Take Opera Productions on Their Own Terms!

Dashon Burton as Araspe standing over the sleeping Seleuce (Lauren Snouffer) while her husband Tolomeo (Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen) looks on (photograph by Kristen Loken, from the SF Classical Voice article about the Philharmonia Baroque performance of Handel’s opera Tolomeo)

This morning I read Michael Zwiebach’s account for SF Classical Voice of the production of George Frideric Handel’s HWV 25 opera Tolomeo, re d’Egitto performed by the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale. (I had written my own account this past Friday.) The title he chose was: “Can a Smaller Bay Area Orchestra Outshine SF Opera? This Tolomeo Says Yes.” Personally, I do my best to avoid using one production as a cudgel to beat another. However, it left me wondering just how much Zwiebach knew about productions of Handel by the San Francisco Opera (SFO).

To be fair, it has been a while since SFO last staged a Handel opera; but that “while” is shorter than Zwiebach might have realized. It was only a little over two years ago that the company revived its production of Partenope (Handel’s HWV 27), given a staging by Christopher Alden that can only be described as “slapstick.” Since that revival was as engaging as the first time around, I would challenge anyone to claim that it could be “outshined!”

Reading Zwiebach’s article reminded me that it is important to take every performance on its own terms, rather than deciding on whether or not it rates “top ten” ranking. To be fair, when I encounter a revival, I usually try to provide some sort of then-and-now account; but I also do my best to present the “now” on its own terms. Productions should not be “ranked” as if they were contestants in a beauty pageant. This definitely applies to ensembles performing full-length operas!

Whelan Gets an Early Start for his PBO Tenure

Last night in Herbst Theatre, Peter Whelan began his first season as Music Director of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale (PBO) with an earlier-than-usual start. This was the first of six concerts, which will continue through a conclusion in April of next year. To “fit in” with past PBO repertoires, Whelan chose to begin his tenure with an opera composed by George Frideric Handel; and his selection was one that was probably unfamiliar to most of last night’s audience.

An autograph page from the score of Handel’s HWV 25 (public domain, from Wikimedia Commons)

Tolomeo, re d'Egitto (Ptolemy, King of Egypt), HWV 25, was described in the advance material I received as  a “historically informed performance with theatrical elements to heighten the drama.” The cast consisted of five vocalists and no chorus. The title character was sung by countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen. He is the eldest son of Cleopatra, exiled to Cyprus where he has disguised himself as a shepherd. Bass-baritone Dashon Burton sang the role of Araspe, the King of Cyprus; and the role of his sister Elisa was taken by soprano Nicole Heaston. The other characters are Seleuce, Tolomeo’s wife, sung by soprano Lauren Snouffer, and Tolomeo’s brother Alessandro, countertenor Kangmin Justin Kim.

The program book required two full pages to account for the narrative that twists and turns these five characters. Nevertheless, the music mattered more than the details; and all six of the vocalists had solo opportunities to display their respective skills. Staging was provided by James Darrah Black, who had the wisdom let the music and the solo vocal work prevail over the narrative details. The music was receptive to anyone familiar with the Handel repertoire, and Whelan’s leadership kept the plot moving to avoid getting bogged down in any lurking confusions.

It is interesting to note that Whelan conducted from the left rear corner of the stage. This allowed the full ensemble to group in a way that afforded generous space for the vocalists. This provided Black with more space than has been afforded in past PBO opera performances, and he definitely knew how to make good use of it!

Those craving more Handel will have to wait until the five-concert subscription series begins in the first half of November, but the occasion is definitely worth anticipating!

Dame Jane Glover Brings Fireworks to Detroit

Dame Jane Glover on the podium at the beginning of last night’s DSO live-stream

The title of the latest live-streamed performance by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) yesterday evening was Baroque Fireworks. The Baroque period provided the “core” of the program, followed by the Classical period represented by Joseph Haydn and preceded by the contemporary repertoire of Stacy Garrop. Dame Jane Glover visited to Detroit to take the DSO podium. The title of the program was a direct reference to George Frideric Handel’s HWV 351, a suite in D major entitled Music for the Royal Fireworks.

This could be taken as an “overture,” with Johann Sebastian Bach intervening between Handel and Haydn. The harpsichord continuo for HWV 351 could be seen on the screen; but it was entirely inaudible, overwhelmed by the instrumental ensemble. Nevertheless, Glover gave the suite a spirited account, made all the more engaging by the camera shots of the contributing instrumentalists.

Those high spirits continued in the transition from Handel to Johann Sebastian Bach. He was represented by BWV 1048 in G major, the third of the six “Brandenburg” concertos. As far as I could see from the screen, this was given a one-to-a-part performance of nine musicians: three violins, three violas, and three cellos. The transparency of this account was delightful, providing the most intimate performance of the evening.

This was followed by Joseph Haydn’s final symphony, Hoboken I:104. This is known as the “London” symphony, which is where Haydn was living when he composed it. According to Haydn’s own diary, the premiere performance was a great success, not only in the response by the audience but also through a generous sum of money that he earned from the performance!

These three works were preceded, at the very beginning of the program, by Stacy Garrop’s “Spectacle of Light.” The program notes described this piece as “Handel-inspired;” but that inspiration did not seem to go very far. Garrop was bold enough to work with generously rich instrumentation; but, sadly, neither the instruments or their groupings in different combinations were ever put to convincing use. Fortunately, Garrop’s tedium did not last very long and was followed by a far more convincing collection of music from earlier centuries.

A “Live” Account of “Sundays at Ten”

Somewhat ironically, this morning provided me with my first opportunity to view a Sundays at Ten video compiled by Voices of Music (VoM) when it first appeared. These videos are released on YouTube every Sunday morning at 10 a.m. This particular episode consisted of four selections by four different composers; in “order of appearance” these were Henry Purcell, Maddalena Laura Sirmen, George Frideric Handel, and Johann Sebastian Bach. Sirmen was the “wild card” in this “hand,” providing my first encounter with her music, which was limited to the first movement of a violin concerto in B-flat major. Most familiar, on the other hand, was the Bach selection, BWV 1051, the sixth (and last) of the so-called “Brandenburg” concertos.

Kati Kyme, Elizabeth Blumenstock, and Tanya Tomkins performing Bach’s BWV 1051

As one of my undergraduate colleagues pointed out, BWV 1051 was the only concerto in the set whose number was also the number of solo performers. That said, most of the virtuoso solo work was performed by two violas (Kati Kyme and Elizabeth Blumenstock) and cello (Tanya Tomkins). The other soloists were Elisabeth Reed and William Skeen (viol da gamba) and Farley Pearce (violone), with Hanneke van Proosdij providing continuo on cembalo.

BWV 1051 was also the only multi-movement composition to be performed in its entirety. The Handel concerto, HWV 325 in B-flat major, was limited to the opening largo followed by an allegro fugue; and the Sirmen movement was also allegro. Purcell began the program with his Z. 750 pavan, composed in the key of B-flat major. Taken as a whole, the entire set lasted a little over half an hour, just the right amount of brevity for an engaging Sunday morning of music.

Belated “Sundays at Ten” Released Yesterday

Hanneke van Proosdij performing Handel’s HWV 375 flute sonata with William Skeen on baroque cello and David Tayler on baroque guitar

Those wondering what happened to this past Sunday’s Sundays at Ten video compiled by Voices of Music (VoM) will be happy to learn that Episode 10 of Season 6, given the title Sperantes is now “in the system.” To appropriate an old Sesame Street idiom, the entire program was “sponsored” by the key of E minor. It was framed by two violin concertos composed by Antonio Vivaldi. The opening video of Augusta McKay Lodge playing the violin solo for the RV 278 violin concerto in E minor is the most recent video to be released by VoM. Chloe Kim was soloist for the concluding concerto, RV 277, given the title “Il Favorito.” (For those that prefer opus numbers, this is the second of the six concertos in Vivaldi’s Opus 11.) The concertos framed a recorder performance by Hanneke van Proosdij. Her selection was the “Minuetto” movement from movement from George Frideric Handel’s HWV 375 in E minor, the second of his three “Halle” flute sonatas.

The electronic mail announcing this release concluded with a quote by Johann Mattheson, who was a close friend of Handel. Mattheson is best known as a music theorist. This particular quote is taken from his 1713 treatise Das neu-eröffnete Orchestre as follows:

E minor is pensive, distressed, and sad; yet in such a way that one still finds some consolation in it; this key has something hopeful about it, whatever one may do with it, for otherwise it cannot tolerate any joy.

Bearing in mind that all twelve of Vivaldi’s Opus 11 concertos have fast-slow-fast structure, one can assume that Mattheson was referring to the slow movements! (To the best of my knowledge, “neu-eröffnete” translates into English as “reopened.” Perhaps Mattheson was writing about an ensemble that had disbanded and was subsequently revived.)

Would it be fair to say that, for the three selections on this program, Lodge, Proosdij, and Kim each had her own way of expressing those characteristics that Mattheson cited? Having revisited portions of this video, I would go at least as far as a decisive “maybe!” On the other hand, I am not sure that music theorists listen to performances the same ways that the rest of us do. (Full disclosure: I took several music theory courses in my student days.)

More importantly, the entire listening experience took only about half an hour; and, as far as I am concerned, that time could not have been better spent!

Nicholas McGegan Returns to PBO Podium

Banner for the Web page for the program being discussed

Last night Nicholas McGegan returned to Herbst Theatre to lead the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (PBO) & Chorale in a program of sacred and secular music entitled Baroque Garlands. Each half of the program consisted of a single composition, beginning with the sacred and concluding with the secular. The composer for the first half of the program was George Frideric Handel, followed by Jean-Philippe Rameau in the second half. There were only two vocal soloists, soprano Nola Richardson and tenor Aaron Sheehan.

The Handel selection was HWV 232, a setting of the Latin text of Psalm 110, whose title consists of the first two words, Dixit Dominus (“The Lord said”). Five of the nine movements are choral, and they are interleaved with a rich diversity of solo performances. The second and third movements were sung by countertenor Kyle Sanchez Tingzon and soprano Nola Richardson, respectively. They then joined the vocal quintet in the sixth movement, whose other members were soprano Victoria Fraser, tenor Aaron Sheehan, and bass-baritone Chung-Wai Soong. The penultimate movement was a soprano duo with Tonia D’Amelio joining Richardson. Taken as a whole, this was an engaging journey of diversity, given a delightfully upbeat account by McGegan.

The intermission was followed by Rameau’s “La guirlande, ou Les fleurs enchantée,” described in the program book as an “Acte de ballet with a libretto by Jean-François Marmontel.” There are only two characters in the narrative, Zélide (Richardson) and Myrtil (Sheehan). The “enchantment” is that both characters have garlands that will stay fresh as long as they are faithful to each other. As might be expected, the narrative involves the withering of the garlands and their eventual restoration. The “happy ending” is celebrated with dances by herdsmen,  shepherds, and shepherdesses.

As has been the case so often, the entire evening was carried by the enthusiastic attentiveness of McGegan on the podium. He was as committed to engaging listener attention as he had been over the course of his 34-year tenure as Music Director. (Having also seen him conduct the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, I know this his commitment is not limited to any particular period in music history!) I also appreciated the way in which he prepared a program coupling the contrasting spirits of sacred and secular music. Hopefully, he will continue to visit PBO in future seasons.

McGegan to Return to PBO Early Next Month

Banner design for next month’s program showing Nicholas McGegan, Nola Richardson, and Aaron Sheehan (from the PBO Web page for selecting tickets)

As some readers familiar with this season’s schedule of five concerts to be performed by the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale (PBO) probably know, next month will see a return to the podium by the ensemble’s Music Director Emeritus Nicholas McGegan. He has prepared a program entitled Baroque Garlands, which will feature vocal performances of both sacred and secular music. The vocal soloists will be soprano Nola Richardson and tenor Aaron Sheehan, joined by the Philharmonia Chorale directed by Valérie Sainte-Agathe.

There will be only two works on the program, one on either side of the intermission. The first of these will be the sacred selection, George Frideric Handel’s HWV 232 setting of the Dixit Dominus text of Psalm 109. The second half of the program will account for the overall title, the one-act opera with many dance movements “La guirlande” (the garland), composed by Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Jean-François Marmontel.

As usual, this performance will take place in Herbst Theater, located at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, February 6. Ticket prices range from $40 to $125. They may be purchased through a City Box Office Web page, which includes a diagram showing where seats are still available.

SFS Announces Rescheduling of Brass Concert

Readers may recall that the annual Holiday Brass concert, scheduled for this past Saturday evening, December 20, was cancelled due to a citywide power outage. Fortunately, the ensemble did not waste any time in rescheduling the event, which will now take place on Sunday, January 11, at 7:30 p.m. As usual, those who have purchased tickets will be able to use them on this occasion; and, if the date and time are inconvenient, they can contact the Box Office (415-864-6000 or patronservices@sfsymphony.org) to arrange for ticket exchange, donation, gift certificate, or refund. Those who have not previously purchased tickets may do so through a Web page or by visiting the Box Office.

The SFS Trumpet section (courtesy of SFS)

The program will not change, beginning with the two arrangements by SFS Principal Trumpet Mark Inouye of movements selected from Handel’s HWV 351 suite Music for the Royal Fireworks and “Bist du bei mir,” an aria from Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel's opera Diomedes. There will also be the two major departures from the holiday spirit, the four-movement Suite from Maria de Buenos Aires, compiled by Steven Verhelst from the score of Astor Piazzolla’s opera Maria de Buenos Aires, and Enrique Crespo’s “Bruckner Etude.” Brad Hogarth will replace Edwin Outwater, who had originally been scheduled to conduct.

Zephyr to Celebrate Xmas with Single Concert

The vocal soloists for Zephyr’s first performance of Messiah: Shawnette Sulker, Kyle Tingzon, Alexander John Perkins, and William Raskin (from the Zephyr Symphony Web page for the concert to be performed)

Having established St. Mark’s Lutheran Church as its home, next month the Zephyr Symphony, led by conductor Don Scott Carpenter, will present its first “seasonal” program. As might be guessed, the “season” will be Christmas; and the music will be George Frideric Handel’s HWV 56 oratorio Messiah, whose first part sets texts appropriate for the Christmas season. This will be the first concert at which the Zephyr Chorus will perform with the instrumental ensemble. They will be joined by four vocal soloists: soprano Shawnette Sulker, countertenor Kyle Tingzon, tenor Alexander John Perkins, and baritone William Raskin. [update: 12/19, 12:45 p.m.: Sulker has withdrawn for health reasons and will be replaced by Venezuelan soprano Maria Brea.]

This performance will begin at 4 p.m. on Sunday, December 21. 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. The lobby will open at 3 p.m., and doors to the sanctuary will open at 3:30 p.m. A Web page has been created that shows where seats are available along with their respective prices. Prices (including fees) range from $26.06 to $67.76.

Halloween in the Green Room: the Fifth Season

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

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

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

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

American Bach: A Tale of Four Cities

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

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

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

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

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

Halloween to Return to the Green Room

Photograph of past Death by Aria performers

Once again, this month will conclude with the fifth annual Halloween-themed concert, Death by Aria. As in the past, pianist Ronny Michael Greenberg will serve as Master of Ceremonies. The “aria” vocalists will be mezzo Nikola Printz, soprano Maria Valdes, tenor Christopher Oglesby, and tenor Jesse Rex Barrett, doubling on oboe.

“Death by Aria” is also a song composed by Greenberg, which will be given its world premiere performance. Other selections will include “Dido’s Lament” from Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and “Pirate Jenny” from Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, along with excerpts from George Frideric Handel’s HWV 17 opera Giulio Cesare, Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth, and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. The more contemporary side of the program will include excerpts from both Phantom of the Opera and Wicked.

The performance will again begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 30. The venue will be The Green Room, which is on the second floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue. The entire event is expected to last three and one-half hours. Tickets are being sold through an Eventbrite Web page. General admission will be $100, and the price for young professionals under 30 will be $60.

ABS Finale: Two Bachs and Their Contemporaries

Late yesterday afternoon the San Francisco Bach Festival, performed primarily by students of the 2025 American Bach Academy, with some assistance from their mentors, who are members of American Bach Soloists (ABS), concluded this year’s San Francisco Bach Festival with two members of the Bach family along with Georg Philipp Telemann and George Frideric Handel. As might be expected, Johann Sebastian Bach dominated the program with three cantatas. In order of appearance, these were BWV 132 (Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn!) prior to the intermission, followed afterwards by BWV 10 (known as the “German Magnificat”) and one of the best-known cantatas, BWV 147 (Herz und Mund un Tat und Leben). All other selections on the program were instrumental.

Portrait of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach by Franz Conrad Löhr (from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Sadly, circumstances were such that I could attend only the first half of this program. BWV 132 was preceded by George Frideric Handel’s HWV 329, the penultimate work in his Opus 6 concerto grosso collection, composed in the key of A major. The cantata was then followed by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s H. 661 (Wq 182:5), the fifth of six symphonies he composed for Baron van Swieten in 1773, known as the Hamburger Sinfonien.

Each of the works was given a convincing account. The cantata soloists were soprano Rachel Doehring Jackson, mezzo Meghan Ryan, tenor Cameron Falby, and baritone Sepp Hammer. In the absence of the American Bach Choir, the concluding Chorale movement was sung as a quartet. While this half of the program may have been convincing, the expressiveness of the performances was never particularly compelling. One might almost say that this was a “business as usual” account of the two Bachs and Handel, as if the freshness of past Festival interpretations was fading before the listeners’ ears.

Is the spirit of the late eighteenth-century beginning to elude the Festival?

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%.

A Splendid Conclusion to 2024/25 PBO Season

Avi Stein on the banner for the Web page for last night’s performance

Last night the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (PBO) concluded its 2024/25 season with a program led by Avi Stein, Associate Organist and Chorus Master for Trinity Church Wall Street. He is the final candidate for the next Music Director; and, from a personal point of view, he is the one that left the strongest impressions, all of which were positive. The title of the program was Tout de Suite, which reflected on instrumental music with multiple movements.

The intermission was flanked on either side by such multi-movement works by the two leading composers of the Baroque period (both born in 1685), Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. The Bach selection was BWV 1068, the third of his orchestral suites, composed in the key of D major. This is best known for both its dazzling display of trumpet work and the second (Air) movement, which is the only one performed without those trumpets. Stein clearly knew that this was just about as old a chestnut as one can find, but his attentive conducting endowed the performance with an engaging personality, particularly in the execution of the livelier dance movements (not to mention the unforgettable opening fanfare). That stimulating rhetoric spilled over the intermission into the performance of Handel’s HWV 328 concerto grosso in D minor, the tenth of the twelve pieces in his Opus 6 collection.

Stein compiled a “Suite de théâtre” for his final selection. He collected individual pieces from six works by Jean-Philippe Rameau for theatrical performances. This ran the risk of coming across as “one thing after another.” Nevertheless, the excerpt from Les Boréades provided the most engaging music for bassoon I have ever encountered; and, if the reader will hold back a groan, the two piccolos in the final movement were a real hoot!

The program began with the noble effort of Johann Georg Pisendel to compile for performance Les caractères de la danse, a collection of dance movements composed by Jean-Féry Rebel. Stein’s opening gesture was a bit rough; but he managed to get “into the groove” almost immediately. This was the more vulnerable “one thing after another” offering; but one of the movements involved a ravishing duo for flute and second violin that made the entire journey worth taking.

Where my own personal biases are concerned, I have no trouble asserting that this was the most engaging evening of the entire season.

Philharmonia Baroque to Present a Suite Program

The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (PBO) will conclude its 2024/25 season with a program led by the final candidate for the next Music Director. Avi Stein is currently Associate Organist and Chorus Master for Trinity Wall Street and Artistic Director of the Helicon Foundation. The title of the program is Tout de Suite; and it will conclude (appropriately enough) with a “Suite du théâtre,” consisting of instrumental excerpts from music that Jean-Philippe Rameau composed for staged performances of Naïs, Dardanus, Les Boréades, and Les Indes galantes. The program will begin with a dance suite composed by Jean-Féry Rebel in 1715 entitled Les Caractères de la danse. PBO will play an arrangement of this music (presumably for a larger ensemble than Rebel had in mind) by Johann Georg Pisendel. The first half of the program will then conclude with Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1068 (third) orchestral suite in D major. The intermission will be followed by a concerto grosso by George Frideric Handel, the tenth in his Opus 6 collection.

Avi Stein (courtesy of The Juilliard School)

This program will be conducted by the final candidate for the new PBO Music Director, Avi Stein. As usual, the 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 10. Ticket prices range from $40 to $132. They may be purchased through a City Box Office Web page, which includes a diagram showing where seats are still available.

PBO’s Third Candidate Music Director

Conductor Peter Whelan on the banner for the PBO Web page for Alceste

Last night’s performance by the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale continued the search for its next Music Director by a concert-based-audition of its third candidate, Peter Whelan. The candidate is currently the Artistic Director of the Irish Baroque Orchestra and Curator for Early Music for the Norwegian Wind Ensemble. The program he prepared consisted entirely of music by George Frideric Handel. This consisted primarily of the HWV 45 incidental music composed for Tobias Smollett’s play Alceste, which was preceded by an “overture” of sorts in the form of HWV 319, the first of the Opus 6 concerti grossi, composed in the key of G major. The vocal soloists for HWV 45 included two members of the Philharmonia Chorale, mezzo Leandra Ramm and baritone Jeffrey Fields joined by visiting artists Lauren Snouffer (soprano) and tenor Aaron Sheehan. As usual, the Chorale was led by Valérie Sainte-Agathe.

I am not sure why Whelan decided that the orchestra should perform the concerto grosso while standing. If he thought it would provide a more focused delivery, then he definitely did not succeed. For the most part, phrasing came across as disconcertingly scrappy, almost as if the players wanted their leader to know that they were more focused when seated. However, scrappiness was only one of the problems. The more serious difficulty was a disappointingly poor account of intonation across the entire ensemble.

Fortunately, the orchestra was seated for HWV 45. Nevertheless, problems of scrappiness remained, now invading the Chorale as well as the Orchestra. Even one of the vocal soloists, Fields, seemed to be having problems aligning his sonorities with those of the instrumental ensemble. It remains to be seen whether those problems involved poorly-prepared rehearsals or lack of communication once the conductor arrived. Whatever the case may have been, this was one of my most disappointing PBO encounters with both vocalists and instrumentalists.

American Bach Continues Season with Handel

Statue of Acis embraced by Galatea (from the American Bach program book)

Yesterday afternoon at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, American Bach resumed its 36th season with a full-length performance of Handel’s HWV 49 opera Acis and Galatea. The title roles were sung by tenor James Reese and soprano Nola Richardson, respectively. Galatea is a sea nymph that has fallen in love in Acis. However, she is loved by the giant Polyphemus (sung by baritone Douglas Ray Williams), who, towards the end of the second act, murders Acis. Nevertheless, Galatea has divine powers, which she used to transform Acis into a fountain. (In the immortal words of Anna Russell, “I’m not making this up, you know!”)

The narrative may demand extreme suspension of disbelief, but Handel’s music is consistently engaging. All three vocalists delivered solid and confident accounts without letting either the overall narrative or the words themselves interfere with an engaging delivery. Mind you, the overall performance was a bit on the long side; but it had to contend with the many convoluted twists and turns in the libretto. The instrumental side was consistently well-balanced under the baton of Artistic Director Jeffrey Thomas, with recorder performances by Stephen Hammer and Kathryn Montoya that brightened up the instrumental textures. This may not have been “Handel’s finest hour;” but the performance was a consistently enjoyable one, making for an afternoon well spent.

Chamber Music San Francisco: Califax

Yesterday afternoon in Herbst Theatre, Chamber Music San Francisco began its 2025 season with the first of the ten programs to be performed in San Francisco. The season was the last one to be planned by Daniel Levenstein, who has passed the torch of Executive Director to Jeanette Wong. Wong provided some engaging remarks, but Levenstein's spirit clearly permeated the atmosphere.

Calefax musicians Jelte Althuis, Raaf Hekkema, Bart de Kater, Oliver Boekhoorn, and Alban Wesly (photograph by Sarah Wijzenbeek, from the Press Web page on the Calefax Web site)

The performers that Wong introduced were the members of the Calefax quintet. All of them played wind instruments; but this was not the standard wind quintet of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn. Instead, there was both a clarinet (Bart de Kater) and bass clarinet (Jelte Althuis), along with oboe (Oliver Boekhoorn), saxophone (Raaf Hekkema), and bassoon (Alban Wesly). The absence of flute and horn makes for a narrower spectrum of timbres. Personally, I came away feeling that the overall texture was far more muddled than that of the “standard” quintet. Sadly, much of the program involved transcriptions of meticulously conceived counterpoint by composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, and Domenico Scarlatti, all of which got lost in that muddle. For that matter, the capacity for arrangement could not even cope with the piano music of Claude Debussy, whose original conception of his Estampes suite was far richer in both coloration and rhetoric than anything Calefax could muster.

It has been quite some time since I have had to do all it took to resist squirming my way through two hours with no redeeming virtues, and I hope that the members of Calefax all belong to orchestras that are more likely to help them earn their livings.}

David Oistrakh’s Rarities on Warner

Readers may recall that last week I began my venture into the 31 CDs classified as Premières, Rarities & Live Performances in the Warner Remastered Edition box set collection of recordings of performances by Russian violinist David Oistrakh. This began with an examination of the two CDs identified as Early Recordings. I am now in a position to discuss those albums associated with the “Rarities” category.

The most unique of these is the complete recording of a recital that Oistrakh performed in Moscow on February 16, 1960. He was accompanied by Vladimir Yampolsky; and the “heart” of the program consisted of three sonatas, each from a different century. Oistrakh began with Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1019 duo sonata in G major. He then leap-frogged into the late Romantic period with the last of Johannes Brahms’ three violin sonatas, Opus 108 in D minor. Late Brahms was followed by the Opus 1 of Karen Khachaturian (nephew of Aram), a three-movement sonata without a key specification.

Presumably, the rest of the album involved the encore selections, of which there were five, most of which were probably unfamiliar to much of the audience. Oistrakh began with the prelude-fugue coupling that constituted a solo violin partita by Alfred Mendelssohn. This was followed by the Opus 7 “Ciaccona” by Giovanni Battista Vitali, composed in 1682 for two violins and continuo violone and arranged for violin and piano by Léopold Charlier. This was followed by Oistrakh’s own arrangement of the sixth of the nine piano arrangements by Franz Liszt of “valses-caprices” by Franz Schubert. The encores were concluded with two works by twentieth-century composers: Sergei Prokofiev (his “Melody,” Opus 35b, Number 3) and Maurice Ravel (the familiar “Tzigane”).

Sergei Taneyev (from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Two of the CDs are identified as “Sonata Rarities.” They live up to that title through the composers they represent (in order of appearance): Nikolai Medtner, Mieczysław Weinberg, Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov, Sergei Taneyev, Zara Levina, and Wilhelm Stenhammar. There is also a “Bravura” album, which is framed by Niccolò Paganini at the beginning (with five of his Opus 1 caprices, beginning and concluding with arrangements by Fritz Kreisler and Leopold Auer, respectively) and Pablo de Sarasate’s Opus 25 (“Carmen Concert Fantasy”) at the end.

Finally, there is an album classified as “Vignettes.” This consists of 21 tracks, all of which are shorter than ten minutes in duration. Nine of the tracks are premiere releases. They are framed by arrangements by Carl Flesch of arias by George Frideric Handel at the beginning and the “Mazurka-oberek” by Alexander Glazunov on the final track.

Personally, I can attest to the “Rarities” classification. Yes, there were many familiar encounters (which the reader will easily recognize above). However, my mind is still trying to “digest” the abundance of “first contacts” I experienced while listening to the six CDs in this category!