Ohlsson to Bring Two All-Brahms Programs to SFP

Garrick Ohlsson (photograph by Dario Acosta, courtesy of San Francisco Performances)

Pianist Garrick Ohlsson gave his first recital for San Francisco Performances (SFP) in 2004. Unless I am mistaken, his last appearance took place during the 2014–2015 season, when he prepared two solo recitals devoted entirely to the music of Alexander Scriabin covering, among other selections, all of that composer’s piano sonatas. This season SFP will be presenting Ohlsson for the sixth time. Once again he will present a pair of recitals, turning his attention entirely to Johannes Brahms.

As is the case with Scriabin, Brahms wrote for the solo piano throughout his entire career. Following those compositions chronologically, the attentive listener comes to appreciate how those pieces reflect the evolution of the composer’s thoughts about making music. Ohlsson has not tried to examine the Brahms repertoire strictly in chronological terms. Rather, each of his two recitals will provide vivid examples of Brahms’ changing perspectives where composition is involved. Both will devote particular attention to his approaches to writing variations and the evolving changes in his composition of shorter pieces.

The first program will include Brahms’ earliest venture into short-form composition, his Opus 10 collection of four “ballades,” composed in 1854 and most likely first performed by Clara Schumann. These will be contrasted by the Opus 76 set of eight pieces, composed in 1878 at a time when Brahms had hit his stride in composing works for full orchestra. Chronologically, these two compositions may be viewed as “bookends” for the variations selections (although Ohlsson will probably not present then that way). The earlier variations will be the two sets published together as Opus 21, the earlier having been composed in the same year as the Opus 10 ballades and the later written in 1857. These will contrast with the more mature approach to variations form found in the Opus 35 set of variations on Niccolò Paganini’s 24th caprice for solo violin in A minor. This is a far more extensive study of the diversity of variation, structured as two books, each of which begins with the theme followed by fourteen variations.

The second program will present a similarly sophisticated approach to variations. Opus 24, composed in 1861, is a set of seventeen variations based on the third movement from George Frideric Handel’s HWV 434 harpsichord suite in B-flat major. However, with a nod to Handel’s baroque “roots,” Brahms follows the final variation with a massive fugue filled to the brim with dazzling contrapuntal technique. The short pieces, on the other hand, will come from the very end of Brahms’ life, the Opus 117 set of three intermezzi (1892) and the Opus 118 collection of six pieces (1893). This program will also present the earliest of the Brahms compositions in the set, the Opus 2 (second) piano sonata in F-sharp minor, composed in 1853.

Both of these programs will take place at Herbst Theatre on a Thursday evening beginning at 7:30 p.m., February 21 for the first recital and March 28 for the second. The entrance to Herbst Theatre is on the ground floor of the Veterans Building, located on the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and McAllister Street. Tickets are on sale for $75 for premium seating in the Orchestra and the front of the Dress Circle, $60 for the remainder of the Orchestra, the remainder of the center Dress Circle, and the Boxes, and $45 for remaining seats in the Dress Circle and the Balcony. Tickets are being sold only for individual recitals. However, there is a single event page for the pair of recitals, which brings up a menu from which the individual dates may be selected.