SFP will Present the San Francisco Recital Debut of Pianist Javier Perianes

The four recitals in the San Francisco Performances (SFP) Piano Series will conclude with the San Francisco recital debut of Spanish pianist Javier Perianes. Perianes made his San Francisco debut in June of 2015, playing Manuel de Falla’s “Nights in the Gardens of Spain” with Charles Dutoit conducting the San Francisco Symphony. His visit to San Francisco will be his last North American date in a major solo recital tour that also includes New York and Washington.

Falla composed “Nights in the Gardens of Spain” in Madrid in 1916, shorty after having spent about nine years in Paris, where he was influenced by many major composers of the time, not all of whom were French. The fact that he called “Nights in the Gardens of Spain” a nocturne suggests that one of those influences was the set of three orchestral nocturnes composed by Claude Debussy. Ironically, one of Falla’s other influences in Paris was a fellow Spaniard, Isaac Albéniz.

Much of the program Perianes has prepared for his recital debut amounts of a reflection on this “constellation of influences.” The most explicit connection will be “Pour le tombeau de Claude Debussy,” originally composed by Falla as a guitar solo but then arranged for piano in 1920. Almost a decade later Falla would orchestrate this piece as the second movement of a four-movement “memorial” suite entitled Homenajes (homages). Perianes will also play Falla’s suite of four movements from his score for the ballet “El amor brujo” (love, the magician).

The Falla selections will then be complemented by three relatively short Debussy pieces, all of which reflect Spanish influences: “La soirée dans Grenade” (evening in Granada), the second movement of Estampes (prints); “La puerta del vino” (wine gate), from the second book of piano preludes; and “La sérénade interrompue” (interrupted serenade), from the first book of those preludes. Finally, Perianes will return to a Spanish composer with the “El Albaicín” movement (named for a district of Granada) from the third book of Albéniz’ Iberia collection. At the other end of his program, Perianes will contrast these Spanish influences with the Vienna of Franz Schubert. He will begin with the D. 664 sonata in A major, which he will follow with the D. 946 set of three piano pieces, sometimes referred to as Schubert’s third collection of impromptus.

This program will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 6. Like all of the other Piano Series performances, it will be held in Herbst Theatre, located at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. Single tickets are being sold for $70, $55, and $40. They may be purchased in advance through a City Box Office event page. This Web page shows a seating plan with information about prices and availability in the different sections.