Friday, March 22, 2019

Noontime Concerts to Preview Midsummer Mozart

According to my records, the last time I wrote about the Midsummer Mozart Festival was in June of 2017, following a one-year hiatus after the death of Co-Founder George Cleve in August of 2015. At that time I announced that the Festival would consist of a single program, performed on July 24, 2017, held at Old Saint Mary’s Cathedral, the venue that had previously hosted preview concerts for the Festival presented in conjunction with Noontime Concerts. Last summer, on the other hand, concerts took place only in Santa Clara and Sonoma, both beyond the boundaries of my “beat,” which is almost entirely confined to the San Francisco city limits.

This year’s plans for “midsummer” have not yet been announced. However, Noontime Concerts will again host a pair of preview concerts, one at each of the two venues now being used. Curiously, the first of these two concerts will not present any of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Instead, the program will consist of chamber music for piano and strings by Johannes Brahms and Gerald Finzi with Festival Conductor Paul Schrage serving as pianist. The Brahms selection will be his Opus 60 piano quartet in C minor. Schrage will be joined by Robin Hansen on violin, Elizabeth Prior of viola, and Eric Gaenslen on cellos. All four of those musicians will then be joined by violinist Adrienne Sengpiehl and Mark Wallace on bass for a performance of Finzi’s Opus 10 “Eclogue.”

This performance will take place in the sanctuary of Old Saint Mary’s, beginning at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 9. The cathedral is located at 660 California Street, on the northeast corner of Grant Street. There is no charge for admission, but this concert series relies heavily on donations to continue offering its weekly programs.

The second concert will be devoted entirely to Mozart’s music. It will consist of two serenades, both scored for pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns, K. 375 in E-flat major and K. 388 in C minor. Performers will be Laura Griffiths and Ruth Stuart (oboe), Mark Brandenburg and Ann Lavin (clarinet), Deborah Kramer and Patrick Johnson-Whitty (bassoon), and Glen Swartz and Katie Dennis (horn). This will be the May offering for the once-a-month free concerts held on Sunday afternoons at the San Francisco Mint, which is located at 88 Fifth Street. The performance will begin at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 19.

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