Wikipedia Web page for BWV 1079)

The composer most usually associated with Leipzig is Johann Sebastian Bach. His contribution to the program was the “Ricercar a 6,” the six-voice fugue in Bach’s BWV 1079, given the title The Musical Offering. (The “offering” was made by Bach to Frederick the Great, King Frederick II of Prussia.) This was coupled by the selection for Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, the H 661 fifth of the six symphonies given the collective title Hamburger Sinfonien. This father-son coupling was preceded by two earlier composers. The program began with the “Canzon à 6,” one of the selections in a 1609 collection of 25 pieces composed by Johann Hermann Schein. This was followed by an instrumental arrangement of the Advent hymn “Nun komm der Heiden Heiland” by Johann Schelle.

The program then concluded with two selections from the nineteenth century. The first of these was a prelude-fugue coupling by Clara Schumann from her Opus 16 set of solo piano compositions, transcribed for a quartet of the PBO musicians: Kyme, Westman, Caswell, and Skeen. Finally, all eight musicians joined forces for the Finale movement of the Opus 20 octet in E major composed by Felix Mendelssohn.

The entire program was thus a journey from the late sixteenth century to the middle of the nineteenth. This was an impressive undertaking, but no selection on the program ever overstayed its welcome. The program suggested that this was a “coffee break” event; but there was so much offered by the program that I never felt a need for caffeine to prompt my attention!

Carpenter to Bring Zephyr Symphony to St. Mark’s

A full view of the sanctuary of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church as seen from the pulpit

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church will serve as the home of a new ensemble led by conductor Don Scott Carpenter. The group is called the Zephyr Symphony; and Carpenter has prepared a season of four programs, three of which will involve a chorus with vocal soloists. In addition, the opening program will feature two solo vocalists, soprano Chelsea Hollow and baritone Julio Ferrari, while the final program will present a pair of instrumental soloists, violinist Gail Hernández Rosa and pianist Franz Zhao. 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. Dates and times for the four events are as follows:

Saturday, September, 20, 7:30 p.m., Mozart: Carpenter will begin the season with a program of four compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The second half of the program is likely to be more familiar to most listeners than the first is. The opening selection will be the K. 623 cantata Laut verkünde unsre Freude (let our joy resound). This was composed for a Masonic celebration in 1791; and it is sometimes known as the “Little Masonic Cantata.” Mozart would die, shortly after completing this work, on December 5, 1791. It will be followed by the concert aria “Per questa bella mano,” K. 612. Ferrari will be the soloist, joined by a virtuoso obbligato for bass performed by Daniel Turkos. Hollow will then serve as soloist for the K. 165 motet “Exsultate, jubilate.” The program will conclude with one of the most familiar symphonies, K. 551 in C major, Mozart’s final symphony often known as “Jupiter.”

Sunday, December 21, 4 p.m., Messiah: The title says it all, but this will be an abridged version of George Frideric Handel’s HWV 56 oratorio. As usual, there will be four vocal soloists: soprano Shawnette Sulker, countertenor Kyle Tingzon, tenor Alexander John Perkins, and baritone Cory York. This program will also feature the first performance of the Zephyr Chorus.

Saturday, March 7, 7:30 p.m., Elijah: Readers know that the texts for Messiah were drawn from both the Old and New Testaments. Felix Mendelssohn’s oratorio, on the other hand, draws only upon the Old Testament with particular attention to the first Book of Kings. The title role will be sung by bass-baritone Andrew Thomas Pardini. The other vocalists will be soprano Mary-Hollis Hundley, contralto Leandra Ramm, and tenor Elliott James-Ginn Encarnácion. They will be joined by the Zephyr Chorus. [added 11/29. 8:25 a.m.:

Saturday, March 21, 7:30 p.m., In Praise & Protest: There seems to be one more program in the Zephyr season that I may have overlooked when this article was first written. According to its Web page, this program “explores sacred beauty, social conscience, and the enduring power of the human voice across five centuries.” Each of those centuries will be represented by a different composer. In chronological order (which will not be the order of the performance) the composers are Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Charles Wood, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Saunder Choi, and Luna Pearl Woolf. The last of these selecdtions is a concerto for violoncello and a cappella chorus.]

Saturday, April 18, 7:30 p.m., Spring: True to its title, this program will begin with the first of the twelve concertos in Antonio Vivaldi’s Opus 8, Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (the contest between harmony and invention). The first four of the concertos are best known collectively as The Four Seasons. The program will begin with the first of them, which depicts the spring season. This will be followed by Mozart’s K. 467 piano concerto in C major. The soloist will be pianist Franz Zhao. The “leap” from Baroque to Classical will continue into the Romantic period. The program will conclude with Johannes Brahms’ Opus 90, his third symphony in F major.

The Zephyr Symphony now has its own Web page, which includes hyperlinks for purchasing tickets. Prices for single performances will range from $25 to $65. Subscription rates will reduce the price by 15%.

The Kanneh-Mason Duo in Davies Last Night

Sheku Kanneh-Mason (photograph by Ollie Ali, courtesy of SFS)

Last night saw the final Great Performers Series recital to be presented by the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) this season in Davies Symphony Hall. The recitalist was cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, who made his SFS Orchestra Series debut almost exactly a year ago, when he was the soloist in a performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 107, the first of his two cello concertos. For his SFS Great Performers debut, he was accompanied at the piano by his sister Isata.

The first half of the program presented two cello sonatas separated by a little less than a century. The program began with Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 45, his first cello sonata in B-flat major. This was coupled with another “first cello sonata,” Gabriel Fauré’s Opus 109 in D minor. The remaining sonata concluded the second half of the program, Francis Poulenc’s only sonata for cello and piano. This was composed in 1948; and, since the Mendelssohn sonata was composed in 1838, the program offered roughly a century of sonatas. These were complemented by the one recent work on the program, “Tor Mordôn,” composed by Natalie Klouda in 2024.

As expected, this was a radical shift from the rhetorical stances of the sonata selections. I have noticed that many recent compositions tend to establish their identities through unique sonorities, as well as thematic material. The second movement of “Tor Mordôn” involved a fair amount of snap pizzicato work, which was definitely consistent with the “Con fuoco” tempo marking. Nevertheless, when taken as a whole, the music did little to seize attention, reminding me of my composition teacher, who always criticized his pupils for “noodling.”

Sadly, the more traditional offerings did not fare much better. Both of the sonatas preceding the intermission came across as long-winded. Mind you, Mendelssohn tended to revel in outbursts of enthusiasm. One could sense that through the different perspectives of his sonata’s three movements, but each of them went on for longer than even attentive patience could endure. Ironically, the enthusiasm that Poulenc brought to his sonata came across as little more than an outpouring of notes.

Neither of the two encores was announced. The first sounded like an arrangement of one of the orchestral works by Manuel de Falla. The other sounded like more Mendelssohn. Neither left me with an urge to learn more about them.

Guarneri Quartet: its 19th Century Comfort Zone

The above claim that the nineteenth century was the “comfort zone” of the Guarneri Quartet can be affirmed by the fact that the composers from that century account for the “lion’s share” of the 49 CDs in the Sony Masterworks box set, Guarneri Quartet: The Complete Recordings 1965–2005 (not including the previously reported releases of works by Franz Schubert). As might be guessed, primary attention goes to what may be called the “Schumann-Brahms axis,” given that some of the multiple-CD albums in the collection are devoted to “side-by-side” recordings of music by Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. Brahms first met Robert and Clara Schumann in October of 1853, and he would maintain a relationship with Clara after Robert’s death. (Clara, in turn, would perform Brahms’ music in her recitals.)

Those “side-by-side” albums account for all of the quartets by both of the composers, as well as the album of the three Brahms piano quartets coupled with Schumann’s Opus 44 piano quintet. Many readers probably already know that Arnold Schoenberg was so taken with the first of these quartets, Opus 25 in G minor, that he orchestrated the score, hoping that the music would receive more attention. (That attention would benefit from George Balanchine decision to choreograph the Schoenberg version.) The pianist for these compositions is none other than Artur Rubinstein, who also joined the Guarneri in their recording of Brahms’ Opus 34 quintet in F minor. As far as the string quartets are concerned, it may will be the case that I have not encountered any of them since the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan celebrated the sesquicentenary of the birth of Johannes Brahms (born in 1833) with a marathon series of concerts covering all of his chamber music for piano and strings.

Photograph of Dvořák with his friends and family in New York (1893 photograph by unknown photographer, public domain, from Wikimedia Commons)

Antonín Dvořák receives just as much attention as Brahms in the Guarneri repertoire. Nevertheless, the account of string quartets is relatively sparse, perhaps under the assumption that only Opus 96 in F major, known as the “American” quartet, tended to draw audience enthusiasm. On the other hand, Rubinstein again appears as “guest artist for both the Opus 81 piano quintet in A major and the Opus 87 piano quartet in E-flat major. On the other hand, I have confess a fondness for the Opus 74 terzetto, which I came to know and love through another choreographer of Dvořák’s music, Antony Tudor. His use of Opus 74 near the beginning of Leaves are Fading was responsible for getting me hooked on future encounters with Dvořák’s chamber music for strings.

As might be guessed, the collection includes Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 20 octet in E-flat major, which was recorded during the Marlboro Music Festival. The Guarneri also recorded an early Mendelssohn quartet, Opus 13 in A minor, coupled with Edvard Grieg’s Opus 27 quartet in G minor. The only other composer to receive more than one CD is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. His Opus 11 quartet is D major is coupled with Giuseppe Verdi’s E minor quartet. The other album is devoted entirely to the Opus 70 “Souvenir de Florence” sextet, which includes violist Boris Kroyt and Mischa Schneider on cello.

There is one more Rubinstein album. He joins the ensemble in performing Gabriel Fauré’s Opus 15 piano quartet in C minor. This early work in the Fauré canon is coupled with one of the latest, his Opus 121 string quartet. Finally, the quartet accounts for the latter end of the nineteenth century with an album that couples two “second quartets.” These are the D major quartet by Alexander Borodin and the Opus 15 (second) quartet by Ernst von Dohnányi, composed in the key of D-flat major.

Taken as a whole, Guarneri seems to have done a good job in embracing the rich breadth of the nineteenth century, providing an engaging diversity in the recordings they released for this period.

Two “Stars” for Final SFCO Program

Violinist Pearl de la Mott and composer Nathaniel Heyder (photographs courtesy of SFCO)

Readers that recall the announcement of the 2024–25 MainStage Season of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra (SFCO) towards the end of last summer may probably know that the season will conclude one week from today. The title of the program is Rising Stars, and it has a double meaning. In “order of appearance,” the first of the two stars will be composer Nathaniel Heyder. “Phases of Ruin” is the product of an SFCO Commission, enabled with support from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the Emerging Black Composers Project. The second star will be violist Pearl de la Mott, who won last year’s Klein Competition. She will be the soloist in a performance of Béla Bartók’s viola concerto. The program will begin with Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 26 concert overture, “The Hebrides.”

The San Francisco performance of this program will take place one week and one day after today, beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 25. The venue will be the Taube Atrium Theater, which is located on the fourth (top) floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue. There will be no charge for admission, but reservations are recommended. Seating may be reserved on the Eventbrite Web page for this concert.

CMSF: Leonkoro String Quartet Debuts in Herbst

Leonkoro Quartet members Jonathan Schwarz, Amelie Wallner, Mayu Konoe, and Lukas Schwarz (from their Web site)

Yesterday afternoon in Herbst Theatre, Chamber Music San Francisco presented the Bay Area debut of the Leonkoro Quartet. The group was founded in Berlin in 2019. The “outer voices” are performed by two brothers, Jonathan Schwarz on first violin and cellist Lukas. The second violinist is Amelie Wallner with Mayu Konoe on viola. They are on a tour of North America, which took them to the West Coast yesterday. Only the cellist was seated for the recital, while the other musicians performed standing.

The quartet prepared a “three centuries” program with the twentieth century at the “core.” This was Alban Berg’s six-movement “Lyric Suite,” which explored the twelve-tone technique developed by his teacher, Arnold Schoenberg. The music was dedicated to Alexander von Zemlinsky, probably with the latter’s “Lyric Symphony” in mind. This “core” was “framed” by the eighteenth century (Joseph Haydn) at the beginning and the nineteenth (Felix Mendelssohn) at the end.

George Perle claimed that the “Lyric Suite” had a “secret dedication” for a passionate (and probably erotic) “secret programme.” Whether or not this is the case, Berg was a stickler for elaborate structural details. The suite is in six movements. The odd-numbered movements keep getting faster, and the even-numbered ones keep getting slower. As a result, the fresh “gioviale” spirit of the opening ultimately descends into a despondent “desolato.” However, the alternation of these dispositions makes the overall listening experience a pretty wild ride. Yesterday afternoon’s performance could not have delivered a more solid account of that wild ride, making it the high point of the entire program.

Nevertheless, the Leonkoro approaches to both Haydn and Mendelssohn were solid and consistently satisfying. The former was the fifth in his Opus 50 collection (Hoboken III/48), composed in the key of F major and given the title “The Dream,” which refers to the serenity of the second movement. The program then concluded with the second of the three Opus 44 Mendelssohn quartets. The E minor rhetoric of this quartet complemented the major key at the beginning of the program. The composer seemed to be particularly attentive to the viola in this particular quartet, and Konoe could not have done better justice to that attention.

The encore selection was Giacomo Puccini’s “Crisantemi” (chrysanthemums). This is a relatively early work, which is basically a lament in the key of C-sharp minor. He composed it relatively early in his career. Nevertheless, I find that its capacity for melancholy rhetoric delivers a profound impact that rises above the many overwrought qualities found in the composer’s tragic operas. The Leonkoro players knew exactly how to capture that rhetoric, making for a thoroughly engaging conclusion to their first visit to San Francisco.

The Mendelssohns are Going Vinyl

I have noticed over the recent months that there has been somewhat of a growing trend towards returning to vinyl long-playing (LP) discs for more satisfying acoustics. At my advanced age, my hearing is not as sensitive as it used to be; and, as a result, I am more than content with “digital listening.” If I wish to listen to every acoustic nuance, I am more than happy to seek it at concerts and recitals (due, in no small part, to such offerings being walking distance from where I live)!

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

Nevertheless, I feel it worth informing those preferring analog that the Takács Quartet album of string quartets by both Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn will be available on a Hyperion LP one week from today. For those content with digital, Amazon.com has created a Web page for this album (which will probably include a hyperlink for the LP once it is available). It begins with Fanny’s quartet in E-flat major, followed by two of Felix’s seven quartets in reverse chronological order. The first of these is his final effort in the genre, Op. Posth. 80 (numbered the sixth) in F minor. This is followed at the other extreme by the Opus 13 (second) quartet in A minor.

I must confess that my reaction to this release is one of “compare and contrast.” Back when I was writing for Examiner.com in 2013, I reviewed a release by Virgin Classics of Quatuor ébène performing exactly the same selections. Mind you, over a decade has passed since then; so “side-by-side” listening may not be very fair, particularly since that album provided a “first contact” experience of Fanny’s quartet. Nevertheless, there was definitely a degree of freshness in encountering that quartet again. However, while there was no shortage of energy in the Takács performances of her brother’s music, I am afraid that both of the selections came across as “business as usual.”

While I appreciate the “brother-and-sister” approach to the Mendelssohn repertoire, I must confess that I still feel that a little bit of Felix is usually enough!