Old First Concerts: January, 2022

This past week Old First Concerts announced the programs it will be presenting during the first month of the New Year. As of this writing five concerts have been planned. All of them continue to be “hybrid,” allowing both live streaming and seating in Old First Presbyterian Church limited to 100 tickets, all being sold for $25 (no reduced rate for seniors or students). Hyperlinks to the event pages (which include hyperlinks for streaming) will be attached to the date and time of the performances as follows:

Friday, January 7, 8 p.m.: Pianist and Bay Area native Solomon Ge will make his San Francisco recital debut. This will be the latest program to be co-presented with the Ross McKee Foundation. Ge is also a composer, and his program will include a performance of his “Threnody.” The first half of the program will be the “traditional” portion, beginning with Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 808 third “English” suite in G minor, followed by Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 90 sonata in E minor. Ge will play his “Threnody” between two twentieth-century compositions, Maurice Ravel’s Sonatine and Sergei Prokofiev’s Opus 83 (seventh) sonata in B-flat major, the second of the three “War” sonatas.’’

Saturday, January 8, 8 p.m.: Slow Wave is the trio of clarinetist Kyle Beard, violist Justine Preston, and pianist Naomi Stine. Their name indicates a preference for the lower registers produced by slower frequency oscillations. In 2019 the trio performed the premiere of Bay Area composer Brett Austin Eastman’s “Paraphrase;” and they will revisit that music on next month’s program. They will also present works by other Bay Area composers: JooWan Kim, Emma Logan, and Kyle Hovatter. In the context of the recent compositions, they will play Kalevi Aho’s trio for clarinet, viola, and piano.

Sunday, January 23, 4 p.m.: Violinist Basma Edrees and pianist Ava Nazar have prepared a program entitled From Brahms to Piazzolla through Reza Vali. Formerly a student at the Tehran Conservatory, Vali was inspired by the work of Béla Bartók to collect the folk music of his own culture. The program will begin with his arrangement of the Persian folk song “Love Drunk.” The second half will begin with his three “Romantic” songs, composed as an homage to Johannes Brahms. To prepare listeners for Vali’s interest in Brahms, the duo will play Brahms’ Opus 100 (second) violin sonata in A major. The program will conclude with the violin-piano arrangement of Astor Piazzolla’s “Le Grand Tango.”

Friday, January 28, 8 p.m.: Soprano Chelsea Hollow and pianist Taylor Chan are part of a group called Concert Rebels. They have prepared a program entitled Cycles of Resistance. It will explore chronologically poetry and texts of resilience and rebellion throughout the last century and continuing into the present one. The selections themselves will featuring 9 world premieres in 8 languages.

Sunday, January 30, 4 p.m.: Readers probably know that the Ives Collective is managed by cellist Stephen Harrison and Susan Freier, who plays both violin and viola. They are joined by colleagues based on the instrumentation of the works they choose to perform. For this program those colleagues will be violinists Kay Stern and Jeremy Preston and pianist Elizabeth Schumann. The program will examine different aspects of nineteenth-century chamber music. The earliest selection with be Franz Schubert’s D. 581 string trio in B-flat major. This will be preceded by the piano quartet movement in A minor that a young Gustav Mahler composed in 1876. The second half of the program will be devoted to Max Bruch’s piano quintet in G minor.