Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Brooklyn Rider to Make SFP Recital Debut

Brooklyn Rider (from the SFP event page)

Next month the San Francisco Performances (SFP) Shenson Chamber Series will continue with the recital debut of the Brooklyn Rider string quartet. This ensemble, consisting of violinists Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen, violist Nicholas Cords, and cellist Michael Nicolas made its debut at the end of last November, when they provided the music for Some of a Thousand Words, a duo performance by choreographer Brian Brooks and dancer Wendy Whalen. This season the performance of string quartet music will be the center of attention.

The title of the program will be Healing Modes, whose wording is derived from the music to be performed during the second half. That composition will be Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 132 quartet in A minor, whose extended middle movement was given the title “Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart” (holy song of thanksgiving of a convalescent to the Deity, in the Lydian mode). The first half of the program may be regarded as a series of four “responses” to the “call” of Opus 132. All four of the pieces were written for Brooklyn Rider, and all four were composed by women. The first of them, “Schisma,” was written by Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw and first performed this past June. Two involve reflections on disease and treatment, “Kanto Kechua #2” by Gabriela Lena Frank and “Zeher (Poison)” by Reena Esmail. The final selection, “borderlands…” by Matana Roberts, involves the need for healing the growing “disease” of (in the words of the composer) “archaic American immigration policies.”

This performance will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, November 16. Tickets are on sale for $70 for premium seating in the Orchestra and the front and center of the Dress Circle, $55 for the Side Boxes, the center rear of the Dress Circle, and the remainder of the Orchestra, and $45 for the remainder of the Dress Circle and the Balcony. They may be purchased through a City Box Office event page.

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