Sunday, January 23, 2022

Old First Concerts: February, 2022

As of this writing, the schedule for next month’s Old First Concerts (O1C) will be a modest one, confined to the first weekend of the month with performances on both Friday evening and Sunday afternoon. Both concerts will continue to be “hybrid,” allowing both live streaming and seating in the Old First Presbyterian Church at 1751 Sacramento Street on the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue. Seating will remain 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, February 4, 8 p.m.: The Circadian String Quartet of violinists Monika Gruber and David Ryther, violist Omid Assadi, and cellist David Wishnia will return to O1C with a program entitled Fanny and Felix. As the title suggests, the program will be devoted to the Mendelssohn siblings, playing a string quartet by each of them. The opening selection will be Fanny’s quartet in E-flat major, and the intermission will be followed by Felix’s Opus 80 quartet in F minor.

Sunday, February 6, 4 p.m.:  The Sierra Ensemble is a trio consisting of violinist Matthew Vincent, Janis Liberman on horn, and pianist Marc Steiner. Their program will begin with the world premiere of a trio they commissioned, composed by Richard Aldag with support by the InterMusic SF Musical Grant Program and with additional support from the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, and San Francisco Grants for the Arts. The other trio for this combination of instruments to be performed will be the Opus 44 trio by English composer Lennox Berkeley. In addition, Steiner will play selections from the Opus 61d collection of twelve short pieces by Charles Koechlin. Vincent and Stein will conclude the program with Johannes Brahms’ Opus108 (third) violin sonata in D minor.

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