Simon Rattle in Berlin: Schoenberg and Stravinsky

Simon Rattle on the cover of one of his Stravinsky albums (from the Amazon.com Web page for the single-disc release)

Readers familiar with the history of music in the twentieth century may accuse me of being a bit prankish in my decision to couple Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky in a single article accounting for performances by the Berlin Philharmonic led by Simon Rattle. Both of them spent the last years of their lives in Los Angeles County. However, as far as I can tell, the two of them were never in the same place at the same time (at least knowingly)! Indeed, the closest they ever came involved the fact that Robert Craft worked with both of them and may well have engaged in conversations in which each asked about the other! Thus, in accounting for the new Rattle anthology released by Warner Classics, I decided to take a compare-and-contrast approach to the two individuals that were clearly leading figures in the history of twentieth-century music.

Sadly, the grounds for comparison are more limited than I would have wished. Stravinsky is represented by only two CDs, while Schoenberg has three, one of which includes music that he arranged, rather than composed. Furthermore, each composer went through a series of stages, each of which involved a different approach to composition; and, in neither case, is the full extent of those stages given a fair shake. However, as is always the case where “the business” is concerned, one must work with what one has; and I shall try to do my best in accounting for both of these “rival” composers on this new anthology.

As is often the case such anthologies, I tend to follow where my strongest memories lead me. Therefore, I would like to begin with Stravinsky’s rather innovative approach to composing symphonies. After his initial undertaking, the 1905 symphony in E-flat (sometimes identified as his Opus 1), Stravinsky put the very idea of a symphony aside for over a decade. After that, each of his compositions had its own unique qualities, which reflected what he thought a “symphony” should be. The first of these was the 1920 “Symphonies of Wind Instruments.” Ten years later he composed the “Symphony of Psalms;” and, in the following decade, he composed the “Symphony in C” (1940) and the “Symphony in Three Movements” (1945).

In the Warner collection, the “Symphonies of Wind Instruments” is situated between “Le Sacre du printemps” and “Apollon musagète.” All three of these were recorded in concerts on dates very distant from each other; and my guess is that the producers (Stephen Johns and Christoph Franke) had a “compare and contrast” album in mind. Nevertheless, these are all early compositions, even though the two ballet scores were recorded using their respective 1947 revisions. (Stravinsky seems to have known how to keep his checkbook healthy when a copyright was about to expire!)

The other three symphonies are grouped on a separate CD but not ordered chronologically. Nevertheless, they do account for the composer’s “later thoughts” about what he wanted a symphony to be; and I, for one, enjoyed listening to how they had been grouped when the CD was pressed. On the other hand, where the ballet scores are concerned, I think that I still prefer listening to the recordings that Stravinsky himself made.

Schoenberg is represented by only three original compositions. However, the first of these is also his longest! Gurrelieder requires both solo vocal and choral resources, and its full duration requires two CDs. I actually purchased this as a two-CD set when it was first released. I felt that listening to this music frequently would be the only way I could get my head around what had struck me as a sprawling undertaking. I never quite succeeded, but there are definitely moments that still send a chill down my spine, particularly when they are sung by Karita Mattila!

Another work that requires a fair amount of exposure before the listener begins to appreciate the content is the first (Opus 9) chamber symphony. This was subsequently rescored for a full orchestra (still keeping “chamber” in the title), published as Opus 9b. Personally, I still prefer the original version; but Rattle seems to have found just the right way to guide the attentive listener through the orchestral version’s plethora of enigmatic cadences. Where that genre is concerned, I was far more satisfied with Opus 34. The full title of this composition (including the parenthesis) is “Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielszene (Drohende Gefahr, Angst, Katastrophe),” which translates as “Accompaniment Music for a Light Play [as in “the interactive play of lights] Scene (Threatening Danger, Fear, Catastrophe).” All of those parenthetical qualities are clearly evident, and one does not need visual stimuli to reinforce them!

The remaining Schoenberg selection is his orchestration of Johannes Brahms’ Opus 25 (first) piano quartet, composed in the key of G minor. Schoenberg clearly had fun in deploying instrumental qualities that one would never encounter in Brahms’ own orchestral undertakings. Nevertheless, it is clear that, in composing the concluding “Ronda alla Zingarese” movement, the composer wanted to have some fun; and I always break out in a grin when Schoenberg deploys a xylophone to add to the “fun factor!”

Schoenberg really did have a sense of humor. (The family car had a horn that was tuned to play the opening motif of his second string quartet.) On the recordings that he made in Berlin, Rattle seems to have an effective grasp on the composer’s full extent of dispositions!

Lamplighters to Present Dickens Musical

Poster from the production discussed in this article (from the City Box Office Web page)

Having presented (as I put it at the end of last month) “Sullivan Before Gilbert” for this month’s performance, next month Lamplighters Music Theatre will depart from both W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan to present Rupert Holmes’ musical, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Those that did not fall asleep in the classroom (either in high school or as undergraduates) probably know that this is the title of Charles Dickens’ final novel, which was left unfinished at the time of his death. Staging this narrative, with or without music, clearly poses some serious challenges.

Holmes rose to those challenges in a particularly innovative way. The narrative itself is basically a whodunit involving a murder, so the climax occurs when the murder is revealed. Holmes decided that, rather than trying to second-guess Dickens’ intentions, he would write multiple versions of the final scene, each revealing the murderer to be a different member of the cast. He then decided that the best way to engage the audience would be to invite them all, at the appropriate moment, to vote on who they think the murderer should be. As a result, Holmes created a “confession song” for each of the characters in the narrative. The Lamplighters production will be staged by M. Jane Erwin, and the Music Director will be Brett Strader. The show will also feature choreography by Vivian Sam.

This production will be given five performances. The venue will be the Presidio Theatre Performing Arts Center, which is located (as one might expect) in the Presidio at 99 Moraga Avenue. Ticket prices are $80, $70, and $65. The evening shows will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 11, Friday, May 17, and Saturday, May 18. The matinees will begin at 2 p.m. on Sundays, May 12 and May 19. The final production will be given a simulcast for a fee of $25. City Box Office has created a single Web page for all performances, including the simulcast option. For those that want to be thorough about the production, all eight of the confessions will be sung at the opening night performance!

Piano Quintets Conclude SFP Chamber Series

Leif Ove Andsnes at his keyboard (photograph by Helge Hansen, courtesy of SFP)

Last night in Herbst Theatre, San Francisco Performances (SFP) concluded its Shenson Chamber Series with a program structured around two piano quintets. Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, who has been giving SFP performances since November of 1994, performed with members of the Dover Quartet (first appearing for SFP in October of 2016), violinist Bryan Lee, violist Julianne Lee, and cellist Camden Shaw. First violinist Joel Link was indisposed and was replaced by Adam Barnett-Hart, first violinist of the Escher Quartet. The first of the quintets performed was Ernst von Dohnányi’s Opus 26, his second quintet in E-flat minor. The intermission was then followed by Johannes Brahms’ Opus 34, the more familiar quintet in F minor.

It would be fair to say that the Brahms quintet is a major icon in the chamber music repertoire. By now I have lost count of the number of times I have heard it in performance, but it never fails to get the juices flowing. If I were to speculate, I might even guess that there is something about the score that brings out the best in the musicians, possibly because, over the course of the composition, every one of them has many opportunities to stand out among his/her colleagues. (Yes, that includes the second violin!) Even with the last-minute substitution, the chemistry exuded by the full ensemble could not have been richer; and I found it a joy to let my eyes wander from one player to another, making note of how each of them could express both individuality and group membership. Last night’s performance was, indeed, “one for the books!”

The Dohnányi selection was another matter. According to my records, I have not encountered one of his pieces in recital since March of 2020, when his Opus 10 serenade in C major was performed in a Music in the Mishkan program. I have been a bit more fortunate in finding recordings of his music; but I am almost certain that Opus 26 was a “first contact” for me. His rhetoric tends to be affable, but what really locked in my attention was the fugue around which the final movement was structured. I really need to get to know this music better in the hope that I shall find it again in future piano quintet recitals!

The program began with Joaquín Turina’s string quartet entitled “La oración del torero” (the bullfighter’s prayer). Curiously, the music was first composed for a quartet of lutes for members of the Aguilar Quartet, formed in 1923 by four of Dr. Francisco Aguilar’s six sons: Paco, Ezequiel, Pepe, and Elisa. As might be expected, the string quartet version receives more performances; and, while I had been familiar with the title, this was a “first contact” experience for me. The music is episodic, traversing a rich variety of dispositions reflecting what must be going through a bullfighter’s mind before he enters the ring. Indeed, the breadth of expressiveness in this music was rich enough that I would hope to encounter another performance of this music sooner, rather than later!

SFIAF to Present Piano-Percussion Improvisation

At the end of last week, this site announced that the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble would present the first concert of this year’s San Francisco International Arts Festival (SFIAF). While the program will introduce an engagingly adventurous repertoire, there will be another concert later in the month that promises to be even more adventurous. This will be the latest production by the New Arts Collaboration (NAC), which describes itself as “an interdisciplinary art project for sound and multimedia.”

Ting Luo in performance (from the SFIAF Web page for this event)

The full title of the program to be presented is KEYSCAPES 2024: New Identity in Improvisation for Piano and Percussion. Percussionist Kevin Corcoran will join forces with three pianists, Ting Luo (curator of NAC), Motoko Honda, and Kevin Lo. The program will consist entirely of improvised performances with a duration of 75 minutes including an intermission.

The performance will begin at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 12. General admission tickets are currently being sold for $25 through an SFIAF Tickkl Web page. The performance will take place in the Mission at the Community Music Center, which is at 544 Capp Street. Admission at the door will be $28.

Noah Haidu Releases Second Standards Album

Jazz pianist Noah Haidu (photograph by Jimmy Katz)

Readers may recall that, a little less that two years ago, Sunnyside Records released Noah Haidu’s Standards album, conceived as a tribute to the Standards Trio that Keith Jarrett formed with Jack DeJohnette on drums and Gary Peacock on bass. As I observed at the time, the release was not, strictly speaking, a trio album, involving a variety of different combinations of players, including four quartet tracks. Furthermore, however much Haidu chose to honor Jarrett, he definitely has a voice of his own, which encouraged the same from the other players on the album.

Earlier this month, Standards II was released. This one really is a trio album, with Billy Hart on drums and bassist Buster Williams, who had appeared on four of the Standards tracks. (This was the same trio that can be found on the SLOWLY: Song for Keith Jarrett album.) Once again, the tunes are, for the most part familiar; and each track lasts long enough to allow for a generous span of exploratory improvisation. Haidu is particularly accommodating in sharing those explorations, a gesture which is particularly rewarded in Williams’ expressively inventive bass work. Hart, on the other hand, is rarely in the foreground; but, when he occupies it, his inventions are just as engaging.

Haidu has stated that he plans to make his Standards Trio “a regular part of my touring schedule.” I would agree with him that inventive elaboration on the familiar can have just as much impact as “original” invention. Indeed, some “originals” are often so exploratory that even the most attentive listener develops a yearning for a more recognizable “frame of reference.” That frame of reference is always clear on Standards II, but there is more than enough vibrant creativity to make for a satisfying experience.

Dave Bass Has a New Trio

Cover design for the album being discussed (from the Amazon.com Web page)

The last time I wrote about jazz pianist Dave Bass was when he released  the third installment in a series of albums entitled simply The Trio. The other members of his trio were Kerry Kashiwagi on bass and Scott Gordon on drums. This past Friday Tiger Turn released his latest album. This is yet another trio album, but the title is Trio Nuevo; and, as of this writing, it is available through an Amazon.com Web page that provides only an MP3 download. As readers may have guessed, this is a new trio album; but Bass is joined by two new players. The bass is now played by Tyler Miles, and Steve Helfand is the drummer.

As usual, Bass is the composer for the lion’s share of the tracks. This includes the latest effort of a “meeting of the minds” with Johann Sebastian Bach (who was no slouch when it came to improvising). The title of the track is “Three Views of Bach;” and, while I am not yet sure of the enumeration, I found the interleaving of Baroque and jazz riffs to be more engaging than I anticipated.

While Bass dominates as composer, there are also highly imaginative tracks based on tunes by Charlie Haden (“Sandino”) and Denny Zeitlin (“Offshore Breeze”). For those that may still be nostalgic for Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, there is a setting of Herman Hupfield’s “As Time Goes By,” which eases its way into the tune. Personally, I rather like the way in which Bass keeps the listener guessing about when the tune will actually show itself explicitly. Ironically, however, such a listener is likely to be disappointed by the time the track concludes, realizing that the tune has revealed itself only through its most telling of its fragments. This implicit approach to familiarity makes for an engaging contrast with the more explicit Bach riffs.

In other words these are tracks that are likely to please particularly attentive listeners. Some might wish to dismiss such an attitude as “snob appeal.” I prefer to call it just “having fun with the music!”

Choices for May 17–19, 2024

The middle of next month will be busy. What is probably most important is the breadth of diversity among the choices. The full breadth of the specifics is as follows:

Friday, May 17, 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., Joe Henderson Lab (JHL), SFJAZZ Center: Pianist and flutist Gaea Schell will lead a quartet. Her selections will be taken from her latest Saphu Records release, In Your Own Sweet Way. The other quartet members are guitarist Jordan Samuels, who serves as leader, John Wiitala on bass, and drummer Greg Wyser-Pratte. This is the second event in a series entitled Generations, but tickets are already sold out for the Thursday performances. As a result, it seems appropriate to provide readers with a “heads-up” account of two few remaining events that are not sold out. Tickets for all events may be purchased through the hyperlinks attached to the dates and times.

1. Saturday, May 18, 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.: The leader of the Todd Cochran Trio is the pianist whose previous work included collaborations with Bobby Hutcherson and Freddie Hubbard. The other members of his trio are John Leftwich on bass and drummer Lyndon Rochelle. JazzTimes has described Cochran’s repertoire as a “deliciously complicated mix of classical influences, free-jazz innovation, progressive fusion complexity, angular art rock, quiet-storming R&B, and Black consciousness.” He has prepared a program that will celebrate his home town (which is San Francisco).
2. Sunday, May 19, 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.: Telemakus is a young pianist from Santa Cruz that will be making his JHL debut. He took his name from Greek mythology and his jazz influences come from Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and Robert Glasper. His debut album Calantha, which was released in 2018, took its name from the off-world colony in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?  Since that time he has released two further albums, and his debut here will present music from his forthcoming release.

Friday, May 17, 7:30 p.m., Center for New Music (C4NM): This will be a full weekend at C4NM, which will begin with a solo recital by violinist Sarah Saviet. She will perform a new work, along with recent compositions by Lisa Streich and Tim McCormack. Her program will also include a performance of music by Iannis Xenakis: “Miika.” For those that do not already know, C4NM is located at 55 Taylor Street, about half a block north of Market Street. Admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members and students. As usual, tickets may be purchased in advance through an Eventbrite Web page. The remaining two performances for the weekend (and, as of now, the rest of the month) are as follows, with Eventbrite links attached to the dates:

1. Saturday, May 18, 7:30 p.m.: David Michalak will return with another program of films. This time he will share the program with a quartet that calls itself the TRI-CORNERED TENT SHOW. Philip Everett leads with a diversity of synthesizers and percussion, along with the electric lapharp and the Xlarinet. Rhythm will be provided by Ray Schaeffer (electric basses), percussionist Anthony Flores, and vocals by Valentina O. Admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members and students.
2. Sunday, May 19, noon: This will be the latest monthly installment of G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|N|O|I|S|E|P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S. This offers the usual opportunity to enjoy vegan pancakes while listening to “bleeding edge” music. As usual, general admission will be $10 with a $6 rate for members and students. Music programming is scheduled to conclude by 2 p.m. The contributing performers and composers will be Heartworm, Dominic Cramp, Liver Cancerr, Ava Koohbor, and Brian Day.

Friday, May 17, 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre: The Chamber Music San Francisco season will conclude with a solo recital by Bruce Liu, who will be making his San Francisco debut. He has prepared an imaginative program in which tradition rubs shoulders with bold innovative strokes. He will begin with Haydn’s only sonata in B minor, Hoboken XVI/32. This will be followed by Chopin’s Opus 35, his second sonata in the key of B-flat major. Probably the most unique offering will be Nikolai Kapustin’s Opus 41 set of variations. This will be followed by six pieces from Jean-Philipe Rameau’s Pièces de clavecin collection. The program will conclude with Sergei Prokofiev's Opus 83, his seventh piano sonata in B-flat major. For those that do not already know, the venue is located at 401 Van Ness Avenue, on the southwest corner of McAllister Street and directly across Van Ness from City Hall. Tickets are available from a City Box Office event page for $35, $45, and $60.

Sunday, May 19, 2 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall: Daniel Stewart will conduct his final concert in his capacity as Wattis Foundation Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. The program will be devoted entirely to a performance of Gustav Mahler’s fifth symphony. This symphony is probably best known for its overall architecture, with a prodigiously long scherzo as the central movement, flanked by pairs of shorter movements on either side. Davies is located at 201 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of Grove Street. (The entrance to both the Box Office and the hall itself is on the south side of Grove.) Tickets are available online through a Web page, which allows for reserved seats in the Loge and Side Boxes for $55 and general admission for $20.

Percussionist and composer Haruka Fujii (photograph by Eriko Watanabe, courtesy of SFGC)

Sunday, May 19, 3 p.m., Concert Hall, San Francisco Conservatory of Music: The San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) will continue its 2023–2024 season with a performance by the SFGC Premiere Ensemble. As usual, Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe will lead the ensemble. They will be joined by percussionist Haruka Fujii, whose new work, “Dareno Chikyu,” will be given its world premiere performance. The program will also include a revival performance of “Belong Not” by Aviya Kopelmann, Moira Smiley’s arrangement of Huddie Ledbetter folksongs, entitled Bring Me Little Water, Silvy, Akira Miyoshi’s “Letters to God,” Michael Barrett’s arrangement of the South African prayer song “Ndikhokhele Bawo,” and the world premiere of Mokale Copeng’s “Toro Ya Alkebulan.” This program will precede an upcoming tour of South Africa. The Concert Hall is in the building at 50 Oak Street. Tickets are available from an Eventbrite event page. General admission is $35, and Supporters will receive special seating with a $45 admission. Students with valid identification will be admitted for $20.

Sunday, May 19, 4 p.m., Calvary Presbyterian Church: The San Francisco Bach Choir, led by Artistic Director Magen Solomon, will give a complete performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 245 St John Passion setting. The tenor role of the Evangelist will be sung by Kyle Stegall, and the worlds of Jesus will be sung by bass Chung-Wai Soong. The other vocalists (who provide “poetic commentary”) will be soprano Michele Kennedy, mezzo Heidi Waterman, tenor David Kurtenbach Rivera, and baritone Nikolas Nackley. The church is located at 2515 Fillmore Street, on the northwest corner of Jackson Street. General admission will be $40 with discounted rates for seniors ($35) and students ($15). There will be no admission charge from those under the age of eighteen. Ticketstripe has created a single Web page for online purchases.

The Chopin-Franchomme Connection

Julien Brocal and Camille Thomas (photograph by Miguel Barreto, courtesy of San Francisco Performances)

Last night in Herbst Theatre, San Francisco Performances presented a Subscriber and Member Concert performed by the duo of cellist Camille Thomas and pianist Julien Brocal. The two of them are currently touring the United States, and last night was their San Francisco debut. They structured their program around an early nineteenth-century relationship that was probably unfamiliar to most members of the audience (myself included).

The more familiar member of that relationship was Frédéric Chopin. As one might guess from Thomas’ appearance, the other member was a cellist, Auguste-Joseph Franchomme. It was for Franchomme that Chopin wrote his last composition, the Opus 65 sonata in G minor for cello and piano. However, Franchomme also made arrangements of Chopin’s piano music for cello and piano. Two of those arrangements were included on the program: the Opus 28, Number 15 prelude in D-flat major and the Opus 34, Number 2 waltz in A minor.

The program also included two other Chopin arrangements. It began with Thomas’ own account of the Opus 28, Number 4 prelude in E minor. The first Chopin selection after the intermission, the posthumous nocturne in B minor, was Mischa Maisky’s arrangement of music originally composed in C-sharp minor. Franchomme was also represented by a nocturne of his own, his Opus 14, Number 1, and his Opus 32 “Air russe varié” (whose thematic source was actually Ukrainian). The program then concluded with the “Hungarian Rhapsody” (Opus 68) by David Popper, a late-nineteenth century composition, which had clearly been influenced by Franz Liszt.

Taken as a whole, the evening was a journey of discovery well worth taken. Those that follow cello recitals were probably familiar with the sonata, but the rest of the program probably served as “first contact” experiences for most of the listeners. Thomas and Brocal provided engaging accounts of every selection, occasionally augmented by verbal commentary that was consistently useful. This was an experience that sustained attention from start to finish, even through the excesses of Popper’s rhapsody! Hopefully, we shall be able to experience a return visit in the near future.

Revisiting Dutilleux and Queyras

Conductor Gustavo Gimeno and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras on the cover of their new Dutilleux album (courtesy of PIAS)

This past Friday, harmonia mundi released a new album showcasing the music of the twentieth-century French composer Henri Dutilleux. This composer displayed a rich command of instrumental sonorities, reflected in this album by his first symphony, composed in 1951, and “Métaboles,” composed in 1964. On the album these works serve to frame a cello concerto, completed in 1970 and given the title “Tout un monde lointain….” (a whole distant world). This is decidedly an “other worldly” composition, with movement titles that evoke enigmas, mirrors, and cosmic swells. Gustavo Gimeno conducts the Luxembourg Philharmonic in all three of these selections, and the concerto soloist is Jean-Guihen Queyras.

That cellist is probably no stranger to those that have followed this site for some time. They are likely to recall him as a member of a piano trio, performing with pianist Alexander Melnikov and Isabelle Faust on violin (all three of whom have a distinctive presence on the harmonia mundi label). According to my records, however, I have not had an opportunity to write about Dutilleux’ music since March of 2017. Nevertheless, with this “return visit,” I easily settled back into the imaginative sonorities that this composer could evoke, while having another rich opportunity to appreciate Queyras enjoying the advantages of a solo turn.

Nevertheless, I must confess that I tend to be more content with “occasional visits” to the Dutilleux repertoire, rather than taking “deep dives.” It is easy to delight in the composer’s prodigiously extensive imaginative qualities in seeking out innovative sonorities. However, when I listen to an album in its entirety, I find myself reflecting on Archy’s cautious warning to Mehitabel about being “too toujours gai!” In other words, over the course of this writing career, I have acquired more than a few Dutilleux albums, all of which amounted to “first contact” experiences. However, after becoming familiar with the content, I almost never returned to it in later periods!

That said, anyone interested in an engagingly imaginative approach to instrumental coloration deserves at least one encounter with Dutilleux’ compositions; and this new album provides an excellent opportunity to get to know at least a few samples from this repertoire.

Choices for May 3–5, 2024

The busy weekend that concludes this month will be followed by a busy weekend that begins next month. This will involve a rather generous diversity of options. Specifics are as follows:

Friday, May 3, 7:30 p.m., Herbst Theatre: San Francisco Performances will conclude its 2023–24 season with a pair of multi-instrumentalists, both of whom are also vocalists. Pekka Kuusisto will alternate between violin and piano, while Gabriel Kahane will alternate his piano work with guitar playing. Any information about repertoire is being kept under wraps and most likely will be announced from the stage.

As most readers probably know by now, Herbst is on the first two floors of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. Tickets are being sold for $70 for premium seating in the Orchestra, the Side Boxes, and the front and center of the Dress Circle, $60 for the center rear of the Dress Circle and the remainder of the Orchestra, and $50 for the remainder of the Dress Circle and the Balcony. They may be purchased through an SFP secure Web page or by calling 415-392-2545.

Friday, May 3, 8 p.m., The Lab: This will be the latest two-set performance to be presented at this venue. The Setting ensemble can best be described as a poly-instrumental trio. Nathan Bowles plays strings, keyboards, and percussion, as well as deploying his collection of tapes. Jaime Fennelly plays harmoniums of different sizes, synthesizers, and a piano zither. Finally, Joe Westerlund deploys a prodigious variety of percussion instruments. The second set will be a duo performance by local musicians Chuck Johnson and Cole Pulice. Johnson contributes an interest in alternate tuning systems, realized through both a pedal steel guitar and experimental electronics. Pulice is a saxophonist, who specializes in solo work and also engages in electroacoustic signal processing.

Admission will be $17 for tickets purchased in advance through the event page. Entry at the door will be $20. As usual, members are entitled to free or discounted admission. The Lab is located in the Mission at 2948 16th Street, a short walk east from the intersection with Mission Street, which serves BART and both north-south and east-west Muni buses.

Friday, May 3, 8 p.m., Old First Presbyterian Church: The Duo Halo musicians are saxophonist Andrew Harrison and Jason Lo on piano. They will present a program entitled (appropriately enough) Imaginary Folksongs for Saxophone and Piano. The title of the program is taken from the title of the opening selection by Stephen Lias. It will also include approaches to Negro spirituals by Florence Price (as arranged by Harrison) and “Rhapsody on Japanese Folksongs” by Ryota Ishikawa. The other composers on the program will be Lori Laitman (“Journey”) and Jennifer Jolley (“Lilac Tears”).

As will be seen below, this will be the first of two weekend events presented by Old First Concerts. These offerings will continue to be “hybrid,” allowing both live streaming and seating in Old First Presbyterian Church at 1751 Sacramento Street on the southeast corner of Van Ness Avenue. The hyperlink for live streaming will be found on the event page.

Saturday, May 4, 3 p.m., Presidio Theatre: The major work on the next program by the New Century Chamber Orchestra, led by Music Director Daniel Hope, will be Leonard Bernstein’s “Serenade after Plato’s ‘Symposium.’” The guest soloist will be pianist Awadagin Pratt, who will begin the program with Jessie Montgomery’s “Rounds,” scored for piano and string orchestra. The other selections on the program will be David Diamond’s “Rounds,” scored only for strings, and Florence Price’s “Adoration” in Paul Bateman’s arrangement for violin and strings. As might be guessed, the Presidio Theatre is located in the Presidio at 99 Moraga Avenue. Ticket prices are $70, $55, and $30. City Box Office has created a Web page for selecting and purchasing seats.

Saturday, May 4, 7:30 p.m., Incarnation Episcopal Church: Sunset Music and Arts will begin the month with the San Francisco Girls Chorus Level III and Soloist Intensive Program. As is usually the case, this will be a diverse program covering a wide breadth of music history. At one end there will be the “Witches Scene” from Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas.  At the other will be offerings by much more recent composers, such as Caroline Shaw and Jeff Newberry. The Director is Terry Alvord, and accompaniment will be provided by pianists Chelsey Mok and Christopher Hewitt. The church is located in the Sunset at 1750 29th Avenue. General admission is $25 with a $20 rate for students and seniors. Tickets may be purchased online through an Eventbrite Web page. There will also be two more events taking place in this concert series, both on the same date, one week from today, as follows:

1. Saturday, May 11, 3 p.m.: This will be the annual San Francisco Youth Chorus Holiday Concert. Program specifics have not yet been provided. All tickets are based on donations with a suggested amount between $15 and $35 per family. Payment will be accepted at the door.
2. Saturday, May 11, 7:30 p.m.: The final recital of the month will be performed by Brazzissimo. This is a ten-piece brass chamber music ensemble consisting of four trumpets (of different sizes), four trombones (including a euphonium), one French horn, and one tuba. The program will include works explicitly composed for these resources, as well as arrangements of classical, jazz, Latin, and contemporary compositions. Ticket prices are the same as those for May 4, and they may be purchased through their own Eventbrite Web page.

Saturday, May 4, 8 p.m., Lakeside Presbyterian Church: The title of the next program to be presented by the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra is Celestial Voyages. The overall theme for the program has been described as “musical narratives about life, death, and the cosmic ballet between the celestial and the terrestrial.” The program will conclude with the Requiem composed by Michael Orlinsky, setting texts in Latin, English, and French. The program will begin with Mark Alburger’s King David Suite. This will be followed by “International Wonders” by Hussein Al-Nasrawi, James Cook’s “Chamber Overture,” and “Sun & Moon: Eclipse Variation,” Michael Cook’s “response” to the “call” of the recent solar eclipse.

The performance will take place at Lakeside Presbyterian Church. This is located at 201 Eucalyptus Drive on the southwest corner of 19th Avenue in Merced Manor. General admission will be on a sliding scale with $25 as the preferred amount. [added 4/25, 11:35 a.m.; updated from one week earlier:

Sunday, May 5, 10 a.m., YouTube: The next Omni On-Location video will be available for viewing. The location will be Dortmund, Germany; and the guitarist will be Tomasz Zawierucha. The program will consist of only four selections, two of which are arrangements of piano music. Specifics are as follows:

1.  Isaac Albeniz' Opus 202, “Mallorca,” arranged for guitar by Zawierucha
2. Francisco Tárrega’s arrangement of Frédéric Chopin’s “Raindrop” prelude (Opus 28, Number 15)
3. The mazurka composed by Alexandre Tansman
4. “Invocacíon y Danza” by Joaquín Rodrigo
   

The URL for the video is <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2gDCh-KTKE>, and the video can be viewed at any time after 10 a.m.]

Sunday, May 5, 4 p.m., Mission Dolores Basilica: The Golden Gate Men’s Chorus (GGMC) will join forces with the Peninsula Women’s Chorus (PWC) for a performance of Giacomo Puccini’s setting of the full Mass text, although it tends to be known under the title “Messa di Gloria.” By way of an introduction, PWC will perform three pieces on their own: “Noche de Liuvia” by Sid Robinovitch, Alice Parker’s arrangement of “How Can I Keep From Singing,” and the world premiere performance of “Night into Dawn” by Teresa Wong.

Mission Dolores Basilica is located in the Mission at 3321 16th Street on the southwest corner of Dolores Street. Ticket prices are $30 for general admission, $50 for premium seating, and $15 for students, payable only at the door. Tickets may be purchased online through a Web page on the GGMC Online Store.

Sunday, May 5, 4 p.m., Old First Presbyterian Church: The Ives Collective will make its next regular visit to Old First Concerts. Founding members Susan Freier (violin and viola) and Stephen Harrison (cello) will be joined by violinist Fritz Gearhart, violists Clio Tilton and Evan Buttemer, and Gwendolyn Mok on piano. The program will begin with a quartet composed by Germaine Tailleferre, followed by a piano quartet in G major by nineteenth-century composer Emilie Mayer. The concluding selection will be Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 515 string quintet in C major. Once again, those unable to attend will be able to benefit from the hyperlink for live streaming to be found on the event page. There will be two more Old First Concerts events during the month of May as follows:

1. Sunday, May 19, 4 p.m.: Harpist Kaitlin Miller will give a solo recital co-presented with the Bay Area Chapter of the American Harp Society. Program specifics have not yet been announced. However, this program will be available for live streaming through the event page.
2. Monday, May 20, 7:30 p.m.: The Earplay ensemble will return to present a program entitled New Conversations. It will begin with a new work for instrumental sextet and voice composed by Erin Gee on a commission by the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University. The program will conclude with another work, recently completed and scored for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, and piano by Byron Au Yong. There will also be two duo selections: Sami Self’s “Syriac Fugato,” scored for violin and viola, and George Walker’s “Perimeters” for clarinet and piano. This program will also be available for live streaming through the event page; however, during my last viewing, I found that the pre-concert talk (which usually begins at 6:45 p.m.) was not available for streaming.

Sunday, May 5, 5 p.m., Noe Valley Ministry: The twelfth annual Liederabend season will conclude with a performance by mezzo Kindra Scharich. Piano accompaniment will be provided by Jeffrey LaDeur, and they will be joined by cellist Jennifer Culp. Ten different composer will contribute to the program. The earliest of these will be Franz Schubert (“Auf dem Strom,” D. 943) , and the most recent will be Leonard Bernstein (“Dream with me,” from the musical Peter Pan).

As usual, the performance will begin at 5 p.m., and doors will open at 4:30 p.m. The Noe Valley Ministry is located at 1021 Sanchez Street, between 23rd Street and Elizabeth Street. Single tickets for all concerts are $80 for reserved seating, $40 for general admission and a $25 discounted rate for students, seniors, and working artists. These may be purchased in advance through Eventbrite.

The Bleeding Edge: 4/22/2024

Once again, the activities that have already been reported will outnumber the new announcements. This time, however, only two venues are involved:

1. The Old First Concerts series at Old First Presbyterian Church with performances tonight and on Friday evening
2. The Center for New Music with performances on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday

The remaining events are all at familiar venues as follows:

Friday, April 26, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: This week’s installment of Other Dimensions in Sound, curated by reed player David Boyce, will feature two sets by another reed player, likely to be familiar to most readers of this site. Those sets will be curated by Rent Romus, who plays a variety of saxophones and flutes. For the first set, “From Fire,” he will be joined by Ivy Woods on bass and drummer Eli Streich, along with a guest appearance by Boyce on tenor saxophone. The second set will be taken by his Spirit Quartet, whose other members are drummer Elihu Knowles, Quinn Gerard on bass, and guitarist Jakob Pek. The venue is located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street. As always, there is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book.

Friday, April 26, 8:30 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: Guitarist and composer Mike Gamble will lead a trio, whose other members will be Lisa Mezzacappa on bass and drummer Machado Mijiga. For those that do not already know, Bird & Beckett is located at 653 Chenery Street, a short walk from the Glen Park station that serves both BART and Muni. Once again, the information provided by the venue is limited. Readers would do well to assume that the price of admission will probably be $20 in cash for the cover charge. Given that only a limited number of people will be admitted, reservations are necessary and can be made by calling 415-586-3733. The phone will be answered during regular store hours, which are between noon and 6 p.m. on Tuesday through Sunday.

Saturday, April 27, 7:30 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: Following their appearance at The Lab last month, saxophonist Phillip Greenlief and drummer Scott Amendola will given another duo performance to celebrate their 30 years of collaboration. Once again, the selections will include tracks from their recent Clean Feed Records release, Stay with it. Specifics about the venue are again sparse. Readers can refer above to the details for the Friday performance.

Sunday, April 28, 7 p.m., Make-Out Room: Readers probably know by now that this is the venue for the Jazz at the Make-Out Room series. This time the venue will host the San Francisco Lost Signal Concert. There will be four sets of artists who redefine the boundaries of sound and performance: AntiRock Missile (ARME), Striations, Thomas Dimuzio, and Lime Rickey International. There will be an entry fee of $15 at the door. As usual, the Make-Out Room is located in the Mission at 3225 22nd Street.

ECM Releases Fred Hersch’s Latest Solo Album

courtesy of DL Media Music

According to my records, my last account of an album of performances by jazz pianist Fred Hersch appeared on this site at the very end of 2022; and it involved the recording of his performances with esperanza spalding at the Village Vanguard on October 19, 20, and 21 of 2018. The end of last week saw the release of Silent, Listening, his latest solo album with ECM based on recordings made in Lugano in May of 2023. This album serves up seven new original works, one of which (as might be expected) bears the title of the album. The other tracks include “The Star-Crossed Lovers” (also known as “Pretty Girl”), composed jointly by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, Russ Freeman’s “The Wind,” “Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise” by Sigmund Romberg, and Alec Wilder’s “The Winter of My Discontent.”

The advance material for this album cited Hersch’s “in-the-moment spontaneity.” This applies to his interpretations of the composed selections as much as it does to the tracks of the originals. Indeed, it would not surprise me to learn that none of those originals were documented in notation; and, when the polyphony gets thick (as it often does), I wonder if anyone would be skilled enough to transcribe such a document.

Over the course of my many years of listening to Hersch albums, the musicologist in me has finally given way to the in-the-moment listener. In other words, rather like a photograph, any Hersch track amounts to a “snapshot” of how he chose to be making music at a particular time. Were he to perform the piece again at a later time, aspects of the tune may still be there; but, in all probability, the “snapshot” would not be identical. In that respect I regret not having had more opportunities to listen to Hersch in performance, allowing me to appreciate such in-the-moment listening to a greater extent.

Absent those opportunities, I have found that, each time I listen to a recording, I discover new perspectives emerging from each of the album tracks, meaning that this new Silent, Listening album allows for in-the-moment experiences of its own with each subsequent encounter.

SFS: A Journey of Chamber Music Discovery

1971 photograph of Astor Piazzolla with his bandoneon (photographer unknown, public domain, from Wikimedia Commons)

This afternoon in Davies Symphony Hall, the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) presented the latest installment in its Chamber Music Series. The program was very much a journey of discovery. Indeed, in spite of my rather extensive collection of recordings, I could come close to only one of the selections on the program, but not with this afternoon’s instrumentation. The one work on the program that was familiar to me was the Histoire de Tango suite by Astor Piazzolla.

I first encountered this music in 2013 on an Avie album with that same title, back when I was writing for Examiner.com. The first four tracks of the album were devoted to Piazzolla’ suite performed  by Augustin Hadelich on violin, accompanied by guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas on guitar. However, this afternoon I learned that it had originally been composed for flute and guitar. This afternoon’s flutist was Associate Principal Blair Francis Paponiu. In the absence of a guitarist, she was accompanied by Principal Harp Katherine Siochi.

They limited their performance to the first two movements of the suite, “Bordel 1910” and “Café 1930.” Given my own background, I appreciated being able to listen to this music with instrumentation that was closer to what the composer had originally specified. The chemistry between the two musicians could not have been better; and, even when limited to only those two movements, the listening experience was generously satisfying.

The opening selection was also a departure from what one expects at a chamber music recital. Like Histoire du Tango, Danzas de Panama is basically a four-movement suite; but the composer, William Grant Still, scored it for string quartet. The performers included two members of the Second Violin section: Kelly Leon-Pearce, holder of The Eucalyptus Foundation Second Century Chair, and John Chisholm. They were joined by violist Gina Cooper and Barbara Bogatin, holder of the Phyllis Blair Cello Chair. Each movement of the suite had its own unique approach to rhythms (always in the plural); and the performance stressed a poignant reminder that Still’s music is more likely to be the object of discussion, rather than the object of performance.

The second half of the program was devoted entirely to a trio composed by Eric Ewazen in 1992. Once again, this was a departure from the usual expectations, since the work was scored for trumpet (Ann L. & Charles B. Johnson Chair holder Guy Piddington), violin (Principal Dan Carlson, holding the Dinner & Swig Families Chair), and piano (Marc Shapiro). A skeptical listener might have worried about problems of balance; but Piddington had two mutes at his disposal, allowing him to adjust his dynamics depending on his engagements with the other two instruments. The music itself tended to be engaging, even if there were moments that had me worried about being a bit too long in duration.

By the end of the program, I came away feeling that this journey of discovery was, indeed, a journey worth taking.

Outsound Presents: May, 2024

Next month will see only two performances in San Francisco offered by Outsound Presents. Both of these will be LSG (Luggage Store Gallery) New Music Series events; and they will both take place during the first half of the month. As regular readers probably know by now, LSG is located at 1007 Market Street, just off the corner of Sixth Street and across from the corner of Golden Gate Avenue and Taylor Street. Admission is on a sliding scale between $10 and $20. Program specifics are as follows:

Wednesday, May 1, 8 p.m.: The first LSG concert will again consist of two sets, each somewhat less than an hour in duration. The first set will be taken by Beep Beep Liam. This is a trio named after Liam Rea Donaldson, a vocalist, who also plays electric guitars. Backup is provided by two other guitarists, Jas Strade and Emmalee Johnson, the latter playing bass. The second set will be taken by Loose Diamonds, a quartet whose members are Brian Lucas, Joe Imwalle, Kevin Van Yserloo, and Bill Evans. Any information about instrumentation has not yet been provided. My guess is that any resemblance to the piano work of the Bill Evans that died in September of 1980 will be purely coincidental!

Wednesday, May 15, 8 p.m.: Both sets of the second LSG concert will feature Suki O’Kane performing with her electronic gear in two duo performances. The title of the first set is “The Moth Stays.” She will be joined by vocalist Rae Diamond, who will also be playing viola. O’Kane will alternate between electronics and gamelan. Her partner in the second set, entitled “Mit Darm,” will be Edward Schocker. One of his instruments will be the shō, a Japanese reed instrument that may be better known by some readers as the Japanese version of the Chinese sheng. He also has his own installation of glass instruments. For this set O’Kane will provide only electronics.

Did Messiaen know about Charles Schultz?

Check out the Sunday Comics section of today's Chronicle for Olivier Messiaen's favorite Peanuts cartoon!

Simon Rattle in Berlin: Gustav Mahler

I suppose that, where Gustav Mahler was concerned, I went into the new Warner Classics box set of the recordings that Simon Rattle made with the Berlin Philharmonic with mixed expectations. Unless I am mistaken, my first CD recording of the performing version of that composer’s tenth symphony, a major undertaking involving Deryck Cooke, Berthold Goldschmidt, Colin Matthews, and David Matthews, involved Rattle conducting the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. That recording was made in 1980, and I am not sure that things have changed very much since then. Indeed, my side-by-side comparison of the track durations bordered on the uncanny!

On the other hand, I was a bit surprised that the Berlin recordings did not account for the full canon of the symphonies (particularly since those recordings consisted only of symphonies). The “complete tenth” is one of only four selections. On the instrumental side there are its predecessors, the ninth, and the fifth. The remaining offering is the second (“Resurrection”), which brings in soprano Kate Royal, mezzo Magdalena Magdalena Kožená (Lady Rattle), and the Berlin Radio Choir.

Sadly, none of these really got the juices flowing. To be fair, however, when it comes to listening to Mahler, I am probably not the best source where recordings are concerned. I had the good fortune to be able to attend a rich number of San Francisco Symphony concerts during the full tenure of Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT). Over that period, he put a generous amount of attention into Mahler’s music; and (somewhat to my surprise, I must confess) I found myself rapt with attention at each of those performances. (Unless I am mistaken, I was fortunate enough to attend every one of those programs!) Perhaps, after so much in-concert experience, my appreciation of the vast number of subtle details was so strong that I am less tolerant of the shortcomings of recordings.

Mind you, getting to know Mahler’s music involves an extended learning curve. I began ascending that curve with record albums I first received when I was still in high school, so I was well prepared when MTT came to San Francisco. If the Rattle-Berlin recordings to not “make the cut” of my personal standard, that may have more to do with my personal listening experiences than with the approaches that Rattle took in leading the Berlin Philharmonic. Indeed, when EMI Classics compiled its Mahler: The Complete Works anthology, that Rattle-Berlin recording was the one selected to account for the tenth symphony!

Ana Vidović’s Omni Recital for This Year

Guitarist Ana Vidović (courtesy of the Omni Foundation)

Readers may recall that, almost exactly a month ago, guitarist David Russell made one of his regular visits as a recitalist for the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts. Last night another “Omni regular” returned to St. Mark’s Lutheran Church. This time the soloist was Croatian guitarist Ana Vidović, who has been giving performances here since her debut in 2002.

She began her program with an ambitious undertaking. As a tribute to guitarist Julian Bream, she performed her own solo arrangement of Joaquín Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez.” This was an impressive undertaking. It also showed her discretion in eliding any of the instrumental passages that simply could not be accommodated by her instrument. Nevertheless, even with those “gaps,” her account of the spirit of the music could not have been more engaging, providing an energetic start to the impressive journey she prepared for her program.

Her other undertaking as an arranger involved a selection of four of the keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, which were performed immediately after the intermission. These were more accommodating to arrangement. What struck me as interesting, however, were the ways in which her guitar work allowed for subtleties of expressiveness that would probably not have been consistent with a keyboard interpretation. There is a certain irony behind her technique, given that there are any number of influences of Spanish guitar music scattered across Scarlatti’s many keyboard sonatas!

The only other arranged selection on the program involved the efforts of a fellow Croatian. The Rodrigo concerto was followed by a transcription of Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1006 violin partita in E major by Croatian cellist Valter Dešpalj. (In all likelihood, Vidović came to know Dešpalj during her studies at the Academy of Music, affiliated with the University of Zagreb.) Vidović’s approach to Bach was a faithful one, but one could appreciate how her expressiveness was based on her command of guitar technique. (Mind you, any effort to imitate a violin would have been ludicrous!)

The other composer to received “extended attention” was Federico Moreno Torroba. Vidović played both his three-movement sonatina and his Suite Castellana. Between these selections she played the three-movement La Catedral suite by Agustín Barrios. I first came to know this music through Xuefei Yang’s Guitar Favorites album and definitely appreciated the opportunity to listen to it in recital. (Yang made her most recent Omni appearance in March of last year.)

As might be expected, the audience would not let Vidović leave without an encore. She turned to another familiar number in the guitar repertoire, Leo Brouwer. She played “Un Dia de Noviembre” (a day in November). This amounted to a brief reflection on days growing shorter, which concluded the engaging journey of discovery of the entire program with a bit of quietude.

LCCE to Present First SFIAF 2024 Concert

LCCE musicians Michel Taddei, Stacey Pelinka, and Phyllis Kamrin (from the SFIAF Web page for this program)

Following an opening reception on April 28, performances for this year’s San Francisco International Arts Festival (SFIAF) will get under way on Wednesday, May 1, and will run through Sunday, May 12. Not wasting any time, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (LCCE) will present the first concert event of the Festival. Working with Artistic Director Matilda Hofman, three of the instrumentalists of the ensemble have joined forces to present an eclectic program entitled Borealis. Those performers will be violist Phyllis Kamrin, Michel Taddei on double bass, and flutist Stacey Pelinka. Full program details have not yet been provided; but, on the basis of the information I have been able to gather, I can state with some certainty that one of the selections will be a solo performance by Taddei of Tom Johnson’s “Failing, A Very Difficult Piece For Solo String Bass.” The program will also include compositions by Kaija Saariaho, Erwin Schulhoff, and Chelsea Komschlies.

There will be no charge for admission to this recital. The performance will begin at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 2. There will be no intermission, and the duration is expected to be about 50 minutes. The venue will be El Rio, which is located in the Mission at 3158 Mission Street. An RSVP is highly recommended, and tickets may reserved through the Festival event page for this recital. SFIAF has created a Web page to account for all of the music events; but readers should be cautioned that the order of the list is alphabetical, rather than chronological!

Simon Rattle in Berlin: Nineteenth Century

Having accounted for the First Viennese School, my second series about Simon Rattle’s recording history with the Berlin Philharmonic will examine the nineteenth century. This amounts to a blend of depth and breadth that is likely to influence serious listeners in different ways. The only composer that merits three CDs is Johannes Brahms with an account of all four of his symphonies. This makes Brahms the “leader of the pack,” reinforced with a CD of his Opus 45, entitled A German Requiem. Rattle delivers satisfying accounts of all five of these compositions; and I enjoyed listening to bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff, my first encounter in several years. Nevertheless, all of this music is so familiar to me that I never encountered an approach to interpretation that would make me sit up and take notice.

Sadly, I reacted about the same way to the two selections that were intended for staged performances but were recorded in concert. The earlier of these is the 2009 recording of the complete score for Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 71, his music for the two-act ballet The Nutcracker. The other was a complete studio recording of Georges Bizet’s Carmen, recorded in 2012. Perhaps I have just been saturated by too many encounters with both of these works in performance!

On a much more positive account, I welcomed the presence of the two CDs that account for the tone poems of Antonín Dvořák. My encounters with these pieces have been so few that I am not even sure I have heard all four of them in the past. However, because there are so few of them, I fear that, for many listeners, they may be dwarfed by all of the other selections in this collection. Nevertheless, these are likely to be the selections to which I shall be returning in the future!

The only other composer that is allocated more than one CD is Anton Bruckner. The collection includes the first recording to be made of a “completed” account of that composer’s final (ninth) symphony. The score for the fourth movement was “made whole” through the prodigious efforts of Nicola Samale, Giuseppe Mazzuca, Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs, and John Phillips. I wrote about the recording when it was first released, but that was back during my tenure with Examiner.com. So encountering it in this collection amounted to a “return visit.” The only other Bruckner CD is the fourth symphony. While Rattle had recorded a performance of this symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra based on subsequent scholarly efforts by Cohrs, his Berlin recording goes back to the 1886 version edited by Leopold Nowak.

Another performance that is seldom encountered is that of Franz Liszt’s “Faust Symphony.” This amounts to an imaginative extension of the tone poem. In his title Liszt explicitly described the composition as consisting of three character sketches, one for each movement. In “order of appearance” those characters are Faust, Gretchen, and Mephistopheles. While I appreciate having this recording in my collection, I fear that Liszt’s project looked better on paper than as a listening experience.

Where narrative is concerned, Hector Berlioz’ Opus 14 “Symphonie fantastique” and Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” (even with Maurice Ravel’s orchestration) are more convincing. Each of these pieces has a “partner” on its respective CD. The Berlioz album concludes with “La mort de Cléopâtre;” and “Pictures” is coupled with the second symphony (in B minor) by Alexander Borodin, followed by the “Polovtsian Dances” from his Prince Igor opera.

If my reaction to this side of Rattle’s repertoire tends to be somewhat lukewarm, I have not yet given up on him. The lion’s share of his attention is situated solidly in the twentieth century. In my plan it will take six articles to cover that content. Watch this space for further developments!

Center for New Music: May, 2024

Next month’s events at the Center for New Music will begin much earlier than they did this month. Indeed, they cannot be any earlier than any other month, since performances will begin on the very first day of the month! As most readers probably know by now, the Center is located at 55 Taylor Street, half a block north of the Golden Gate Theater, which is where Golden Gate Avenue meets Market Street. Each of the dates will be hyperlinked to an Eventbrite event page through which tickets may be purchased as follows:

Wednesday, May 1, 8 p.m.: The month will begin with a performance by a trio that calls itself THIS S#^T IS UGLY (politely abbreviated at “TSIU”). The performers are Thomas Dimuzio on live electronics, Phillip Greenlief alternating between tenor saxophone and B-flat clarinet, and Wobbly (Jon Leidecker) dealing with technological miscellany. They describe their improvisations as a “sound bath of fire and ice in rainbow colors.”  As usual, general admission will be $15, with the reduced $10 rate for students and C4NM members.

Saturday, May 4, 7:30 p.m.: This will be a two-set evening with each set accounting for a different genre. Paul Kogut is a jazz guitarist based in New York. He will devote his set to his current project, which he describes as “reimagining classic Grateful Dead tunes through new harmonic lenses.” The other set will present violinist Niko Omar Durr performing music by Kaija Saariaho and John Corigliano. General admission will be $15, with the reduced $10 rate for students and C4NM members.

Sunday, May 5, 4 p.m.: This will be an album release program presented by Fire at the Plantation House (FatPH), which will probably include live performances of tracks from the album. General admission will be $15, with the reduced $10 rate for students and C4NM members.

Friday, May 17, 7:30 p.m.: The final program of the month (at least as of this writing) will be a solo violin recital by Sarah Saviet. She describes approach to performances as choreographic: “the hands moving through space, the arc of an elbow, the resistance of fingers pulling threads and strings.” She will perform one of her own recent compositions along with “Miika” by Iannis Xenakis and recent works by Lisa Streich and Tim McCormack. General admission will be $15, with the reduced $10 rate for students and C4NM members.

Simon Rattle: The Berlin Anthology on Warner

All does not seem to be well in the Warner Classics garden where the new box set of the recordings that Simon Rattle made with the Berlin Philharmonic are concerned. I first learned about this anthology about a month ago and had no trouble acquiring a “press copy” of the 45-CD collection. Finding evidence of the album on the Web was another matter.

When I first received the box, the only evidence I could find was on the Web site for Presto Music, which gave the release date as April 12. However, Presto is based in the United Kingdom, making it unclear how (if at all) they would account for both price and shipping to customers in the United States. Fortunately, as of today, the box is available for purchase from Collectors’ Choice Music. According to their Web page, the item is on backorder; but it is available for purchase with an expected delivery date of June 7. Meanwhile, the only sign of the collection on Amazon.com is an MP3 Web page offering 76 tracks (far from the total number) for download. In the immortal words of Kurt Vonnegut, “So it goes!”

In any event, now that Collectors’ Choice has provided a useful site (even if it will require more than a modicum of patience), I feel I can begin to provide readers an account of the content of this second significant Rattle anthology. Readers probably know by now I like to divide the large quantities in box sets into “mind-sized chunks,”  usually based on historical periods. In this case there will be only three of those “primary” chunks: the First Viennese School, the nineteenth century, and the twentieth century. However, the last of those chunks is also the largest. As a result, I have chosen to subdivide it into what I have decided would be a viable set of categories:

1. Mahler
2. Schoenberg and Stravinsky
3. French
4. Russian
5. United Kingdom
6. remainder

While this may strike as arbitrary, it is worth noting that the first category is the largest. The second, on the other hand, allows for a compare-and-contrast approach (given that, when both of them lived in Los Angeles, neither had anything to do with the other)! Having established my plan, I shall now begin with the first “primary chunk.”

Ironically, only three of the Viennese composers are included in the Berlin collection: Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Schubert. It would not surprise me if this was the result of a collective decision that there are more than enough opportunities to listen to the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and I definitely agree with that decision! Nevertheless, the account of the other three composers is still a modest one.

Haydn received a fair amount of attention in the collection of recordings that Rattle made with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. The Berlin collection accounts for five symphonies, all in the first volume of the Hoboken catalog. The entries are 88 (G major), 89 (F major), 90 (C major), 91 (E-flat major), and 92 (G major). Only the last of these has a “nickname,” the “Oxford” symphony. The collection also includes the Hoboken I/105 sinfonia concertante in B-flat major. Presumably, the concertante performers are all Berlin Philharmonic musicians: Toru Yasunaga (violin), Georg Faust (cello), Jonathan Kelly (oboe), and Stefan Schweigert (bassoon). Taken as a whole, this accounts for two CDs in the collection, both providing straightforward and satisfying accounts on all tracks.

Another two CDs are devoted to a single Beethoven composition, his Opus 72 Fidelio opera. This amounts to a “bare bones” recording, rather than a document of a staged performance. As a result, there is no need for an “orchestral interlude” (usually the third of the “Leonore” overtures) between the two scenes of the second act. I must confess that only one of the vocalists was familiar to me, Thomas Quasthoff in the role of Don Fernando. Personally, I do not think that Rattle’s approach to interpretation changed any of my thoughts about this music (most of which are not particularly positive).

Far more satisfying is the account of Franz Schubert’s final symphony, his D. 944 (numbered as either the eighth or the ninth, depending on the source you consult) in C major. It is known as “The Great,” probably for the extended scope of each of the four movements. There are any number of perfectly good accounts of this symphony to be found on recordings. My own preferences tend towards the past, with a particular fondness for Wilhelm Furtwängler. Nevertheless, Rattle delivered a solid interpretation that never allowed my attention to waver.

Two Richard Strauss/Maurice Ravel Pairings

Conductor Karina Canellakis (from the SFS Web page for the concert being discussed)

Yesterday afternoon saw Karina Canellakis return to the podium of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) for this week’s concert given three performances. Her program was particularly interesting for its overall structure. Each half concluded with a major composition by Maurice Ravel. The first of these was his D major piano concerto with a solo part to be played by the left hand alone, composed in 1930. The conclusion of the program presented “La Valse,” which Ravel completed a decade earlier in 1920. Each of these pieces was preceded by a tone poem that Richard Strauss composed in 1889. The program began with his Opus 20 “Don Juan;” and the second half opened with “Death and Transfiguration,” his Opus 24.

All four of these compositions benefit from the foundation of a thorough talent for instrumentation. In other words, for the most part, the SFS musicians were kept busy from start to finish! What was important was that, in the face of the breadth of resources, Canellakis always found the right ways in which to make sure that all those sonorities blended properly while, at the same time, consistently accounting for the diversity of thematic material. As a result, the attentive listener could benefit from the rich variety of both similarities and differences encountered in the sonorous qualities of each of the four scores she conducted.

The concerto soloist was Cédric Tiberghien. Between his focus on the keyboard and Canellakis’ attention to balance, one could appreciate the full richness that Ravel summoned without straining the limitation of commanding the keyboard with only a single hand. The work is in a single movement and nods almost vaguely to the structural framework one expects from a nineteenth-century keyboard concerto. Indeed, one might almost conjecture that Ravel was more interested in structuring sonorities, rather than thematic material. To the extent that they can be identified, many of the themes are fragmented with only a few episodes in which more extensive “sentence structure” unfolds. Nevertheless, while Ravel clearly wanted to depart from tradition, all of the contributing musicians brought a coherence to the performance with a clarity that was consistent from the opening murmurs to the “Bang!” that concludes the entire composition.

Such fragmentation tends to beget ambiguity, and ambiguity provides the core for the musical discourse that unfolds in “La Valse.” One would do well to make note of when this music was composed … not too long after the armistice that concluded World War One. From a personal point of view, I have always imagined a rather opulent ball associated with this music; but all the men at that ball have sustained serious injuries, most of which required the loss of at least one limb.

I am not sure what Canellakis’ own thoughts about any underlying narrative might be, but she certainly knew how to summon up a disquieting rhetoric over the course of the entire composition. (Most important was that she knew how to take the entire ensemble to dynamic extremes on both the soft and the loud sides.) The result left the attentive listener drawn into the music from the opening measure all the way through to the abruptly shattering final cadence.

Richard Strauss composed ten tone poems, the first eight of which were written in the late nineteenth century and constitute most of the composer’s earliest achievements of substance. Yesterday afternoon’s selections were the second and fourth, respectively, in that list. It would be fair to say that, in both settings, Strauss was more interested in a wide diversity of sonorities and thematic content than he was in narrative. Indeed, where Opus 20 is concerned, the music is more a reflection on a legendary figure than a narrative of his achievements. However, since that reflection is achieved through highly imaginative approaches to instrumentation (all of which could be appreciated through Canellakis’ meticulous attention to detail), the attentive listener can simply enjoy the ride without worrying too much about where it is headed.

In Opus 24 one can easily account for the realization of each of the two nouns in the title. Here again, however,  Strauss has no trouble leaving the building-blocks of narrative by the wayside. The “poem” of the tone poem is one of dispositions, rather than events; and the overall title provides the classification for those dispositions. Each of them, of course, is realized through just the right blend of thematic content and instrumentation.

Mind you (probably because this is music) the journey from “first noun” to “second noun” tends to wander, rather than following a straight path. However, as in Opus 20, that wandering leads to a plethora of imaginative instrumental sonorities, which consistently transcend any mundane account of the title. Once again Canellakis knew exactly how to allow each of those sonorities to flourish, seizing and holding the attentive listener from start to finish.

Three Guest Stars to Visit San Francisco Ballet

Natalia Osipova (photograph courtesy of the Royal Ballet), Daniel Camargo (photograph © Sebastian Galtier), and Jacopo Tissi (photograph © Elen Pavlova)

Once again San Francisco Ballet (SF Ballet) will conclude its season with a complete performance of the four-act ballet Swan Lake. What will make this production different, however, is that it will feature three international guest stars. Each will be visiting from a different ballet company; and, as might be expected, all will assume the leading roles.

More specifically, the dual role of Odette and her “dark double,” Odile, will be taken by Moscow-born and Bolshoi-trained ballerina Natalia Osipova, who has been a member of the Royal Ballet since 2013. The other two visitors will share the role of Prince Siegfried. They will be American Ballet Theatre dancer Daniel Camargo and Jacopo Tissi, currently Principal Dancer at the Dutch National Ballet.

Like other recent SF Ballet productions, there will be seven performances. Presumably, Osipova will appear in all of them, with Camargo and Tissi alternating as her partner; but, as of this writing, casting has not yet been finalized. [updated 4/19, 3:20 p.m.: Tissi has had to withdraw from the performances. Osipoiva will dance on April 30 and May 3, and she will be partnered by SF Ballet Principal Dancer Isaac Hernández. Camargo will dance only at the 2 p.m. performance on May 4, and his partner will be SF Ballet Principal Dancer Nikisha Fogo.] As in the past, there will be seven performances with dates and times as follows:

• Tuesday, April 30, 7:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, May 1, 7:30 p.m.
• Thursday, May 2, 7:30 p.m.
• Friday, May 3, 8 p.m.
• Saturday, May 4, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
• Sunday, May 5, 2 p.m.

All performances will take place in the War Memorial Opera House, which is on the northwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and Grove Street (across MTT Way from Davies Symphony Hall). Ticket prices start at $29, and a single Web page has been created for purchasing tickets for all of the above dates and times. Tickets may also be purchased at the Box Office in the outer lobby of the Opera House or by calling 415-865-2000. The Box Office is open for ticket sales Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Choices for April 26–28, 2024

The last weekend of this month will be another busy one. However, it will be a little less balanced than its predecessor. More specifically, as of this writing, there will be only one event on Friday; and that one has already been reported. Nevertheless, it deserves a place on this list, even if, for now at least, there is no competition. Specifics are as follows: [added 4/25, 11:40 a.m.:

Friday, April 26, 1 p.m., Cadillac Hotel: The next Concerts at the Cadillac event will be a solo performance by pianist James Washington. Washington has been influenced by both classical and jazz repertoires, and his virtuosity encompasses both standards and improvisation. On this occasion he will offer a solo set of jazz, which will highlight both of those aspects of his talents. As usual, the event will take place in the lobby of the Cadillac Hotel in the Tenderloin at 380 Eddy Street, on the northeast corner of Leavenworth Street. There is no charge for admission, and everyone is welcome.]

Friday, April 26, 8 p.m., Old First Presbyterian Church: This will be the Echoes of Gamelan program to be performed by the ZOFO duo of pianists Eva-Maria Zimmermann and Keisuke Nakagoshi, which was announced at the end of last month in the summary of Old First Concerts programs taking place in April in the church at 1751 Sacramento Street on the southeast corner of Van Ness Avenue. [added 4/18, 10:20 a.m.:

Friday, April 26, 8 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church: The next program to be presented in San Francisco by the California Bach Society is entitled North German Masters: Buxtehude, Schop, Tunder, and Bach. The last of those composers is clearly Johann Sebastian Bach, and he was influenced by the work of the other three. Dieterich Buxtehude is like to be the most familiar to readers familiar with Bach. For most listeners, Johann Schop and Franz Tunder are likely to provide journeys of discovery. [added 4/18: 12:15 p.m.: A Web page has been created, which provides useful program notes for all of the works that will be performed.] As usual, Artistic Director Paul Flight will conduct; and the accompanying instrumentalists will be violinists Ava Gehlen-Williams and Jennifer Redondas, Katherine Hagen and Wendy Clymer on viola, cellist Hasan Abulhaj, and, for continuo, Roy Whelden on violone and organist Yuko Tanaka. Tickets are being sold for $40 with discounts for seniors, students, and those under 30. A Web page has been created for online purchases. As noted in the original draft, the church is located at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of the corner of Franklin Street.]

Saturday, April 27, 7:30 p.m., Episcopal Church of the Incarnation: Ensemble Continuo, a chamber choir based in Mountain View, will perform Maurice Duruflé’s Opus 9, his setting of the Latin text of the Requiem Mass. The vocal soloists will be baritone Conroy Jinq and mezzo Millie Lin. In all likelihood the instrumental accompaniment will be provided by the church’s organ, but the organist has not yet been named. The conductor will be Christopher Pluntke.

As many readers probably know by now, the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation is located at 1750 29th Avenue, about halfway between Moraga Street and Noriega Street; and those seeking further information are invited to call 415-564-2324. Tickets may be purchased in advance through an Eventbrite Web page. General admission is $25 with a $20 rate for seniors and students.

Saturday, April 27, 7:30 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church: The Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts will present a “double-bill” program featuring two guitarists specializing in two different genres. Julia Trintschuk is a classical artist; and composers she has selected for the first half of the evening are Fernando Sor, Mario Escudero, Manuel de Falla, Ariel Ramírez, and Francisco Tárrega. The second half of the program will see the return of an Omni favorite, flamenco guitarist Grisha Goryachev. HIs last visit to Omni took place in December of 2022, in a program he shared with classical guitarist Andrea González Caballero. For this program he will perform works by Sabicas, Mario Escudero, Paco de Lucía, Rafael Riqueni, Vicente Amigo, and Gerard Nuñez. Most readers probably know by now that the church is located at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of the corner of Franklin Street. General admission for all seating will be $60. Tickets may be purchased through a City Box Office Web page.

Saturday, April 27, 8 p.m., Swedish American Hall: Some readers may recall that the overall theme for the current One Found Season is Waveform. This applies to sounds that are natural, as well as those that we would call “musical.” Ruth Gipps has undertaken to bring both perspectives together with her Opus 53 “Seascape.” Sam Wu’s “Hydrosphere” most likely involves a similar “meeting of minds.” His piece was the winner of One Found Sound’s Emerging Concert Program. Its West Coast premiere will be the opening selection on the program. The second half of that program will be devoted entirely to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 55 (third) symphony, to which the composer gave the title “Eroica.”

The Swedish American Hall is located at 2174 Market Street, south of the Duboce Triangle and a short walk from the Church Street Muni station. General admission at the door will be $30. However, tickets may also be purchased in advance through a TicketWeb Web page, where the price will be $25. Doors will open at 7:30 p.m. [updated to performance on 5/5 [added 4/24, 5:05 p.m.:

Sunday, April 28, 10 a.m., YouTube: The next Omni On-Location video will be available for viewing. The location will be Dortmund, Germany; and the guitarist will be Tomasz Zawierucha. The program will consist of only four selections, two of which are arrangements of piano music. Specifics are as follows:

1.  Isaac Albeniz' Opus 202, “Mallorca,” arranged for guitar by Zawierucha
2. Francisco Tárrega’s arrangement of Frédéric Chopin’s “Raindrop” prelude (Opus 28, Number 15)
3. The mazurka composed by Alexandre Tansman
4. “Invocacíon y Danza” by Joaquín Rodrigo
   

The URL for the video is <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2gDCh-KTKE>, and the video can be viewed at any time after 10 a.m.]]

The vixen (Amy Foote) and the forester (Spencer Dodd) (from the Web page for purchasing tickets)

Sunday, April 28, 2 p.m., Legion of Honor: San Francisco will provide the final venue for the performance of the latest Pocket Opera production. This will be Leoš Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. This composer is well known for the rich sonorities of large ensembles. However, not all opera companies have the luxury of sufficient room for the orchestra; and recently the Mid-Wales Opera Company produced a reduced version suitable for more intimate spaces. That is the version that the Pocket Opera orchestra will perform with Jonathan Khuner conducting. The stage director will be Nicolas A. Garcia. The title character will be sung by soprano Amy Foote. Other leading vocalists will be baritone Spencer Dodd as the forester and mezzo Hope Nelson as Gold Stripe, the male fox that wins the vixen’s heart (leading to a new generation of foxes).

The Legion of Honor is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. It is located at 100 34th Avenue, which is basically right in the center of Lincoln Park. General admission will be $79 with a $74 rate for seniors. Those age 30 and under may purchase tickets for $30. A Web page has been created for online purchases.

Sunday, April 28, 4 p.m., Chez Hanny: The second jazz performance of the month in this series will take place later than usual. The performers will be the members of the Mark Lewis Quartet. Leader Lewis is well-versed in the wind family with particular attention to the flute and both alto and baritone saxophones. He also plays piano and has about 1700 compositions to his name. The other members of his quartet will be pianist Adam Shulman, Peter Barshay on bass, and drummer Jon Arkin.

Those familiar with the series probably know by now that Frank Hanny’s house is at 1300 Silver Avenue, with the performance taking place in the downstairs rumpus room. Those planning to attend should think about having cash for a preferred donation of $25. All of that money will go to the musicians. There will be two sets separated by a potluck break. As a result, all who plan to attend are encouraged to bring food and/or drink to share. Seating is first come, first served; and the doors will open at 3:30 p.m.

Sunday, April 28, 4 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church: The title of this program will be Bach’s Favorite Instruments. Those instruments will be the violin, the harpsichord, the oboe d’amore, and the flute. The first three of these will be featured a solo concertos with a string ensemble. In “order of appearance” the concertos will be BWV 1041 in a minor, BWV 1054 in D major, and BWV 1055R in A major. These will be followed by the BWV 1039 sonata for two transverse flutes and continuo in G major. The remainder of the program will consist of two selections by Georg Philipp Telemann. The first of these will be his G major viola concerto, TWV 51:G9. This will be followed by the A major concerto for flute, violin, and cello, TWV 53:A2. Ticket prices at the door will be $106, $82, $61, and $44. However, the rates for tickets purchased in advance are $101, $77, $58, and $39. Those rates may be claimed by purchase through a Tix Web page.