Old First Concerts: December, 2020

If the calendar for this month’s Old First Concerts (O1C) events is on the sparse side, next month may be even sparser. December is usually a busy month at Old First Presbyterian Church, with a wide assortment of performances honoring sacred occasions of different faiths as well as secular offerings. However, as of this writing, only two concerts have been scheduled, both of which will be live-streamed through YouTube. (I should note, as an aside, that my wife and I have been following these concerts on television, rather than computer monitor. Our xfinity service includes a YouTube app, which includes a highly-effective search tool.) As usual, any changes in current plans will be updated through both this Web page and the Facebook shadow site. The dates are hyperlinked to O1C Web pages, which, in turn, provide links to both the appropriate YouTube Web page and a separate Web page for the program book. Specifics are as follows:

[updated 12/3, 2:40 p.m.: Time of performance changed:

Saturday, December 5, 7 p.m.]: When it comes to what I have called “the Jewish Side of the Holiday Season,” my heart belongs to Veretski Pass at Old First. Violinist Cookie Segelstein likes to say of their offerings, “This is not your grandmother’s klezmer. It is her grandmother’s klezmer.” Next month O1C will try “something completely different” with the San Francisco Yiddish Combo. Led by cellist Rebecca Roudman, the group is a quartet, whose other members are a rhythm section of Jason Eckl on guitar, Alex Farrell on bass, and Josh Mellinger on percussion. Each of those musicians has a different background; so the quartet’s take on klezmer incorporates influences from jazz, blues, folk, and even hip-hop. (Your grandmother and her grandmother should be prepared to brace themselves.)

[added 11/30, 2:15 p.m.:

Sunday, December 13, 7 p.m.: Once again O1C will celebrate the season with a Choral Holiday Special program. Participating choirs will include the Ragazzi Boys Chorus, the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir, Musae, and others to be announced. Program specifics will be provided at a later date.]

[updated 12/3, 2:40 p.m.: Time of performance changed:

Friday, December 18, 7 p.m.]: Pianist Daniel Glover will present a solo recital of compositions that also exist(ed) as orchestral works. In addition, all four of the works he will perform have some connection to Ludwig van Beethoven (noting that this concert will take place two days after that composer’s 250th birthday):

1. The most explicit “Beethoven connection” will be The Opus 37 (third) piano concerto in C minor. Glover will play the solo transcription of the first movement created by Charles-Valentin Alkan and, as an “added bonus,” he will play the cadenza composed by Amy Beach.
2. More ambitious will be the fantasia that Franz Liszt composed based on three themes from the Opus 113 incidental music for August von Kotzebue’s play The Ruins of Athens. Liszt composed this for piano and orchestra but subsequently created versions for both solo piano and two pianos.
3. A different approach to fantasia can be found in John Corigliano’s “Fantasy on an Ostinato,” which he composed in 1985 for the seventh Van Cliburn Competition. The ostinato is taken from the rhythm and harmonic progression of the Allegretto (second) movement of the Opus 92 (seventh) symphony in A major. Corigliano deconstructed this into a set of patterns, and the performer can decide on both the duration of each pattern and also the number of times it is repeated.
4. Finally, the program will begin with a “premonition” of Beethoven’s music. The second of Muzio Clementi’s Opus 34 piano sonatas in G minor may have begun as a symphony. More interesting is that it obsessively uses the rhythmic pattern best associated with Beethoven’s Opus 67 (fifth) symphony in C minor, which was composed about a decade later!

[added 11/30, 2:25 p.m.:

Saturday, December 19, 7 p.m.: Another familiar offerings will be the return of the annual Wintersongs program presented by Kitka and Director Shira Cion. The program will feature songs ranging from rousing Slavic folk carols to lush, meditative Eastern Orthodox sacred choral works, Baltic pagan incantations for the return of the Sun Goddess, Caucasus Georgian Alilos (hallelujahs), and Yiddish songs for Chanukah. Traditional pieces will be woven together with new folk song arrangements and original compositions by Kitka members and contemporary American and Eastern European composers, all inspired by the customs, beauty, and mystery of wintertime.]

[added 11/19, noon:

Sunday, December 20, 4 p.m.: Golden Bough, another seasonal regular, will return. Their repertoire includes rare versions of Celtic songs of winter, as well as their unique take on better known Christmas Carols. The performers are Margie Butler, Paul Espinoza and Kathy Sierra. In addition to providing vocals, they are all instrumentalists backing themselves on an array of rare and more common acoustic instruments including; Celtic harp, penny-whistle, violin, octave-mandolin, mandolin, accordion, guitar, harmonica, recorder and bodhran.]