The Bleeding Edge: 9/30/2024

This will be one of those weeks when almost all events have already been reported. These are basically “usual suspects,” although one of the venues is not usually associated with “bleeding edge” performances. Here is the summary of what readers probably already know:

• The first of next month’s LSG (Luggage Store Gallery) New Music Series events will take place on Wednesday, October 2.
• The Lab will begin the month with two two-set evenings, Astrid Sonne and Albert Yeh on Wednesday, October 2, and Tashi Wada and Matt Robidoux on Saturday, October 5.
• Audium will continue its performances of ouroboros on Thursday, October 3, Friday, October 4, and October 5.
• Old First Concerts will present Ting Luo’s “interdisciplinary art project for sound and multimedia” on Friday, October 4.

That leaves only one new event, which will also take place on Friday, October 4, at a “usual suspects” venue as follows:

Trumpeter Darren Johnston (from his BayImproviser Web page)

Bird & Beckett Books and Records, 8:30 p.m.: Trumpeter Darren Johnston will lead a quartet with rhythm provided by guitarist Kai Lyons, Rob Ewing on electric bass, and drummer Dillon Vardo. Johnston has described the program as “Not a swing thing, more a collective groove band doing each others [sic] originals.” As regular readers probably know by now, Bird & Beckett is located at 653 Chenery Street, a short walk from the Glen Park station that serves both BART and Muni. Admission will be the usual $20 cover charge, payable by Venmo or in cash. Teens and students will be admitted for between $5 and $10, and anyone younger allowed late at night will be admitted for free. Given the limited space of the venue, 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.

Four Centuries of Chamber Music at Davies

1839 portrait of Robert Schumann by Josef Kriehuber (public domain, from Wikimedia Commons)

Yesterday afternoon Davies Symphony Hall hosted the first of the series of six chamber music recitals to be performed by the musicians of the San Francisco Symphony. This was a “four centuries” program, accounting for the eighteenth (the K. 452 quintet for piano and winds by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), nineteenth (Robert Schumann’s Opus 47 piano quartet in E-flat major), twentieth (Florent Schmitt’s Opus 85, entitled “Sonatine en trio”), and twenty-first (“Café Damas,” completed by Kinan Azmeh in 2018). Pianist Julio Elizalde joined the SFS musicians for the Mozart and Schumann selections, and the pianist for the Schmitt offering was Gwendolyn Mok.

The Mozart and Schumann works were the major offerings, concluding each half of the program. This made for an engaging balance of winds and strings. The Mozart performers were James Button on oboe, clarinetist Matthew Griffith, Jessica Valeri on horn, and bassoonist Justin Cummings. The blending of their sonorities was consistently engaging, making it clear that every one of them knew how to fit into the context provided by the others. As a former clarinetist, I have long had a fondness for K. 452 and could not have been more satisfied with yesterday afternoon’s account.

The string players joining Elizalde for the Schumann quartet were violinist Wyatt Underhill, Jonathan Vinocour on viola, and cellist Sébastien Gingras. Opus 47 tends to be overshadowed by the Opus 44 piano quintet (both composed in the “chamber music year” of 1842). Unless I am mistaken, any past encounters with Opus 47 were through recordings; so I was glad to listen to finally it in recital. The chemistry of the four performers could not have been better, providing a full and rich account of the breadth of Schumann’s rhetorical dispositions.

The more recent works were “first contact” experiences for me. Schmitt was the more familiar composer, but I have had few opportunities to listen to his work, even on recordings. Opus 85 was scored for flute (Blair Francis Paponiu), clarinet (Matthew Griffith), and piano, with both wind instruments evoking the god Pan. Paponiu has become a “regular” in these chamber music offerings, having performed earlier this year in January and April; and I find that I have been enjoying my encounters with that instrument in chamber music settings.

Azmeh provided his own comment in the program book to introduce his music:

This work is inspired by the idea of an imaginary traditional house band in a 1960s café in Damascus, a band that has not changed personnel nor location for decades and continues to play in spite of it all.

Having been in a similar setting in Amman, I could appreciate the composer’s intentions. The “band” in this case consisted of a violin (Jessie Fellows), a viola (Katarzyna Bryla), and bass (Orion Miller). I had no trouble getting into the spirit of the music with my own personal tinges of nostalgia; and the casual rhetoric of the score provided just the right “warm up” for the “heavier” selections that would follow.

Date Set for 2024 SF Music Day

This year’s “poster” for SF Music Day (from the Eventbrite event page)

At the beginning of this past week, InterMusic SF announced the date for this year’s SF Music Day. This is the annual event that showcases a wide variety of music-making ensembles through a series of performances that begin at noon and continue through 7 p.m. All of those performances will take place in the Veterans Building of the San Francisco War Memorial at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. This venue affords three sites for performance: Herbst Theatre, whose entrance is on the ground floor, the Green Room on the second floor, and the Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater on the fourth (top) floor. Those unable to come to the Veterans Building will be glad to know that this year there will be two channels of livestream feeds of all events in Herbst Theatre and the Green Room. As always, there will be no charge for admission, but reservations are encouraged and may be secured through an Eventbrite event page.

This year the date will be Sunday, October 20; and the entire program will be curated by vocalist and performing artist Sidney Chen. As usual, the genres will include classical string quartets, jazz bands, Baroque ensembles, world music performing combos, and new music virtuosos (including Chen himself). The SF Music Day home page currently has a summary of the participating artists along with their respective times and performance venues. The Online Program Book will probably be available in about a month’s time through a hyperlink on that home page. It is also with a certain modicum of relief that I can announce that, this year, the event will not conflict with a San Francisco Opera matinee performance; but it is probably worth noting that Saturday night will run relatively late with the opening night for Tristan und Isolde!

A “Complete” Account of Bruckner’s Symphonies

Cover of the box set being discussed (courtesy of Naxos of America)

The last time I did a “deep dive” into the music of Anton Bruckner was during my tenure with Examiner.com in the summer of 2013. That was when Profil released its 20-CD box set, Anton Bruckner: The Collection. At that time, my knowledge of Bruckner’s music was sadly minimal. This provided me with an opportunity to get to know the full canon of the symphonies, along with an introduction to his sacred music, chamber music, and keyboard music.

This past July I learned that Naxos would release a “complete versions” account of the Bruckner symphonies. Markus Poschner led recordings of all eleven symphonies with eighteen versions among them, conducting both the Bruckner Orchester Linz and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. Where there was adequate room, there were additional tracks for movements associated with the symphonies that were subsequently rejected. These include an early Scherzo for the first symphony, based on an edition by Wolfgang Grandjean, Leopold Nowak’s edition of the 1876 Adagio movement intended for the third symphony, and the “Country Fair” (Volksfest) movement that Bruckner had planned as a finale for his fourth symphony, edited by Benjamin Korstvedt. (Korstvedt was also responsible for the publication that accounted for all of the versions in this collection, which are included in the New Anton Bruckner Complete Edition.)

How significant is this completeness? Clearly, the answer to that question depends on the listener’s interest in the Bruckner canon. Once again I find myself reminded of a slogan for the Sunday edition of The New York Times that was popular during my student days: “You don’t have to read it all, but it’s good to know it’s all there!” My opportunities to listen to Bruckner in performance have been few and not particularly satisfying. However, rather than dismissing my interest in the composer, those encounters made me more curious about them. As a result, I continue to treasure my Profil collection.

However, this new Naxos release takes a “deeper dive” into the symphonies than the Profil release could accommodate. The fact is that it is only through a commitment to listening to each work on multiple occasions that one can begin to appreciate the ways in which Bruckner explored new perspectives on the very concept of a symphony. When a work went through multiple editions, that commitment extends to accounting for the changes from one edition to the next. At the very least, I now know that, when I have an opportunity to listen to a concert performance of a Bruckner symphony, I shall have no trouble being well-prepared for the experience!

Mike Olmos to Return to Chez Hanny as Leader

Trumpeter Mike Olmos (right) leading a quartet with (left to right) pianist Javier Santiago, Giulio Xavier Cetto on bass, and drummer Jeff Mars (from a YouTube video of a performance at Bird & Beckett on July 26, 2021)

Having last performed last month at a Jazz Chez Hanny house concert in drummer Ron Vincent’s quartet, trumpeter Mike Olmos will return to Chez Hanny to lead his own quartet. His pianist will be Adam Shulman, who will probably be familiar to those San Franciscans that seek out jazz gigs. The bassist will be Giulio Xavier Cetto, who is also a San Francisco native. Finally, the drummer will be Brian Fishler, who seems to have spent the last 25 years dividing his work between California and New York City.

For those that do not yet “know the drill,” admission will be $25, payable by check or cash. All of that money will go to cover expenses. There will be two sets separated by a potluck break. As a result, all who plan to attend should bring food and/or drink to share. Seating is first come, first served; and, as a result, reservations are strongly recommended. Reservations are placed through an electronic mail address: jazz@chezhanny.com. Mail messages received after noon on the day of a performance are unlikely to be seen until after the show is over, and cancellations should be given at least 24 hours advance notice. Finally, volunteer efforts for cleaning up after the show and moving furniture to accommodate both players and listeners are always appreciated.

The performance will begin at 4 p.m. The date will be Sunday afternoon, October 13. The “house” for this house concert is located at 1300 Silver Avenue. This is best reached by public transportation by taking the Muni 44 bus going east from Glen Park Station. For those thinking of driving, parking tends to be available on Silver Avenue, Silliman Street, one block south of Silver, and Holyoke Street, which connects Silver and Silliman.

DSOLive Returns to Cyberspace

Yesterday evening, DSOLive, the series of streamed performances by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO), returned to cyberspace with a richly diverse program led by Music Director Jader Bignamini. The guest soloist was saxophonist Branford Marsalis. The full title of the program was An American in Paris & Branford Marsalis, and this was one of those occasions in which the soloist performed during both halves of the evening.

Erwin Schulhoff with dancer Milča Mayerová (photographer unknown, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Neither of his selections was by a composer born in the United States. In the first half Marsalis performed Erwin Schulhoff’s “Hot-Sonate” for alto saxophone and piano, composed in 1930. Schulhoff had a passion for jazz but never visited the United States. After the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia, he would be deported to the Wülzburg prison, where he died on August 18, 1942. “Hot-Sonate” was subsequently orchestrated for solo and chamber ensemble by Richard Rodney Bennett, and that is the version that was performed last night. “For the record” (as they say), it was also the version performed when Marsalis played it with the San Francisco Symphony under the baton of Thomas Wilkins.

The second half began with a performance of Darius Milhaud’s Scaramouche suite. This was originally composed for piano duo but was subsequently arranged for alto saxophone and orchestra. The music is rich with Brazilian influences, inspired by the time Milhaud spend in Rio Janeiro while serving as secretary to French ambassador Paul Claudel. Indeed, the last movement of the suite is a samba choro; and Marsalis was quite at home with its sassy rhetoric.

Only one composer was represented twice on last night’s programs, and his selections concluded each half. As might be guessed, that composer was George Gershwin. His “Cuban Overture” was the perfect sassy follow-up to “Hot-Sonate,” while the entire evening was wrapped up with the comforting familiarity of “An American in Paris.” The “bridge” between Milhaud and Gershwin was Leonard Bernstein with three dance episodes he had composed for the musical On the Town. The program began with the last of the six short compositions that Joan Tower composed under the title Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman.

Taken as a whole, this was an engaging program of American spirit, even if one of the composers never set foot on American soil. Personally, I was glad to see Marsalis getting the attention he deserved. He brought a keen sense of concert rhetoric to his performance, even if the music he was playing was clearly inspired by the “jazz age.” Taken as a whole, this was a vigorous launch of the new DSO season; and I am hoping that future DSOLive offerings will be just as engaging.

SFO Season will Continue with Wagner

Since Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim began her San Francisco Opera (SFO) tenure in 2021, she has followed through with a promise to conduct one opera by Giuseppe Verdi and one by Richard Wagner every season. This season the first half of that promise was fulfilled with the opening-night opera, Giuseppe Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera (a masked ball). Next month Kim will shift her attention to Wagner with the first SFO performance of Tristan und Isolde since October of 2006.

By way of a disclaimer, I should confess that, when I made my shift from Silicon Valley researcher to focusing on my current writing practices, my interest in Tristan could probably be called obsessive. To be fair, however, it would not surprise me to learn that more words have been written about this opera (not just through reviews but across the full scope of scholarly publications) than any other Wagner composition, if not any other opera at all. (For all I know, death will beckon me while I am busy reading yet another of those discourses.) All this should account for my eagerness to see yet another staging of the opera, probably more than once!

This production will mark the SFO debut of Director Paul Curran, who first conceived the staging for the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. The title roles will be sung by tenor Simon O’Neill (who happens to be a graduate of the Merola Opera Program) and soprano Anja Kampe, who has already established a “Wagner presence” with SFO. Indeed, she made her debut here in June of 2011, when she sang the role of Sieglinde in Die Walküre as part of a complete Ring cycle directed by Francesca Zambello.

For those unfamiliar with the plot, Tristan is a knight having been tasked with bringing Isolde to King Marke (bass Kwangchul Youn) to establish a bond of peace through marriage. As might be guessed, Isolde is not particularly happy with this treatment and is determined to poison herself before encountering Marke. However, her “traveling companion,” Brangäne (soprano Annika Schlicht) mistakenly gives her the vial of a love potion; and the first person she encounters is (of course) Tristan!

Kurwenal looking after the dying Tristan (photograph by Michael Crosera from the Teatro La Fenice production of Tristan und Isolde, courtesy of SFO)

Much of the second act involves the resulting passion between the two of them. However, Tristan’s loyal friend Melot (baritone Thomas Kinch) exposes the relationship between Tristan and Isolde. Tristan honors Isolde’s honor in a sword fight with Melot, during which he is stabbed. This leads to the third act during which Tristan’s fellow knight Kurwenal (bass-baritone Wolfgang Koch) has brought Tristan home to his castle in Brittany. However, before dying of his wound, Tristan has one last encounter with Isolde, after which she takes poison (getting the right potion this time) to join him in death.

This new production will be given five performances, four beginning at 6 p.m. on Saturday, October 19, Wednesday, October 23, Friday, November 1, and Tuesday, November 5, with a matinee performance beginning at 1 p.m. on Sunday, October 27. Ticket prices range from $28 to $426; and, depending on seating location, there is a facility fee of either $2 or $3 per ticket. All tickets may be purchased in the outer lobby of the War Memorial Opera House at 301 Van Ness Avenue or by calling the Box Office at 415-864-3330. Box Office hours are 10 a.m.–5 p.m. on Monday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday through Saturday. In addition, there will be a livestream of the Sunday afternoon performance; the charge will be $27.50. Web pages are available both for tickets to the Opera House and for the livestream. Finally, those going to the Opera House will have the option of purchasing dinner packages (which will be sold separately from the tickets for the performance). A single Web page has been created with hyperlinks for the different dinner options.

A Disappointing LINES Ballet Program

Having had a few encounters with the Alonzo King LINES Ballet performing with the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) in Davies Symphony Hall, I decided that it would be a good idea to see one of the company’s full evening programs. The program consisted of only two ballets separated by an intermission. Ironically, the first selection was a revival of the last LINES performance with SFS, King’s choreography for the full orchestral version of Maurice Ravel’s suite Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose). The intermission was then followed by the world premiere of “Ode to Alice Coltrane,” setting choreography to fifteen of the tracks from her albums.

Neither of these made for a satisfying experiences. I had hoped that the Ravel offering would fare better than it did in Davies, given that the dancers now had a full stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts at their disposal. However, the ballet’s greatest weakness was its departure from the rich context of narrative that Ravel’s score had provided. All that remained were the titles of the fairy tales (included in last night’s program book); but any connection to any of those titles would probably have been a fortuitous accident. Mind you, the dancers did their best to breathe a bit of life into King’s choreography; but, as I had observed in the SFS performance, that choreography “was so repetitive that felt like it was going on forever.” The best I can say is that the recording King selected for this performance could not have done better justice to Ravel’s score.

Publicity photograph of Alice Coltrane to promote her World Galaxy album (photographer unknown, public domain, from Wikimedia Commons)

Where the Coltrane ballet is concerned, I fear that I was far less prepared. My only recordings of her music date back to when she replaced McCoy Tyner as her husband’s quartet pianist. (For those that do not already know, her husband was saxophonist John Coltrane.) What I thought about her music is not relevant, however, is not particularly relevant, since King never used it for more than rhythm and tempo to support what was little more than elaborate calisthenics. As the old joke goes, this was the sort of ballet that people who like that sort of thing would like; but, after half a century of balletomania, I like to think that I have encountered better things to like!

SFCO: Okpebholo’s “Fractured Water”

Composer Shawn Okpebholo (from the Gallery Web page on his Web site)

As was reported a little over a month ago, the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra (SFCO) will give its first MainStage concert in San Francisco at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church next month on Friday, October 18, beginning at 7:30 p.m. That announcement cited the world premiere performance of “Fractured Water” by Shawn Okpebholo without any further information. That information is now available as follows:

Okpebholo was commissioned to write “Fractured Water” by SFCO with funding support from the National Endowment for the Arts and in collaboration with the Emerging Black Composers Project. As a Chicago resident, the water Okpebholo had in mind was the Chicago River. This river had accumulated pollution and waste, but its was restored as a life-source for both people and animals. These days we are well aware of the cleansing of natural resources, but the restoration of the Chicago River took place in 1887!

“Fractured Water” was composed to reflect on the natural changes in the river’s flow. Thus, when that flow is reversed, the theme depicting the river captures this through a retrograde version of that theme. The score also cites the spiritual “Down in the River to Pray.” It is also worth noting that Okpebholo chose to depict the river with a generous share of percussion instruments, which include bass drum, crotales, glockenspiel, two large water bowls, and xylophone.

As was already announced, “Fractured Water” will be preceded by the last of the Opus 6 concerti grossi by George Frideric Handel and followed by Ludwig van Beethoven’s first, his Opus 21 in C major.

Trimpin Launches Other Minds Festival 28

Trimpin (from the Other Minds Festival 28 Web page)

Last night at the Brava Theater, Other Minds launched its 28th annual festival. The first program, which will be performed again tonight, was devoted entirely to a single composition, Trimpin’s The Cello Quartet. While the title suggested chamber music, there was only one performing cellist, Lori Goldston. However, Trimpin’s set design included additional cellos in unlikely locations, beyond the reach of any performer. Serving perhaps as “alter-egos” of those distant cellos were three circus artists: Bri Crabtree, Joel Herzfel, and Calvin Kai Ku.

Trimpin used the pre-performance discussion to synopsize what would occur during the performance. Since the discussion took place on the stage where all the props (including the cellos) had already been placed, this talk amounted to a “performance without the performers.” Indeed, Trimpin’s account of what would be happening was so clear and vivid that the performance itself often seemed to be teetering on the brink of an afterthought. As a result, Trimpin’s narration threatened to overshadow many of the episodes in the staging itself, with only the unconventionally designed cellos tending to upstage most of the performers.

In many ways The Cello Quartet may best be described as the realization of a concept abundant with rich ideas. The challenge was bringing that concept to life through performance. Nevertheless, even when Trimpin’s introductory descriptions tended to overshadow what he brought to realization in the performance itself, there was much to enjoy over the course of last night’s journey, even if, more often than not, the visual tended to overshadow the auditory,

Omni Foundation Announces Garibay’s Program

Guitarist Pablo Garibay

Following the DYNAMITE GUITARS program that launched the 44th season of guitar performances presented by the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts, the next recital will take in a little over two week’s time. This will be the solo recital by Mexican guitarist Pablo Garibay, who was able to substitute for Italian guitarist Carlotta Dalia, whose visit had to be indefinitely postponed. Having already established his reputation in Germany, Garibay will now bring his talents to San Francisco.

The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to a four-movement guitar sonata by Antonio José Martínez Palacios, composed in 1933. He was known professionally as “Antonio José;” and, apparently, Maurice Ravel declared that “He will become the Spanish composer of our century.” Unfortunately, Ravel could not anticipate the turmoil leading to the Spanish Civil War; and, on October 11, 1936, Antonio José was executed by a Falangist firing squad. The first half of the program will survey a diversity of composers from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Specifics are as follows:

• Johann Kasper Mertz: “Elegie”
• Heitor Villa-Lobos: three of the twelve solo guitar études (first, tenth, and eleventh)
• Roland Dyens: “Hommage à Villa-Lobos”
• Manuel Ponce: “Sonatina meridional”
• Simone Iannarelli: “L’Ultimo Caffè Inseime”
• Ernesto Cordero: the three pieces collected under the title Cantigas Negras

As usual, this will be an evening recital beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 12. The venue will be St. Mark’s Lutheran Church. located at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of the corner of Franklin Street. General admission will be $60, and tickets may be purchased through a City Box Office Web page.

Past Vocal Standards Take it On the Chin (again)

Since I experienced the better part of my life during the twentieth century, I have enjoyed “first contact” experiences of popular and jazz compositions that are now recognized as “standards.” There now seems to be a generous interest in this repertoire as this new century progresses. Unfortunately, today’s vocalists do not seem to “get” the many “delivery” techniques that transformed often relatively simply lyrics into engaging listening experiences.

Regular readers probably know that this is not the first time I have vented my frustration. About half a year ago, I was so put off by Rhada Thomas’ As I Sing album that I found that my only basis for comparison was Darlene Edwards. (Given that Edwards was an icon of the last century, I figured it was necessary to provide a hyperlink to her Wikipedia page in order for readers to appreciate the depth of my aggravation!)

Cover of the album being discussed (from its Amazon.com Web page)

This morning I found myself listening to the recently released album Alright Okay You Win album of fourteen tracks of songs delivered by Doug Ferony. He is accompanied by a sixteen-piece big band and three background singers. He also conducts the entire ensemble in performances of standards that account for a rather generous span of the twentieth century. This amounts to my having encountered all of these tunes in the past but during different periods in my life.

Now, to be fair, any tune, no matter how popular the “original version” may have been in the past, is always “fair game” for reinterpretation. However, there is a difference between an inventive reconception and (to borrow a favorite phrase from John Cage) “cheap imitation.” Drawing upon that latter metaphor, I have to confess that none of the tracks on Alright Okay You Win delivered enough of an interpretation to seize, let also sustain, my attention.

Is this just a matter of the past now being too distant? Given that Ferony’s selections include Hoagy Carmichael, George Gershwin, and Cole Porter, I do not think that age is the issue. (We do not accuse Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as being “too distant!”) Rather, I think that Ferony never really figured out how to connect with the past, assuming, instead, that just delivering words and music would be sufficient. If that were all that mattered, then my guess is that there is already a software app that can deliver more engaging accounts than Ferony’s!

Groupmuse to Host Guitarist Lyle Sheffler

Guitarist Lyle Sheffler (from a previous article on this site)

Once again I am indebted to Groupmuse for informing me about a recital that definitely deserves recognition. The recitalist is guitarist Lyle Sheffler, and I have been following his work for almost exactly nine years. I first encountered him in September of 2015, when the Elevate Ensemble launched its second season in the Recital Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. On that occasion he was the soloist in a performance of Joaquín Rodrigo’s “Fantasía para un gentilhombre” (fantasia for a gentleman). Since that time, I have done my best to keep up with his solo recital gigs, announcing them and, when my Calendar would allow, attending them.

His program will augment music composed for guitar with works composed for earlier plucked instruments, such as the lute, and arrangements of keyboard music. Thus, he will begin his program with Domenico Scarlatti’s K. 322 keyboard sonata in A major. This will be followed by a work for piano, “Serenata Espagñola” by Joaquín Malats, whose use of folk idioms would subsequently influence another pianist-composer, Isaac Albéniz. The first work on the program actually composed for guitar will be “Schnee in Istanbul,” written by guitarist Carlo Domeniconi, who was particularly interested in Turkish music traditions. The first half will then conclude with “La Catedral” (the cathedral), probably the best-known work composed by guitarist Agustín Barrios.

The second half of the program will then continue with a second Barrios composition, “Las Abejas” (the bees). This will be followed by “Córdoba,” the second of the five movements in the Albéniz piano suite Chant d’Espagne (Opus 232). Sheffler will then return to the age of the lute with a performance of John Dowland’s “My Lade Hunsdon’s Puffe.” The final selection will be the first of the four guitar sonatas by Fernando Sor, a single-movement composition published in Paris in 1810 under the title “Grand solo pour guitare.”

This performance will take place in Noe Valley, beginning at 2 PM of Sunday, October 6. As of my current reading of the Web site, there will be places for 25 in the audience, and twelve of those seats are still available. (It may also be worth noting that, according to the Groupmuse Web page for making reservations, cats live at that venue!)

“First Contact” with Jazz Drummer Ken Serio

Cover of the album being discussed (courtesy of Powderfinger Promotions)

By way of “full disclosure,” I should begin by acknowledging that my past experiences with Powderfinger Promotions have tended to be disappointing; but, since these tend to be released through Play MPE, every now and then I let my curiosity get the better of me. I suppose one of the reasons I wanted to check out an album entitled Brooklyn Oasis was because I spent my first elementary school years in Brooklyn, but that New York City borough has changed significantly over the half century that followed those times! The other reason I decided to give the album a try was that Ron Carter was playing bass.

The entire combo was the Ken Serio Quartet, led by Serio on drums. The “front line” for the quartet is saxophonist Dave Mullen, alternating between soprano and tenor, and the remaining performer is Tomoko Ohno on piano. My guess is that, if I had seen this group perform at Mr. Tipple’s Jazz Club in an experience enhanced by good food, drink and even dessert, I would have come away with the impression that it was an evening well spent. Nevertheless, on the album none of the tracks leaves much an impression, whether it involves the tune itself of its capacity for improvisation. Even Carter tended to keep himself discretely in the background.

Nevertheless, I suspect there will be listeners that will appreciate this album for the relatively understated mood it sets. They will be able to download the MP3 tracks this coming Friday through the above hyperlink. Because this is an Amazon.com site, that Web page can currently process pre-orders.

The Bleeding Edge: 9/23/2024

The weeks keep getting busier! The good news, however, is that the lion’s share of this week’s events have already been reported as follows:

• The Other Minds Festival will be giving performances at the Brava Theater on Wednesday, September 25, Thursday, September 26, Friday, September 27, and Saturday, September 28.
• There will be a “night of extremes” at the Center for New Music on Thursday, September 26.
• Audium will continue its performances of ouroboros on Thursday, September 26, Friday, September 27, and Saturday, September 28.
• Following last week’s San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, The Lab will wrap-up the month with an adventurous three-set evening on Saturday, September 28.

That leaves only three remaining events for the week, all on the same day, Friday, September 27, and all at familiar venues as follows:

Lorin Benedict in performance (from the BayImproviser Calendar Web page for this week’s performance)

Medicine for Nightmares, 7 p.m: Plans for this week’s Other Dimensions in Sound concert, curated by David Boyce, have been ambiguously described. The performers will be vocalist Lorin Benedict and The Living Room. Whether these will be separate sets or Benedict will join The Living Room for a group performance has not been specified. As always, the venue is located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street. There is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book.

Community Music Center, 8 p.m.: This venue will host two sets of adventurous improvisations. Violinist Tiziana Bertoncini will be joined by Thomas Lehn on synthesizer. Both of these composer-performers will be visiting from Vienna. The other set will be taken by two familiar Bay Area electronic musicians, John Bischoff and Chris Brown. The venue is located in the Mission at 544 Capp Street. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for students and CMC members.

Bird & Beckett Books and Records, 8:30 p.m.: This week’s jazz offering will be presented by The Lost Shapes, which is a quintet with Max Miller-Loran on trumpet and saxophonist Beth Schenck on the front line and rhythm provided by Mark Clifford on vibraphone, bassist Safa Shokrai, and Jason Levis on drums. As regular readers probably know by now, Bird & Beckett is located at 653 Chenery Street, a short walk from the Glen Park station that serves both BART and Muni. Admission will be the usual $20 cover charge, payable by Venmo or in cash. Teens and students will be admitted for between $5 and $10, and anyone younger allowed late at night will be admitted for free. Given the limited space of the venue, 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.

Returning to Poul Ruders’ Opera at SFO

Composer Paul Ruders (photograph by Lars Skaaning, courtesy of San Francisco Opera)

Some readers may recall that, almost exactly a week ago, I wrote an account of the opening night performance of the West Coast premiere of Poul Ruders The Handmaid’s Tale by the San Francisco Opera. On that occasion my conclusion was that there was “so little evidence of motive that one has to wonder why this journey was undertaken in the first place.” Nevertheless, because my wife and I have a Sunday afternoon subscription, we returned to give the production a second chance.

As Herman’s Hermits sang in their recording of “I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am,” “Second verse, same as the first!” Having a better sense of the overall narrative and how it was structured only led to more averse observations. Indeed, in the “long view” of the entire production, there are too many scenes that go around the same block too many times. If that were not enough of the problem, those repetitions did little to establish the narrative at all, let alone leave the audience attentively wondering what would happen next.

My guess is that the weakest link in this chain is that of motive. Bad things happen, but that is always the case in opera seria. The more important issue is whether or not there is any motive behind those bad things, and all we really know is that a country that used to be “free and fair” was now under authoritarian domination. Beyond that, there is little sense of that motivates the authorities, other, perhaps, than a desire to restore the “world order” of men dominating women.

I have already disclaimed that I have not read the novel by Margaret Atwood that provided the narrative thread for the libretto. For now, at least, I do not feel particularly encouraged to do so. It would not surprise me if Atwood knew how to deploy just the right rhetorical skills to make sure that the curious reader would keep going from one page to the next. Sadly, the libretto by Paul Bentley does not encourage such motivation; and even the most attentive viewer will quickly recognize that the narrative of the opera is little more than “one damned thing after another.”

About a decade before I was born, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers union approached Harold Rome to compose score for musical entitled Pins and Needles. The title of the most memorable song from that show was “Sing Me a Song of Social Significance.” If there was any “social significance” in Bentley’s libretto or, for that matter, the staging by John Fulljames, you would probably need a very powerful magnifying glass to find it!

At this point readers may think I was ignoring the composer. The fact is that this was my second encounter with one of his operas. However, my first encounter was only with the music itself. This was the score for The Thirteenth Child, which was performed by the Santa Fe Opera in the summer of 2019. Unfortunately, my knowledge of this opera has been limited to the music, which I encountered on a Bridge Records CD produced by David Starobin. However, I would like to conclude with an excerpt from the article I wrote about the tracks from this album at the end of June in 2019:

These are sufficient to convey how Ruders uses his music to capture the darkest qualities of both the narrative itself and the agents responsible for unfolding that narrative. My personal impressions, resulting from initial listening experiences, are that Ruders has a tendency to be too heavy-handed with both his instrumental resources and the overwrought angular contours of his vocal lines.

I still hold to that sentence about “dark qualities;” and there is no shortage of them in The Handmaid’s Tale. However, I see that, even in my “first contact” with Ruders, I had to deal with heavy-handedness; and that is how I have come to feel about The Handmaid’s Tale.

Yuri Liberzon Continues Piazzolla Pursuits

According to my archives, my interest in guitarist Yuri Liberzon dates back over fourteen years. Unless I am mistaken, my first encounter took place when he gave a solo recital for Old First Concerts in August of 2010. Since that time, I have accumulated (and written about) two of his self-produced albums, Ascension and ¡Acentuado!. The former made for an engaging “time machine,” with Liberzon’s own transcriptions of keyboard music by Domenico Scarlatti and Johann Sebastian Bach framed by Toru Takemitsu’s transcriptions of Beatles songs.

¡Acentuado!, on the other hand, was, to the best of my knowledge, Liberzon’s first album devoted entirely to Astor Piazzolla. It consisted of two suites. Histoire du Tango was scored for flute and guitar, while Tango-Études was originally another suite for flute. However, Manuel Barrueco transcribed all six of its movements into guitar solos. This was an impressive undertaking, and I was glad to see that the album is still available, both physically and digitally, from a Bandcamp Web page. (Just to be complete about these matters, Ascension also has its own Bandcamp Web page!)

Cover of the new Liberzon album

This coming Friday, Naxos will release a new album of Liberzon performing Piazzolla. As usually seems to be the case, Amazon.com has already created a Web page for processing pre-orders. It includes a new recording of Tango-Études. It also includes “La muerte del ángel” in the transcription by Leo Brouwer that I first encountered on David Tanenbaum’s all-Piazzolla album, El Porteño. The other selections on the album include Liberzon’s arrangement of “Oblivion,” the Cinco piezas collection composed for solo guitar, and the three-movement Tango Suite, which was composed for two guitars. Piotr Pakhomkin joined Liberzon for the recording of that selection.

I have long had a soft spot for Piazzolla’s music (as those that have followed my work for some time have probably already guessed). As a result, if I have any quibble at all, it is with the absence of the flute in Tango-Études. These six pieces are relatively short, but they account for a wide diversity of dispositions. Having listened to the flute work in Histoire du Tango, I can appreciate how the flute would deliver a sassier account of the études. Still, I dare not try to argue with Barrueco’s transcription of those études or, for that matter, Liberzon’s delivery.

In other words, there are too many sources of satisfaction on Liberzon’s new album for me to quibble over picking nits!

Outsound Presents: October, 2024

This month will follow the usual plan of three performances. That will be two LSG (Luggage Store Gallery) New Music Series events on Wednesday evenings, which will then be followed by the monthly SIMM (Static Illusion Methodical Madness) Series program on a Sunday evening. 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. The SIMM Series concerts take place at the Musicians Union, located in SoMa at 116 9th Street. Admission is again on a sliding scale, this time between $10 and $25. Program specifics are as follows:

Wednesday, October 2, 8 p.m.: This will be an evening of two sets, each about an hour in duration. The first of these will be the Infinite Monkeys (How many readers appreciate that reference these days?) trio, whose members are Jaroba on bass clarinet, saxophonist Steve Munger, and Paul Winstanley on bass. The second will be the Warm Spell quintet, whose members are: Tammy Fortin (guitar), Marina Lazzara (drums and vocals), J. Lee (Farfisa modular synthesizer), Richard Marriott (flute, trombone, and conch), Kevin Van Yserloo (violin with electronics).

Wednesday, October 16, 8 p.m.: This program has not yet been finalized; but one of the sets will be taken by Michael P. Dawson, whose Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven album was dedicated to Pauline Oliveros, who had introduced him to synthesizer technology. [added 10/13, 2:50 p.m.: There will be three sets. Dawson will be preceded by the Pet the Tiger Instrument Inventors Collective, whose members are Dan Gottwals, Stephen Parris, David Samas, and Peter Whitehead. There will also be a solo electronics set taken by Jorge Bachmann.]

Cover design for Beep Beep, Liam’s debut EP album (from its Bandcamp Web page)

Sunday, October 20, 7:30 p.m.: The first set will be taken by Liam Rea Donaldson, who performs as Beep Beep, Liam. The second set will be a decidedly non-standard string trio. There will be two guitarists, Jas Stade and Donaldson, the latter also contributing vocals. They will be joined by Emmalee Kao Johnston on bass.

DYNAMITE GUITARS Sees its Fourth Edition

Last night in Herbst Theatre saw the beginning of the 44th season of guitar performances presented by the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts. This season the opening selection was the fourth edition of DYNAMITE GUITARS, a program that showcases multiple (usually four) guitarists representing different styles and genres. Last night there were two soloists and one duo, all of whom came together at the end of the evening for rich and diverse jamming.

Guitarist Christie Lenée (from the Omni Web page for last night’s program)

Sadly, there was no program book for the occasion; but all of the performers had no trouble introducing themselves (and, occasionally, each other). Working with straightforward amplification, Joe Robinson opening the evening with such a rich palette of contrasting sonorities that his performance was almost orchestral. He was followed by Christie Lenée, whose alternations between six-string and twelve-string instruments unfolded equally rich sonorous qualities without any help from electronic gear. The remaining offering came from the duo of Olli Soikkeli (Finnish) and Cesar Garabini, who had a seven-string acoustic instrument. While they honored the influence of Django Reinhardt, the performances alternated between swing and choro.

Traditionally, this showcase is more of a festive occasion than a “usual” concert. Spirits are consistently high, both on the stage and in the audience. Since each of the three “acts” had two sets on either side of the intermission, concluding with the “all hands” finale, last night made for an abundance of music with an wealth of diversity. I must confess that, towards the end, I began to worry about fatigue; but something new would consistently pop up to sustain my interest.

Bernheim’s Debut Album of French Songs

Carrie-Ann Matheson and Benjamin Bernheim (courtesy of Crossover Media)

This Friday Deutsche Grammophon will release the first solo song album by tenor Benjamin Bernheim. He will be accompanied at the piano by his regular recital partner, Carrie-Ann Matheson. If you think that name is a familiar one, you probably followed the Merola Opera Program performances this past summer. Matheson teamed up with tenor Nicholas Phan to curate the program The Song as Drama, which was presented at the end of this past June.

The title of Bernheim’s album is Mélodies & Chansons. “Mélodie” is basically the French term for “art song.” On this album it is represented three familiar French composers: Hector Berlioz, Ernest Chausson, and Henri Duparc. The “chanson,” on the other hand, is more in the popular vein. I first encountered it as a student when the United States first “discovered” Jacques Brel. The other two chanson composers are Charles Trenet and Joseph Kosma, whose name may not be familiar but whose contribution on this album definitely is!

The Berlioz selection is Les nuits d’été (summer nights). I am almost certain that this was my first contact with a French song cycle. Prior to that encounter, my knowledge of Berlioz was limited to “Symphonie fantastique” and “Harold en Italie.” In other words I associated Berlioz with massive instrumentation out of reflex. As a result, my first encounter with Les nuits d’été was like a bolt from the blue; and I have been hooked on its intimacy ever since then. Nevertheless, in the context of all that experience, I found myself drawn to Bernheim’s rhetorical delivery. Similarly, I have had past encounters with both Chausson’s “Poème de l’amour et de la mer” and Duparc’s art songs, four of which are performed on Bernheim’s album. His delivery convinces me that this is music that deserves more attention than I have previously given it.

Where the chansons are concerned, my past experiences are few and distant. To the extent that I remember Brel at all, I tended to associate sharper edges with him than with Bernheim’s delivery. On the other hand, his account of Kosma’s “Les Feuilles mortes” (the dead leaves) acknowledges that this “original version” delivers far more impact than any account of “Autumn Leaves” I have heard. Mind you, this has as much to do with the music as it does with the depth of the lyrics by Jacque Prévert, which are entirely out of Johnny Mercer’s league!

Noe Music Launches 32nd Season

Most readers probably know by now that the Noe Valley Ministry, located in Noe Valley at 1021 Sanchez Street, just south of 23rd Street, has become a preferred venue for concerts and recitals. Next month will see Friction Quartet launch its 2024–2025 season there, and the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble will do the same the following month. Hopefully, however, readers know that the venue has its own concert series, entitled, simply enough, “Noe Music.” Programs are curated by its Co-Artistic and Executive Directors, Meena Bhasin and Owen Dalby. Both of them also perform during the season, Bhasin on viola and Dalby on violin.

This past Thursday, Noe Music presented an event that served as a “prelude” to the new season. This was a special benefit concert to celebrate the arrival of a new Steinway Model D Concert Grand Piano. Pianists Stephen Prutsman, Elizabeth Joy Roe, and Jeffrey LaDeur put the new instrument through its paces to celebrate its arrival.

Jon Kimura Parker at the piano (photograph by Tara McMullen, from the Noe Valley Music Web page for purchasing tickets.

The concert season itself will begin one week from tomorrow. It will begin with a recital by pianist Jon Kimura Parker. He has chosen to “launch” the season with three familiar composers from three different historical eras. He will begin with one of the most familiar piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven, the second Opus 27 sonata in C-sharp minor, best known as the “Moonlight.” He will then advance the time-line with Maurice Ravel’s “Jeux d’eau,” composed early in the twentieth century. This will be followed by preludes selected from Frédéric Chopin’s Opus 28 collection.

Parker will then move into more adventurous territory. He will perform a fantasy composed by William Hirtz, arranging familiar themes from the score that Harold Arlen composed for the movie The Wizard of Oz. He will then be joined by Dalby and Bhasin, along with their cellist colleague Amos Yang; and the four of them will conclude the program with a performance of Johannes Brahms’ Opus 60, his C minor piano quartet.

This event will begin at 4 p.m. on Sunday, September 29. It is expected to last about two hours. General admission will be $45 with a special $60 rate for reserved seating in the first few rows. Students will be admitted for $15. A Web page has been created for ordering tickets online.

Old First Concerts: A Disappointing Piano Duo

N Blanco y Negro Piano Duo pianists Mirta Gómez and Sahily Cánovas doing their obligatory tour of San Francisco (from their Old First Concerts Web page)

Last night’s Old First Concerts program presented the N Blanco y Negro Piano Duo. This was a four-hands-one-keyboard group; and the pianists, Mirta Gómez and Sahily Cánovas, alternated taking left and right sides. The duo was founded in 2017 and gave its first recital in Miami. Both of them are of Cuban descent, but their training took them far beyond Cuba. Gomez graduated from the Juilliard School, while Cánovas graduated from the conservatories in both Kiev and Odessa.

Some readers probably know by now that I have had considerable experience with the four-hand repertoire. Much of that experience was due to weekly sessions with a neighbor in Opera Plaza, where I live. As a result, I have to make the disclaimer that I was familiar with the “nuts and bolts” of the first half of last night’s program, four-hand compositions by Antonín Dvořák, Franz Schubert, and Gabriel Fauré.

The greatest disappointment was the Schubert D. 940, his F minor fantasia, well-known to anyone that has explored the four-had repertoire. (I have lost count of the number of people with whom I have played this!) Sadly, Gómez and Cánovas fumbled the finale, which, as far as I am concerned, is perfectly conducive to amateurs. Similarly, there were major phrasing problems in their approach to the Fauré selection his Opus 56 Dolly suite.

The second half of the program was more diverse and less familiar. On the final selection, “La Bella Cubana” by José White Lafitte, they were joined by violinist Jennifer Redondas. The encores that followed were unannounced. However, the second half of the program was no more convincing than the first. Sadly, this was a program that promised much and delivered little.

The Lab: October, 2024

In consulting my archives, I discovered that I have not written a monthly preview of multiple performances devoted entirely to The Lab since my account of February of this month, written very early in the year. There have, of course, been accounts of individual events; and the monthly account for May was folded into a “busy weekend” article, which included the first performance in that month. However, next month at The Lab will be a generous one for those that appreciate “bleeding edge” performances.

For those unfamiliar with the venue, The Lab is located in the Mission at 2948 16th Street. This is particularly convenient for those using public transportation, since it is a short walk to the corner of 16th Street and Mission Street. Busses stop at that corner for both north-south and east-west travel, and downstairs there is a station for the BART line running under Mission Street. All performances this month (with one exception seen below) will begin at 8 p.m., and doors will open half an hour in advance. Specific information, including a hyperlink to the event page that provides both background material and hyperlinks for ticket purchases, is as follows:

Wednesday, October 2: Astrid Sonne is a violist, who is also a composer. Born in Denmark, she is currently based in London. She has worked on incorporating electronics into her acoustic performances. Composer Albert Yeh plays experimental electronic music. His current work focuses on examining the intersection between musical procedures and processes and emotional states and qualities.

Saturday, October 5: Los Angeles-based composer Tashi Wada will give a live performance based on the tracks on his first full-length album What Is Not Strange? He will be joined by Julia Holter, Ezra Buchla, and Corey Fogel. He describes his work as dream music, inhabiting “emotional states that are difficult to pinpoint” and “shapeshifting from moment to moment.” The second set will present local composer Matt Robidoux, performing on his Kinetically Operated Randomness Network synthesizer. This is a modular system that interprets physical input from two “ears of corn” sculptures cast in aluminum.

Thursday, October 10: Composer Olivia Black will perform live experimental music, usually involving piano, organ, or amplified objects. The second set will be taken by the Danny Paul Grody Duo. The other half of the duo is Rich Douthit. They will perform material from two recent recordings, Arc of Day and Arc of Night.

Friday, October 11: Dynasty Handbag is the alter ego of Jibz Cameron, who is a writer, performer, visual artist, and actor. She will perform all of the tracks from her The Bored Identity album. Songs will include an ode to male privilege, “When A Man Has an Idea,” and the consumer-driven climate disaster electro banger “Vat Do U Vant for Bwekfas?”

Saturday, October 12: Postcommodity is the duo of artists Kade Twist and Cristóbal Martinez. They will preview selections from their album From Her to Another Time, which will be released this fall. They will use their purpose-built sound-engine developed for a forthcoming project called Cosmovisión. The sound-engine is based on granular synthesis techniques.

Larry Polansky (from his The Lab event page)

Wednesday, October 16: Composer Larry Polansky died this past May at the age of 69. The Lab will celebrate what would have been his 70th birthday with a program entitled Simple Actions. His works will be performed by Margaret Lancaster (“Piker”), Giacomo Fiore (“ii-v-i”), Matt Ingalls (“freeHorn”), and Sarah Cahill (“ivt” and selections from “b’midbar”). His last major work was five songs for kate and vanessa, composed for Kate Stenberg and Vanessa Ruotolo. They will both be present for the performance, joined by Rory Cowal. Other works may later be added to this program. Because this event will be longer than usual, it will begin at 7:30 p.m., with doors opening at 7 p.m.

Friday, October 18: This will be a three-set evening. Slowfoam is the performing name of Madelyn Byrd, working with “glitched-out, swirling soundscapes from drones, sparkling ambiance, fuzzy poetics, field recordings, and textural percussion.” Sound artist Jake Muir will visit from Berlin to explore a set of “deeply personal sonic art that fluidly traverses genre membranes, encouraging reflection and sometimes prompting psychedelic states.” Finally, Jerod S. Rivera will present a set of moody, and immersive sound-worlds.

Friday, October 25: Saxophonist Caroline Davis and guitarist Wendy Eisenberg will use their album Accept When as a point of departure for improvising. The other set will also involve guitar. Bill Orcutt has developed his own take on reimagining the blues guitar genre.

Saturday, October 26: The final concert of the month (at least as of this writing) will be another two-set program. Australian percussionist Will Guthrie will give a solo set involving different combinations of drums, percussion, amplification, and electronics. The second set will be the improvising trio Monopiece, which adds guitar to a mix of percussion and electronics.

Tim Brady: Multiple Guitars and More

Guitarist Tim Brady (photograph by Clayton Kennedy, courtesy of Riparian Media)

According to my records, my last account of guitarist Tim Brady was in April of 2023, when I discussed the release of his solo performance of his own composition entitled “Symphony in 18 Parts.” One week from today, his latest album will be released, entitled Imagine Many Guitars. Bandcamp has already created a Web page for processing pre-orders of this album. That Web page also provides a generous “preview” of the first track, which is a little under 25 minutes in duration.

The title of that track is “This one is broken in pieces: Symphony #11.” Regardless of what the title may suggest,  this consists of a single movement involving eight electric guitars (with effects pedals), along with sections for four, eight, and twelve sopranos. The vocalists are Bronwyn Thies-Thompson, Janelle Lucyk, Sarah Albu, and Marie-Annick Béliveau, singing texts from the book Coming & Going by Ian Ferrier. From this we may conclude that “Symphony” is the product of a fair amount of scrupulously calculated overdubbing. The same can be said of the following two compositions: “Slow, Simple” (scored for twenty electric guitars) and “Five Times: four guitars.” Only the final selection, “[very] Short Pieces of (jazz) Guitar” can be performed before an audience without any accompaniment.

Having written about a modest number of Brady’s albums by now, I have to confess that there are times when the act of describing can overwhelm the act of listening. There is no questioning his inventiveness when he lays out a plan for one of his compositions. However, after having gone “around the block” for a generous number times spent listening to Brady’s album, I am beginning to tire more than a little bit of his auditory perambulations. However adventurous his plans may be, my commitment to listening eventually begins to tire of those adventures.

Outsound Presents Announces SIMM Program

The Echo’s Bones trio of Joseph Noble, Amber Lamprecht, and Sheldon Brown (courtesy of Outsound Presents)

When Outsound Presents announced this month’s performances at the end of last month, the program for the monthly SIMM (Static Illusion Methodical Madness) Series had not yet been finalized. That information was made available last night, and the two-hour evening will be divided between two sets. In the first set, Rent Romus will be the “guest artist” in a performance by the Greensatan project. For this occasion he will play a variety of saxophones and flutes, as well as bells. He will be joined by the Atchleys, vocalist Kattt, who will also play gongs, and her husband Kenneth on electronics. The second set will be taken by Echo’s Bones, the wind trio whose members are Amber Lamprecht (oboe, cor anglais, and flutes), Sheldon Brown (clarinet and bass clarinet), and Joseph Noble (flute, alto flute, and bass flute).

As is usually the case for the SIMM Series, the program will begin at 7:30 p.m. this coming Sunday, September 22. These concerts take place at the Musicians Union, located in SoMa at 116 9th Street. As always, admission will be by donation on a suggested scale between $15 and $20.

Discovering the Symphonies of Kurt Weill

My experiences with the music of Kurt Weill go all the way back to the summer before I began my freshman year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I spent that period in a music camp, where the major project was a staged performance of The Threepenny Opera (in English); but, over the course of that summer, we did a “deep dive” into Weill’s collaborations with Bertolt Brecht, many of which have found their way into articles on this site. While I was aware of many of subsequent works by Weill without Brecht, I knew virtually nothing about his orchestral work.

Conductor Joana Mallwitz (courtesy of Crossover Media)

As a result, I was glad to see the Deutsche Grammophon release of The Kurt Weill Album, on which Joana Mallwitz conducts the Konzerthausorchester Berlin in performances of the two symphonies that Weill composed, the first (a single movement in four sections) in 1921 and the second, a three-movement work that Bruno Walter premiered with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1934. Between these “bookends” is a performance of the score for the ballet “The Seven Deadly Sins” with a libretto by Bertolt Brecht. The vocalists are Katharine Mehrling as the two Annas and the “Greek chorus” of tenors Michael Porter and Simon Bode, baritone Michael Nagl, and bass-baritone Oliver Zwarg.

Personally, I have to confess that neither symphony had much impact on me. My greatest interest was in how Weill could manage instrumentation without having to accommodate voices. Every now and then, one will encounter a gesture or two recalling some of the sharp edges in his vocal settings; but these depart as quickly as they arrive. One has to wonder whether Weill’s only motive in writing these symphonies was to convince his colleagues that, for all of his dramatic efforts, he could still be a “serious composer.”

Such a situation reminds me of the composer David Raksin, described on his Wikipedia page as the “Grandfather of Film Music.” In spite of his success on the silver screen, he was obsessed with becoming a “serious composer.” The story goes that he pled his case to his Los Angeles friend Arnold Schoenberg. Schoenberg replied, “You composed ‘Laura,’ one of the best songs ever written! Why do you want to follow in my footsteps!” In a similar vein, I fear that there are few, if any, movements in either of Weill’s symphonies that can hold a candle to “Mack the Knife!”

The US-Mexico Border: an Operatic Reflection

In 2022 Nicolas Benavides received a commission to compose a new opera for Music of Remembrance (MOR). The original mission of MOR involved remembering the Holocaust through music with concert performances, educational programs, recordings, and commissions of new works; but recently the organization has broadened its scope to encompass other injustices arising from prejudicial political situations. Benavides leveraged that broader scope in composing his new opera, entitled “Tres minutos” (three minutes). It received its first performance on May 15, 2022, performed at the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall in Seattle. That performance was recorded on video, which is now available for viewing on a YouTube Web page.

The plot involves a sister (soprano Vanessa Isiguen) and brother (baritone José Rubio) who, through an accident of fate, have been separated by the US-Mexico border. The brother, Diego, is the older sibling, born in Mexico. However, his mother crossed the border when pregnant with Nila; and she was born in the United States, making her an American citizen. The narrative involves the United States allowing the border to be opened for all of three minutes to allow such separated families to reunited. The only other character is a US Border Patrol Agent, sung by tenor Brendan Tuohy. Benavides conducted a chamber ensemble consisting of clarinet (Laura DeLuca), violin (Mikhail Shmidt), viola (Susan Gulkis Assadi), cello (Walter Gray), bass (Jonathan Green), and piano (Jessica Choe).

Staging was directed by Erich Parce, working with a minimal set, which effectively established the separation between brother and sister. The duration was about 40 minutes, over the course of which the audience was subjected to a “deep dive” into how families separated by the border deal with the issue. To the credit of librettist Marella Martin Koch, the situation never devolves into violence. Both Nila and Diego are now mature adults, both painfully aware that violence (or, for that matter, even passive resistance) can only make the situation worse.

Sister (Vanessa Isiguen) and brother (José Rubio) embrace at the conclusion of their “tres minutos” encounter (screen shot from the YouTube video of the premiere performance of “Tres minutos”)

Ultimately, the climax of the opera is when viewers can experience how the siblings make the most of the short time allotted to them. Mind you, Koch’s libretto provides the observer with a rich account of both personalities. Thus, when they finally meet, that observer can appreciate not just the climax but also the frustration of the descent from that climax.

As the opera concludes, the attentive viewer will come away recognizing that there are (and may never be) any simple (or even viable) solutions to a situation in which a family is divided by a border that separates two decidedly different countries.