Old First Concerts: July, 2022

The four recitals being presented by Old First Concerts this month will be followed by another four over the course of the next month. Three of the programs will feature piano performances: one a solo recital and the other two duo programs with a violinist. By way of a sharp contrast, the month will then conclude with a brass quintet.

All of the offerings 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. All tickets will still be 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:

Sunday, July 10, 4 p.m.: For the first duo recital, pianist Elizabeth Dorman will accompany violinist Kenneth Renshaw. This will be a “three centuries” program, beginning in the early eighteenth century with the Chaconne movement that concludes Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1004 (second) solo violin partita in D minor. Dorman will then join Renshaw for the remaining three selections. The first of these will be Gabriel Fauré’s Opus 13 (first) violin sonata in A major, completed in 1876. The program will then advance to the twentieth century with the nocturne that Lili Boulanger composed for violin and piano in 1911. The program will then conclude in the early nineteenth century with Franz Schubert’s D. 895, his “Rondo Brillante” in B minor.

Sunday, July 17, 4 p.m.: Violinist Basma Edrees and pianist Ava Nazar have prepared a program to highlight the music of the contemporary Iranian composer Reza Vali. Each half of the program will begin with “instrumental songs” that Vali composed. The program will open with an arrangement of the folk song entitled “Live Drunk,” which will be followed by Johannes Brahms’ Opus 100 (second) violin sonata in A major. The intermission will be followed by Vali’s Three Romantic Songs, composed as an homage to Brahms. The last of these songs is entitled “Tango Johannes,” and the spirit of the tango will conclude the program with a performance of Astor Piazzolla’s “Le Grand Tango.”

Friday, July 22, 8 p.m.: The solo piano recital will be performed by Lee Alan Nolan, who has given his program the title From Rags to Mystics. As might be guessed, the program will highlight several of the ragtime compositions of Scott Joplin, including “Reflection Rag” and “Palm Leaf Rag.” Less familiar are likely to be the rags composed by two women. “The Thriller Rag” was written by May Aufderheide, and it will be coupled with Irene Giblin’s “Chicken Chowder” rag. The best-known “mystic” on the program will be Alexander Scriabin, represented by his Opus 64 (“White Mass”) sonata. Like its predecessor, the Opus 62 (sixth) sonata, Opus 64 lacks a key signature; and it features a six-note chord that Scriabin called the “mystic chord.” That spirit will also reside in the minimalism of Lubomyr’s “Pockets of Light.” There will also be more recent works by composers that plan to attend the performance. The program will begin with “Schematic Nocturne” by Bruce Bennett, currently a Lecturer at San Francisco State University (SFSU). This will be followed by “Three Studies in Uneven Meters,” composed in 2011 by Vera Ivanova and selected as the 2013 Earplay Donald Aird Composers Competition winner. [6/30, 3:05 p.m.: This last concert of the month has been cancelled.

Friday, July 29, 8 p.m.: The brass quintet will be the ensemble Brass Over Bridges, whose members are trumpeters Joseph Brown and Ari Micich, trombonists Esther Armendariz and Will Baker, and Erika Miras on horn. Unless I am mistaken, this was the last ensemble to give a recital in the Morrison Artists Series at SFSU prior to the COVID lockdown. The program will feature the West Coast premiere of Kevin Day’s “Fantasia III.” Other composers to be represented will include Stefan Cwik and Reena Esmail.]