Choices for February 9–10, 2019

One week from this coming Saturday may mark the first day that will require concert-goers to make hard choices. However, the way in which things seem to be taking shape, the first busy weekend will be the second weekend in February. Both Saturday and Sunday will be serving up diverse offerings that may well require some hard and serious thinking. Specifics for the alternatives on both of these days are as follows:

Saturday, February 9, 4 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church: The fourth of the seven concerts in the 2018–19 season of the San Francisco Early Music Players will present the a cappella chamber choir Cut Circle. This group was founded in 2003 by its Director, Jesse Rodin. Their repertoire specializes in late medieval and Renaissance choral music. The title of the program will be To Love Another: Music by Du Fay, Ockeghem & Josquin; and the three Bay Area performances are being presented in association with Stanford Live. The first half will consist entirely of songs by Josquin des Prez and Ockeghem. The second half will present the Mass setting Missa “Se la face ay pale” by Guillaume Du Fay, preceded by his polyphonic setting of the song that provides the thematic basis for the Mass setting.

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church is located at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of the corner of Franklin Street. Single ticket prices will range between $52 and $12. In addition, there are membership and subscription options for attending three or more concerts with discounts of up to 25%. All information about ticketing options has been summarized on a single Web page. Tickets may also be purchased by calling 510-528-1725.

Saturday, February 9, 7:30 p.m., Taube Atrium Theater: British violinist Daniel Hope will make his first appearance as the new Music Director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra. He will present a program entitled Recomposed, referring to the principal work to be performed, Max Richter’s Recomposed: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons. The remainder of the program will be devoted to British composers. Those from the twentieth century will be Ralph Vaughan Williams (“Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis”) and Peter Warlock (the Capriol suite). The opening two selections will both be arrangements by Benjamin Britten. A strings-only version of the second movement from Robert Schumann’s WoO 23 violin concerto in D minor will be preceded by Britten’s arrangement of Henry Purcell’s G minor Chacony.

The Taube Atrium Theater is part of the Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera, which is located on the fourth floor of the Veterans Building at the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and McAllister Street. Prices for single tickets are $29, $49, and $61. Tickets may be purchased online through a City Box Office event page.

As in the past, there will be an Open Rehearsal. It will be held on Wednesday, February 6, beginning at 10 a.m. The venue will be Trinity+St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, located at 1620 Gough Street on the northeast corner of Bush Street. All tickets for Open Rehearsals are sold for $15, payable at the door.

Saturday, February 9, 7:30 p.m., Herbst Theatre: The next guitar recital to be hosted jointly by San Francisco Performances and the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts will see the return of the duo of Brazilian-born brothers Sérgio and Odair Assad. As usual their program will consist of original music and arrangements for both solo guitar and duo performance. Herbst Theatre is on the ground floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue, on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. Tickets are on sale for $60 for premium seating in the Orchestra and the front of the Dress Circle, $50 for the remainder of the Orchestra, the remainder of the center Dress Circle, and the Boxes, and $40 for remaining seats in the Dress Circle and the Balcony. Tickets may be purchased online in advance through a City Box Office event page.

[added 2/2, 12:15 p.m.:

Saturday, February 9, 7:30 p.m., Bissap Baobab Village: This is primarily a restaurant in the Mission specializing in African food. However, the second Saturday offers Misión Flamenca, combining dinner with flamenco performance. Music will be provided by vocalist Felix de Lola and instrumentalists Gopal Slavonic and Nuria Rubio. The Cuadro Misión Flamenca dancers are Gina Giammanco, Sandra Durand, and Lea Kobeli they will be joined by guest cuadro dancer Ana Luca Jardim.

Bissap Baobab Village is located in the Mission at 3372 19th Street. Dinner/show packages are available for $35. The easiest way to purchase the package is through a hyperlink on the Facebook Event Web page for this evening offering. Those wishing only to attend the show may do so for only $15. However, tickets will be sold only at the door on a first come, first served basis.]

Sunday, February 10, 3 p.m., McKenna Theatre: The fourth concert in the 2018–2019 season of the Morrison Artists Series, presented by the College of Liberal and Creative Arts at San Francisco State University (SFSU), will be the return of the six-voice a cappella ensemble Nordic Voices. Once again the program will emphasize works by Norwegian composers including a variety of commissioned pieces. The McKenna Theatre is in the Creative Arts Building at SFSU, a short walk from the SFSU Muni stop at the corner of 19th Avenue and Holloway Avenue. Tickets are free but advance registration is highly desirable. Reservations may be made, beginning on January 20, through the event page for this concert. As usual, there will be a pre-concert lecture, which will begin 2 p.m. in Knuth Hall.

Sunday, February 10, 4 p.m., Noe Valley Ministry: The next Noe Valley Chamber Music program will present the St. Lawrence String Quartet, whose members are violinists Geoff Nuttall and Owen Dalby, violist Lesley Robertson, and cellist Christopher Constanza. This group has been ensemble-in-residence at Stanford University since 1998. They will be joined by clarinetist Todd Palmer for the final work on the program, Osvaldo Golijov’s “Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind.” They will also play “Tango alla Zingarerse,” completed by Stanford composer Jonathan Berger in 2016. The remainder of the program will couple Joseph Haydn with Ludwig van Beethoven.

All tickets for this concert are being sold for $60. They may be purchased online through a Brown Paper Tickets event page. Tickets may also be purchased in advance by calling NVCM at 415-648-5236.

Sunday, February 10, 4 p.m., Taube Atrium Theater: This will be the second piano duo recital offered by Other Minds as part of its 2018–2019 season. The pianists will be Maki Namekawa and Dennis Russell Davies, and they will play two arrangements by Dmitri Shostakovich. The first half of the program will be devoted entirely to an arrangement of Igor Stravinsky’s “Symphony of Psalms.” The second half will present Shostakovich’s arrangement of his own fourth symphony (Opus 43 in C minor). General admission will be $40 with a $25 rate for students presenting proper identification at the door. Tickets may be purchased online through a Brown Paper Tickets event page.