Next month will see the launch of a new concert series initiated by pianist Peter Grunberg. Many readers probably know Grunberg for the many insights he has offered in the pre-concert talks he has given for the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). He is also artist-in-residence for the LIEDER ALIVE! concert series, for which his home served as the venue for the annual fundraising gala this past April. For this new series of recital offerings, entitled The 20/20 Salon, Grunberg will again open the house that he shares with his husband Wyatt Nelson.
Grunberg will serve as pianist for this series of twenty intimate gatherings. He will be joined by both local and visiting guest artists. All concerts will be held on Monday evenings, except for the very first, which will take place on a Tuesday. Each program will trace a parallel path to the SFS program that will be performed later in the week. In addition every program will feature music by Ludwig van Beethoven to mark the 250th year of his birth. Drinks and canapés (prepared by Nelson) will be offered after the performance, providing an opportunity for further discussion. Each event will start at 6:30 p.m. with the music beginning at 7 p.m. Specifics for the three programs to be presented next month are as follows:
Tuesday, January 7, Wise Words and Wienerwalzer: The guest artists will be tenor Christopher Colmenero and baritone Mitchell Jones. Each will perform one of the songs from Poems of Emily Dickinson by Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT), originally composed for soprano Renée Fleming. The Beethoven selection will be the Opus 79 piano sonata in G major. The SFS concert for the week will begin with the overture to Hector Berlioz’ opera Benvenuto Cellini; and Grunberg will play Franz Liszt’s “Bénédiction et serment” (blessing and oath), based on two of the motifs from the opera. The SFS program will also include a selection of Gustav Mahler’s settings of texts collected in the Des Knaben Wunderhorn anthology of German folk poetry. The music for the setting of “Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt” (St. Anthony of Padua’s sermon to the fish) was reconceived as instrumental music in the third (scherzo) movement of Mahler’s second (“Resurrection”) symphony; and Grunberg will play a piano arrangement of that movement. The program will conclude with a performance of Johannes Brahms’ Opus 39 collection of sixteen waltzes.
Monday, January 13, Youth: The guest artist will be pianist Jeffrey LaDeur, who will join Grunberg in a four-hand transcription of Richard Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll,” which MTT will conduct that week. In addition they will play Julia Wolfe’s “East Broadway,” scored for toy piano and boombox. Grunberg will also play Wolfe’s “Earring” for solo piano. The program will begin with two sonatas both composed early in the lives of their respective composers, the second of Beethoven’s Opus 2 sonatas in A major and Alban Berg’s Opus 1 sonata.
Monday, January 20, Spirit: The guest artist will be violinist Helen Kim. Grunberg will accompany her in a performance of Jean Sibelius’ Opus 106, a set of five country dances. The contemporary perspective will be Jörg Widmann’s “Sonatina facile,” an extravagant take on one of Mozart’s simplest compositions for solo piano. This program will be framed by two consecutive Beethoven piano sonatas, beginning with Opus 81a (“Les Adieux”) in E-flat major and concluding with Opus 90 in E minor.
The Grünberg-Nelson residence is located in the Forest Hill Extension at 16 Edgehill Way. All tickets are being sold for $45. There is a single Eventbrite event page, which enables the purchase of tickets for any combination of the January performances.
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