Buchbinder Celebrates Birthday with Schubert

The first day of this coming December will mark the 80th birthday of pianist Rudolf Buchbinder. I must confess that I have probably not given this pianist due attention. It has been almost two years since I Iast wrote about one of his Deutsche Grammophon albums. That was when the Song Transcriptions CD was released, on which he performed solo piano transcriptions of 28 songs by Johannes Brahms.

Cover of the album being discussed

Tomorrow will see the release of his latest album. The title is Schubert Treasures, consisting of 160 tracks of Schubert’s compositions of a diversity of different styles of dances (with a distinctive preference for waltzes). If the number of tracks seems daunting, readers should be informed that a significant majority of these tracks are less than one minute in duration!

Clearly, this album was not conceived for the purpose of listening to all of those tracks from beginning to end in a single sitting. Indeed, even the D. 145 set of 38 waltzes was probably not intended for sitting still for the entire collection. Fortunately, in our “digital age,” it is easy to visit these tracks, sampling different collections at different times. Schubert was certainly prodigious in composing all of this dance music, but the listener should be free to explore his own strategies for getting to know this music. I have been doing this over the last month, and I have to say that encountering any of the collections leaves me in a good mood!

Joshua Bell Returns to SFS Great Performers

Violinist Joshua Bell (from the Web page for last night’s recital)

Last night violinist Joshua Bell returned to San Francisco as the recitalist in the latest event in the Great Performers Series presented by the San Francisco Symphony. He was accompanied at the piano by Shai Wosner for a program of four violin sonatas, two each from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The composers for the first half of the program were Franz Schubert and Edvard Grieg, and those in the second half were Sergei Prokofiev and Maurice Ravel.

The program got off to an uneven start in which Bell and Wosner seem to have had different approaches to Schubert. Schubert has had a significant role in Wosner’s repertoire, and he has released several Onyx Classics albums of that composer’s piano music. On the other hand, I am not sure that I have had an opportunity to listen to Bell play Schubert previously. Last night I could see why, since Bell never seemed to find the right way to fit himself into Wosner’s account of the D. 574 violin sonata in A major.

Things got better when Bell advanced to the other end of the nineteenth century. He was much more in his element with movements having tempo adjectives such as “appassionato,” “espressivo,” and “animato.” Nevertheless, he overplayed his hand even when Wosner tried to establish a more disciplined frame of reference. On the other hand, Bell consistently found the right approaches to expressiveness in the Prokofiev and Ravel sonatas, and his chemistry with Wosner could not have been better. The evening concluded with an encore performance of “Mélodie,” the last of the three movements in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir d’us lieu cher (memory of a dear place). In many ways, the brevity of the Tchaikovsky movement came across as more expressive than any of the multi-movement sonatas, making for a “less is better” evening.

Engaging Coupling of Beethoven and Schubert

Richard Goode at the keyboard (photograph by Steve Riskind, courtesy of San Francisco Performances)

Yesterday evening pianist Richard Goode returned to Herbst Theatre to present his eighteenth recital for San Francisco Performances. (He made his first visit in October of 1985.) His program consisted of only two compositions, one on either side of the intermission. Both pieces were the products of First Viennese School composers. The first half of the program presented music from Ludwig van Beethoven’s late period, his Opus 120, entitled “33 Variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli.” The intermission was followed by Franz Schubert’s final piano sonata, D. 960 in B-flat major.

I know from personal experience that D. 960 is a significant undertaking. I put a lot of effort into getting my hands around those four movements. It would be unfair to say that I eventually could do justice to Schubert’s score, but I definitely came away with significantly increased respect for the composer! The sonata is one of the composer’s longest works, and I did not feel short-changed when Goode decided not to enable the repeat sign in the sonata’s first movement. Even in the absence of that repetition, he delivered a thoroughly engaging account of the diverse and adventurous journey through the four movements of Schubert’s sonata.

The title of Beethoven’s Opus 120 also makes it clear that any performance involves a major journey. I suspect that there are many that have tried to establish an architectural framework for those 33 variations, but I am not one of them! Personally, I find that the variations unfold in what might be called a musical form of stream-of-consciousness. One step follows another, each as sure as the next; and the listener is left to revel in the diversity of it all. (That diversity includes a prankish nod to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, working in a motif from beginning of the opera Don Giovanni.)

Goode’s focus could not have been more attentive in interpreting these two “late works.” Indeed, his attention was so focused that he saw no need for an encore. Personally, I agree with his decision. After two such major undertakings, one does not need a “That’s all folks!” sign-off. Better to let the memories of Beethoven and Schubert reverberate as one leaves the auditorium to head back home.

Richard Goode to Conclude SFP Piano Series

Pianist Richard Goode (from the event page for his next SFP recital)

Next month will see the last of the four recitals prepared by San Francisco Performances (SFP) for its Piano Series. The recitalist will be Richard Goode, who had last concluded the 2021–2022 Piano Series. Each half of the program will be devoted entirely to one major composition associated with what musicologist Charles Rosen has called “The Classical Style.”

As might be guessed, the composers will be Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert. The first half of the program will present Beethoven’s Opus 120, whose full title is “33 Variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli.” The intermission will then be followed by Franz Schubert’s D. 960, his final piano sonata composed in the key of B-flat major.

The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 10. The venue will be Herbst Theatre, which many (most?) readers know is located in the heart of the Civic Center at 401 Van Ness Avenue, on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. Ticket prices will be $85, $75, and $65. As those readers probably also know, SFP has created a Web page for purchasing those tickets.

Junction Trio Couples Past and Present (again)

Junction Trio musicians Conrad Tao, Stefan Jackiw, and Jay Campbell (photograph by Shervin Lainez, courtesy of Noe Music)

According to my records, the Junction Trio was formed in 2015. All three of the musicians have also presented recitals for San Francisco Performances (SFP). Violinist Stefan Jackiw made his SFP debut in April of 2014 and cellist Jay Campbell made his debut in January of 2020 performing with violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Pianist Conrad Tao made his first live performance with SFP towards the end of 2022. For the trio’s first performance, Tao composed what amounted to a tone poem entitled “Eventide,” which he regarded as his “Opus 1.”

In a little less than a month’s time, Noe Music will welcome this trio to the Noe Valley Ministry. The “pillars” of the program will be two piano trios from that period of music history known as the First Viennese School. The first half of the program will conclude with the first of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 70 trios, given the title “Ghost” and composed in the key of D major. The second half will conclude with Franz Schubert’s D. 898, the first of his two piano trios, this one composed in the key of B-flat major. Each of these compositions will be preceded by three of the six pieces for violin and keyboard instrument by John Cage, given the collective title Six Melodies. In addition, John Zorn’s “Ghosts” will be interjected in to the Beethoven trio, following the Largo assai movement, which inspired the “Ghost” title of the trio.

This will be the next Noe Music event of the season, taking place at the Noe Valley Ministry, which is located at 1021 Sanchez Street, between 23rd Street and Elizabeth Street. The concert will begin at 4 p.m. on Sunday, February 22. General admission will be $45 with a $15 rate for students. They may be purchased online through a Noe Music Web page.

Choices for December 7, 2025

Having concluded last month with an article about two overlapping performances this coming December 6, I find myself with a similar overlap on the following afternoon. Two different programs will begin at 4 p.m. on Sunday, December 7. One will be the second installment of the Piano Portrait series presented by Noe Music, while the other will honor a major member of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) faculty. Specifics are as follows:

Poster design for Past, Present, and Future

Hume Concert Hall, SFCM: Past, Present, and Future is a special concert to honor David Conte, Chair of the SFCM Composition Department. There will be an exclusive preview of two scenes from his new opera A Christmas Carol, based on the novella by Charles Dickens. The program will also include the first suite extracted from his score for the ballet The Masque of the Red Death. This will be performed by Cyrus Ginwala conducting the Bay Areal Rainbow Symphony. The venue is located at 50 Oak Street, and there will be no charge for admission.

Noe Valley Ministry: Noe Music will present the second installment in its Piano Portraits series. The featured pianist will be Inon Barnatan. His program will be devoted entirely to Franz Schubert, with a performance of the D. 960 sonata in B-flat major filling the second half of the program. The program will begin with the first of the four impromptus collected in D. 935, composed in the key of F minor. The venue is located in Noe Valley at 1021 Sanchez Street. Reserved seating is sold out, but general admission tickets are available online from $15 to $45 on a first-come first-served basis.

Guarneri Quartet: the Schubert Recordings

Back in my student days, the First Viennese School usually referred to the trio of Joseph Haydn at one end, Ludwig van Beethoven at the other, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart between the two of them. I am not sure when I first encountered Franz Schubert being added to the list; but, where productivity is concerned, Haydn and Schubert definitely make for strong “bookends.” However, while Haydn left a decisive mark for both string quartets (many of which he performed as second violin with Mozart on viola) and symphonies, Schubert is probably best known for the songs he composed, which number over 600.

Where his string quartets are concerned, there are fifteen published works, one of which (the twelfth) is the unfinished D. 703 “Quartettsatz” in C minor. This is one of only five that can be found in the Sony Masterworks box set, Guarneri Quartet: The Complete Recordings 1965–2005. It is coupled with D. 804 in A minor, often called “Rosamunde” for the set of variations based on a theme from previously composed incidental music, D. 810. Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” quartet in D minor, which includes a passing reference to the D. 531 lied “Der Tod und das Mädchen,” is coupled with Hugo Wolf’s “Italian Serenade,” presumably intended to “quiet things down” following the intense performance of D. 810. The remaining quartet is the last, D. 887 in G major, long enough to fill an entire CD.

Cover of the Guarneri Quartet album of Schubert’s “Trout” quintet (from the Amazon.com Web page)

There are only two other Schubert CDs, both of which are quintets. D. 956 is his only string quintet, scored for two violins, viola, and two cellos. Leonard Rose is the “visiting cellist” on the recording. This was one of his last compositions and was only published after his death. The other is D. 667, scored for violin, viola, cello, bass, and piano. This is known as the “Trout” quintet for the movement that is a set of variations on the theme Schubert’s D. 550 lied “Die Forelle” (the trout). The pianist is Emanuel Ax, and the bass is played by Julius Levine.

I am definitely glad to have all of these selections in my collection, and I am more than satisfied with the sensitivity of interpretation that the Guarneri players bring to them. Nevertheless, I have to invoke, once again, Leonard Slatkin’s precept, “You can never conduct enough Haydn or Schubert.” In the box set that Sony has compiled, the total number of CDs allocated Haydn and Schubert together is significantly less than the number for Mozart, as well as for the complete quartets of Beethoven!

To be fair, all of the Guarneri recitals I attended took place during the final quarter of the last century, when I spent almost all of my spare time going to performances in Manhattan. This made for a healthy diet of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert over the course of my many visits. For that matter, my most recent encounter with Schubert in performance took place early last month, when the Calidore Quartet played D. 703 as their encore. The impact was as strong as ever, so I have every reason to look forward to further Schubert encounters in the future. Meanwhile, he occupies a generous amount of space in my collection, including performances of all of the quartets by the Melos Quartet!

Randall Goosby’s Debut with SFP

Violinist Randall Goosby is no stranger to San Francisco. He performed in Davies Symphony Hall in April of 2022 in the second of the four Spotlight Series recitals that San Francisco Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen launched to feature entirely debut concerts. Goosby’s accompanist was pianist Zhu Wang. Last night he made his first appearance in Herbst Theatre, this time under the auspices of San Francisco Performances; and he was again accompanied by Wang.

The first half of the program presented two sonatas for two decidedly different eras in French history. It began with the last in a set of three violin sonatas by the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Joseph Bologne. His Wikipedia page cites him as “the first classical composer of African descent to attain widespread acclaim in European music;” and my encounters with his music have been consistently engaging. Goosby’s selection was in the key of G minor with only two movements, the usual opening Allegro followed by a Rondo gracioso. Most interesting was the composer’s attentiveness to balancing the thematic material between both players, making this an ideal selection to introduce both Goosby and Wang to the audience.

This was followed by the more familiar Opus 13 of Gabriel Fauré, his first violin sonata composed in the key of A major. The Fauré catalog plays a major role in my collection of recordings. Nevertheless, I think this was my first encounter with this sonata in performance; and I could not have been more delighted with the listening experience.

The second half of the program bridged the two ends of the nineteenth century. It began in the final decade with Ernest Chausson’s Opus 25, given simply the title “Poème.” This was originally composed for full orchestra with violin solo and subsequently given the duo arrangement performed last night.

The program concluded with music originally composed for violin and piano, Franz Schubert’s D. 895 in B minor, given the title “Rondeau brillant.” Schubert composed only six duos for violin and piano; and this was the only one to be published (by Artaria) in his lifetime. The overall rhetoric can best be described as “frantically witty,” almost as if it is a reflection of maintaining a sense of humor in a state of desperation. Both Goosby and Wang were clearly intensely focused on performance, allowing the dispositions to arise on their own accord.

Randall Goosby on the cover of the Deluxe Edition of his Roots album (from its Amazon.com Web page)

Goosby turned to Florence Price for his encore. His selection was “Elfentanz,” one of the tracks on the “Deluxe Edition” of his Roots album. This made for a witty conclusion to smooth things off after Schubert. Goosby is definitely a recitalist with an imaginative and engaging approach to creating programs!

Randall Goosby Coming to SFP

Randall Goosby (photograph by Kaupo Kikkas, from the SFP Web page for purchasing tickets)

I have the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) to thank for introducing me to violinist Randall Goosby. When then Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen decided to launch the Spotlight Series in the first half of 2022 as a platform for debut recitals in Davies Symphony Hall, the featured recitalist in the second program was Goosby, performing with pianist Zhu Wang. That event took place on April 13. By that time I had already written about his debut album Roots, so I was well prepared for seeing him “in the flesh.”

He then went on to give a debut performance of Florence Price’s D minor (second) violin concerto early in the SFS season in September. Since that time, my only contact with Goosby took place at the beginning of last month, when he performed that same concerto with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in one of their “live HD webcast” offerings. By way of an encore on that occasion, he performed his own orchestral arrangement of “Adoration,” which Price had originally composed for organ. (This was one of the tracks on Roots.)

All that background should make it clear that I am definitely looking forward to Goosby’s return, which will be the second San Francisco Performances (SFP) recital of next month (the first having been the piano recital that Joyce Yang will bring to Herbst on the first day of the month). Rather than continuing his Price repertoire, he will begin his program over a century earlier with a performance of the third violin sonata by the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Joseph Bologne. This was the last of the three sonatas published as his Opus 1a. This will be followed by another sonata, which will probably be familiar to most violinists, Gabriel Fauré’s Opus 13, his first such sonata composed in the key of A major. The second half of the program will begin with Ernest Chausson’s Opus 25 “Poème.” (Chausson was aware of the younger Fauré, and the latter was present at the former’s funeral.) The final selection will be Franz Schubert’s D. 895 rondo for violin and piano composed in the key of B minor. Wang will again be Goosby’s accompanist.

This program will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 3. Ticket prices are $70 (premium Orchestra and front and center Dress Circle), $60 (remainder of Orchestra, all Side Boxes, and center rear Dress Circle), and $50 (remaining Dress Circle and Balcony). As always, they may be purchased through an SFP secure Web page. The venue will be Herbst Theatre, whose entrance is the main entrance to the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue, located on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. The venue is excellent for public transportation, since that corner has Muni bus stops for both north-south and east-west travel.

In Search of Benjamin Appl’s Latest Album

Benjamin Appl and György Kurtág on the cover of their new album

Some readers may recall that I first encountered baritone Benjamin Appl in May of 2023 through San Francisco Performances (SFP), when he was the final recitalist in the Art of Song series. This drew my interest to Alpha’s release of his album Forbidden Fruit, on which he was accompanied by pianist James Baillieu, who had also joined him for his SFP recital. The title of Appl’s latest album is Lines of Life, and its “program” involves the alternation of songs by Franz Schubert with those of György Kurtág. This time he has three pianists serving as accompanist on different tracks, one of whom is Kurtág himself. The other two are Baillieu and Pierre-Laurent Aimard. One of the Kurtág tracks also requires both trombone (Csaba Bencze) and tuba (Gergely Lukás). The final Schubert track is followed by a single song by Johannes Brahms, the third in his Opus 47 collection entitled “Sonntag” (Sunday). (There is also an “appendix track” of an interview with Kurtág.)

The alternations between Schubert and Kurtág make the overall listening experience a rough ride. Nevertheless, I have been fascinated by Kurtág for quite some time; and my interest in him on this site dates all the way back to April of 2007 (which is prior to my writing for Examiner.com). It would be fair to say that Kurtág is not afraid of shock value, and Appl may have prepared the ordering of tracks on this album to invoke Schubert for the sake of softening Kurtág’s “blows.” However, I have been interested enough to give this album several listenings; and it would be fair to say that I learn a little bit more of what Kurtág was up to with each encounter.

I have previously told the joke about an introduction to a program that was intense enough that the presenter was reluctant to say, “Enjoy the concert!” He decided, instead, to conclude by saying, “The Force be with you!” I have now listened to this album enough that the “Force” is definitely with me. I look forward to returning to the album and getting to know it even better!

Still, it is worth noting that the above Amazon.com hyperlink leads to a Web page that currently supports only MP3 downloads (even though there is an “Audio CD” option).

David Oistrakh on Warner: the Second DVD

While I described the first of the three DVDs in the Warner Remastered Edition box set collection of recordings of performances by Russian violinist David Oistrakh as “an engaging profile of the breadth of Oistrakh’s command of repertoire,” I have to confess that the second DVD did not live up to expectations based on the first. This one had a title, Moscow Recitals; and, as might be expected, the filmed accounts of those recitals were selected by Bruno Monsaingeon. Most of the content involved recordings of performances before Moscow audiences, but the last four tracks seems to have been captured in studio settings.

The good news is that there was no shortage of sonata music, including complete sonatas by Franz Schubert, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Claude Debussy, along with two movements from Maurice Ravel’s sonata. These all play a significant role in the violin repertoire, but there were too many occasions in which Oistrakh’s delivery came across as little more than dutiful. There were also “peculiarities” to be found both in the video and on the DVD sleeve.

Fritz Kreisler on the cover of the February 2, 1925 issues of Time magazine (public domain, from Wikimedia Commons)

The most egregious of these was the misprint of Schubert’s death as 1826 (instead of 1828), suggesting that he had died before Beethoven! A bit more confusing, however, was the excerpt from a piece by Fritz Kreisler. The film identified it as “Variations on a theme by Tartini,” while the sleeve named it “Variations on a theme by Corelli.” According to the Wikipedia list of Kreisler’s compositions, the correct title is “Variations on a theme by Corelli;” but there is a “postfix” to the title identifying the music as “in the style of Tartini,” to which this music had previously been attributed. More critical is that the sleeve failed to identify that, when Oistrakh played Pablo de Sarasate’s “Navarra” with his son Igor, they were both accompanied by pianist Vladimir Yampolsky.

If Monsaingeon did not take the trouble to proofread all of the content associated with all of the albums in this collection, he should have given the task to a reliable substitute. Serious listeners tend to be picky about the facts during their listening experiences. (At least this one is!)

Calidore Quartet’s Third Appearance with SFP

Calidore String Quartet members Ryan Meehan, Estelle Choi, Jeffrey Myers, and Jeremy Berry (from their SFP event page)

Last night the Calidore Quartet returned to Herbst Theatre for their third recital presented by San Francisco Performances (SFP). In reviewing my archives, I was happy to discover that I had encountered both of their previous visits, beginning with their debut in January of 2019. That was a Great Artists and Ensembles Series program, which they shared with pianist Inon Barnatan, presenting a program devoted entirely to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. (Bach never wrote a string quartet; but their “orchestral support” to Barnatan’s keyboard work could not have been more engaging.)

That program began with Calidore on its own playing six of the pieces collected in the BWV 1080 The Art of Fugue, five four-voice fugues and one two-voice canon. That interest in fugues returned with their second appearance the following October, which included fugal writing by both Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven. The latter was the “grand finale” of the program Beethoven’s Opus 133 “Große Fuge.”

I am happy to report that the musicians that returned to Herbst last night were the same ones I had previously encountered in 2019. The quartet still consists of violinists Jeffrey Myers and Ryan Meehan, violist Jeremy Berry, and cellist Estelle Choi; and their ensemble work remains consistently engaging. This time, however, Beethoven was selected to begin the program with his Opus 74 (“Harp”) quartet, composed in 1809 during what has is sometimes known as the composer’s “middle period.” As that title suggests, the music involves an engaging interplay between arco and pizzicato bowing; and Calidore could not have done a better job of delivering that interplay.

This “Beethoven favorite” was complemented at the other end of the program with music that I was encountering for the first time (which probably could be said of just about everyone else in the audience). Erich Wolfgang Korngold is best known for the music he composed for many of the Hollywood films directed by Max Reinhardt in the thirties. He won an Oscar for his score for The Adventures of Robin Hood in 1938; and, given what was happening in Europe at that time, he was later known to say that Robin Hood saved him from the Nazis.

Last night Calidore performed his Opus 34 (third) quartet in D major, which he composed in 1945, the same year in which he wrote a violin concerto for Jascha Heifetz. During the first movement of the quartet, I could hear my composition teacher in the back of my head muttering “slimy chromaticism;” but the quartet became more engaging as it progressed. What struck me was the diversity of dispositions that permeated the entire composition, perhaps reflecting on the composer’s command of all those dispositions in his film work. Nevertheless, following that performance, the audience was reassured with a return to Beethoven: The encore selection was the final movement of the fourth of Beethoven’s Opus 18 quartets, composed in the key of C minor.

The contrast between Beethoven and Korngold was reflected in the choice of shorter works on either side of the intermission. The “Harp” quartet was followed, appropriately enough, by Jessie Montgomery’s “Strum.” I am tempted to say, “One good pluck deserves another;” but Montgomery’s arco writing tended to prevail over her pizzicato passages. Nevertheless, one could approach the first half of the program as a “then and now” contrast of plucked technique.

The intermission was followed by what might be called a “reflection” on the Beethoven offering. This was Franz Schubert’s D. 703 in C minor, given the simple title “Quartettsatz.” One could call this a dark reflection on the “lighter side” of Beethoven’s quartet. The music is relatively brief but could not have been more intense, and Calidore’s command of that intensity verged on the jaw-dropping.

Thus, in the return of Calidore’s third visit to SFP, I find myself already thinking about when they will return for their fourth engagement!

Warner’s “David Oistrakh Quartet” CDs

Three of the 31 CDs classified as Premières, Rarities & Live Performances in the Warner Remastered Edition box set collection of recordings of performances by Russian violinist David Oistrakh have been given the subtitle David Oistrakh Quartet. By all rights, this subtitle should be given scare quotes, since there does not appear to be any reference to a “David Oistrakh Quartet” during Oistrakh’s lifetime. Rather, that name was given to a quartet whose members are violinists Andrey Baranov and Rodion Petrov, Fedor Belugin on viola, and cellist Alexey Zhilin in 2012.

In the Warner collection, Oistrakh leads a quartet whose other member are Piotr Bondarenko on second violin, violist Mikhail Terian, and Sviatoslav Knushevitsky on cello. The CDs themselves account for only three string quartets performed in their entirety, two recorded in 1952 and one in 1950. The third CD, on the other hand, presents two clarinet quintets recorded in 1950 with clarinetist Vladimir Sorokin. This is a “two centuries” album, coupling Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 581 quintet with Johannes Brahms’ Opus 115 quintet in B minor. (K. 581 is sometimes known as the “Stadler” quintet, since it was composed for the clarinetist Anton Stadler.)

Brahms can also be found on the first CD with the first of his Opus 51 quartets in C minor. This is coupled with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 11 (also a first) quartet in D major. These recordings definitely cast the quartet players in a favorable light, which they also enjoy on the clarinet quintet album. The second CD, on the other hand, accounts for only one quartet in its entirety, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 74, often known as the “Harp” for its extended pizzicato passages. It is coupled with two single-movement excerpts. The first of these is the second movement from Franz Schubert’s D. 810 quartet, consisting of variations of the theme of Schubert’s D. 531 song, “Der Tod und das Mädchen” (Death and the maiden). The other is the second Canzonetta movement from Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 12 (first) quartet in E-flat major, which used to be (and may still be) an encore favorite.

Pianist Lev Oborin (photograph taken in January of 1927, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

It may (or may not) be worth noting that Oistrakh’s Wikipedia page says  almost nothing about his performance of chamber music. There is a passing citation about teaching. However, where performance is concerned, there is only reference to a trio that Oistrakh performed with Knushevitsky and pianist Lev Oborin, previously cited on this site as accompanist for a Mozart sonata. My guess is that Oistrakh enjoyed the chamber music repertoire; but there were “powers that be” that limited his opportunities to account for that repertoire on recordings.

Blomstedt Bridges Nineteenth Century at Davies

This afternoon in Davies Symphony Hall, Herbert Blomstedt conducted the San Francisco Symphony in the first of three performances of this week’s program. Blomstedt was Michael Tilson Thomas’ predecessor as Music Director, and his appearance was supported by the Louise M. Davies Guest Concert Fund. In addition, the Thursday matinee concerts are endowed by a gift in memory of Rhoda Goldman.

The program itself was the first of four in a special subscription series entitled Favorites in Focus. As I previously observed, the selections for all four programs are “firmly grounded in the nineteenth century;” so what made this program particularly interesting was that it consisted of only two compositions, each close to one of the ends of the century. The first of these was Franz Schubert’s D. 485 (fifth) symphony in B-flat major, which he completed on October 3, 1816. The intermission was then followed by Johannes Brahms’ Opus 68, his first symphony, composed over the course of 21 years and first performed on November 4, 1876.

Herbert Blomstedt, shortly after his 97th birthday, leading the Vienna Philharmonic at the annual Salzburg Festival (photograph by Marco Borrelli from a 2024 New York Times article by Joshua Barone reporting from Salzburg)

Readers that have followed this site for some time probably know by now that I try never to miss an opportunity to observe Blomstedt in action as a conductor. If that seems more than a little urgent, it is because he is now 97 years old; and the fact that he continues to lead international orchestras impels me to keep track of every visit he makes to Davies. Furthermore, there is a rhetoric of similar urgency in Brahms’ symphony, particularly in the two outer movements, while each of all four of the movements presents the attentive listener with a rich palette of instrumental sonorities. Thus, between all of my past encounters with this symphony, both in the concert hall and in my collection of recordings, this afternoon kept me on the edge of my seat with eyes consistently darting from one section in the ensemble to another.

Where Schubert is concerned, D. 485 is the earliest of his nine symphonies to receive consistently regular attention in concert programming. In the absence of brass and percussion, the music is not as stirring as many familiar works that would be composed later in the century. Furthermore, while Blomstedt (as always) made it a point to honor every repeat sign, one could come away with a sense that Schubert was only deploying repetition because he assumed that he was supposed to do so. Nevertheless, even with his body language limited by his age, Blomstedt knew how to maintain the attention of the serious listener.

As a result, I left Davies this afternoon with the feeling of an afternoon well spent and a strong desire to capture my impressions in writing while they were still fresh in my mind!

David Oistrakh’s Rarities on Warner

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

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

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

Sergei Taneyev (from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

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

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

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

David Oistrakh’s Early Recordings on Warner

This past Tuesday I prepared readers for the 31 CDs classified as Premières, Rarities & Live Performances in the Warner Remastered Edition box set collection of recordings of performances by Russian violinist David Oistrakh. This “appendix” to the collection was curated by Bruno Monsaingeon, whom I had previously encountered through the videos he had produced for another major Warner Classics anthology, The Menuhin Century. While I was not particularly taken with his video skills, his efforts with Oistrakh’s audio archives seem to be at least a bit more promising.

Dividing this new collection into “mind-sized chunks” (a phrase readers may recall from my articles about the Warner Remastered Edition of recordings of the conductor Otto Klemperer) was not a particularly easy matter. Nevertheless, I knew exactly where to begin: with the two CDs identified as Early Recordings. To be more specific, “early” accounts for a period between December of 1935 and October of 1949. It includes two multi-movement compositions from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and one from the late nineteenth century. The earliest of these is Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1043 concerto for two violins in D minor, with Georges Enescu (probably better known to most readers as a composer) taking the other violin part. This is followed by Franz Schubert’s D. 667 (“Trout”) quintet (whose other performers are probably unfamiliar). The “late work” is Ernest Chausson’s “Concert,” scored for violin, piano, and string quartet, from which the second (“Sicilienne”) movement has been omitted.

Now, to be fair, I have been a sucker for D. 667 for the better part of my writing career (if not my entire life). If the quality of the sound leaves much to be desired, I can still appreciate that balance maintained by pianist Lev Oborin in performing with the “non-standard” (violin, viola, cello, and double bass) quartet. Similarly, this was my first encounter with Enescu as a performer; and, while his performance with Oistrakh may not have been “historically informed,” I still enjoyed the interplay of their two solo parts. On the other hand, I came away with the impression that the Chausson selection was included because Monsaingeon did not know where else to put it!

Efrem Zimbalist, one of Oistrakh’s contemporaries, with his violin (from the George Grantham Bain collection at the Library of Congress, digitally altered by Royalbroil, no known copyright restrictions)

Where the shorter pieces are concerned, most readers probably have already seen my citation of “the generous number of encore selections that were recorded by Jascha Heifetz.” Ironically, two of those selections were recorded by Oistrakh, the arrangement of Claude Debussy’s song “Beau Soir” and the Sarabande movement from Bach’s BWV 808 in G minor, the third of his “English” keyboard suites. Also, as a Philadelphian, I could appreciate the arrangement by Efram Zimbalist of the “Persian song” from Mikhail Glinka’s opera Ruslan and Lyudmila. (When I was growing up, Zimbalist was Director of the Curtis Institute of Music, although, at that time, I was more interested in his son’s television career!)

Oistrakh also took on five (count them!) solo piano compositions by Frédéric Chopin. These included two mazurkas, two nocturnes, and one étude. I fear these fall into the dog-walking-on-hind-legs category of the achievement being done at all, regardless of whether it was done well! The fact is that, when I attend a recital, I usually I find a recitalist playing too many encores to be a bit irritating; and that is basically the impression that these Early Recordings CDs left with me. Perhaps it is just that I cannot relate to Monsaingeon’s talents as a curator.

Alexander Kantorow’s Brahms and Schubert

This morning my efforts to catch up with recordings that have recently come to my attention led me to a BIS album, which, according to my Amazon.com Web page, was released at the end of last July. Entitled Brahms & Schubert, the album presents two major solo compositions by (in order of appearance) Johannes Brahms and Franz Schubert. These are separated by an “interlude” consisting of five of the many songs composed by Schubert that were transcribed (and, to be fair, embellished) for solo piano by Franz Liszt. The album begins with Brahms’ Opus 1, his first piano sonata, composed in 1853; and it concludes the Schubert’s D. 760 fantasy in C major, best known as the “Wanderer Fantasy.” Both of these works are structured in four movements.

The performer of these selections is Alexander Kantorow, winner of the 2024 Gilmore Award and the youngest recipient in the award’s history. He was also the first French pianist to receive the Gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition in 2019. (He also received the Grand Prix, which had only been awarded three times over the competition’s past history.) In addition, he was chosen to perform at the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics (which, it turns out, required playing in the pouring rain).

I suppose what mattered most to me in listening to this album was the Brahms sonata. If my records are correct, I have not encountered it in performance since July of 2021, when Garrick Ohlsson selected it to begin the last performance in a four-concert cycle of Brahms piano music, prepared for San Francisco Performances (SFP) recitals in Herbst Theatre. To be fair, this is Brahms very early in his career; and there is a “show-off” factor in this music that cannot be denied. Fortunately, a pianist like Ohlsson could “tame the beast,” providing his audience with a more-than-satisfying listening experiences. Sadly, Kantorow was not as skilled a beast-tamer; and there were too many moments in his performance of this sonata that felt as if he had let the music run away from him. The good news (for Kantorow) is that his command of Schubert’s music was solid in D. 760. Where the Liszt transcriptions were performed, he could honor Liszt’s transcriptions without taking them “over the top.”

Pianist Alexander Kantorow on the cover of his Brahms & Schubert album (courtesy of Unison)

Taken as a whole, this album serves as a “portrait” of the first half of the nineteenth century; but, to continue with that metaphor, Kantorow’s “brush work” was inconsistent in doing justice to the selections he prepared for this album. Mind you, the photograph on the cover of the album (shown above) came across as more than enough make Spock raise both of his eyebrows. A bit less focus on overall physical deportment and a bit more focus on the music and its respective composers would probably be in order!

Esmé Quartet: Another “Three Centuries” Program

Esmé Quartet players Yuna Ha, Dimitri Murrath, Yeeun Heo, and Wonhee Bae (courtesy of San Francisco Performances)

The Esmé Quartet made its debut with San Francisco Performances (SFP) in February of 2022, when it presented the second gift concert for the season. It was formed in 2016 by four Korean musicians studying at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln (in Cologne, Germany); and the members were Wonhee Bae (first violin), Yuna Ha (second violin), Jiwon Kim (viola), and Yeeun Heo (cello). Since that time Kim has left the ensemble and has been replaced by violist Dimitri Murrath, currently on the Faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM); and the quartet currently has a residency at SFCM.

As was the case in 2022, the quartet prepared a “three centuries” program. This time the opening eighteenth-century selection was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 575 quartet in D major (complementing the G major quartet that began the first program). Again the second half of the program was devoted to the nineteenth century, this time Franz Schubert’s D. 887 (final) string quartet in G major. The intermission was preceded by the twentieth-century selection, György Ligeti’s first string quartet, given the title “Métamorphoses Nocturnes.” Ironically, I have SFP to thank for my last (and probably first) encounter with this quartet, when I heard it performed by the Castalian Quartet in November of 2021.

On that occasion, I suggested that Ligeti’s quartet “could almost be taken for Béla Bartók’s seventh string quartet.” It was a relatively early undertaking, which I also described as “before Ligeti started sounding like Ligeti.” However, if he had not yet undertaken the thick one-to-a-part textures of “Atmosphères,” one can appreciate the give-and-take rhetoric as the score oscillates between the atonal themes and the thick textures of the full ensemble. In other words, it was through his composition of this quartet Ligeti “found his voice,” which would encourage him to explore those thick textures.

In that context, both the Mozart and Schubert quartets could not have been given better performances as models of transparency. In both of these cases, the counterpoint was so clear that I could easily keep my glance shifting from one instrumentalist to another. Both of these were (at least for me) familiar compositions. Nevertheless, the clarity of the delivery was so compelling that I almost felt as if I had encountered both of these pieces for the very first time.

On my way home from Herbst Theatre, I realized that the in-the-moment spontaneity of the players was chamber music as it should be, possibly even as it was “back in the day” when Mozart played viola in a quartet with violinists Joseph Haydn and Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf and cellist Johann Baptist Wanhal.

Box Set of a Conductor Who Deserved Better

Back cover of the box showing the original album sleeves of all of the recording in the collection being discussed (from the Amazon.com Web page)

The full title of the latest box set to be released by Sony Classical is Louis Lane Conducts the Cleveland Orchestra – The Complete Epic and Columbia Album Collection. Lane joined at Cleveland Orchestra as an apprentice conductor to George Szell in 1947. He then “went through the ranks” through a series of promotions: Assistant Conductor in 1955, Associate Conductor in 1960, and Resident Conductor in 1970. Many probably know the stories about how Szell could not tolerate the pianist Glenn Gould, so Lane conducted Gould’s performances in Cleveland.

Sadly, none of those performances were included in the new Sony Classical box set. Indeed, only the last four of the fourteen CDs in this collection cite Lane as conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra. The other thirteen cite him as leading either The Cleveland Pops Orchestra or The Cleveland Sinfonietta. Mind you, there is more than a little substance in those last four CDs. One of them accounts for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 334 divertimento in D major, which extends to six movements in duration. Another is the complete ballet score for The Creatures of Prometheus, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 43. Where dance history is concerned, this is a bit of an outlier, with choreography that predated first the Italians and then the Russians. A more contemporary approach to ballet can be found in the album of suites from “The Wise Virgins” (arrangements of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach by William Walton) and “The Good-Humored Ladies” (Vincenzo Tommasini’s orchestrations of the keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti). Finally, there is an interesting “first symphonies” album, coupling Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 1 in C minor with Franz Schubert’s D. 82 (first completed) symphony in D major.

For better or worse, none of the preceding CDs in the collection are in my wheelhouse. I suspect that the collection of arrangements of tunes from Broadway shows is the most cringe-inducing, but I have no trouble with listeners that would take that CD to be their favorite! Also, there are opportunities to listen to the works of composers who are now pretty much forgotten, such as Arthur Foote, Morton Gould, and Walter Piston. Indeed, if I have any affection at all for the pops genre, it would be for Gould’s “American Salute,” which I played in high school!

Nevertheless, I do not see myself returning to this collection with much frequency!

Old First Concerts: A Disappointing Piano Duo

N Blanco y Negro Piano Duo pianists Mirta Gómez and Sahily Cánovas doing their obligatory tour of San Francisco (from their Old First Concerts Web page)

Last night’s Old First Concerts program presented the N Blanco y Negro Piano Duo. This was a four-hands-one-keyboard group; and the pianists, Mirta Gómez and Sahily Cánovas, alternated taking left and right sides. The duo was founded in 2017 and gave its first recital in Miami. Both of them are of Cuban descent, but their training took them far beyond Cuba. Gomez graduated from the Juilliard School, while Cánovas graduated from the conservatories in both Kiev and Odessa.

Some readers probably know by now that I have had considerable experience with the four-hand repertoire. Much of that experience was due to weekly sessions with a neighbor in Opera Plaza, where I live. As a result, I have to make the disclaimer that I was familiar with the “nuts and bolts” of the first half of last night’s program, four-hand compositions by Antonín Dvořák, Franz Schubert, and Gabriel Fauré.

The greatest disappointment was the Schubert D. 940, his F minor fantasia, well-known to anyone that has explored the four-had repertoire. (I have lost count of the number of people with whom I have played this!) Sadly, Gómez and Cánovas fumbled the finale, which, as far as I am concerned, is perfectly conducive to amateurs. Similarly, there were major phrasing problems in their approach to the Fauré selection his Opus 56 Dolly suite.

The second half of the program was more diverse and less familiar. On the final selection, “La Bella Cubana” by José White Lafitte, they were joined by violinist Jennifer Redondas. The encores that followed were unannounced. However, the second half of the program was no more convincing than the first. Sadly, this was a program that promised much and delivered little.