SFP: “Back-to-Back” Recitals in November

Pianist Stephen Hough (photograph by Sim Canetty-Clarke, courtesy of SFP)

At the middle of this month, San Francisco Performances (SFP) will provide its contribution to the California Festival with two back-to-back recitals, both featuring British performers. The first will be a solo piano recital by Stephen Hough, whose program will include one of his own compositions. The following evening will see the return of the Castalian Quartet, which made its SFP debut in November of 2021. Their new offering will be “Awake,” recently composed for them by Mark-Anthony Turnage.

Both of these performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Herbst Theatre, which, as most readers know by now, is on the ground floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. This venue is excellent for public transportation, since that corner has Muni bus stops for both north-south and east-west travel. Program specifics for the two dates are as follows:

Tuesday, November 14: The title of Hough’s own composition is “Partita.” The rest of the program will be devoted to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. “Partita” will be followed by a set of compositions by Franz Liszt, beginning with the Tre sonetti di Petrarca (three sonnets of Petrarch) and concluding with the “Dante Sonata,” taken from the second “year” of the Années de pèlerinage (years of pilgrimage) collection. Most likely, these five pieces will constitute the second half of the program. The first half will provide the twentieth-century selections, beginning with the Cant màgics (magic songs) collection compiled by Federico Mompou in 1920. This will be followed by Alexander Scriabin’s Opus 53 (fifth) piano sonata, composed in 1907. This marked the beginning of his composing single-movement sonatas without an overall key specification. The first half of the program will conclude with Claude Debussy’s three-movement Estampes (prints) suite, completed in 1903.

Ticket prices are $80 (premium Orchestra and front and center Dress Circle), $70 (remainder of Orchestra, all Side Boxes, and center rear Dress Circle), and $60 (remaining Dress Circle and Balcony); and they may be purchased through an SFP secure Web page. As available, single tickets will be sold at the door with a 50% discount for students and a 20% discount for seniors. Single tickets may also be purchased by calling 415-392-2545.

Wednesday, November 15: Both violinist Sini Simonen and violist Ruth Gibson are currently on maternity leave. They will be replaced by violinist Sean Lee and violist Natalie Loughran, performing with Castalian Quartet members Daniel Roberts on violin and Steffan Morris on cello. “Awake” will be the central work on their program, which will begin with Leoš Janáček’s first string quartet, given the name “Kreutzer Sonata,” since it was inspired by the narrative of Leo Tolstoy's novella The Kreutzer Sonata. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 130 quartet in B-flat major, concluding with the Opus 133 “Grosse Fuge.” For this program ticket prices are $70 (premium Orchestra and front and center Dress Circle), $60 (remainder of Orchestra, all Side Boxes, and center rear Dress Circle), and $50 (remaining Dress Circle and Balcony); and they may again be purchased through an SFP secure Web page.