Hough to Return to SFP for Solo Recital

Stephen Hough at the piano (photograph by Sim Canetty-Clarke, courtesy of SFP)

Pianist Stephen Hough (now Sir Stephen Hough) is no stranger to San Francisco. Indeed, when I was just beginning to exercise my writing chops, I remember having the opportunity to observe one of his master classes at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Nevertheless, I have to confess that my thoughts about him have run both hot and cold over the course of his past visits. According to my records, his last visit took place this past March, when he shared the stage with the Esmé Quartet for a San Francisco Performances (SFP) recital. The “main attraction” of that program was Johannes Brahms’ Opus 34 piano quintet in F minor, when I wrote the following about his performance of that music:

Hough’s face was constantly buried in his tablet, almost entirely as if he was unaware of his four colleagues; and, sadly, those colleagues tended to fumble their way through the intricacies of Brahms’ counterpoint.

Hough will return to SFP at the beginning of this coming February. This time he will be a solo recitalist, meaning that “playing well with others” will not longer be a factor. Each of half of his program will conclude with a major piano sonata. The intermission will be preceded by Franz Liszt’s S. 178, his only piano sonata, composed as a single movement, whose duration is usually about half an hour. The final work on the program will be another sonata in B minor, this time Frédéric Chopin’s four-movement Opus 58, the last of the three sonatas he composed (the first having been published posthumously).

Each of these formidable undertakings will be preceded by shorter offerings. The Liszt sonata will be preceded by three pieces by Cécile Chaminade, who happened to be born in 1857, the year when S. 178 was first performed. (This was after Liszt’s death in 1853.) The pieces that Hough has selected are “Automne,” “Autre Fois,” and “Les Sylvains.” The intermission will be followed by Hough’s own “Sonatina Nostalgica,” the final movement from his Partita and Sonatina Nostalgica.

This performance will begin on Tuesday, February 4, at 7:30 p.m., in Herbst Theatre, located at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. Ticket prices are $85 (premium Orchestra and front and center Dress Circle), $75 (remainder of Orchestra, all Side Boxes, and center rear Dress Circle), and $65 (remaining Dress Circle and Balcony); and they may be purchased through an SFP secure Web page. Single tickets may also be purchased by calling 415-392-2545.

Voices of Music Releases Video for Christmas

Yesterday evening (also known as Christmas Eve), Voices of Music (VoM) released its latest video. As might be guessed, this was a “seasonal” offering: the eighth of the twelve concerti grossi in Arcangelo Corelli’s Opus 6 collection of twelve. The last time I reported VoM performing this music was on December 23, 2018, when I wrote “Corelli’s score for this particular concerto includes the inscription ‘Fatto per la notte de Natale’ (made for the night of Christmas); and it is popularly known as the ‘Christmas Concerto.” However, this was not the performance that was captured on video. That would have to wait until December of 2021, when the performance captured on video took place in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church; and the results are now available for viewing on YouTube.

The Voices of Music violinists performing Corelli: Elizabeth Blumenstock and Kati Kyme (front) with Isabelle Seula Lee, Linda Quan, Maxine Nemerovski, and Rachell Ellen Wong (rear) (screen shot from the video being discussed)

Because the music is a concerto grosso, it is scored for multiple soloists and ensemble. There this particular selection is concerned, the soloists are two violinists (Elizabeth Blumenstock and Kati Kyme) and a cellist (William Skeen). However, the camera work does not go out of its way to dwell on the soloists. This is very much an ensemble piece, and that is how it is presented to those viewing this new video.

Corelli extended the usual structure of four movements to six. However, there are two sections of different tempo in the first movement, Vivace followed by Grave. Similarly, the third movement is divided into Adagio-Allegro-Adagio. As a result, there are seven time cues in the text for the YouTube, one for the third movement and the other six for a single tempo.

Mind you, most viewers will find it sufficient to let the video “speak for itself,” particularly if they are already familiar with the music (as I have been for quite some time)!

Vincenzo Virgillito’s Diversity of Basses

Cover of the album being discussed

Precondition is a solo album of performances by bassist Vincenzo Virgillito. According to the advance material I received, it was scheduled for release on January 1; but, as those following the above hyperlink will see, all twelve of the tracks are currently available for MP3 download through an Amazon.com Web page. The description of Virgillito as a “bassist” might mislead some unfamiliar with his work. While he is a virtuoso performer on the double bass, for this album he also plays electric bass, fretless instruments with both five and four strings, and analog pedals.

Three of the tracks on the album are tributes. Most importantly (at least to me) is an acknowledgment to the most adventurous jazz bass player of his day, Charles Mingus, with a performance of “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.” I was glad to see that Virgillito’s interpretation was so imaginatively embellished that one could barely notice the tune that Mingus originally composed. The theme for “Danny Boy” is much more evident on the track that was conceived to honor the memory of Bill Evans. The other tribute is an original, “Word Drops,” which is given the subtitle “Jaco’s midnight,” presumably to acknowledge Jaco Pastorius. The remaining tracks are Virgillito originals, including five “Reset” tracks, which serve as “punctuation marks” over the course of the entire album.

Personally, I found the overall listening experience to be a mixed bag. Virgillito clearly had the capacity to evoke a wide variety of sonorities through his diversity of instruments and the supplementary technology. Nevertheless, for all of that diversity, I came away with an impression of rather bland navel-gazing. Perhaps his decision to take composers such as Mingus and Evans as points of departure raised my expectations too high. However, after listening to this album in its entirety, my first impression was to go back and listen to the “source of inspiration” on the Mingus Ah Um album.

Old First Concerts: February, 2025

Readers may recall that Old First Concerts will get the new year off to a relatively modest start with only two events. Fortunately, things will pick up in February with more than twice as many offerings. So now is as good a time as any to check the calendar to prepare for them!

As now seems consistently to be the case, the events will remain “hybrid,” allowing both live streaming and seating in the Old First Presbyterian Church at 1751 Sacramento Street on the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue. Each of the event pages (which include hyperlinks for streaming) provides specific price information. The following dates and times provide hyperlinks to those event pages as follows:

Violinist Andrew Finn Magill (from his Old First Concerts Web page)

Sunday, February 2, 4 p.m.: The emergence of the groundhog will be celebrated with a program of original Brazilian choro and samba music. The performance will be by a trio called Canta, Violino! American violinist Andrew Finn Magill will perform with two Brazilians, percussionist Clarice Cast and Edinho Berber of seven-string guitar. Selections will be announced during the course of the performance.

Friday, February 14, 8 p.m.: The celebration of Groundhog Day will be followed by a performance on Valentine’s Day. It will be presented by the Shoreline Piano Trio, whose members are violinist Sui-mi Shin, cellist Katie Youn, and pianist Menghua Lin. The full title of their program will be Explorations of Love and Art: A Valentine’s Concert. All of the composers on this program will be women. The earliest of these will be Maria Theresia von Paradis, a contemporary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who may have written his K. 456 B-flat major piano concerto for her. The nineteenth century will be represented at one end by Clara Schumann’s Opus 17 piano trio in G minor and at the other by Amy Beach’s Opus 34 violin sonata. The other selections will be by contemporary composers Caroline Shaw, Jessie Montgomery, and Jennifer Higdon.

Sunday, February 16, 4 p.m.: LIEDER ALIVE! will return for the third program in its thirteenth annual Liederabend Series. The pianist will be Peter Grünberg, accompanying soprano Charlotte Kelso. Program details have not yet been finalized; but the selections will be by Franz Schubert, Richard Wagner, Gustave Mahler, and Karl Marx (not to be confused with the philosopher).

Friday, February 21, 8 p.m.: This will be another vocal recital, this time by French-Israeli mezzo Naama Liany, who will be accompanied at the piano by Kevin Korth. She has prepared a program entitled Daydream, possibly inspired by the “keystone” at the center of the program, the cycle of five songs by Federico Mompou entitled Combat del somni. This will be preceded by two works by American composers, Samuel Barber’s Opus 41 cycle of five songs, Despite and still, and Leonard Bernstein’s “cycle of five kid songs” entitled I Hate Music. The final two selections on the program will be Das blaue Klavier, a cycle of three songs by Albena Petrovic-Vratchanska, which she called a “Rundfunkoper,” and Francis Poulenc’s FP107 settings of five poems by Guillaume Apollinaire entitled Banalités.

SFS “Favorites in Focus” Next Year

Next month San Francisco Symphony (SFS) will begin a selection of four subscription concerts collected under the title Favorites in Focus and unabashedly described as an “ultimate playlist.” Each program will be led by a different conductor with Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen “taking the helm” to conclude the series. What struck me as interesting was that the entire repertoire across all four of the offerings was firmly grounded in the nineteenth century, suggesting that the overall title could have been “Favorites from the Good Old Days!” Furthermore, each program consists of only two selections on either side of the intermission. Here is a basic summary of the works to be performed and the conductors that will lead them:

SFS Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt (photograph by Martin Lengemann, courtesy of SFS)

January 30–February 1: As was first reported at the beginning of this month, the series will begin with Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt on the podium. He prepared a program of only two symphonies, each by a German composer and each at either end of the nineteenth century. The first half of the program will be devoted entirely to Franz Schubert’s D. 485 (fifth) symphony in B-flat major, which he completed on October 3, 1816. This will be complemented in the second half by Johannes Brahms’ Opus 68, his first symphony, composed over the course of 21 years and first performed on November 4, 1876.

February 28–March 2: The distance between the two composers in the second concert is somewhat wider. Pianist Francesco Piemontesi will be the soloist in the first half, performing Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 58 (fourth) piano concerto in G major, which was completed in 1806. The second half advances a little more than a century to Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Opus 27 (second) symphony in E minor. The conductor will be Robin Ticciati.

March 13–15: Elim Chan will conduct a program of two works by the same composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. In the first half she will lead a suite (possibly her own) of excerpts from the score for the ballet Swan Lake. The narrative for this ballet involves an evil sorcerer, whose spell is only broken by the apotheosis in the final act. If this is a journey from darkness to light, then the second half of the program, the Opus 74 (sixth) symphony descends in the opposite direction, with a final movement that is one of the bleakest in the nineteenth-century repertoire.

May 29–June 1: Beethoven gets a “second round” in Salonen’s presentation of the final concert of the series. The program itself will be another pairing of concerto and symphony. This time, however, the first half will be devoted to Beethoven’s Opus 60, his fourth symphony composed in the key of B-flat major. In the second half, violinist Hilary Hahn will be the soloist for the Opus 61 violin concerto in D major, making for a “back-to-back” approach to programming.

As usual, all programs will take place in Davies Symphony Hall, which is located at 201 Van Ness Avenue and fills an entire city block. The other boundaries are Grove Street (north), Hayes Street (south), and Franklin Street (west). The main entrance (which is also the entrance to the Box Office) is on Grove Street, roughly halfway down the block. Each of the above hyperlinks will provide concert ticket prices for the respective programs. Tickets may be purchased online or by calling 415-503-5351. In addition, the Box Office in the Davies lobby is open for selling tickets.

New Video Presents Regondi “On Location”

I first became aware of the Swiss-born composer Giulio Regondi when I wrote a preview for a recital by Scottish-born classical guitarist David Russell. It took place in Herbst Theatre in March of 2020, presented jointly by the Omni Foundation of the Performing Arts and the San Francisco Performances Guitar Series. I have come to believe that just about any guitar recital I attend will involve at least one “journey of discovery.” In this particular case I “discovered” the Swiss-born composer Giulio Regondi when Russell played his Opus 21, the first of two compositions given the title “Air varié.”

A brief departure from the guitar performance to show some of the elegant exterior of the church in which David Russell performed (from the YouTube video of the performance being discussed)

A little over a year later Russell recorded a performance of Regondi’s Opus 21, producing a video in partnership with Maria Jesus Rodriguez. The selected venue was the Church of Saint Martin of Tours in Frómista, which is located in Spain in the province of Palencia. For the most part, the video captures Russell playing on the altar, but there are a few brief shots of the intricate detail in the overall architecture (as can be seen above).

The music itself follows familiar nineteenth-century conventions. The theme is preceded by an extended introduction and followed by a moderate number of acceptably inventive variations. (The duration of the composition is about ten minutes.) As I have previously written, I have tried to follow Russell’s performances for almost as long as I have been writing about the performance of music; and I still find each encounter, even when it is on a video, a refreshing journey of discovery. Regondi may not receive much attention in music history books, but Russell definitely made a strong case for his imaginative inventiveness. The video production did well to focus in Russell’s performance technique, rather than the architecture in which he was playing!

The Bleeding Edge: 12/23/2024

As I observed almost exactly a year ago, not much happens on the Bleeding Edge during the “twelve days of Christmas.” However, this may be the first time that “not much” has boiled down to a single event. That event will be the weekly Other Dimensions in Sound series hosted by reed player David Boyce. This week Boyce will again be one of the performers, playing in a trio with guitarist David James (who is also a vocalist in a variety of different genres) and Warren Huegel on drums. Most readers probably know by now that Other Dimensions in Sound is hosted by the Medicine for Nightmares bookstore, which is located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street.

Porky Pig delivering his most familiar line (from the YouTube Web page for this video clip)

In the immortal words of Porky Pig: “Th-Th-The, Th-Th-The, Th-Th... That's all, folks!”

SFP: Plans for 2025 PIVOT Festival

The four Sandbox Percussion players (photograph by Kjell van Sice, courtesy of SFP)

January will once again be the month of the PIVOT Festival presented by San Francisco Performances (SFP). This will be the tenth season; and, once again, it will be curated by Gabriel Kahane, who will also perform as both pianist and vocalist. As in the past, the Festival will consist of three programs, the first and last of which will feature the Sandbox Percussion quartet of Ian Rosenbaum, Jonny Allen, Terry Sweeney, and Victor Caccese. The second program will also feature a quartet, this time of brass players Riley Mulherkar and Chloe Rowlands on trumpet and Andy Clausen and Addison May-Saxon on trombone, who perform under the name The Westerlies.

As in the past, the Festival will consist of three programs, all beginning at 7:30 p.m., as follows:

1. Wednesday, January 29: This will be a full-evening performance of 26 Little Deaths, composed by Carla Kihlstedt. The music was inspired by Edward Gorey’s book, The Gashlycrumb Tinies. The performers will be pianist Sarah Cahill, the members of the Del Sol Quartet (violinists Hyeyung Sol Yoon and Benjamin Kreith, Charlton Lee on viola, and cellist Kathryn Bates), and Sandbox Percussion.
2. Thursday, January 30: The program has not been finalized; but The Westerlies will showcase new interpretations from the songbook of folk singer Haley Heynderickx, who will perform with them.
3. Friday, January 31: This will be another evening-length composition, this time of Seven Pillars by Andy Akiho, which will be performed by Sandbox Percussion.

As in the past, these performances will take place in Herbst Theatre, whose entrance is the main entrance to the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue, located on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. The venue is excellent for public transportation, since that corner has Muni bus stops for both north-south and east-west travel. Tickets for each performance may be purchased through the above hyperlinks attached to the dates. Ticket prices are $65, $55, and $45. There is also a Web page for a subscription to the entire series with prices of $180, $150, and $120.

Annual Women and Nonbinary Series Continues

Banner for next month’s program of music by women and nonbinary composers (from the Eventbrite Web page for the concert)

Next month Ensemble for These Times will start the New Year with its annual program of music by women and nonbinary composers. This year the full title of the program will be Midnight Serenades: Music by Women and Nonbinary Composers. There will be two world premiere performances, both by alumnae of the Luna Compositions Lab: Madeline Clara Cheng (“The Fisherman’s Post”) and Lucy Chen (“Exhalation”). There will also be three works from this year’s Call for Scores, provided also by alumnae: Olivia Bennett (“Prelude to the Afterlife”), Gabriella Cariddo (“Because I Could Not Stop for Death”), and Devon Lee (“What I Know About Living”). The remaining works on the program have been composed over the last 30 years: “Manhattan Serenades” (Gabriela Lena Frank, 1995), “Sin Voz” from the opera Juana (Carla Lucero, 2019), “Twelve Chairs” (Jodi Goble, 2016), and “Midnight Snack” (Avril Tucker, 2019).

This program will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 25. The performance will take place at the Center for New Music (C4NM), located at 55 Taylor Street, just north of its intersection with Market Street. General admission will be $17.85 with a discounted $12.51 rate for C4NM members. Tickets may be purchased through an Eventbrite Web page. There will also be a free livestream, which will be made available at no charge with the selection of “Livestream” as a ticketing option. All sales will be available up to the date of the performance.

Left Coast Festival About a Month Away

Floral icon for the On the Threshold of Dreamland program (from the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble events calendar)

Hopefully, there are readers that will recall that the Winter Wandering Festival, presented by the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, will begin at the end of next month. For those that do not recall, the hyperlink will serve as a memory aid; and the dates and time for the programs will be as follows:

• Friday, January, 31, 7:30 p.m.: Winterreise
• Saturday, February 1, 11:30 a.m.: A Dark Matter
• Saturday, February 1, 7:30 p.m.: On the Threshold of Dreamland
• Sunday, February 2, 4 p.m.: Franz Schubert and Luigi Nono

Tix is providing a Festival Pass for the entire series for $120 with a $60 rate for students. Single tickets will be available through the individual event pages. All four programs will take place at the Noe Valley Ministry, which is located in Noe Valley (of course) at 1021 Sanchez Street, just south of 23rd Street.

SFJAZZ: January, 2025

As of this writing, it appears that things will be quiet at the Joe Henderson Lab of the SFJAZZ Center for the first half of the New Year. However, it will resume activities with a weekend of free performances as compensation for the wait! For those that do not (yet?) know, the SFJAZZ Center is located at 201 Franklin Street, on the northwest corner of Fell Street, where the main entrance doors are located. Performance dates, times, and hyperlinks for purchasing tickets are as follows:

Friday, January 17, Saturday, January 18, and Sunday, January 19, 7 p.m.: These will be three concerts that celebrate Black music rooted in traditions such as gospel, blues, and jazz. The Dee Spencer Trio, led by pianist Spencer, will share the program will special guest vocalists Michelle Jacques and Clairdee. Other soloists will be drawn from the public; and, as of this writing, Spencer’s accompanists have not yet been named. Sadly, no further specifics are available at the present time; but the tickets for Saturday are almost sold out.

Thursday, January 23, 8:30 p.m.: The theme for this week will be Experimental Composers. It will begin with the Edward Simon Trio, whose leader is the SFJAZZ Collective Pianist. Unfortunately, the other two performers have not yet been identified. As of this writing, the second set is currently the only option.

Friday, January 24, 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.: Jamie Baum, is a flutist, composer, and bandleader. This will be her first performance at SFJAZZ with her working quartet. Once again, the other performers have not yet been identified.

Saturday, January 25, 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.: This will be a solo piano performance by Gloria Cheng. The title of her program will be ROOT PROGRESSIONS. She will play the results of commissions by Anthony Davis, Jon Jang, Linda May Han Oh, Arturo O’Farrill, and James Newton.

Sunday, January 26, 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.: Pianist Jeong Lim Yang will lead her trio in a performance of Zodiac Suite, which was composed by Mary Lou Williams in 1945. This trio arrangements was recorded on a Fresh Sound album in 2022 under the title Zodiac Suite: Reassured. Once again, information about the other members of the trio is not yet available.

Jazz singer Kat Edmonson (from the SFJAZZ event page for her performances this month)

Thursday, January 30, and Friday, January 31, 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.: The month will conclude with the first of two programs in a series entitled Music from the Movies. (The other two programs will begin the month of February.) Kat Edmonson is a vocalist that sings her own compositions. According to The New York Times, her genres include “jazz, cabaret and vintage cosmopolitanism pop.” The performances of her selections tend to interleave with humorous anecdotes, philosophical musings, and her love of film. As might be guessed, the program will interleave her own works with songs from familiar movie classics.

More “Noodling” from Sclavis-Moussay Duo

Louis Sclavis and Benjamin Moussay (© Stéphanie Griguer, courtesy of ECM records)

My last opportunity to write about a new ECM release was this past Saturday, when my “first contact” with Florian Weber’s Imaginary Cycle: Music for piano, brass ensemble and flute led to reflections on past encounters with “noodling” (basically meandering without any sense of direction) as the “cardinal sin” of composition. This morning brought me another new ECM offering, this time a duo performance by clarinetist Louis Sclavis with Benjamin Moussay at the piano. The album consists of nine tracks of original works, six by Moussay and three by Sclavis.

The advance material I received declared that all nine of these pieces drew “from a broad range of inspirations.” Those inspirations involved a rather extensive spectrum of sources, with the organ music of Olivier Messiaen rubbing shoulders with Jimmy Giuffre, one of the composers to contribute to the third stream genre that tried to merge the jazz and classical styles. Those who read my latest article about Andrew Hill probably already know that my opinion about third stream parallels an old joke about the monorail being an idea of the future whose time has passed; and that pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter!

The title of the new Sclavis-Moussay album is Unfolding, but I am afraid it did not register much impact with me. There were few, if any, moments that could be taken as reflection on either Messiaen or Giuffre. For that matter, were I to take a “blind listening test,” I probably would not be able to distinguish the compositions by Moussay from those by Sclavis. Instead, there is an overall rhetoric of quietude, which, to be fair, may be just the right mood to soothe tensions after a stressful day of shopping for the holidays.

Indeed, this is the time of year when many of us could do with resorting to Alprazolam (better known under the brand name Xanax) while trying to get into the holiday spirit. Personally, I have better ways to cultivate that spirit. Readers that have followed this site over the course of the years know that I make it a point to attend the annual performance of George Frideric Handel’s HWV 56 oratorio (better known as Messiah); and this year I got my fun from Peaches Christ with the Holiday Gaiety program, both events involving the San Francisco Symphony performing in Davies Symphony Hall. Such offerings provided more than enough to soothe my tensions and raise my spirits, and I doubt that Unfolding will have anything to add to those spirits between now and my ringing in the New Year!

Noe Music to Begin New Year with Upbeat Piano

Aaron Diehl at his piano (courtesy of Noe Music)

The Noe Music Mainstage concert series will account for one of the first recitals in the new year. The recitalist will be pianist Aaron Diehl, and he has prepared a program entitled Stride & Ragtime. Through those two genres he will survey innovative compositions from the early twentieth century, which provided the seeds for the beginning of the Jazz Age in the 1920s. The program will include works by familiar (at least to me!) composers from that time, such as Scott Joplin (“Maple Leaf Rag”), Fats Waller (“Viper’s Drag”), and Eubie Blake (“Memories of You”). Other composers to be featured will be James P. Johnson, Jelly Roll Morton, and the less familiar Jesse Pickett.

This will be one of the series’ Sunday programs, beginning at 4 p.m. on January 12. As usual, the performance will take place in the Noe Valley Ministry at 1021 Sanchez Street, just south of 23rd Street. A Web page currently available for purchasing tickets. General admission is $45 with a special $60 rate for the limited first few rows. Students will be admitted for $15.

Disappointing Jazz from Temple University

Cover of the album being discussed (courtesy of DL Media)

This is the time of year when, because my inbox is not as filled as usual, I try to compensate for albums that, for some reason or another, “fell through the cracks” at the time of their release. This was the case with the Labyrinth album, which I first learned about at the end of April and, according to its Bandcamp Web page, was released the following May 17. The title track is a composition for big band, rhythm section, and orchestra composed by Billy Childs on a commission by trumpeter Terell Stafford, alto saxophonist Dick Oatts, and Temple University. The Temple University Studio Orchestra is conducted by José Luis Domínguez with solo performances by both Stafford and Oatts.

These resources also contribute to the third (and final) track on the album, “Rainforests,” composed by Bill Cunliffe. They are joined by four additional soloists, Tim Warfield on tenor saxophone, pianist Bruce Barth, Mike Boone on bass, and drummer Justin Faulkner. These two works frame the second track, “Red Braid,” composed by Banks Sapnar and performed by the Temple University Jazz Band led by Stafford.

This was an ambitious undertaking; and, because I spent many years of my life in Philadelphia (including an Assistant Professorship at the University of Pennsylvania), I was particularly curious, in part because (at least during my tenure) the Music Department at Penn showed little interest in jazz as a topic worthy of study. As a result, the mere fact that Temple had undertaken this event was more than enough to attract my attention. Unfortunately, that was about all that was achieved. While the performances themselves could not be faulted, I came away feeling that there was just too much “noodling” (the “cardinal sin” bestowed by my composition teacher) in the music itself. Put another way, there was no faulting the spirit behind the two performing ensembles; but there was not much strength in the “flesh” of what they were performing.

Perhaps an academic setting is not the best place for such a spirit to thrive.

The Bleeding Edge: 12/17/2024

This week will be just as busy on the Bleeding Edge as last week was. Once again, the “usual suspects” will be contributing. Whether or not this involves a mad dash to do as much as possible before the seasonal holidays take precedence above all else will be left to the reader to decide! Specifics are as follows:

Tuesday (today), December 17, Make-Out Room, 7 p.m.: This month’s installment of Jazz at the Make-Out Room will consist of three sets, each consisting roughly of 45 minutes in duration. The program will begin with the Dymaxion trio of Bruce Ackley, doubling between soprano saxophone and clarinet, bassist Pete Schmitt, and Dave Brandt on percussion. They will be followed by a duo set taken by Velox Humm, pairing Scott Amendola on drums with guitarist Lenny Gonzalez. The final set will be taken by another trio, Key West, led by saxophonist Brian Pedersen, performing with Jay Korber on drums and cellist Randylee Sutherland. As usual, the Make-Out Room is located in the Mission at 3225 22nd Street. Doors will open at 6 p.m. There is no cover charge, so donations will be accepted and appreciated.

Wednesday, December 18, Luggage Store Gallery, 8 p.m.: The Luggage Store Creative Music Series will present two one-hour sets. The opening set will be taken by the Inkwells Trio, led by guitarist Lorenzo Arreguin performing with Elijah Pontecorvo on bass and drummer Christian Arriola. Saxophonist Rent Romus will then lead his Lords of Outland combo in a program entitled Ghost Moon. The other members of the combo will be Philip Everett on electronics, drummer Anthony Flores, and Ray Scheaffer on bass. They will be joined by saxophonist Zae Tinaza making a “special guest” appearance. 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.

Thursday, December 19, Adobe Books, 8 p.m.: The first set will be taken by Malikah Wang, who will be on a brief visit from Taiwan. One of her performances during this visit will be only five minutes in duration. Regardless of length, this will involve voice and electronics accompanied by tap-dance percussion. The other set will be a quartet of performers from both Oakland and San Francisco singing and improvising under the title Newcomer Can’t Swim. Adobe Books is located in the Mission at 3130 24th Street. Doors will open at 7:30 p.m., and a $10 donation will be requested to support the performers.

Friday, December 20, Medicine for Nightmares, 7 p.m.: As usual, reed player David Boyce will host the weekly Other Dimensions in Sound series. This week the “sonic sustenance and musical medicina” will be provided by a solo gig performed by Amplifier. 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.

Poster design for the performance by the Chris Trinidad Trio (from the BayImprovisor Web page for this event)

Saturday, December 21, Bird & Beckett Books and Records, 7:30 p.m.: Playing bass guitar and synth bass, Chris Trinidad will lead a trio performing with pianist Bob Crawford and Isaac Schwartz on his drum kit. They will perform selections from his Iridium Records releases including Common Themes, Certain Times, and Chant Triptych II. For those that do not already know, the venue is located in Glen Park at 653 Chenery Street, a short walk from the Glen Park station that serves both BART and Muni. Admission will be a cover charge of $25, payable by Venmo or in cash. 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. This performance will also be live-streamed through hyperlinks to Facebook and YouTube on the Bird & Beckett Web page while the show is in progress.

Saturday, December 21, The Lab, 7 p.m.: As was reported this past Friday, The Lab will conclude the year with SEASONS, a program inspired by the winter solstice.

Frank Hanny to Ring In New Year

Jazz pianist and composer Tim Chernikoff

There is still half a month to go; but, as of this writing, the very first performance of the new year likely to be of interest to readers will take place in the afternoon of New Year’s Day. Jazz Chez Hanny will launch 2025 with a performance by the Tim Chernikoff Trio. Pianist and composer Chernikoff has literally been “all over the map” (at least the map of the United States) in his music education and performances. This has resulted in an equally broad source of influences, which date back to Maurice Ravel and advance through Thelonious Monk and Ornette Coleman to Frank Zappa. His latest album, Pieces of Sanity, dates back to September of 2021; but his trio colleagues on that album will also join him in his visit to Chez Hanny. They are drummer Kenneth Salters and Jakob Dreyer on bass.

As has been the case throughout this year, Chez Hanny is located at 1300 Silver Avenue; and the performance takes place in the downstairs rumpus room. It will begin at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, January 1. Admission will be $25, payable by check or cash. All of that money will go to cover expenses. [added 12/16, 9:40 a.m.: Because Jazz Chez Hanny is now a 501(c)(3) public charity, the price of admission is now tax-deductible.] 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, meaning that reservations are strongly recommended. They may be 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.

SFP to Begin New Year with Guitar Recital

Guitarist Miloš (photograph by Christoph Köstlin, courtesy of SFP)

San Francisco Performances (SFP) will begin the New Year with the next program in its Guitar Series. Most readers probably know by now that these events are shared with the Dynamite Guitars concert season presented by the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts. The year will begin with a solo recital by Miloš Karadaglić (who performs under only his first name).

Miloš has prepared a program entitled The Arts and the Hours. While the works on the program span music history from the Baroque period to the twentieth century, only two of the composers are guitarists. Agustín Barrios will be represented by the “Andante Religioso” movement from his suite La Catedral, and the program will conclude with “Amor Fati” by contemporary composer Mathias Duplessy. On the other hand, most of the program will dwell on composers from the Baroque period, including (in order of appearance) Sylvius Leopold Weiss, Jean-Philippe Rameau, George Frideric Handel, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Domenico Scarlatti. The program will also include “Asturias,” originally composed as a piano prelude by Isaac Albéniz and Toru Takemitsu’s guitar arrangement of Harold Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow.”

This performance will begin, as usual, at 8 p.m. on Saturday, January 25. Also as usual, the venue will be Herbst Theatre, which is located at 401 Van Ness Avenue, on the southwest corner of McAllister Street and directly across Van Ness from City Hall. SFP has created its own Web page for online ticket purchases. Tickets for the Boxes and Orchestra range between $60 and $70. The remaining tickets are in the Dress Circle and the Balcony, with prices between $50 and $70.

A Frustrating Encounter with Florian Weber

The good news about December is that things begin to quiet down, giving me a bit more liberty to take on recordings I might previously have had to dismiss for lack of time. However, when I venture into those “unknown regions” (as Walt Whitman described them), I have to accept that the trip may not always be worth the while. Such is the case when I had the opportunity to list to an ECM album, which had been released this past September at a time when I had more than enough on my plate. Today, I finally had the time to listen to that album without worrying about other commitments; but I am not sure it was worth the wait.

The title of the album is Imaginary Cycle: Music for piano, brass ensemble and flute, composed by Florian Weber. This is one of those releases that includes a booklet. It provides a generously informative essay by Friedrich Kunzmann. Sadly, I feel that I derived more from reading the essay than from listening to the music.

This may be due, at least in part, to my own educational experiences. I happened to be an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at a time when the Music Department began to take on new faculty members willing to teach courses in harmony and theory at a time when past faculty members never ventured very far beyond “music appreciation.” Naturally, I devoured as many of those new courses as I could cram into my schedule; and my memories are still fond ones. What has remained stuck in my mind since that time, however, was one criticism that made me aware of the real challenge behind composing music that others might want to experience. The teacher described the “cardinal sin” of composition as “noodling;” and all of his pupils (myself) included labored over avoiding being accused of that sin!

Of course the teacher never reduced “noodling” to specific necessary and/or sufficient conditions. Basically, what we learned was, “You know it when you hear it.” Leaping now into the present, I realized that, in listening to Imaginary Cycle, I found myself encountering noodling again. This was more than a little disappointing, particularly since the instrumentation included one of the most seldom-performed instruments in the orchestral repertoire, the serpent. This is played by Michel Godard, who alternates with tuba.

Composer Florian Weber at the piano (photograph by Stefan Groß, courtesy of Crossover Media)

Composer Weber leads the performance from the piano, and the instrumentation is almost entirely brass. The tuba is joined by four euphoniums and four trombones, the last of which is a bass instrument. The one non-brass instrument is a flute. To borrow a joke from Peter Schickele, this is one of those cases in which looking and the instruments is probably more interesting than listening to them! Sadly, even with the opportunity to explore unconventional sonorities, Weber never gets behind noodling his way from one episode to the next. Perhaps Imaginary Cycle should have been left to the composer’s imagination. 

The Lab: January, 2025

It is not too soon to start making plans for next year. My own January calendar has already accumulated a generous number of commitments, even if most of them are “usual suspects.” Where my inbox is concerned, the first organization “out of the gate” to notify me of January events is The Lab, which can usually be counted on for “bleeding edge” events of interest.

For those not yet familiar 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. There will be three two-set concerts in January, all beginning at 8:30 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:

Tuesday, January 21: Mary Ocher is based in Berlin and will be making her first visit to the United States in five years. She is a sound artist whose work pushes the boundaries between pop and avant-garde. She is also both a visual artist and a punk poet. Her performance will be structured around selections from her latest album, Your Guide To Revolution; and she describes the pieces as involving cumbia, post-punk, folk, field records, cosmic synth compositions, and deconstructed techno. The opening set will be taken by multi-instrumentalist Kashika Kollaikal, who performs as Flung. Her approach to experimental pop explores found sounds such as car horns, hand-punched music boxes, and the buzz of foil woven through piano strings.

Blevin Blectum performing in front of her video animations (from her event page for The Lab)

Saturday, January 25: Gregg Kowalsky will perform a single long-form work. He will draw upon material from his latest album, Eso Es, as well as his past two decades of composition involving minimalism, maximalism, and classical Indian music. Blevin Blectum (born Bevin Kelley) will perform a mash-up of tracks from her two most recent albums, OMNII and Multitudes of Venom. This will be presented in a setting of psychedelic video animations created by Alexander P Dupuis.

Thursday, January 30: This program will be co-presented by Arab.AMP, which will be beginning its 2025 season. It will consist of two sets directed by Leyya Mona Tawil. Strider is the duo of violist and composer Joanna Mattrey with artist Steve Long, who works with sound, language, and space. St Celfer is the performing name of john macdougall parker (lower-case intentional), who draws upon his American and Korean origins to improvise “future-folk compositions.”

Holiday Gaiety: The Music Still Holds its Own

Peaches Christ and Edwin Outwater (from the event page for last night’s performance)

One might say that Holiday Gaiety is the “adult entertainment” side of the eleven Holidays with the Symphony programs presented by the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) in Davies Symphony Hall. Conductor Edwin Outwater, who has become a familiar face in Davies since his debut in November of 2001, shared emcee duties with drag icon Peaches Christ. The SFS ensemble was relatively reduced but was joined by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, directed by Jacob Stensberg, and two vocalists, mezzo Nikola Printz, probably familiar to most opera-goers in this town, and Alex Newell. However, most of the show involved Christ’s encounters with four other drag performers: Latrice Royal, Lady Camden, Kylie Minono, and Sister Roma.

It goes without saying that this was not your usual “concert-going evening” in Davies. However, Holiday Gaiety was launched by Outwater and Christ in 2017, and it has been going strong as a “Holiday Standard” ever since then. Mind you, there was no shortage of opportunities just to enjoy the music, beginning with Leroy Anderson’s “A Christmas Festival” serving as overture, a brief excerpt from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 71 music for the ballet The Nutcracker, and the exquisite delivery of Adolphe Adam’s “O Holy Night” by Newell. However, the real show-stopper came from Printz, who delivered a spot-on account of “Casta diva,” from the first act of Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma while executing a seriously jaw-dropping trapeze act.

Mine is the generation whose motto, back in the Sixties, was “Let it all hang out.” We grew up thinking that the world was our oyster, and the Vietnam War provided a reality check we had not anticipated. I suppose that is why a song like “I Will Survive” became a hit tune. Holiday Gaiety reminded me of the spirit with which we did survive. Thus, in the midst of all the corny jokes and bad puns (“Women’s Underwear” sung to the tune of “Winter Wonderland”), I realized that my own “spirit of survival” was being delightfully refreshed.

The Lab Ends 2024 with Winter Solstice Program

The final performance of the year to be presented by The Lab will take place on the evening of the winter solstice, the day with the least amount of light from the sun. The main event will be inspired by seasonal changes, and it will be preceded by a single solo set. Specifics are as follows:

The opening set will be a solo voice performance by Danishta Rivero. If I have been keeping up with things assiduously, I can state that her last appearance took place this past September for the opening of the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival. She performed “Heretical Voicings,” using signal processing gear for real-time embellishment of her solo vocalizations. In all probability, she will continue to explore these techniques with the same technology when she visits The Lab.

Poster design for SEASONS (from the Web page for this event)

Rivero will be followed by Christopher Robin Duncan, who will present a series of works under the collective title SEASONS. The performance is structured around a five-pointed star with an individual player situated at each of the points of that star. Any specifics about what will be played at each of those points has not yet been revealed. Most likely, the entire event will be improvised. Duncan will perform with Chuck Johnson, Patrick Shelley, Zekarias Musele Thompson, and Josh Wismans.

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.

Here in San Francisco, the earth’s poles will reach their maximum tilt away from the sun at 1 a.m. on Saturday, December 21. This performance will begin at 7 p.m. on that same Saturday and is expected to last until 11 p.m. Admission will be $17, and tickets may be purchased in advance from the Web page for this event.

PBO Presents Cantatas for Christmas

Conductor Ruben Valenzuela

Last night the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale (PBO) returned to Herbst Theatre for the next program to audition the next candidate for the position of Music Director. Ruben Valenzuela is currently based in San Diego, where he founded and currently serves as Artistic Director of Bach Collegium San Diego. The title of his program was A Bach Christmas, which was a bit of a misnomer since Johann Sebastian Bach was represented only by the two cantatas that framed the program, both composed for Advent, the BWV 62 Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland and BWV 147a, the “first edition” of Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben. The “inner” selections on the program were both by Bach’s contemporary (and rival for the joint position in Leipzig of Cantor for the Church of St. Thomas and Director of Music at Leipzig Churches) Christoph Graupner. These consisted of the GWV 1138/11 cantata Reiner Geist, lass doch mein Herz and the GWV 445 Overture in F major, a suite of eight movements.

Valenzuela led the entire program with a sure hand. He was particularly attentive to the balance between instruments and vocalists (both soloists and the Philharmonia Chorale). This was very much a “sacred” program, and Valenzuela knew how to convey the religious overtones through the expressiveness of the music and the clarity of the vocalists (solo and choral). Those contributing vocalists were soprano Jennifer Paulino, mezzo Mindy Ella Chu, tenors Michael Jones and Nicholas Phan, and bass-baritone Joel Chapman. (Chu, Jones, and Chapman are all members of the Chorale, whose Director is Valérie Sainte-Agathe.)

The program itself was both well-paced and well-balanced. The coupling of Bach with Graupner served as a reminder of the significance that Leipzig established and maintained as a “major hub” in both the composition and performance of music. In reviewing my archives, I confirmed than my encounters with Graupner have been few and far between, due almost entirely to programs presented by American Bach Soloists. I was clearly due for another “dose” of his music, and I found Valenzuela’s coupling of sacred and secular selections to be both informative and engaging. Both of those attributes established his chemistry with the full scope of PBO resources; and I, for one, would be happy to see him return to the podium.

Outsound Presents: December, 2024

Hopefully, most readers already know that this month’s SIMM (Static Illusion Methodical Madness) Series concert for Outsound Presents will be taking place this Sunday, December 15, in The Musicians Union Hall, since it was one of this week’s Bleeding Edge events. However, due to the “holiday spirit,” there will be only one other Outsound performance this month. This will be the next LSG (Luggage Store Gallery) New Music Series event. It will be an evening of two sets, each about an hour in duration.

Cover of the Lords of Outland album You can sleep when you're dead! (from its Amazon.com Web page)

The first set will be taken by the Inkwells Trio, whose members are guitarist Lorenzo Arreguin, Elijah Pontecorvo on bass, and drummer Christian Arriola. They will be followed by the Lords of Outland “Ghost Moon” quartet led by saxophonist Rent Romus, who will also venture into percussion. He will be joined by Philip Everett on electronics with rhythm provided by drummer Anthony Flores and Ray Scheaffer on bass. 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.

Napolitano’s Third “Progressive” Brahms Release

It has been a little over a year since my last opportunity to write about the Italian pianist Pina Napolitano. I tend to follow her as faithfully as possible to keep up with the repertoire she has organized around the Second Viennese School composers Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern. My last encounter with her took place early in November of last year, not long after the release of the album Kammerkonzert: Music of Arnold Schoenberg. However, what has particularly interested me in her recordings is the series of releases entitled Brahms the Progressive, which has that late nineteenth-century composer “rubbing shoulders” with all three of those Second Viennese School composers.

In the past two volumes, the composer that received the most attention was Webern. Indeed, in the second volume Webern’s Opus 24 three-movement “Concerto for Nine Instruments” joins the piano with flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, trumpet, trombone, violin, and viola. This serves as a “warm-up” for Brahms’ Opus 83, his second piano concerto in B-flat major. The contrast could not be greater, but one might argue that the note-by-note impressions of Webern prepare the ear for the rich diversity of phrases in Opus 83.

The first volume, on the other hand, suggests an overall structure of “boxes within boxes.” It both begins and ends with two late collections by Brahms, the Opus 118 and Opus 119 Klavierstücke compositions. Opus 118 is followed by two short Webern pieces, while Opus 119 is preceded by his brief “Klavierstück – Im Tempo eines Menuetts” and the Opus 27 “Variations.” These, in turn, enclose the “core” of the album, Alban Berg’s Opus 1, a single-movement solo piano sonata.

Pina Napolitano at her keyboard performing with violinist Franco Mezzena (photograph by Tommaso Tuzj, courtesy of Odradek Records)

Having performed both solo and with orchestra, Napolitano has devoted her third album to duo performances with violinist Franco Mezzena. Brahms now accounts for his two late violin sonatas, Opus 100 in A major and Opus 108 in D minor. These are separated by Schoenberg’s first appearance in this project, his Opus 47 “Phantasy for violin with piano accompaniment.” He also introduces the album with a 1928 sonata fragment. This is only about four and one-half minutes long, which is also roughly the duration of the concluding selection, Webern’s Opus 7 set of four pieces, each somewhat longer than a single minute.

Personally, I was particularly glad that Napolitano finally brought Schoenberg into her fold, so to speak. After all, “Brahms the progressive” was the title of an essay that Schoenberg wrote. It began as a radio talk that he gave in 1933. He then revised that script in to the essay that now can be found in Style and Idea, a collection of fifteen essays edited and translated by Dika Newlin. The essay version of “Brahms the progressive” was completed in 1947. With such a rich background, I can only wonder with no shortage of anticipation where the concept of “Brahms the progressive” will next lead Napolitano.

Friction Quartet to Present Second SF Recital

Friction Quartet members Otis Harriel, Mitso Floor, Doug Machiz, and Kevin Rogers

I apologize for this being a last-minute announcement; but, to be fair, I received notification only yesterday! Program details have been finalized for the second program to be performed in San Francisco for the current season by the Friction Quartet. The recital will be curated by Doug Machiz, the quartet’s cellist, who will be performing with violinists Otis Harriel and Kevin Rogers with Mitso Floor on viola. The title of the program will be Collections; and, as I have been informed, it will present “three colorful, creative and monumental collections that defy classification.

The first of these is likely to be familiar to many readers, the Book of Alleged Dances by John Adams. This will be followed by Canções da America, a compilation of sources of South American folk music arranged for string quartet by Clarice Assad. The final selection, Family Group with Aliens, was composed by Piers Hellawell on a Friction commission. This is basically a “nested” suite in which each successive movement is a miniaturized version of the opening movement.

The program will begin at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, December 12, in the Noe Valley Ministry at 1021 Sanchez Street, just south of 23rd Street; and a Web page has been created for purchasing tickets.

The Bleeding Edge: 12/10/2024

I seem to have spoken too soon last week in saying that things would be getting quiet on the Bleeding Edge. This will be a decidedly busy week with most of the “usual suspects” contributing. The only venue that has already been reported is the Center for New Music, whose final concert of the year will be taking place this Saturday with the latest installation of The Opus Project. What remains will be another around of “‘usual suspects’ in one way or another” as follows:

Wednesday, December 11, Luggage Store Gallery (LSG), 8 p.m.: The next installment in the Luggage Store Creative Music Series will be a three-set evening with several familiar faces. Josh Allen will open with a solo saxophone set. He will be followed by a duo performance by Ed Lloyd on bass and Eli McDonald working with synthesizers. The final set will be taken by the Evidence Trio, whose members are Kersti Abrams alternating among saxophones and flutes, Andrew Joron on theremin, and Michael Wilcox playing electric bass. 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.

Thursday, December 12, Peacock Lounge, 8 p.m.: This will be the usual three-hour show consisting of four sets. Matt Ingalls will present a solo set of reeds and circuits. Adult Math will also be a solo set, this time by Miles Stegall. Foot SOS is the trio of Theresa Currie, Dianne Lynn and Angela Roberts inspired by the three sisters of mythology known as The Fates. The remaining set will be taken by the percussion duo of Jay Korber and John Diaz with Korber adding other instruments and electronics to the mix.

The Peacock Lounge is located in the Lower Haight at 552 Haight Street. Doors will open at 7:45 p.m. to enable the first set to begin at 8 p.m. sharp. Admission will be between $5 and $15, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Friday, December 13, Medicine for Nightmares, 7 p.m.: This week’s Other Dimensions in Sound program will present “serious sonic sustenance” provided by The Lost Shapes (and that is the only information provided about the event). 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.

Friday, December 13, Gray Area Art and Technology, 8 p.m.: Danish composer ML Buch will perform music from her second full-length album, Suntub. The tracks consist of layered vocals accompanied by open tunings on a 7-string Stratocaster, slide and fretless tablet guitars, and deep-sampled virtual guitars. The venue is located in the Mission at 2665 Mission Street.

Myra Melford, Ben Goldberg, Ben Davis, and Jordan Glenn as individuals and in ensemble (from their Bird & Beckett event page)

Saturday, December 14, Bird & Beckett Books and Records, 7:30 p.m.: MURMUR GARDEN is the quartet of clarinetist Ben Goldberg, Myra Melford on piano, cellist Ben Davis, and Jordan Glenn on percussion. For those that do not already know, the venue is located in Glen Park at 653 Chenery Street, a short walk from the Glen Park station that serves both BART and Muni. Admission will be a cover charge of $25, payable by Venmo or in cash. 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. This performance will also be live-streamed through a hyperlink on the Bird & Beckett Web page while the show is in progress.

Sunday, December 15, The Musicians Union Hall, 7:30 p.m.: This will be this month’s SIMM (Static Illusion Methodical Madness) Series concert for Outsound Presents. Pianist and composer-improviser Ric Louchard will led a quartet, whose other members will be Joshua Marshall on tenor saxophone, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, and Glenn again on drums.These concerts take place at the Musicians Union, located in SoMa at 116 9th Street. Admission is on a sliding scale between $10 and $25.

Plans for Next Full-Length Post:ballet Production

Banner design for the new Post:ballet production (from its Web page)

Readers may recall that, since the beginning of this season, Post:ballet has been including “progress reports” on the creation of Magma, the company’s latest full-length production choreographed by Associate Artistic Director Moscelyne ParkeHarrison, working with original music by dj.ari.b. The work was inspired by the myth of Cassandra, the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. The god Apollo granted her the power to see the future; but, when she defied him, he then cursed his gift by arranging that no one would believe any of her predictions.

The performance will take place at the Midway in a space consisting of six rooms. Upon entry, members of the audience will be at liberty to choose which rooms they visit and in what order. (“For the record,” as they say, this is not a “new idea.” When my wife and I were living in Los Angeles, we went to a production entitled Tamara, based on the Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka, whose work is currently on exhibit at the Legion of Honor through February 9. The show was set in a mansion with a few basic rules involving walking around from one room to another. They included an “intermission break,” during which members of the audience could share their experiences.) Taken as a whole, Magma will be a synthesis of choreography, text, music, lights, and projections.

Following an invitation-only dress rehearsal, there will be four performances at 8 p.m. on Thursday, January 23, Friday, January 24, and Saturday, January 25, and 6 p.m. on Sunday, January 26. The Friday and Saturday shows will be followed by a “Post:party” with guest DJs, special performances, and more. Further details about the parties will be announced soon. The venue is located at 900 Marin Street, which is one block south of Cesar Chavez Street. It is just east of the Third Street trolley stop. The event has its own Web page, along with a separate Web page for ordering tickets.

New Omni Video Goes “Into the Woods”

Not too long ago, this morning saw the release of the latest video produced by OMNI on-Location. Less than five minutes in duration, it presents a performance of “Whispers,” jointly composed by the two members of the Duo Imbesi Zangarà, Carmelo Imbesi and Carmen Zangarà. Those that have followed these videos probably know that many of them have been recorded in religious settings, such as churches and cathedrals. “Whispers,” on the other hand, is located in the pine forest of the Siena village in Falcone, which is located in the Messina Province of Sicily.

Carmen Zangarà and Carmelo Imbesi performing in the pine forest they visited (screen shot from the video being discussed)

As can be seen above, Zangarà and Imbesi are performing in the heart of that forest. As a result, the overall experience is one that must interleave the music itself with the visual impressions of the space in which it is being performed. Indeed, the video was conceived in such a way that one is never aware of any gear for audio capture. All that matters is the setting itself and the capacity of the music to reflect on that setting. Nevertheless, the composers do not want the listener to reflect too intently, which is why the music itself is distilled into a brief duration.

In that respect, my only misgiving is that the text provided on the YouTube Web page seems to be saying more than the attentive listener will be inclined to manage. To warp the words of the poet T. S. Eliot, the listener-viewer is best off simply accepting the combination of sound and sight as a “surface structure,” rather than dwelling on the question of “What is it?” Instead, I would prefer to make repeat visits to this video from time to time and simply let it get “under my skin!”