Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Choices for May 13–14, 2023

The second weekend of this month will also be a busy one. It will somewhat busier than its predecessor (whose article included the Old First Concerts performance on Friday, May 12); but there will still be some hard choices to be made. Specifics are as follows:

Saturday, May 13, 3:30 p.m., Episcopal Church of the Incarnation: This will be the second of the two concerts scheduled by Sunset Music and Arts for this month (the first having been scheduled exactly one week earlier). This will be a “musical sendoff” program presented by the San Francisco Youth Chorus before it departs for the Anaheim Heritage Choral Festival and Disneyland Performing Arts. This will be an eclectic program that blends the classical and world music repertoire with jazz and musical theater tunes. Admission will be by donation with a suggested amount of $15-35 dollars per family. A PayPal Web page has been created for making donations in advance; but donations will also be accepted at the door for cash, QR code, or check. The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation is located at 1750 29th Avenue, about halfway between Moraga Street and Noriega Street.

Saturday, May 13, 7:30 p.m., Red Poppy Art House: The program to be performed this Friday for Old First Concerts will be repeated. Mezzo Melinda Becker will again join the Friction Quartet, whose members are violinists Otis Harriel and Kevin Rogers (sharing first chair), violist Mitso Floor, and cellist Doug Machiz. It has been roughly a year since I have heard anything about activities at the Poppy (which I used to attend regularly before the pandemic); and I gather from the Web site that activities are still ramping up gradually. The Poppy is located at 2698 Folsom Street on the northwest corner of 23rd Street. Ticketing is being handled through an Eventbrite event page. “Early bird” tickets, purchased in advance before the end of the day on Thursday, May 11, will be sold for $20. After that, the price of general admission tickets will be $25 or $30. Seating is limited, and the Eventbrite site provides information about how many tickets are still available for purchase.

Sunday, May 13, 7:30 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall: As has already been reported, this will be the last of the three performances performed by the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) during the second week of the month.

Saturday, May 13, 8 p.m., Lakeside Presbyterian Church: This will be the spring program of new compositions prepared by the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra, following up on the fall program presented this past October. The title of this program will be In Case of Emergency, Press M for Music. Once again, the summary of the new works to be presented is as follows:

Mark Alburger raises the curtain with a setting of the Creation from the book of Genesis. Justine Leichtling’s Object Relations takes us through a week in psychoanalysis, and beyond. In Emergency Guidelines, Vance Maverick tells a dream about facing danger. Hussein Al-Nasrawi’s California Dreams tells of the beauty and nature of California. Stardust sings of forbidden flowers in Les Fleurs Interdites. In a scene from John Beeman’s opera, Ishi sings the Wood Duck’s Love Tale. Scott Sterling presents evocative and Melodious Bugling.

Lakeside Presbyterian Church is located at 201 Eucalyptus Drive, just off Highway 1 near Stonestown. Tickets will be sold only at the door. General admission is $25 with a sliding scale available for students and seniors. Further information is available by calling 707-474-7273.

Sunday, May 14, 2 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall: The next Chamber Music concert presented by SFS musicians will encompass an impressive diversity of instruments. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Johannes Brahms but with an unexpected twist. The first selection will be a brass sextet in E-flat minor. Having been unable to track down the score for this specification, I can only conjecture that this will be an arrangement  of one of the eleven chorale preludes (Opus 122, published posthumously) originally composed for organ, possibly prepared by Will Sudmeier. This will be followed by the somewhat more familiar  C minor string quartet, the first of the two quartets published as Opus 51. To serve as an “overture” to Brahms, the first half of the program will conclude with the Opus 61 trio for horn, oboe, and piano composed by his contemporary, Heinrich von Herzogenberg. The program will begin with “something completely different, a duo for clarinet and bass composed by Morton Gould entitled “Benny’s Gig.” This will be performed by Jerome Simas (clarintet) and Stephen Tramontozzi (bass); and, presumably, Simas will honor the spirit of Benny Goodman.

As is always the case with Chamber Music programs, seating is limited to the Orchestra, Boxes, Terraces, and Loge. The price is $40 for all tickets. They may be purchased online through the event page for this program on the SFS Web site, by calling 415-864-6000, or by visiting the Box Office in Davies Symphony Hall, whose entrance is on the south side of Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street. The Box Office is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday. The Box Office will also open only for tickets to this performance two hours before the concert begins.

Sunday, May 14, 3 p.m., Herbst Theatre: The final Chamber Music San Francisco (CMSF) recital will be a duo performance by cellist Alisa Weilerstein and pianist Inon Barnatan. This will be the traditional annual Mothers’ Day concert presented by CMSF. The program will begin with the second of the two Opus 102 cello sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven, composed in the key of D major. It will conclude with Rachmaninoff’s Opus 19 sonata in G minor. Between these will be two less familiar sonatas, Benjamin Britten’s Opus 65 and the cello sonata by Manuel de Falla. Most readers probably know by now that Herbst is located in the Veterans Building on the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and McAllister Street. Tickets are being sold for $40, $50, and $70. They may be purchased online through a City Box Office Web page.

Sunday, May 14, 4 p.m., Kanbar Performing Arts Center: This will be the final program offered by the 2022–2023 Volti season. It will feature the world premiere of a newly-commissioned work entitled “Words Cast Shadows” by Resident Composer Mark Winges and the United States premiere of “Aletheia” by Lithuanian composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė. The program will also highlight two past Volti commissions, “In the Rain Shadow” by Eric Tuan and a movement from the Ochre cycle by Caroline Shaw, alongside “Given Sound” by Trevor Weston. The Kanbar Performing Arts Center is located at 44 Page Street, a short walk from the Van Ness Muni Station. Ticket prices are $40 for adults, $35 for seniors over the age of 65, and $15 for students, artists, and employees of arts organizations. They may be purchased online through a tix event page, which adds a $1.50 fee. Those purchasing tickets can select between picking them up at the box office or printing them at home.

Sunday, May 14, 4 p.m., Noe Valley Ministry: Noe Music has also prepared a program for the celebration of Mother’s Day. The title will be The Power of Creation: A Mother’s Day Celebration; and it will feature the San Francisco Girls Chorus performing alongside world-class female artists and activists. The program will feature a newly commissioned work by pianist Cava Menzies. Menzies will also be one of the performers, along with violist (and co-Artistic Director of Noe Music) Meena Bhasin, Mexican singer Diana Gameros, Iranian singer Marjan Vahdat, jazz singer Jackie Gage, Syrian-American singer Naima Shalhoub, and harpist Destiny Mohammed. The Noe Valley Ministry, is located at 1021 Sanchez Street, between 23rd Street and Elizabeth Street. Tickets are being handled through a Noe Music event page. $60 seats are available for the VIP Reserved section. General Admission is $45 with a $15 rate for students.

 

John Pizzarelli and his wife Jessica Molaskey (photograph by Steve Freeman, courtesy of Encore Communications2.0)

Sunday, May 14, 7:30 p.m., Venetian Room: The final Mother’s Day celebration will be “completely different.” The Venetian Room of the Fairmont San Francisco will host a Pizzarelli Family Reunion concert. This will also be the final program in the Bay Area Cabaret Season. The program will be led by guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli. He will be joined by his wife Jessica Molaskey, who is also a singer. The third performer will be their daughter, Maddie Pizzarelli, who is a songwriter as well as a singer. The selections will probably come, for the most part, from the Great American Songbook; but it is worth noting that father John has recorded tribute albums to Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Richard Rodgers, and Paul McCartney, which accounts for an impressive diversity of styles. Fairmont San Francisco is located on Nob Hill at 950 Mason Street, between California Street and Sacramento Street. Tickets are being sold for $70 with a $30 rate for those age 30 and under. Tickets may be purchased online through a City Box Office event page.

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