Omni Foundation Recital to Pair Guitar and Violin

Guitarist TY Zhang and violinist Strauss Shi (courtesy of the Omni Foundation)

As was observed this past June, seven of the Dynamite Guitars recitals presented by the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts will depart from solo programs in favor of more diverse chamber music. The first of these departures will be presented in a little less than two weeks’ time. It will be a duo recital shared by guitarist Tengyue (TY) Zhang and violinist Strauss Shi.

No details have been provided yet concerning the selections to be performed. It would be reasonable to expect that many of them will be based on arrangements prepared by the players themselves. However, they have a YouTube video that suggests that their repertoire includes Astor Piazzolla’s four-movement suite Histoire du Tango. While this was originally composed for flute and guitar, a violin often substitutes for the flute part. [added 10/3, 8:05 a.m.:

The full program has now been finalized. Histoire du Tango will be the final selection on the program. The entire program will be impressively diverse. At one end of the historical time-line, there will be a performance of the fourth violin concerto (with the guitar providing accompaniment) in Antonio Vivaldi’s Opus 8, Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (the contest between harmony and Invention). That fourth concerto, in the key of F minor, is best known as the “Winter” concerto from The Four Seasons. It will be followed by the K. 141 keyboard sonata in D minor by Domenico Scarlatti, arranged jointly by Strauss and Zhang. Other arrangements of excerpts will include the “Méditation” scene from Jules Massenet’s opera Thaïs (again arranged by both performers) and two selections from stage works by Manuel de Falla, the “Danza Española” from La Vida Breve and the “Ritual Fire Dance” from El amor brujo. Twentieth-century selections will include their arrangement of Zequinha de Abreu’s “Tico-Tico no Fubá” and the fifth of Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras compositions. The one living composer to be included in the program will be Horacio Fernandez with the “João” movement from his Suite Latino-Americana, which he completed in 2020.]

The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 15. The venue will be St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, located at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of the corner of Franklin Street. All tickets are being sold for $60 and may be purchased online through a City Box Office event page. Note that Create-Your-Own subscriptions are still available, providing a 14% discount for a package of four or more concerts. These packages are available by calling 415-242-4500.