Olga Kern Returns to CMSF, Joined by Quartet

Olga Kern seated at a Steinway piano (photograph by Natalia Roslova, Web page from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)

Yesterday afternoon saw the penultimate recital in this year’s season in San Francisco presented by Chamber Music San Francisco (CMSF). The recitalist was Russian-born pianist Olga Kern, who has made frequent appearances in past CMSF seasons. The first half of her program presented solo performances of compositions by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Alexander Scriabin, and Mily Balakirev. For the second half she was joined by the Dalí Quartet, whose members are violinists Ari Isaacman-Beck and Carlos Rubio with Adriana Linares on viola and cellist Jesús Morales. They concluded the program with Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 81, the second of his piano quintets, composed in the key of A major. This was preceded by a string quartet performance of Astor Piazzolla’s Tango Ballet.

Each half of the program had its own approach to encores. Kern preceded the intermission with three solo offerings. She began with “Feux d’artifice” (fireworks), the last of the 24 pieces in Claude Debussy’s Préludes collection. This was followed by “Spinning Wheel,” a composition by Charles Lisberg that has been in Kern’s repertoire for many years. Her final selection was “Étincelles” (sparks), the sixth piece in Moritz Moszkowski’s Opus 36 collection, 8 Characteristic Pieces. The encore following the Dvořák performance was the Scherzo movement from Robert Schumann’s Opus 47 piano quartet in E-flat major. Sadly, there was a lack of clarity in Kern’s account of the piano part for that energetic movement.

The performances were more than somewhat mixed. There were significant problems with a blurring of thematic lines in just about all of Kern’s solo selections, not just in her approach to the Schumann quartet. On the other hand, Linares’ viola work practically soared with expressiveness in both the Dvořák quintet and the “Encuentro–Olvido” movement of Tango-Ballet. In other words, there were any number of moments of engaging performances; but, unfortunately, none of them involved the pianist.

French and German Composers for Clarinet

Anthony McGill with his clarinet (photograph by Martin Romero, courtesy of San Francisco Performances)

Last night in Herbst Theatre San Francisco Performances presented the final program in The Shenson Great Artists and Ensembles Series. The “great artist” was clarinetist Anthony McGill. accompanied at the piano by Gloria Chen. McGill prepared a “two nationalities program.” He began the evening with an engaging diversity of French composers: Claude Debussy, André Messager, and Camille Saint-Saëns (the “order of appearance”). The second half was devoted to two German composers from either end of the nineteenth century, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms.

In the first half Messager could have won a prize for the abundance of notes in his “Solo de concours.” Actually, all those notes were conceived for the end-of-term examination of clarinet students at the Conservatoire de Paris (Paris Conservatory). This could not have been a better offering for McGill to unleash the full extent of his technical skills without devolving into banal “exercise music.” Messager was preceded by Debussy’s “Première rhapsodie” (first rhapsody), which he composed as an examination piece for students at the Conservatoire de Paris. The “French portion” then concluded with Saint-Saëns’ Opus 167 sonata in E-flat major for clarinet and piano. The third movement involved the lower register of the clarinet, which was my favorite area back when I played the instrument. (Sadly, I never had an opportunity to play bass clarinet.)

The second half of the program began with Schumann’s Opus 73, a three-movement duo entitled simply “Fantasiestücke.” This was followed by the second of the two Opus 120 clarinet sonatas composed by Brahms. Those sonatas were the composer’s final chamber music compositions, written about three years before his death. They were composed for Richard Mühlfeld, who had impressed Brahms with his performances of Carl Maria von Weber’s first clarinet concerto and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 581 clarinet quintet.

Taken as a whole, this was an impressive diversity of rhetorical approaches to chamber music. Fortunately, McGill captured the unique foundation for each of the five selections, providing the attentive listener with an engaging journey (which probably included at least one “way station” of discovery in Messager’s competition composition). McGill made his first SFP debut in November of 2021, and his most recent visit was in December of 2024. The clarinet is a rather sophisticated instrument with registers in three distinctively different sonorities, and McGill had no trouble making the most out of all of them.

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.

Another Disappointing Encounter with Hewitt

2017 photograph of Angela Hewitt in Toronto (photograph by Mykola Swarnyk, from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)

Once again Chamber Music San Francisco (CMSF) scheduled pianist Angela Hewitt for a solo recital. Those that have followed this site for some time probably know my track record with her past performances. As in the past, I continue to be more than merely satisfied with the precision of her keyboard technique. However, also in the past, she never seems to add expression to that precision.

This season’s program accounted for a broad span of approaches to keyboard music extending from the eighteenth century to the early twentieth. Each half of the program began with a composer from the Baroque period. The opening selection was Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 829 keyboard partita (the fifth in a set of six), composed in the key of G major. The second half began with five relatively short pieces by François Couperin, all taken from the “Sixiême Ordre” in his second Livre de Piéces de clavecin. In the first half of the program, Bach’s partita was coupled with Robert Schumann’s Opus 22, his second piano sonata in G minor. The program concluded with music that nodded to the preceding performance, Maurice Ravel’s suite Le tombeau de Couperin.

As in the past, I found myself impressed with Hewitt’s attention to getting every note in its proper place; but there was little awareness of music emerging from those notes. Thus, there was no sense of dance forms in the music that Bach composed for so many of his keyboard works. Where Couperin was concerned, Hewitt spent too much time leaning on the damper pedal, which particularly muddled one of his most engaging pieces, “Les Baricades Mistérieuses.”

In reviewing the scribbles in my program book, I see that “blur” showed up in my annotations for the selections by Schumann and Ravel. Neither of those composers deserved that description in performance, and Hewitt’s account of Schumann’s scherzo movement was downright incoherent. Where Le tombeau de Couperin is concerned, Hewitt’s only virtue was providing information about how each of the movements was dedicated to the composer’s friends and relatives that died during World War I.

For her encore selection Hewitt shifted from Ravel to Claude Debussy, but her account of “Clair de lune” was no more convincing than any of the preceding selections on the program.

Brahms and the Schumanns

Cover design for the album being discussed (with its own take on trios)

This past Friday harmonia mundi s.a.s. released a new album of music composed during the nineteenth century by a close-knit community of composers. In chronological order of the year of birth, those composers are Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, Joseph Joachim, and Johannes Brahms. The entire album is framed by Brahms.

It begins with his contribution to the “F-A-E Sonata,” whose movements were distributed among Robert Schumann, Brahms, and Schumann's pupil Albert Dietrich. That movement was the third of four, which, as is often the case, was a Scherzo. The album then concludes with a full composition by Brahms, his Opus 114 clarinet trio in A minor.

Each of the other three composers is represented by a single composition. The Joachim selection is his Opus 9, the three-movement “Hebrew Melodies,” scored for viola and piano. The other two selections are arrangements for viola and piano by the album’s violist, Tabea Zimmermann. They are works by the two Schumanns, beginning with Robert’s Opus 94 set of “Three Romances,” followed by Clara’s Opus 22, which is also titled “Three Romances.” For all of these selections, the pianist is Javier Perianes; and Jean-Guihen Queyras plays cello in the performance of the Opus 114 trio.

I suspect that some listeners will approach the program for this album with the old joke that “this is the sort of thing that people who like that sort of thing are bound to like.” By way of disclaimer, I am one of those “people!” That said, I appreciate how this album was conceived to provide a particular window on the nineteenth century in Europe. All of the composers have been familiar to me as I have cultivated my listening experiences; but I have to admit that I found the overall design of the album to be an absolute delight, no matter how many jokes may be made about it!

McGill to Conclude SFP Shenson Series

Anthony McGill with his clarinet (from his SFP Web page)

Readers may recall that The Shenson Great Artists and Ensembles Series presented by San Francisco Performances (SFP) will conclude at the beginning of next month. The program will be the last in the three duo performances in the series. Clarinetist Anthony McGill will be accompanied at the piano by Gloria Chen.

The recital will be structured into two halves, each associated with a different nationality. The first half will present three French composers, beginning with Claude Debussy’s “Première rhapsodie” and concluding with Camiile Saint-Saëns’ Opus 167 sonata in E-flat major for clarinet and piano. Between these “bookends” will be a performance of the last piece of chamber music composed by André Messager, the “Solo de concours” composed for clarinet and piano in 1899.

The second half will present a coupling of Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. The performance will begin with Fantasiestücke (fantasy pieces), Schumann’s Opus 73, a collection of three short pieces composed explicitly for clarinet and piano. This will be followed by Brahms’ take on the same instrumentation, the second of the two Opus 120 clarinet sonatas, both dedicated to the clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld.

The performance will take place in Herbst Theatre at 401 Van Ness Avenue, on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. As usual, it will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 3. Tickets are being sold for $85 for premium seating in the Orchestra and the front and center of the Dress Circle, $75 for the Side Boxes, the center rear of the Dress Circle, and the remainder of the Orchestra, and $65 for the remainder of the Dress Circle and the Balcony. As usual, SFP has created a Web page for purchasing tickets online.

LCCE to Join Forces with Volti Next Month

Composer Shawn Okpebholo (from the Gallery Web page on his Web site)

Those that have been following the 47th season of Volti probably know by now that the choral ensemble will share the stage in the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (LCCE) next month. The program will begin with the world premiere of “Babel,” composed by Chris Castro for narrator and instrumental ensemble. The narrator will be storyteller Susan Strauss. This will be followed by selections from Robert Schumann’s Opus 12 Fantasiestücke and Mark Winges’ “Seasons Falling Through the Clouds.” LCCE will then conclude the program with Shawn Okpebholo’s “Fractured Water.”

The performance will take place at the Noe Valley Ministry, which is located in Noe Valley at 1021 Sanchez Street. The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 20. LCCE has created a Tix Web page for online purchase. Standard admission will be $40 with a discounted $15 rate for students. Those affiliated with Arts Access can purchase tickets for $5.

Bronfman Returns to SFS Great Performers

Pianist Yefim Bronfman (from the Web page for his SFS Great Performers Series recital)

Last night pianist Yefim Bronfman returned to Davies Symphony Hall to present another recital in the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) Great Performers Series. His last visit was in April of 2024, when he presented a “usual suspects” program of solo piano compositions by Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, and Frédéric Chopin. However, he also added Esa-Pekka Salonen’s “Sisar” for a departure from the nineteenth century.

Last night’s departure was far less radical. The most recent work on the program was the second of the two “books” that Claude Debussy composed under the title Images. There are only three pieces in this collection, the first depicting the sound of bells, the second evoking the setting of the moon, and the last entitled simple “Poissons d’or” (goldfish). Each of these pieces presents the composer’s command of the evocative at its best. Sadly, while Bronfman gave a dutiful account of all the notes, any of the evocations of the “images” in the movement titles was not particularly compelling. That failure to seize and maintain attentive listening was equally evident at the beginning of the program with a performance of Robert Schumann’s Opus 18, the “Arabesque” in C major, which rambled on with an uneven sense of the overall structure.

Each half of the program concluded with a sonata by one of the “three B’s,” Johannes Brahms prior to the intermission and Ludwig van Beethoven at the conclusion. The Brahms selection was an early one, his Opus 5, the third piano sonata in F minor. There was no shortage of expressiveness in the composer’s early compositions, but Bronfman seemed to do little more than ramp up that expressiveness with little sense of the overall content. The dynamics in the first movement were particularly extreme. The Beethoven selection was about half a century earlier (not in 1853 as printed in the program book). Opus 57, known as the “Appassionata,” was completed in 1805; and, like its recent predecessor, the Opus 53 “Waldstein,” it has received a generous amount of attention. Sadly, Bronfman did not invoke the attention it deserved with too much “hammering” in the first movement and too much blurring in the last.

There were two encores, neither announced and neither particularly compelling. I have come away from past Bronfman recitals with an abundance of satisfaction. This one left me with disappointment.

A LIEDER ALIVE! Birthday Celebration Recital

Jeffrey LaDeur accompanying Kindra Scharich yesterday afternoon at Old First Presbyterian Church (from the YouTube video of the performance)

Late yesterday afternoon at the Old First Presbyterian Church LIEDER ALIVE! presented a program to celebrate the 75th birthday of its founder and director, Maxine Bernstein. Pianist Jeffrey LaDeur, who has provided accompaniment for many of the LIEDER ALIVE! recitals, performed with mezzo Kindra Scharich. The program consisted of vocal works by two major composers from the nineteenth century: Robert Schumann in the first half and Johannes Brahms (whose work was encouraged by Schumann) in the second.

The first half of the program was devoted entirely to Schumann’s Opus 39, his Liederkreis cycle of twelve songs, setting twelve poems from Joseph von Eichendorff's collection entitled Intermezzo. The second half drew upon several collections by Johannes Brahms, drawing upon Opera 3, 33, 43, 47, 63, 72, 86, and 105. (Opus 43 was the only one to account for more than one song.) This assortment may have run the risk of coming across as “one thing after another;” but I have found that each of the texts that Brahms selected has its own unique perspective. Scharich seemed to grasp the diversity of those perspectives, making the “journey” as engaging as the narrative behind Schumann’s song cycle.

Many readers probably know that Schumann encouraged Brahms during the early stages of the latter’s career. Indeed, he was so close to both Robert and Clara Schumann that he took it upon himself to look after the welfare of the latter after the former’s relatively early death. That encouragement led to an engaging diversity of subject matter in Brahms’ approach to composing his songs. Scharich clearly appreciated that diversity, ordering her individual selections in such as way that unfolded as a journey as convincing as Schumann’s narrative.

LIEDER ALIVE! is, indeed, “alive and well;” and here is hoping that it will continue to thrive through the talents of vocalists such as Scharich.

Music in the Mishkan Announces 27th Season

Poster design for the Music in the Mishkan season (from last year’s announcement of the 26th season)

Violinist Randall Weiss recently announced plans for the 27th season of Music in the Mishkan. He is a long-time member of The Bridge Players. The season will consist of only two performances, which will be performed by the same piano quartet. The pianist will be Amy Zanrosso, and Weiss will be joined by violist Natalia Vershilova and Victoria Ehrlich on cello. Both concerts will be Sunday afternoon events, beginning at 4 p.m. Dates and program selections will be as follows:

February 15: In 1999 Lera Auerbach composed three cycles of 24 preludes accounting for all major and minor keys. According to my records, the chronological order of these cycles accounts for piano, cello, and violin, the last two being duo performances with piano accompaniment. For the first Mishkan performance, Weiss will perform selections from the violin cycle and Ehrlich will do the same drawing upon the cello cycle. These selections will be preceded by a violin sonata in D minor composed by Leon Reinach, who was murdered in the Holocaust. The remainder of the program will offer more familiar selections: Gabriel Fauré’s Opus 120 piano trio in D minor and Robert Schumann’s Opus 47 piano quartet in E-flat major.

April 12: The second program will feature the world premiere of a piano trio by Alex Malinas. It will begin with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 478 piano quartet in G minor. The second half of the program will be devoted to Camille Saint-Saëns’ Opus 41 piano quartet in B-flat major.

As in the past, these performances will take place at the Sha’ar Zahav synagogue. It is located in the Mission at 290 Dolores Street. Ticket prices are $30 for members and $35 for others. All purchases are processed through a single Web page. There will be no physical tickets, but a list will be kept at the door.

Omni to Present Recitals by Student and Teacher

Guitarists Julia Trintschuk and Joaquín Clerch (from the Humanitix Web page for their performance)

This month the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts will see the return of guitarist Julia Trintschuk, who made her Dynamite Guitars debut in April of 2024. As was the case at that time, she will give a solo performance for the second half of the program. The first half will also be a solo offering, this time by Trintschuk’s teacher, Joaquín Clerch.

Clerch will conclude his half of the program with one of his own compositions, “El segundo instante de una primavera” (the second moment of a spring). The featured composer will be Francisco Tárrega with performances of “Endecha” and “Oremus.” Clerch will also perform two of his arrangements. The first of these will be Robert Schumann’s Opus 12 Fantasiestücke (fantasy pieces); and the second will be Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1004, his five-movement keyboard partita in D minor.

Trintschuk will conclude her portion with four selections by Astor Piazzolla. Her final offering will be “Yo soy Maria,” one of the songs from María de Bueno Aires, which the composer called an “operita.” She will begin with “Invierno Porteño,” the “winter” movement from Piazzolla’s Estaciones Porteñas (the four seasons of Buenos Aires). The other selections will be “Oblivion” and “La Muerte del Angel” (death of the angel), which happens to be a fugue in four voices! Her preceding selections will be works by three earlier composers: Joaquin Malats (“Serenata Española”), Manuel Ponce (his variations on the “Folia” theme), and Agustín Barrios (“Mazurka Apasionada”).

As was the case this past October, the performance will take place in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church. It will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 17; and, according to the Humanitix Web page, the performance will last about an hour. Most readers probably know by now that the church is located at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of the corner of Franklin Street. General admission for all seating will be $45, and all children from kindergarten to the twelfth grade can attend for free. Tickets may be purchased through a Humanitix Web page.

Groupmuse to Host Sixth Station Trio

Sixth Station Trio musicians Anju Goto, Katelyn Tan, and Federico Strand Ramirez performing in Grace Cathedral (from their performance of music by Yu-Ping Chen)

Some readers may be familiar with the Sixth Station Trio through their performances for Old First Concerts. Those readers probably know that all three of the trio members have had experiences with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM). The pianist is Katelyn Tan, who received her Masters degree from SFCM in 2020. That same year, violinist Anju Goto completed his SFCM undergraduate degree. Finally, cellist Federico Strand Ramirez holds both a Bachelor of Music and an Advanced Certificate degree from SFCM.

In a little over two weeks’ time, this trio will present a Groupmuse recital. They have prepared a “three centuries” program. The earliest work on the program will be a piano trio by Joseph Haydn, his 39th (Hoboken XV:25 in G major, sometimes known as the “Gypsy” trio). The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Robert Schumann’s Opus 88, the piano trio given the title Fantasiestücke. The program will begin with the trio’s arrangement of two of the tracks composed by Yu-Peng Chen for the game soundtrack album Genshin Impact – Jade Moon Upon a Sea of Clouds.

This will be a house concert taking place in Parnassus Heights. Specific information is provided once a reservation has been processed. The fee for reservation is $5 and admission, payable at the event itself, will be $25. The performance will begin at 7 p.m. on Saturday, January 24. Further information is available on the Groupmuse Web page for this event. Groupmuse has also created a Web page for the ensemble, which includes three videos of excerpts from past performances.

An Evening of Excess with Marc-André Hamelin

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

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

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

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

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

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!

San Francisco Performances in September

Last year around this time, San Francisco Performances (SFP) released its fall calendar for the 2025–26 season. Only one recital has been planned for next month, but it will be followed by a very busy October. Last year accounted for both months in a single article; but that was because there were only three performances, one in September and two in October. This year there will again be only one performance in September, but October will be far busier. As a result, I shall limit myself to September in this article and later take on the six October events.

Tenor Mark Padmore (from his SFP event page)

The season will begin with the first program in the Art of Song series. As was previously reported, the vocalist will be tenor Mark Padmore, accompanied at the piano by Paul Lewis. I have already noted that Padmore’s last visit was in March of 2022; but, if my records are correct, the last time he was accompanied by Lewis was in April of 2016. That occasion provided a generous offering of songs composed by Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Hugo Wolf.

The duo’s return will focus entirely on Schumann.There will be two full cycles preceded by the first four of the five songs in Opus 40. The texts are all by Hans Christian Andersen, translated from the Danish into German by Adelbert von Chamisso. This will be followed by Liederkreis, the Opus 39 setting of twelve texts by Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff. The final work on the program is likely to be the most familiar to many listeners. This will be the Opus 48 Dichterliebe (a poet’s love), setting texts from Das Buch der Lieder by Heinrich Heine collected under the title Lyrisches Intermezzo.

This performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, September 26.  It will take place in Herbst Theatre, which is located on the first two floors of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue, convenient to public transportation on both Van Ness Avenue and McAllister Street. Ticket prices will be $80 for premium seating on the Orchestra level and in the front of the Dress Circle, $70 for the Boxes, the remainder of the Orchestra, and the remainder of the center Dress Circle, and $60 for the Balcony and the remainder of the Dress Circle. As of this writing, single tickets will not yet go on sale until; August 27. However, readers will know from the preview article for the Art of Song series that a Web page has been created for subscriptions to the entire series.

Jordi Savall Conducts “Forgotten” Symphonies

Jordi Savall on the cover of his latest AliaVox album (from its Amazon.com Web page)

Today is the release date for the latest recording on the AliaVox label created by Jordi Savall as a platform for performances by the many ensembles he leads. The repertoire of the releases involves, for the most part, early music ensembles in which Savall performs and/or leads. Indeed, the header provided by Google search is “Alia Vox - Producer of Early and Classical Music since 1998.”

However, today’s release takes a bold leap into the nineteenth century with symphonies by two decidedly different composers. The earlier of these is Robert Schumann’s WoO 29, the “Zwickau” symphony in E minor. Only two movements of the symphony were completed, composed between 1832 and 1833. This early effort by Schumann is complemented by one of the earliest efforts by Anton Bruckner to compose a symphony. The WAB 100 symphony in D minor, given the title “Die Nullte” (Symphony Number 0) was completed in 1869, preceded only by WAB 99, the “Studiensymphonie” in F minor composed in 1863.

The title of the album is Forgotten Symphonies, and Savall conducts Le Concert des Nations. It will probably go without saying to most readers that this is a side of Savall’s talents that one has never previously encountered. Nevertheless, he comes across as very much involved with both of these periods in the nineteenth century. This is particularly the case with the Bruckner symphony, since the composer’s concept of pace can often be at best enigmatic and at worst downright tryings. The Schumann composition, on the other hand, was the composer’s first attempt to try his hand at orchestral music. Listening to WoO 29 under Savall’s baton left me with the impression that, while this symphony was never finished, the composer had gotten off to a good start!

Taken as a whole, this album is likely to provide a journey of discovery for all that listen seriously. That said, listeners that know their music history will probably recognize each of these works as an early set of steps in a journey that lies ahead. Personally, I am a sucker for “origins” stories; and I expect to mine one of those from each of the works on this album after I have listened a few more times!

String Quartet to Join Ian Scarfe at Monument

Poster design for the performance being discussed, with photographs of the five performers (from the Groupmuse event page)

For this year’s summer performance in San Francisco, pianist Ian Scarfe, Director of the Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival, will return to Monument SF. He will be joined by an ad hoc string quartet, whose members are his colleagues. The performers will be violinists Sam Weiser and Kevin Rogers, Julian Altmann on viola, and cellist Kendra Grittani. There will be six selections on the program, each by a different composer. Four of them will require the full quintet resources. One will be a movement from a piano quartet, and the other will be for string quartet, as well as the only work composed during the current century.

That quartet has become a familiar one for concert goers here in San Francisco. It is Jessie Montgomery’s “Strum,” an engaging study of the interplay between bowed and plucked passages. Those that follow performances in the Civic Center may recall that it was performed by the Calidore Quartet in Herbst Theatre this past March. Information is not currently available for which of the two violinists will contribute to the piano quartet, but the selection will be the third (Andante cantabile) movement from Robert Schumann’s Opus 47. The one multi-movement composition to be performed in its entirety will be Clara Schumann’s Opus 22, the set of three pieces given the title “Romances,” originally scored for violin and piano. The single-movement selections will be as follows:

• Ernst von Dohnányi: Piano Quintet, Opus 26, first movement
• Philip Glass: “Opening” from the Glassworks album
• Johannes Brahms: Piano Quintet, Opus 34, fourth movement (Finale)

Many readers probably know by now that the Monument event space is located in SoMa at 140 9th Street. This performance will begin at 7 p.m. on Sunday, June 22. As in the past, ticketing is being managed by Groupmuse, which has created a Web page for reservations.

Bignamini and DSO Span Nineteenth Century

Yesterday evening my wife and I settled down to dinner while watching the latest “free live HD webcast” presented by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO). The guest soloist was cellist Steven Isserlis, whose visit to San Francisco when I was first building up my writing chops I still fondly remember. His concerto selection was Robert Schumann’s Opus 129, composed in the key of A minor. The “overture” for the program was “Les Préludes” by Franz Liszt, Schumann’s contemporary and colleague. The second half of the program vaulted over to the other end of the nineteenth century with two of Richard Strauss’ best known tone poems, his Opus 20 “Don Juan” and the Opus 28 “Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks.”

Steven Isserlis with DSO in their performance of Schumann’s cello concerto (screen shot from the video being discussed)

From a video point of view, this program provided a generous number of opportunities for the viewer to visit the many sections of the ensemble. Indeed, Strauss’ imaginative approach to instrumentation brought a significant number of the members of the orchestra into the spotlight, and the video director was well aware of these moments. (Readers may recall that, back in my student days, telecasts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra were meticulously directed by Jordan Whitelaw, allowing solo passages to be highlighted visually as well as audibly.) Video also well accounted for the interplay between soloist and ensemble in the Schumann concerto. Isserlis then “took the spotlight” for his solo encore, Pablo Casals’ arrangement of the Catalan Christmas carol “Cant dels Ocells” (song of the birds). With all this diversity of narrative, “Les Préludes” served as the perfect introduction in both letter and spirit!

Another Uneven Shenson Spotlight Piano Recital

Pianist Tony Siqi Yun (from his event page on the San Francisco Symphony Web site)

The third recitalist for this year’s Shenson Spotlight Series presented by the San Francisco Symphony in Davies Symphony Hall was another pianist, Tony Siqi Yun. As was the case last month, the results were uneven; but, as least as far as I am concerned, there was at least one bright spot. It has been almost two years since I have had an opportunity to listen to the music of Ferruccio Busoni in performance; and, as fate would have it, that last occasion took place in Davies. That was when pianist Igor Levit, Artist-in-Residence for the 2022–23 SFS season, played Busoni’s Opus 39 piano concerto. (This was the first time SFS presented the work.) The high point of last night’s recital came with the performance of “Berceuse” (lullaby), the last of Busoni’s set of seven solo piano pieces collected under the title Elegies.

Every Busoni composition involves a delicate balance between introverted expressiveness and extroverted technical fireworks. That balance made Levit’s account of Opus 39 “click;” and things “clicked” again in Yun’s performance of “Berceuse.” To a great extent, that same balance could be found in the opening selection of the program. Johannes Brahms Opus 18b is a set of variations on a theme transcribed for solo piano from its original version as a movement in the Opus 18 (first) string sextet in B-flat major. (As some readers might guess, that transcription was dedicated to Clara Schumann.) This was my first encounter with this arrangement, and I wish more pianists would give it the attention it deserves.

On the other hand, I fear that I am beginning to tire of up-and-coming pianists deciding to lay their emotional expressiveness bare with yet another performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 57 (“Appassionata”) sonata in F minor. All that Yun seemed to convey in his performance was that he could be both heavy-handed and frantic at the same time. This may have done justice to any of those “scowling Beethoven” portraits, but it was far from a satisfying account of the music itself. Things were a bit better over the course of the full journey through Robert Schumann’s Opus 13, given the title “Symphonic Études.” The good news was that the overplayed outbursts were fewer in number, but the overall listening experience felt like a slog long before the music’s halfway mark.

Fortunately, Yun chose an encore that would quiet things down after his Sturm und Drang approach to Schumann. He turned to Johannes Brahms’ Opus 118 collection of six solo piano pieces, composed in 1893. He chose the second of these, an intermezzo in the key of A major. This is the one of the six that tends to receive the most attention. (I had to analyze it in one of my undergraduate classes.) As had been the case with his Busoni selection, Yun found just the right expressive approach to this music, allowing me to depart from an evening of mixed results with an optimistic disposition.

SFP’s Annual “Gift” to Subscribers and Donors

Violinist Geneva Lewis (courtesy of SFP)

Every year San Francisco Performances (SFP) offers a free concert to its subscribers and those that had donated at the level of Member or higher. Last year there were actually two of these “Gift” concerts, the first taking place in February with a performance of the piano trio with pianist Juho Pohjonen performing with cellist Jonathan Swensen and Stephen Waarts on violin and the second in April (almost exactly a year ago) with cellist Camille Thomas accompanied at the piano by Julien Brocal. This year’s event took place last night in Herbst Theatre, a performance by violinist Geneva Lewis, making her SFP recital debut and accompanied at the piano by Evren Ozel, making his SFP debut as well.

The program provided an impressively broad scope beginning with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the opening selection and spanning to the last decade of the last century with Valentin Silvestrov’s “Post scriptum.” The early nineteenth century was represented by Robert and Clara Schumann, both of whom composed sets of three “Romances” for violin and piano. The program concluded at the other end of the century with César Franck’s A major sonata, which he composed as a wedding gift for the Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe and has been acknowledged (including by Wikipedia) as his most popular work.

I found this to be an engaging journey of both the familiar and discovery. I have become familiar with Silvestrov primarily through ECM recordings, so I was looking forward to this recital opportunity. I was not disappointed; and, in the last of the three movements, Lewis ripped into pizzicato passages that had me on the edge of my seat! I also found myself wondering whether the final movement of Clara’s sonata served as reflections on Robert.

Most important, however, was how the Franck sonata served as a “grand finale.” Franck himself was a keyboardist, and it quickly becomes evident that his intention was that the two “voices” should perform as equals. Lewis and Ozel seemed to be aware of this intention and could not have done a better job of satisfying it. Following up on this “joint debut” appearance, I hope that the wait for a return visit will not be too long!