Old First Concerts: October, 2022

With most of the season-opening events taken into account, we can begin to look forward to the October offerings. As of this writing, Old First Concerts has arranged six programs for that month, four on Sunday afternoons and two on Friday evenings. The month of October has not yet been added to the CONCERTS pull-down menu. However, they can be found on the Upcoming Concerts Web page, which includes hyperlinks to the individual event pages.

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, October 2, 4 p.m.: The month will begin with a solo recital by pianist Jason Chiu. His program will be framed by familiar offerings by male composers. Within that frame, however, he will draw attention to three nineteenth-century female composers from three different countries. The first of these will be one of the first professional virtuoso pianists of that century, the Polish composer Maria Szymanowska. Chiu will play her nocturne in the key of B-flat major. She will be followed by the better-known German composer, Fanny Mendelssohn. She will be represented by the first of the four pieces in her own Songs Without Words collection, her Opus 8, which was only published posthumously. The remaining female will be the French composer Cécile Chaminade with a performance of her Opus 153, which she called “Caprice-Impromptu.” The program will begin with Ferruccio Busoni’s finger-busting reworking of the Chaconne movement from Johann Sebastian Bach’s D minor solo violin partita (BWV 1004). The Chaminade selection will be followed by her French contemporary Maurice Ravel, who will be represented by his “Jeux d’eau.” The program will then conclude with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 57 (“Appassionata”) sonata in F minor.

Friday, October 7, 8 p.m.: Story and Song will bring together three vocalists accompanied by cello and two pianists. The vocalists will account for three different ranges: soprano (Winnie Nieh), mezzo (Nikola Printz), and bass-baritone (Sidney Chen). They will present the world premieres of two short operas, “Journeys” by Davide Verotta and “The COVID Bake-Off” by Monica Chew. The program will then conclude with a selection of new songs and a vocalise composed by Shawne Anell Workman.

Sunday, October 9, 4 p.m.: Four of the members of the Wooden Fish Ensemble will return to Old First. They will be Thomas Schultz (piano), Terrie Baune (violin), Ellen Ruth Rose (viola), and Sarah Hong (cello). The last Wooden Fish program at Old First was live streamed in February of last year. It featured the world premiere of Hyo-shin Na’s “Weaving Variations” performed by Baune and fellow violinist Ilana Blumberg. This composition will be revisited, this time with Baune performing with violist Rose. All four of the musicians will present the world premiere of Na’s “Quadrangle of Light,” completed last year. They will conclude the program with Morton Feldman’s “Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello.”

Sunday, October 16, 4 p.m.: Strobe calls itself the “only dedicated oboe quartet in the US.” Oboist Laura Griffiths performs with Stephanie Bibbo (violin), Caroline Lee (viola), and Krisanthy Desby (cello). The title of the program will be Double Fantasy, which reflects on the two works that will begin the program. The composers of those works will be Benjamin Britten (“Phantasy Quartet”) and Ernest John Moeran (“Fantasy Quartet”). The remainder of the program will turn to ragtime compositions by Vincent Russo (“Bay Bridge Rag”) and Neal Desby (“Golden Gate Rag”). [added 9/8, 4:50 p.m.:

Monday, October 17, 7:30 p.m.: The Earplay new music chamber ensemble will present a program entitled Dream Sequence. This is the title of a composition by Andrew Imbrie, and it will be performed in recognition of the centennial of his birth. The program will also include works by Hyo-shin Na, Tyshawn Sorey, and Fred Lerdahl.]

Friday, October 21, 8 p.m.: Another group returning to Old First will be Ensemble for These Times(E4TT), which last appeared at Old First this past October. This group is a trio led by soprano Nanette McGuinness, joined by Margaret Halbig on piano and Abigail Monroe on cello. The title of the program will be CelesTrios, which will account for two types of offerings. The first of these will mark the fifteenth anniversary season of the group with the premiere of “Celebration 15” by Elena Ruehr. The rest of the program will be devoted to trios composed by Tina Davidson, David Garner (a co-founder of E4TT), Arthur Gottschalk, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Yaz Lancaster, and Bohuslav Martinů. These will involve different combinations of instruments provided by guest artists: violinists Otis Harriel and Mia Nardi-Huffman, pianist Dale Tsang (former E4TT member), and cellist Doug Machiz. The concert will be preceded by a talk delivered by Garner, which will begin at 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, October 23, 4 p.m.: The month will conclude, as it began, with a solo piano recital. Stephen Porter has prepared a program entitled Beethoven and Buddhism: The Final Piano Sonatas. The title refers to three sonatas with consecutive opus numbers: Opus 109 in E major, Opus 110 in A-flat major, and Opus 111 in C minor. Between these offerings, Porter will read selections from a diary that Beethoven kept. He has selected passages that show the composer’s fascination with Indian religion and philosophy. [added 9/30, 2 p.m.:

Tuesday, October 25, 8 p.m.: Pianists Jerome Kuderna and Jed Distler will give a performance of Gustav Mahler's ninth symphony in D major, playing a four-hand arrangement of the orchestral score by Kurt Woss.]