Old First Concerts: April, 2022

As of this writing, Old First Concerts has announced three recitals for the month of April, two on Friday evenings and one on a Sunday afternoon. All of them 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, April 8, 8 p.m.: Mezzo Laure de Marcellus has prepared a vocal recital based entirely on the music of Pauline Viardot. She will be accompanied at the piano by Albert Urroz, and their selections will draw upon their album Pauline Inspired. I must confess that, to date, my knowledge of Viardot has been limited to a vocal line she composed in 1848 to add to the second (in the key of D major) of Frédéric Chopin’s four Opus 33 mazurkas. This was a vocal treatment that she applied to twelve of Chopin’s mazurkas. She also composed vocal arrangements of instrumental compositions by Johannes Brahms, Joseph Haydn, and Franz Schubert, as well as a generous selection (over 100) of original vocal compositions.

Sunday, April 10, 4 p.m.: Pianist Motoko Honda will present a solo recital entitled The Emergent Piano. She is a member of Hesterian Musicism, a jazz quartet led by Karlton Hester playing both flute and saxophone, along with David Smith on bass and Yunxiang Griswold on pipa, the Chinese version of a lute. Her piano repertoire extends beyond the instrument itself to both prepared piano and the use of a network of electrified pickups. The program will include both solo compositions and improvisational works.

Friday, April 22, 8 p.m.: The month will conclude with a performance by the piano trio whose members are Miles Graber on piano, Mary Artmann on cello, and Kate Stenberg on violin. The program will consist of three piano trios, all composed within the decade between 1914 and 1924. The earliest of these will be Maurice Ravel’s trio, completed in 1914. At the other extreme will be Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 8 (first) trio in C minor, completed in 1923. Between these will be the opening selection on the program, the piano trio that Rebecca Clarke composed in 1921.