Olivier Latry Returns to Davies Ruffatti Organ

Conductor Stéphane Denève (courtesy of SFS)

The Ruffatti organ in Davies Symphony Hall is having a workout this week with the return to the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) of organist Olivier Latry performing under the baton of Stéphane Denève, who made his SFS debut in 2009. The first half of the program concluded with Francis Poulenc’s organ concerto, whose full title is “Concerto pour orgue, cordes et timbales” (concerto for organ, timpani and strings), structured as a single movement with six changes in tempo. The second half was devoted entirely to Camille Saint-Saëns’ Opus 78 (third) symphony in C minor, known as the “Organ Symphony” for the addition of a pipe organ during the latter portions of both movements. The “overture” for the program was “Flammenschrift” (fire-letter), composed by Guillaume Connesson and performed by SFS for the first time. At the beginning of the performance, Denève announced that the program would be dedicated to the memory of Michael Tilson Thomas.

The program was at its strongest in the second half. The symphony has a four-movement structure, but there is only a pause between the end of the Poco adagio movement and the Allegro moderato. Furthermore, the organ first appears toward the end of the Poco adagio, meaning that it figures as a “conclusion” for both of the halves. That said, the organ dominates over that conclusion, particularly towards then end, when it takes the “pedal point” motif literally! In his opening remarks, Denève made it a point to observe that the symphony had the same key structure as Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 67 (fifth) symphony in C minor. As far as I am concerned, however, any connection to Beethoven would have been incidental, if not accidental!

Nevertheless, the performance was a solid one, reminding me that occasional visits to Opus 78 tend to leave me in an upbeat mood. Sadly, this was not the case for the Poulenc concerto. Latry seemed to have difficulty finding the right way to balance his instrument against the ensemble. As a result, the clarity of the instrument was significantly more muddled than it would be during the performance of the Saint-Saëns symphony. This was a personal disappointment, since I have enjoyed Poulenc’s concerto ever since I first encountered it in my student days.

Ironically, Beethoven’s presence was much more evident at the beginning of the program. Unfortunately, Connesson never quite knew what to do with that presence. Once “Flammenschrift” established the “fatal fifth” gesture, the composer did little more than work it to death. Granted, the performance took only ten minutes; but that was five minutes too long (at least)!

Simone Young Brings Wagner to SFS

Visiting Conductor Simone Young (photograph by Sandra Steh, courtesy of SFS)

Simone Young made her debut on the podium of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) in Davies Symphony Hall in April of 2019, and her most recent appearance took place in December of 2021. She has been serving as Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony since 2022 and conducted complete cycles of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at last year’s Bayreuth Festival. This weekend sees her return to Davies, and the second half of her program is devoted to an orchestral account of Ring music.

One of the problems with separating that music from its staging is that the flow of the narrative is often supported through extended repetitions of critical phrases. This is evident as early as the Prelude to Das Rheingold, and the final episode of Des Rheingold, the procession of the Gods entering Valhalla, practically drowns in a repetition whose only difference involves louder and louder dynamics. For those that enjoy operatic performances of the Ring, this is a moment as compelling as it is grand. However, when you take away the dramatic context, all that remains is redundancy.

Mind you, the excerpts from the remaining three operas were better suited to the concert hall. There was, of course, the “Ride of the Valkyries” (how could there not be?); and Young gave it a dynamite account. Equally engaging was her approach to “Siegfried Idyll,” basically a “preview” of thematic material that would show up later in the Siegfried opera of the Ring. Finally, there were excerpts from Götterdämmerung from both early and late in the narrative, beginning with the “Dawn” episode, then following Siegfried on his “Rhine Journey,” and concluding with his death and funeral. Taken as a whole, the second half of the program provided an abbreviated account of the Ring narrative through some of the most compelling excerpts from the cycle.

The program began with the latest debut of a recent composition. “The Space Between Stars” was composed by Ella Macens, who has received commissions from both the Sydney Symphony and the Melbourne Symphony. I must confess that I tend to be skeptical about music that attempts to capture cosmology. Macens definitely knew how to manage a rich palette of sonorities, but the piece as a whole tended to be more static than one would have preferred.

More secure was the account of Camille Saint-Saëns’ first cello concerto, his Opus 33 in A minor. The soloist was Gautier Capuçon, who gave a solid account of the three-movement score. Unfortunately, the composer had a tendency to repeat his themes too many times, and even a cellist as talented as Capuçon could not overcome that repetition with an overall shaping. As usual, however, one could appreciate the polish in his solo passages.

Sadly, that polish did not continue into his encore selection. This was “Towards the Forest” by Bryce Dessner, which came off as music conceived for Earth Day. However, there was too much repetition in the score and too much attention to what can only be called “special effects.” Mother Earth (Gaia) deserved better.

Music in the Mishkan Concluding 27th Season

Alexander Malinas, a former recipient (in June of 2024) of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) Highsmith Competition for Orchestra Composition (from an SFCM Web page)

Some readers may recall that only two performances were planned for the 27th season of chamber music presented by Music in the Mishkan. The program for the second program in the season was planned by violinist Randall Weiss. He will perform with violist Dmitri Yevstifeev, Victoria Ehrlich on cello, and pianist Amy Zanrosso for piano quartets that will both begin and conclude the program. The opening selection will be one of the best-known of those quartets, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 478 in G minor. The conclusion will be less familiar, Camille Saint-Saëns’ Opus 41 piano quartet in B-flat major. Between these “bookends” Weiss, Ehrlich, and Zanrosso will present the world premiere performance of Alexander Malinas’ “VaYeira,” composed for piano trio. This will subsequently be the first work to be presented in the composer’s Senior Recital at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, which will take place at the end of this month at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 25.

As usual, the performance will begin at 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 12. The venue will be the Sha’ar Zahav synagogue, which is located in the Mission at 290 Dolores Street. Ticket prices are $30 for members and $35 for others. There will be no physical tickets, but a list will be kept at the door. A Web page has been created for payment to register for attendance. Electronic mail will be sent to confirm registration; it will include a Zoom hyperlink for those preferring to watch at home.

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.

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.

Tiffany Poon’s Third CMSF Recital in Herbst

Tiffany Poon on the cover of her Nature album (from the Amazon.com Web page)

Yesterday afternoon pianist Tiffany Poon returned to Herbst Theatre for her third appearance as a Chamber Music San Francisco (CMSF) recitalist. Some readers may recall my disappointment with her last performance two years ago, which I described as “a very long program that offered absolutely nothing to satisfy any seriously attentive listener.” The second half of the new program was devoted to the recent release of her Nature album, while the first half was dominated by Frédéric Chopin’s Opus 35 sonata in B-flat minor, his second sonata given the title “Funeral March.”

This was definitely an improvement over her last visit, when she performed the full cycle of Chopin’s Opus 28, his set of 24 preludes in all major and minor keys. Over the course of the four movements of Opus 35, she delivered a firm grasp on intensity without devolving into banging. The second half of the program accounted for about half of the tracks on the Nature album. These were presented in roughly chronological order.

She began in the Baroque period with one of the keyboard compositions by François Couperin, “Les fauvétes plaintive” (the mournful warblers), coupled with a similar setting by Jean-Philippe Rameau, “Les tendres plaintes” (tender complaints) from the RCT 3 suite in D major in the Pièces de Clavecin collection. The program then leapt forward about a little less than two centuries with selections by Gabriel Fauré, Camille Saint-Saëns, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Lili Boulanger.

Fauré’s first barcarolle, Opus 26 in A minor, was impeded by a heavy damper pedal. This was particularly frustrating, since the theme was carried by the left hand. Saint-Saëns was represented by “Le cygne” (the swan), the best-known movement from The Carnival of the Animals, arranged for solo piano by Lucien Garban. This was followed by Debussy’s first “Arabesque” composition, with a middle section that was overly rushed. Poon found herself on sounder ground with Maurice Ravel, beginning with “Jeux d’eau” and followed by the second and third of the Miroirs compositions. Boulanger’s “D’un jardin clair” concluded the program, followed by an encore performance of Franz Liszt’s “Liebestraum No. 3” in A-flat major.

Taken as a whole, that seriously attentive listener did not have to contend with “absolutely nothing.” Nevertheless, the performance, taken as a whole, was an uneven one. Poon clearly wanted her audience to appreciate Boulanger; and, as far as I am concerned, she succeeded. Similarly, her approach to playing Rameau with a contemporary instrument could not have been more engaging; and, as was already observed, Ravel was a high point in her program. Taken as a whole, the program may have been uneven; but the assets were still worthy of attentive listening.

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.

CBS: Christmas Music from Three Centuries

Design by David Lance Goins used for the California Bach Society poster

As expected, California Bach Society (CBS) has prepared its next program for the holiday season. The full title of the program will be Laudate Coeli: Songs of Light in Winter’s Deep. (Note that, like the first program of the season last month, the title couples Latin and English!) Artistic Director Nate Widelitz will conduct. The vocal soloists will be soprano Rita Lilly, mezzo Mindy Ella Chu, tenor Corey Head, and bass Chung-Wai Soong. Instrumental accompaniment by strings, organ, and harp will be provided by members of the Jubilate Baroque Orchestra.

The program will be based on three centuries, but they will not be consecutive. The earliest composers will be from the seventeenth century: Dietrich Buxtehude (the BuxWV 13 for mixed chorus, strings, and continuo, “Das neugeborne Kindelein”) and two selections by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, “In nativitatem Domini canticum” (H.314) and one of the ten settings of the Magnificat canticle. The seventeenth century is then elided with two nineteenth-century compositions: the Oratorio de Noël by Camille Saint-Saëns and “O Heiland, reiß die Himmel auf,” the second of the two Opus 74 sacred motets for unaccompanied mixed choir composed by Johannes Brahms. Finally, the twentieth-century composer will be Hugo Distler, whose oratorio Die Weihnachtsgeschichte (the Christmas story) is based on the hymn, “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen”(a rose has sprung up).

The San Francisco performance of this program will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, December 5. The venue will be the Trinity+St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, which is located 1620 Gough Street. Individual tickets are available for general admission at $40 with discounted rates for seniors and students. A Web page has been created for such tickets, as well as for three-concert subscriptions, which will also include the February and May performance at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church. Doors will open at 7 p.m.

TwoSet Violin Finally Comes to Davies

Brett Yang and Eddy Chen taking a bow with their pianist Sophie Druml (photograph by Cecilia Tan, from The Strad)

Some readers may recall that the TwoSet Violin duo of violinists Brett Yang and Eddy Chen was scheduled to perform in Davies Symphony Hall during last July’s Summer with the Symphony season. That debut recital had to be postponed, but last night they finally made it to Davies to perform their Sacrilegious Games program. The “sacrilege” was, of course, their approach to the violin repertoire. The result was an engaging evening of physical comedy recalling the past antics of Peter Schickele and Victor Borge. Indeed, their (intentionally) delayed appearance almost served as an homage to Schickele’s frantic opening shtik.

In this case, however, the waiting was ameliorated by the appearance of their piano accompanist, Sophie Druml, who took the stage right on time. She warmed-up the audience with an arrangement (her own?) of the last of the “24 Caprices for Solo Violin” by Niccolò Paganini. This was followed by music from the “Winter” concerto from Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons involving a charade of violin-playing.

Of course both of the violinists had a solid command of technique. When they were not poking fun at the classics in all directions, Chen delivered a thoroughly engaging solo account of the opening passage in Jean Sibelius’ Opus 47 violin concerto, and Yang was just as rock-solid in his delivery of Camille Saint-Saëns Opus 20 “Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso.” However, the heart of the program was the diversity of their takes on comedy. Most memorable, probably, was when both of them played the last of the Paganini Caprices while spinning hula hoops. The most ambitious undertaking, however, was probably taking “La campanella” (the theme of the final movement of Paganini’s second violin concerto) and performing it in a series of styles as a journey through music history: baroque, classical, romantic, twentieth-century, jazz, and K-pop.

It’s nice to know that Davies can be just as welcoming to physical comedy as it is to “serious music!”

Omni Video of Mēla Guitar Quartet at St. Mark’s

Mēla guitarists Matthew Robinson, George Tarlton, Michael Butten, and Zahrah Hutton (screenshot of the video being discussed)

Late this morning the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts released its latest Live form St. Mark’s video. This captured the entirely of the Dynamite Guitars program performed at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church this past March 8. The performers were the members of the Mēla Guitar Quartet: Matthew Robinson, George Tarlton, Zahrah Hutton, and Michael Butten.

Some readers may recall that they had previously appeared in an OMNI on-location video release at 10 a.m. this past March 3, serving somewhat as a preview for the performance taking place the following Saturday. The “preview video” was of the overture to Mikhail Glinka’s opera Ruslan and Lyudmila, which happened to be the final work before the intermission on the March 8 program. Glinka took five years to compose this opera, completing it in 1842; and these days it tends to be known for little more than that overture. Mind you, when it came to instrumentation, Glinka knew how to pull out all the stops, so to speak. Clearly, the Mēla sonorities were somewhat more limited; but they allowed for better appreciation of the thematic content!

Indeed, in the overall course of their St. Mark’s performance, Mēla never shied away from composers that were all too eager to show off rich instrumentation. The program included two further opera selections by Camille Saint-Saëns (the Opus 47 Samson and Delilah) and Englebert Humperdinck (Hansel and Gretel). The guitarists were just as deft in taking on French keyboard music by both Claude Debussy (the two “Arabesques” compositions) and Maurice Ravel (two movements from Ma mère l’Oye, the “Mother Goose” piano duet).

The fact is that only two of the composers in the program were guitarists creating music for their instrument. The first of these was Laura Snowden, whose “My Clock is Broken!” included percussive effects deftly provided by Hutton. The other was Phillip Houghton, whose Opals was a suite of three movements, each involving a different color of the mineral: black, water, and white.

The duration of the entire video was about 90 minutes. There were only a few moments of reflection on the audience in St. Mark’s for which Mēla was performing. Sadly, I was at another event in the Civic Center when this concert took place; so I am glad that Omni recruited Matthew Washburn to proved a “video capture” of the entire performance.

SFO to Kick Off This Year’s Pride Weekend

Monét X Change (photograph by Lindsey Ruth, courtesy of SFO)

This year the 55th annual Pride Celebration will take place on the final weekend of the month on Saturday, June 28, and Sunday, June 29. San Francisco Opera (SFO) has been a proud participant in this event since the Eighties. This year it will launch the occasion on Friday evening with a program of music, immersive projections, and a post-show dance party, all to be hosted by Monét X Change.

Full specifics have not yet been announced, but the evening will begin with the overture to Leonard Bernstein’s Candide. Three vocal soloists, all likely to be familiar to SFO audiences, will give radically different performances. The most traditional of these will be the aria “Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix” with which Dalila seduced Samson in Camille Saint-Saëns’ opera Samson and Delilah, sung by mezzo Jamie Barton. From the last century, Brian Mulligan will sing one of Judy Garland’s favorite songs, “The Man That Got Away.” Most recently, Nikola Printz will sing “I Was Born This Way” by Carl Bean, now acknowledged as a disco anthem. Music Director Eun Sun Kim will share the podium with Robert Mollicone, and the program will be directed by Tal Rosner, who will also provide accompanying video. The duration of the entire program will be 80 minutes with no intermission.

This will be the final performance of the SFO season. It will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, June 27; and doors will open at 6:30 p.m. There will be a happy hour prior to the performances, as well as a pre-concert talk by Suzanne Ford, Executive Director of SF Pride. The venue will be the War Memorial Opera House on the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and Grove Street. Ticket prices range from $30 in the Balcony to $225 in the Boxes; and, as of this writing, seating is available in all the levels in the house. A Web page has been created for online purchases. The Box Office is open on Monday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and it may be reached by calling 415-864-3330. On the date of the performance, the Box Office will be open prior to 7:30 p.m.

SF Phil to Conclude Season with Groupmuse

The final concert in the 2024–2025 season of the San Francisco Philharmonic (SF Phil) will be a Groupmuse Night Out program. That means that tickets will be available through a Groupmuse event page, where “Supermusers” will be entitled to the $12 admission rate, rather than the $18 charge for all others. The performance will take place in Herbst Theatre, located at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. It will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 26.

Ani Bukujian and Jessica Bejarano on the poster for the final SF Phil concert of the season (from the Groupmuse event page)

Music Director Jessica Bejarano will wrap up the season with one of the most familiar symphonies in the repertoire, Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 95 symphony in E minor given the title “From the New World,” now numbered as his ninth symphony. In the first half of the program Ani Bukujian will be the violin soloist in Samuel Barber’s violin concerto. Bejarano will get things off to a rousing start with the instrumental Bacchanale from Camille Saint-Saëns’ opera Samson and Delilah. The run time should be about 90 minutes.

SFS: Chamber Music Framed by Two Quintets

Yesterday afternoon Davies Symphony Hall hosted the latest performance of chamber music by San Francisco Symphony (SFS) musicians. The program was framed by two quintets separated by about 30 years. It began with the quintet for oboe and strings, composed by Arnold Bax in 1922, and concluded with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Opus 10, his F-sharp minor clarinet quintet. These selections served as a framework for a duet and a trio. The duet was Camille Saint-Saëns’ Opus 124, his “Fantasie” in the key of A minor scored for flute and harp. The trio players were violinist Dan Carlson, Leonid Plashinov-Johnson on viola, and pianist Marc Shaprio, performing “Two Pieces” by Benjamin Britten. These were “juvenilia” compositions written in the composer’s teens in 1929, which were not performed until 2003. Nevertheless, they did not “make the cut” for the Complete Works release by Decca in 2013; and yesterday afternoon’s performance suggested that Decca seems to have fumbled the ball in overlooking this music.

Still, the “primary substance” for yesterday afternoon was found in the quintets that began and concluded the program. Russ de Luna was the oboist for the Bax quintet, joined by violinists Carlson and Florin Parvulescu with Davis You on cello and Plashinov-Johnson again on viola. The music began with what seemed like evocations of Claude Debussy; but, by the time it progressed to the final movements, there was no mistaking the English influences! Bax is one of those composers that never seems to get the attention he deserves. In Davies he seems to be limited to chamber music, having made his last appearance a little over two years ago.

Coleridge-Taylor’s fate has not been much better. Nevertheless, I have encountered a fair amount of his music through recordings; and, as some readers may recall, clarinetist Anthony McGill performed his clarinet quintet when he made his debut with San Francisco Performances in November of 2021. Yesterday afternoon reminded me that this music definitely deserves more attention, and clarinetist Yuhsin Galaxy Su knew how to command that attention. Strings were provided by violinists Polina Sedukh and Olivia Chen, Katarzyna Bryla on viola, and cellist Sébastien Gingras.

Harpist Katherine Siochi (from her Meet the Musicians Web page on the SFS Web site)

For the most part, these performances were consistently engaging from beginning to end. I must confess that I found the Saint-Saëns selection to be a bit long-winded. Nevertheless, the interplay of Yubeen Kim on flute and harpist Katherine Siochi was so engaging that I never really felt that they overstayed their welcome! Once again, the SFS musicians provided an engaging journey of discovery for a Sunday afternoon!

San Francisco Chamber Orchestra: MainStage 2

Jory Fankuchen conducting the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra (from an SFCO Web page)

Last night the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra (SFCO), led by its Principal Conductor Jory Fankuchen, presented the second program in its MainStage Concerts series in the Taube Atrium Theatre on the top floor of the Veterans Building in the Civic Center. The title of the event was Celebration and Hope, which seemed appropriate for the season but had little, if anything, to do with the music being performed. Nevertheless, the program that had been prepared was both diverse and engaging.

The second half of the program was devoted entirely to Joseph Haydn’s Hoboken I/103 (“Drumroll”) symphony in E-flat major. The first half broke with the “usual drill” by beginning with the concerto. Mind you, the music itself was somewhat of a departure from convention, since it was Grażyna Bacewicz’ “Concerto for String Orchestra.” As a result, the very idea of an “overture” was rejected; and the “concerto spirit” continued with two shorter selections for violin and orchestra by Camille Saint-Saëns. These were presented in reverse chronological order, beginning with the Opus 83 “Havanaise” in E major, followed by the Opus 28 “Introduction et rondo capriccioso” in the key of A minor. Both of these selections involved solo violin performances by Debut Artist Hiro Yoshimura. The evening concluded with an encore, which had been selected through a straw poll of the audience. This was the second (“Air”) movement from Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1068 (third) orchestra suite in D major.

Following the retirement of Music Director Benjamin Simon on January 1, 2023, Fankuchen gave his first performance with SFCO the following May, following up on fifteen years of playing both violin and viola. That was my first encounter with his conducting efforts, and I could not have been more satisfied. That satisfaction sustained through last night’s performance.

I first encountered Bacewicz when I was building up my online writing chops. At that time I found myself accounting for a generous number of recordings of her music. However, by the time of my departure from Examiner.com, I realized that I had added little to the generous number of articles I had previously written. She only “returned to my radar” this past May, when the San Francisco Symphony performed her “Overture” under the baton of Gemma New. I quickly warmed up to the SFCO performance, finding this latest encounter to be a particularly refreshing one. Both Saint-Saëns selections, on the other hand, were “war horses;” but Yoshimura’s command of them definitely seized and maintained my attention. Haydn was, of course, in high spirits; and Fankuchen was never shy in letting those spirits take flight. The Bach encore, on the other hand, served as an affectionate bidding of adieu to the audience.

Two more programs remain in the MainStage series; and, with any luck, I shall be able to work at least one of them into my schedule for next year!

Bruno Monteiro’s Franco-Belgian Discoveries

Cover of album being discussed (courtesy of ET'ETERA)

Readers may recall that, this past spring, violinist Bruno Monteiro released his 20th Century and Forward album of his duo performances with pianist João Paulo Santos. The “forward” composer was Ivan Moody, who had died this past January. This Friday will see the release of this duo’s second album of the year. The Franco-Belgian Album turns back the close to the late nineteenth century, presenting compositions by Henri Vieuxtemps, César Franck, Gabriel Fauré, and Camille Saint-Saëns. In then concludes with an arrangement composed by Eugéne Ysaÿe, reworking a Saint-Saëns piano étude (Opus 52, Number 6) into a violin-piano duo. As of this writing, the best site for pre-orders is an imusic Web page, which is based in Denmark but deals in United States currency!

The major work on the program is the four-movement “grand sonata” by Vieuxtemps. I must confess that my knowledge of this composer is very limited. The fact that I know anything about him at all can be attributed to Jascha Heifetz and Gidon Kremer. I have to confess that Monteiro’s account of that sonata was not particularly convincing, which left me wondering if even he was convinced.

The remaining selection on the album were also not particularly familiar to me through either recital encounters or recordings. However, I came away with the impression what both violinist and accompanist were on more familiar ground for these selections. Indeed, since most of my knowledge of Franck comes from his orchestral and organ music, I found myself particularly drawn to his duo tracks on the album.

As always, my thoughts are reflections of personal tastes; and I just hope that any of those that sail under my flag will be willing to skip over the opening four tracks if they are put off by Vieuxtemps, since there are more than enough gems in the remaining selections!

SFS Opening Gala to Feature Lang Lang

SFS Opening Night pianist Lang Lang (photograph by Xin Qiu, courtesy of San Francisco Symphony)

Having accounted yesterday for the “head start” San Francisco Symphony (SFS) concert that will precede the Opening Night Gala, this site can now turn to the specifics for the Gala itself. The featured soloist will be pianist Lang Lang in a performance of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Opus 22 (second) piano concerto in G minor. He will return in the second half of the program for more Saint-Saëns, this time the familiar suite entitled The Carnival of the Animals. This music was composed for a chamber ensemble performing with two pianists. In that latter capacity, the featured pianist will be joined by Gina Alice, who happens to be his wife. The program will begin with selections from Sergei Prokofiev’s music for the ballet Romeo and Juliet. Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen will conduct.

As usual, because this is the Opening Night Gala, there will be additional celebratory events. At 5:30 p.m. there will be a pre-concert VIP reception in the lobby of Davies Symphony Hall with sparkling wine and light bites, after which the concert will begin at 7 p.m. Following the performance, there will be the annual Celebratory Gala Dinner in the Zellerbach Recital Hall. A single Web page has been created with full information about the options (including price levels) for attending this event.

The entire affair will take place on Wednesday, September 25. For those attending only the concert, tickets are available only in the Orchestra and Boxes ($375), Terraces ($199–$299), 1st Tier ($299), and 2nd Tier ($249). They may be purchased through the ticketing Web page for this event. Individual tickets for the Gala Dinner range between $2500 and $10,000. Tickets may also be purchased for parties of ten. All further information can be found on a single Web page, which also indicates how much of the expense is tax-deductible. (Those visiting this Web page should be advised that viewing the different options will require a generous amount of scrolling!)

Shenson Spotlight: Violinist Alexandra Conunova

Violinist Alexandra Conunova (photograph by Anoush Abrar, courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony)

Last night in Davies Symphony Hall, violinist Alexandra Conunova was the third recitalist in the third season of the Shenson Spotlight Series, presented by the San Francisco Symphony. Conunova is Moldovan, and she was accompanied at the piano by Tamila Salimdjanova, who was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The major work on the program, however, was Norwegian, Edvard Grieg’s Opus 45, the last of his three sonatas for violin and piano.

Grieg completed this sonata in 1887. It may be worth noting that, while the first two sonatas were composed in a matter of weeks, Opus 45 took him several months. It is a major undertaking with a rich thematic vocabulary and no end of technical challenges for the soloist. (Since Grieg’s primary instrument was the piano, the accompanist was probably already familiar with many of rhetorical turns.) Conunova gave a fierce account in rising to the many challenged presented to her in her score pages. By the time things had calmed down in the coda of the final movement, the attentive listener had journeyed with her through a vast landscape of themes and developments.

Ironically, Johan Dalene played this same sonata a little over a year ago, when he presented his Shenson Spotlight Series recital; and Randall Goosby played it at his Spotlight recital the preceding year! Equally interesting is that Stella Chen, who will be the final Shenson recitalist, played the Opus 13, second, sonata in her San Francisco debut with Chamber Music San Francisco almost exactly a year ago. Grieg’s chamber music seems to have fared well here in the Civic Center, if not elsewhere!

The Grieg sonata was preceded by the opening selection, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 261. This was an Adagio movement in E major composed for violin and orchestra. Its Wikipedia page claims that it may have been written to replace the slow movement in the K. 219 (fifth) violin concerto. Most likely, Conunova played the duo arrangement prepared by Paul Klengel in the early twentieth century. This was one of those joys-of-unfamiliar-Mozart selections, which made for an excellent opening gesture.

Conunova followed her Grieg performance with more familiar selections from the “war horse” category. The first of these was a dynamite account of Camille Saint-Saëns Opus 28, the Rondo capriccioso preceded by an Introduction. She played this without any score pages, possibly to avoid setting them on fire with her dynamic rhetoric. The program then concluded with Franz Waxman’s “Carmen Fantasie.” This music originated in Waxman’s score for the movie Humoresque. After seeing the film, Heifetz asked Waxman to expand his efforts into a piece he could include in his performances. It was originally composed for violin and orchestra, but Heifetz seems to have arranged it for piano accompaniment. Last night it served as the “punctuation mark” at the conclusion of the program!

The encore selection was Béla Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances suite, six short movements originally composed for solo piano and given an abundance of arrangements, including one for small orchestra (which was given a separate number in András Szőllősy’s catalog). The offering allowed the performers to return to their Eastern European roots. The music was probably familiar to many (most?) in the audience, providing just the right spirits to send us all on our way home!

Heinz Holliger to Return to ECM New Series

courtesy of Jensen Artists

During my tenure with Examiner.com, I was able to pay considerable attention to recordings of Swiss oboist Heinz Holliger for ECM New Series releases. However, according to my archival database, I have not written about him since August of 2014. Therefore, I am happy to report that Holliger has returned to ECM with a new album that provides a rich survey of chamber music composed for oboe over the course of the twentieth century. The title of the album is Éventail, the title of a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé, which was subsequently set by both Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy; and the only composer that predates the twentieth century is Camille Saint-Saëns with a short composition entitled “Le rossignol” (the nightingale). This album will be released one week from today; and, as tends to be expected, Amazon.com has created a Web page for processing pre-orders.

Holliger has two accompanists on this recording. One is the pianist Anton Kernjak, who had performed on the previous album, presenting music by Robert Schumann and Holliger himself, which I had discussed in August of 2014. The other is harpist Alice Belugou, who was recruited to provide accompaniment for André Jolivet’s “Controversia.” For his part Holliger performs selections for both oboe and oboe d’amore. This deeper instrument actually serves as a “substitute.” It first appears in the performance of Debussy’s “Syrinx,” which was originally written for solo flute. It then returns for another Debussy composition for clarinet and piano, simply entitled “Petite pièce.”

Taken as a whole, this album runs the risk of being “too much of a good thing.” Fortunately, all of the tracks are relatively short, including the individual tracks for three-movement sonatas by Saint-Saëns and Robert Casadesus. Nevertheless, it is unclear whether or not Holliger expects the attentive listener to appreciate how the individual compositions on this album relate to each other through juxtaposition (if at all). Having listened to this album several times by now, I find myself recognizing the pieces I have previously encountered; but I am still dealing with the process of making acquaintance with the less familiar offerings.

Bach on the Nineteenth Century Piano

Piano soloist Oliver Moore (from the American Bach Soloists Web page for last night’s recital)

The title of the second of the four concerts prepared for this year’s annual San Francisco Bach Festival presented by American Bach Soloists was Explorations: Bach Beyond Baroque. This was a solo piano recital by guest artist Oliver Moore performed in the Barbro Osher Recital Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. With the exception of the opening selection, the BWV 867 prelude-fugue coupling in B-flat minor from the first Book of Johann Sebastian Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier, all of the works on the program were composed during the nineteenth century.

Two of those selections were Bach arrangements by Camille Saint-Saëns and Ferruccio Busoni, respectively. The first of these was the opening Sinfonia for the BWV 29 cantata Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir (we thank you God, we thank you). This was followed by the Chaconne movement that concludes the BWV 1004 solo violin partita in D minor. These constituted the first half of Moore’s program. The second half was devoted to major piano compositions by Johannes Brahms, his Opus 24 “Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel,” and Franz Liszt, the “Fantasy and Fugue on the Theme B-A-C-H.” Moore concluded with an encore selection, Busoni’s transcription of the BWV 734 organ chorale on Martin Luther’s hymn “Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein” (dear Christians, one and all, rejoice).

Taken as a whole, this was an impressively prodigious program of nineteenth-century piano technique at its richest. All of the works demanded the highest of keyboard skills, and it would not surprise me if Busoni had mastered all four of them for his recital performances. In that respect one could almost imagine that Moore was channeling Busoni’s spirit. His intensity definitely did justice to nineteenth century keyboard techniques at their most flamboyant. The Liszt selection was originally composed for organ, but the composer clearly could not resist adding it to the repertoire of his piano recitals.

Nevertheless, I came away from the second half of the program with the feeling that neither Liszt nor the relatively young Brahms were willing to honor the enough-is-enough injunction. Brahms’ Opus 24 clocks in with 25 variations. Each of these is a masterpiece of brevity, but the attentive listener can be forgiven for looking at his watch by the time a dozen of those variations have punched the clock. By the time the fugue takes over, one would be forgiven for wondering just what it was that Brahms wanted to prove. Liszt, on the other hand, saw both the fantasy and the fugue as invitations to go as wild as possible, leaving the listener with the impression that, while he may have been long-winded, Brahms had the clearer account of structure, if not showy-execution.

By the time Moore had concluded his encore, my guess is that most of the audience welcomed the conclusion of the marathon. Nevertheless, he brought a refreshing contrast to the Baroque rhetoric that dominated Thursday night’s program. Artistic Director Jeffrey Thomas clearly appreciated that too much of anything has its limits. Thus, one could come away from the two successive programs with the sense of an imaginative approach to contrasting styles.

A “Conceptual” Approach to Beethoven

The cover of María Dueñas’ debut album (courtesy of Crossover Media)

This Friday Deutsche Grammophon will release the debut album of Spanish violinist María Dueñas. The title of her album is Beethoven and Beyond, where the “beyond” accounts for five cadenzas published over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As expected, Amazon.com has a Web page, which is currently processing pre-orders.

As one might guess from the album title, those cadenzas were all invented for performances of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 61 violin concerto in D major. More specifically, they were all invented as cadenzas for the concerto’s first movement, the longest of the three movements. The cadenzas that were documented by four of the composers, Eugène Ysaÿe, Camille Saint-Saëns, Henryk Wieniawski, and Fritz Kreisler, all lasted between four and four and a half minutes. Only the earliest of the cadenzas, by Louis Spohr, clocked in at slightly less than 90 seconds. These five tracks basically serve as an “appendix” to the entire album.

The “heart” of the album begins with Opus 61, which is then followed by short original compositions by each of the “cadenza composers.” Those works are as follows in the same order in which their cadenzas appear:

1. Spohr: the second (Adagio) movement from his first “Symphonie concertante” in G major, scored for violin, harp, and orchestra
2. Ysaÿe: his Opus 20 “Berceuse”
3. Saint-Saëns: his Opus 83 “Havanaise”
4. Wieniawski: his Opus 17 “Légende”
5. Kreisler: his “Liebesleid” (love’s sorrow), the second of his three Alt-Wiener Tanzweisen

The most familiar of these (usually as popular encore selections) are the works by Saint-Saëns, Wieniawski, and Kreisler.

Personally, I am afraid that I am not particularly drawn to what amounts to a “package deal.” Most important is that, where concertos are concerned, I always prefer going to a concert performance to listening to a recording. It is only through an in-the-moment account that I can appreciate any inventiveness that the soloist brings to performance, even before (s)he has to face a cadenza. If the inventiveness of any one of the cadenzas can be traced back to some past composer, I have no interest in being reminded of that composer.

As a result, what matters the most to me is that, on the opening tracks of this album, Dueñas plays cadenzas of her own invention. The only question that matters is one that I cannot answer: Were I to be in the audience for Dueñas’ performance of Opus 61, would the cadenzas sound the same in concert as they do on her album?

Ironically, she already made her debut with the San Francisco Symphony on October 3, 2019, performing with guest conductor Marek Janowski. Unfortunately, her concerto selection was Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 64 violin concerto in E minor, which has many virtues but is hardly on a par with Beethoven’s Opus 61! Nevertheless, at that time she was a sixteen-year-old, who definitely made me sit up and take notice!

Beethoven and Beyond, on the other hand, never came close to urging me to sit up and take notice. Her own cadenzas did little to tip the balance in her favor. All I can do is hope that I shall have another opportunity to listen to her in performance (hopefully of the Beethoven concerto this time). Then I can decide for myself whether or not she has any of those in-the-moment qualities that seize my attention and refuse to let go of it!