Great Artists and Ensembles Series: 2021–2022

Following up on yesterday’s article about the first of the two San Francisco Performances (SFP) subscription series to get under way in January, the second will be the Great Artists and Ensembles Series. This series was conceived to provide a platform on which soloists and ensembles that do not usually join together can explore and present new repertoire. Two of this season’s four programs will feature string quartets, one of which will be joined by a mandolinist and the other will feature the bandoneon. All of these events will take place at 7:30 p.m. on different days of the week.

As usual, all of the concerts will be held in Herbst Theatre. The entrance to Herbst is the main entrance to the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue, located on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. The venue is excellent for public transportation, since that corner has Muni bus stops for both north-south and east-west travel. The specific dates and their related performers are as follows:

Saturday, January 29: Steven Isserlis has been a frequent visitor to San Francisco, appearing as both an SFP recitalist and a soloist with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. (I also particularly enjoyed observing a master class he led at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.) He will be accompanied by Canadian pianist Connie Shih, who has joined him in SFP recitals going back at least as far as 2016. However, she has also been a concerto soloist with major symphony orchestras and has performed in other chamber music settings. Isserlis has prepared a program of three cello sonatas from the twentieth century, which will be performed in reverse temporal order. He will begin with Dmitry Kabalevsky’s Opus 71 in B-flat major. This will be followed by Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 40 in D minor. The program will then conclude with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Opus 19 in G minor.

Saturday, March 12: The first string quartet recital will be given by Brooklyn Rider, whose members are violinists Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen, violist Nicholas Cords, and cellist Michael Nicolas. They will be joined by Avi Avital, who is no stranger to Herbst and is the first mandolinist to be nominated for a Grammy Award in the Classical category. There will be two world premiere performances by the entire quintet, Gonzalo Grau’s “Cazon’s Revenge” and “Arum der Fayer” by Osvaldo Golijov. Avital will also give a solo performance of a prelude by the contemporary Italian composer Giovanni Sollima. The Brooklyn Rider offerings will be an eclectic interleaving of past and present music for string quartet.

Thursday, March 17: Like Brooklyn Rider, the Takács Quartet will also be familiar to those regularly attending recitals in Herbst. The current members are violinists Edward Dusinberre and Harumi Rhodes, violist Ricard O’Neill, and cellist András Fejér. They will be joined by Julien Labro on bandoneon. Labro made his SFP debut on October of 2017, performing in a duo recital with guitarist Jason Vieaux. This season’s program has not yet been finalized, but it will include new works by Bryce Dessner and Clarice Assad.

Friday, April 15: Jazz trumpeter Sean Jones will present a program entitled Dizzy Spellz. The selections will explore the cultural and spiritual crossroads of the African diaspora focusing on the life and music of Dizzy Gillespie to tell the story of the jazz it ultimately produced. Jones’ combo will include pianist Zaccai Curtis, Boris Kozlov on bass, and drummer Obed Calvaire. However, performances will also feature turntablist Wendel Patrick, as well as tap dancer Brinae Ali, who is also a vocalist and a flutist.

Subscriptions are now on sale for $250 for premium seating in the Orchestra and the front and center of the Dress Circle, $200 for the Side Boxes, the center rear of the Dress Circle, and the remainder of the Orchestra, and $160 for the remainder of the Dress Circle and the Balcony. Subscriptions may be purchased online in advance through an SFP Web page. Orders may also be placed by calling the SFP subscriber hotline at 415-677-0325, which is open for receiving calls between 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. When single tickets go on sale, they may be purchased by visiting the specific event pages. The above dates provide hyperlinks to the appropriate Web pages.