SFB to Honor Hans van Manen with Four Ballets

I first became aware of choreographer Hans van Manen during my graduate student days. Choreographer James Waring would make weekly visits to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); and I was a regular attendee. Waring died not long after I left MIT with my doctoral degree; but, at the age of 92, van Manen is still alive and kicking (if not creating new dances). The next production for the 2025 Repertory season of the San Francisco Ballet (SFB) will honor his legacy with a program of four works that he created between 1971 and 2012. Sadly, I do not think I have seen any of them.

Dores André performing van Manen’s “5 Tango’s” (courtesy of SFB)

The final work on the program will be the one San Francisco premiere. “5 Tango’s” (yes, the apostrophe is on the Wikipedia page, even if I have no reason why) was created in 1977. As many might guess, each of the movements is a setting of a composition by Astor Piazzolla. The most ambitious undertaking will probably be the opening selection, “Grosse Fuge,” a setting of Ludwig van Beethoven’s single-movement composition of the same title, his Opus 133 scored for string quartet. The other two selections involve music by Johann Sebastian Bach, whose specifics have not been announced. Since the casting information identifies three members of the corps de ballet for “Solo,” I assume that the music will be from the composer’s set of sonatas and partitas for solo violin. The remaining work on the program will be “Variations for Two Couples.” The music is a compilation of works by four composers. The contribution by Stevan Kovacs Tickmayer takes Bach as a point of departure. The other three composers are Benjamin Britten, Einojuhani Rautavaara, and Piazzolla.

The full list of performances dates and times is as follows:

• Saturday, April 5, 8 p.m.
• Sunday, April 6, 2 p.m.
• Wednesday, April 9, 7:30 p.m.
• Friday, April 11, 8 p.m.
• Tuesday, April 15, 7:30 p.m.
• Thursday, April 16, 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, April 19, 2 p.m.

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

Randall Goosby’s Debut with SFP

Violinist Randall Goosby is no stranger to San Francisco. He performed in Davies Symphony Hall in April of 2022 in the second of the four Spotlight Series recitals that San Francisco Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen launched to feature entirely debut concerts. Goosby’s accompanist was pianist Zhu Wang. Last night he made his first appearance in Herbst Theatre, this time under the auspices of San Francisco Performances; and he was again accompanied by Wang.

The first half of the program presented two sonatas for two decidedly different eras in French history. It began with the last in a set of three violin sonatas by the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Joseph Bologne. His Wikipedia page cites him as “the first classical composer of African descent to attain widespread acclaim in European music;” and my encounters with his music have been consistently engaging. Goosby’s selection was in the key of G minor with only two movements, the usual opening Allegro followed by a Rondo gracioso. Most interesting was the composer’s attentiveness to balancing the thematic material between both players, making this an ideal selection to introduce both Goosby and Wang to the audience.

This was followed by the more familiar Opus 13 of Gabriel Fauré, his first violin sonata composed in the key of A major. The Fauré catalog plays a major role in my collection of recordings. Nevertheless, I think this was my first encounter with this sonata in performance; and I could not have been more delighted with the listening experience.

The second half of the program bridged the two ends of the nineteenth century. It began in the final decade with Ernest Chausson’s Opus 25, given simply the title “Poème.” This was originally composed for full orchestra with violin solo and subsequently given the duo arrangement performed last night.

The program concluded with music originally composed for violin and piano, Franz Schubert’s D. 895 in B minor, given the title “Rondeau brillant.” Schubert composed only six duos for violin and piano; and this was the only one to be published (by Artaria) in his lifetime. The overall rhetoric can best be described as “frantically witty,” almost as if it is a reflection of maintaining a sense of humor in a state of desperation. Both Goosby and Wang were clearly intensely focused on performance, allowing the dispositions to arise on their own accord.

Randall Goosby on the cover of the Deluxe Edition of his Roots album (from its Amazon.com Web page)

Goosby turned to Florence Price for his encore. His selection was “Elfentanz,” one of the tracks on the “Deluxe Edition” of his Roots album. This made for a witty conclusion to smooth things off after Schubert. Goosby is definitely a recitalist with an imaginative and engaging approach to creating programs!

SFP Announces 2025–2026 Season

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (photograph by Stefan Mager, courtesy of SFP)

This is the time of year when San Francisco Performances (SFP) announces its new season; and, sure enough, that announcement arrived in my electronic mail yesterday. This will be the 46th season; and, hopefully as in the past, this site will, prior to the beginning of the season, give a series-by-series account of the programs that have been planned. This year’s Gala will be on October 10 and will be held in conjunction with the first piano recital of the season, which will be performed by pianists Jeffrey and Gabriel Kahane. The season will again conclude at the beginning of May with the return of The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.

Once again, Historian-in-Residence Robert Greenberg will curate a Saturday morning series, beginning at 10 a.m. Those familiar with SFP probably know that, in the past, music was provided by the members of the Alexander String Quartet; but, now that they have disbanded, they will be replaced by the Esmé Quartet. This year the series will focus on Franz Schubert; and, in the final program, the quartet members will be joined by cellist Paul Wiancko for the D. 956 string quintet in C major.

The PIVOT Festival will again return at the end of January with performances on January  30 and 31 and February 1. The curator will be Andy Meyerson, the percussionist of The Living Earth Show. He will perform with his The Living Earth Show duo partner, guitarist Travis Andrews. The final program will present a contemporary take on classical ballet with San Francisco Ballet choreographer and dancer Myles Thatcher. As usual, the other series will be familiar to SFP audiences:

• Art of Song
• Piano
• Contemporary Chamber (featuring the Attacca Quartet)
• The Robert and Ruth Dell Guitar Series
• Chamber Series
• Here Now and Then
• The Shenson Great Artists and Ensembles Series

As in the past, the Guitar Series will be presented in association with the OMNI Foundation for the Performing Arts.

Subscriptions will go on sale on April 9. Presumably, the usual booklet that summarizes all of the coming programs, supplemented with color photographs, will be sent in the mail to current subscribers. The benefits of subscribing include savings on single ticket prices, priority seating, free ticket exchange privileges, and invitations to the annual Gift Concert. This season that event will be a recital by the Arod Quartet, which has not yet announced program details. Subscribers may select individual series or create their own packages. They may be ordered by calling the Ticket Office at 415-677-0325, and presumably a Web page for online orders will be made available on April 9. Single tickets will go on sale on August 27.

Ana Vidović Coming to Herbst Next Week

Ana Vidović with her guitar (courtesy of the  Omni Foundation)

Some readers may recall that Croatian guitarist Ana Vidović made her last visit to San Francisco a little less than a year ago as a recitalist for the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts. At the end of next week, she will return to give her next Omni recital. However, while last year’s performance took place in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, this year she will visit Herbst Theatre.

This time there will be more emphasis on Hispanic composers. The second half of the program will feature two works by the Spanish composer Federico Moreno Torroba, his 1924 Sonatina and the three-movement Suite castellana, composed in 1926. These two selections will be separated by Joaquín Turina Opus 61, a three-movement sonata. That emphasis on the sonata will be reinforced by arrangements of four of the single-movement keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti: K. 213 in D minor, K. 1 in D minor, K. 27 in B minor, and K. 239 in F minor.

The first half of the program will be devoted almost entirely to Johann Sebastian Bach. Vidović will begin with the BWV 1006 E major partita for solo violin. The transcription was prepared by fellow Croatian Valter Dešpalj (who happens to be a cellist). This will be followed by the better-known arrangement by Andres Segovia of the Chaconne movement that concludes Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1004 solo violin partita in D minor. The first half will then conclude with the “Sonatina Meridional” by Mexican composer Manuel Ponce.

This performance will begin, as usual, at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 12. Also as usual, the venue is located at 401 Van Ness Avenue, on the southwest corner of McAllister Street and directly across Van Ness from City Hall. City Box Office has created a 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.

Rust and Edelmann to Return to Bay Area

I first became aware of the husband and wife duo of cellist Rebecca Rust and Friedrich Edelmann on bassoon back when I was seeking out interesting venues to write about for Examiner.com in my capacity as San Francisco Classical Music Examiner. Every Tuesday morning I would set off on foot to get to Chinatown in time for lunch, after which I would head over the Old Saint Mary’s Cathedral on the northeast corner of Grant Avenue and California Street. That was the venue for Noontime Concerts, which would begin at 12:30 PM on Tuesdays. On that particular afternoon, in September of 2012, Rust and Edelmann concluded their recital with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 69 duo sonata; and their account was solid enough to pique my interest.

Friedrich Edelmann and Rebecca Rust (from the Examiner.com article being discussed)

That interest sustained after the passing of Examiner.com; but, according to my records, I have not had an opportunity to write about this duo since October of 2017. This was another “Musical Lunch Break” concert at Old Saint Mary’s, this time featuring a suite in G minor for cello and bassoon by Jean-Baptiste Loeillet. Once again, an “extended interval” has passed; but Rust and Edelmann will be back in San Francisco next week. They have prepared a program that they will perform three times in this city, one of which will involve returning to Noontime Concerts. However, this will be the last of their appearances, which I shall now address in chronological order.

Their tour will begin at the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption (which is about as imposing as Old Saint Mary’s is modest). Once again, Beethoven will conclude the performance, this time with the first of the two Opus 5 duo sonatas, composed in the key of F major. This will be preceded by Johannes Brahms’ Opus 78, known as the “Rain Sonata” because it appropriated a theme from “Regenlied” (rain song), the third of the Opus 59 set of eight. This was arranged for cello and piano by Paul Klengel. Pianist Dmitriy Cogan will accompany Rust for both of these selections. Edelmann will complete the trio only at the beginning of the program for a performance of Mikhail Glinka’s IMG 41 “Trio Pathétique” in D minor, originally scored for clarinet, bassoon, and piano.

Dates, times, and venues for the three performances are as follows:

1. April 6, 4 p.m., Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, 1111 Gough Street, between Geary Boulevard and Ellis Street
2. April 7, 8 p.m., San Francisco Towers, 1661 Pine Street, between Franklin Street and Van Ness Avenue
3. April 8, 12:30 p.m., Old Saint Mary’s, 660 California Street

Picture Worth More Than 1000 Words?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2025/apr/02/nicola-jennings-donald-trump-revenge-world-cartoon?CMP=share_btn_url

From the Early 19th Century to the Early 20th

Joyce Yang performing at Kohl Mansion (photograph by Rick Gydesen, from an SF Classical Voice review by Ken Iisaka, December 19, 2017)

Last night pianist Joyce Yang returned to Herbst Theatre for her fourth appearance with San Francisco Performances. Her journey began when she gave quintet performances with the Alexander String Quartet in 2015 and 2019. The latter was particularly notable, since it involved the West Coast Premiere of “Quintet with Pillars,” by Samuel Adams, scored for string quartet and piano with digital resonance. Her first appearance as a soloist took place at the end of November of 2021.

The “chronological bookends” for the program were Ludwig van Beethoven and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Both of their works constituted the first half of the program. Yang began with the third of Beethoven’s Opus 31 sonatas, composed in the key of E-flat major. This was followed by a selection of six Rachmaninoff preludes, five from the thirteen in Opus 32 and one from the ten in Opus 23. (When one adds the C-sharp minor prelude from Opus 3, these account for all major and minor keys.) The second half of the program was then devoted entirely to Robert Schumann’s Opus 16 “Kreisleriana,” eight reflections on Johannes Kreisler, the fictional character created by E. T. A. Hoffmann. (Kreisler is significant enough to have his own Wikipedia page, which summarizes his character in a single sentence: “The moody, asocial composer Kreisler, Hoffmann's alter ego, is a musical genius whose creativity is stymied by an excessive sensibility.”)

For the most part Yang delivered solid no-nonsense accounts of all of her selections. I was particularly struck by the attention she gave to her Rachmaninoff selections. These reflected a rich palette of contrasting dispositions, thus scrupulously avoiding the dreaded one-damned-thing-after-another experience. Mind you, the coupling of an Allegro in G-sharp minor with an Allegro in C major was a bit of a roller-coaster ride; but they were complemented towards the end with the G major prelude that compelled me to wrote “defies gravity” in my program book! There was also a sense of finality in that the last prelude in her set was also the last prelude that Rachmaninoff composed.

Ironically, it was in her Schumann account that I worried a bit that she was going too much over the top. Nevertheless, any unease was then settled by her encore selection. This was Earl Wild’s arrangement of George Gershwin’s “The Man I Love.” I had the good fortune to experience Wild performances in my younger days, so it was inevitable that Yang would invoke fond memories. This was the perfect way to conclude the recital (for me at least)!

New Encounter with Korngold Chamber Music

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

While I do my best to account for new releases likely to be of interest to readers, every now and then I find myself listening to older albums that seem to have escaped notice when they were released. Such is the case with a Naxos album that dates back to 2020 but deserves recognition for those (like myself) interested in listening to the music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The two works on the album are performed by a chamber ensemble called Spectrum Concerts Berlin. This is their second Korngold offering, the first having presented the composer’s Opus 1 piano trio and the Opus 10 string sextet.

The second album also consists of two selections. It begins with the Opus 23 five-movement suite, which is followed by the earlier Opus 15 piano quintet in E major. The advance material from Naxos describes the suite as “a gallery of European musical history, from Bach via Beethoven to the early 20th century.” I find that to be a bit of an exaggeration; but, to be fair, the first movement of Opus 23 is identified as “Präludium und Fuge.” After that, the only thing “historical” about suite are the movement titles “Walzer,” “Lied,” and “Rondo!”

Both of these compositions follow up on Korngold’s Opus 10, a string sextet in D major, which I first encountered a little over a year ago. The Nash Ensemble recorded it on an album that began with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 70 in D minor, given the title “Souvenir de Florence.” In general, I tend to prefer listening to Korngold’s music on albums that do not include other composers. Korngold had his own way of doing things, informed by his own previous musical encounters. In that respect, however, I would have preferred that the tracks on this particular album be presented in chronological order. This would allow Opus 15 to be approached as a “prolog” to the lengthier suite.

Of course, in our brave new world of “digital music,” we are free to order the tracks of a recording any way we wish!

SFCMP Continues 54th Season This Month

Swedish composer Mike Pelo (from the event page for the performance being discussed)

One week from this Saturday, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (SFCMP) will continue its 54th concert season with its third program. The title of the program is Northern Lights, and it will present four works by composers from two Scandinavian countries. Sweden will be represented by Jesper Nordin and Mika Pelo, who will begin each half of the program. Each of those works will be followed, respectively, by works by Finnish composers Kaija Saariaho and Magnus Lindberg.

Pelo’s offering will be a world premiere made possible through an SFCMP commission. The title of the composition is “Working from a Postcard;” and it will incorporate live electronics. This will be followed by a United States premiere of “Jubilees,” which Lindberg composed in 2002. The first half of the program will be presented in reverse chronological order, beginning with Jesper Nordin’s “Surfaces scintillantes,” completed in 2007, followed by the earliest work on the program, “Lichtbogen,” which Saariaho completed in 1986. She conceived this piece as a musical reflection on the Northern Lights.

This performance will take place in the Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater on Saturday, April 12, beginning at 7:30 p.m. It will be preceded by an “Under the Hood” pre-concert conversation with Pelo at 6:30 p.m. The venue is on the fourth (top) floor of the Veterans Building, which is located at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. General admission will be $45 with student admission for $18. Tickets may be purchased online through a City Box Office Web page.

Yeol Eum Son Takes on “Hammerklavier”

Pianist Yeol Eum Son (from her home page)

To appropriate shamelessly the words of Jane Austin, “It is a truth universally acknowledged” that every season at least one piano recitalist will take on Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 106 (“Hammerklavier”) sonata in B-flat major. Last night that pianist was Yeol Eum Son, visiting Herbst Theatre for the latest Chamber Music San Francisco Program of this year’s season. Things did not bode well with her frenetic charge into the opening phrase of the first movement, and things did not get better as she progressed. Indeed, in her determination to make sure that all of the notes were in the right place, too many of those notes never quite found their place in phrasing.

The first half of the program amounted to a nineteenth-century “follow-up” to late Beethoven. The final selection was one of Franz Liszt’s transcriptions, taking on the aria “Am stillen Herd” from Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Those familiar with the opera probably recognized the theme; but, as is often the case with Liszt, that “core” was overwhelmed by a plethora of excessive tropes. More modest (and, thus, somewhat more engaging) was the coupling of a mazurka by Pauline Viardot with an early “Romance” by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, his Opus 5. Son began the program with two lesser known composers from the late nineteenth century. She began with Franz Bendel’s 1875 Opus 141, an improvisation on what it is probably the most familiar theme in music history, the “Wiegenlied” (cradle song) by Johannes Brahms. This was followed by a mazurka by the prolific Pauline Viardot (prolific because the catalog number was VWV 3012). The program concluded with two encores, neither of which was announced.

Taken as a whole, the program was a major undertaking. However, as was particularly affirmed by the Beethoven selection, there was little to offer by way of compelling expressiveness. I am afraid I came away with the impression that Son was playing for competition judges, rather than an audience of attentive music lovers.

Fond Recollections of the Guarneri Quartet

The latest “anthology” to be released by Sony Classics is a highly personal one. When I was working at a research laboratory in Ridgefield, Connecticut, I chose to live to the south in Stamford for easy access for the commuter rail line into Grand Central Station in Manhattan. I left my job in Santa Barbara, California, with a voracious appetite for classical music performances; and I could not have found a better way to satisfy that appetite. (That move also led to my meeting my wife-to-be!)

I particularly enjoyed opportunities for listening to chamber music, and the Guarneri Quartet offered much to satisfy my appetite. I was therefore delighted to learn that Sony Masterworks just released their latest box set: Guarneri Quartet: The Complete Recordings 1965–2005. This ensemble was led by violinist Arnold Steinhardt with John Dalley on second violin, violist Michael Tree, and David Soyer on cello. Their repertoire was a broad one, and I feel as if I only scratched the surface of it in my opportunities to listen to them in recital.

Now I can take a deeper dive into a repertoire which spanned from the First Viennese School to much of the last century. As usual, I plan to write about the new anthology through a series of articles, and each of the four First Viennese School composers will be approached separately. Sadly, the first of these, Joseph Haydn, is represented by only three CDs.

Original album cover for the Haydn Opus 77 quartets (from the Amazon.com Web page for that album)

The Hoboken catalog lists 83 string quartets, the last of which is incomplete. However, the first CD accounts for the last two completed works (81 and 82), published as Opus 77 and known as the Lobkowitz Quartets, composed in 1799. There is a freshness to the Guarneri approach to both of these quartets, which reminds listeners that, even late in life, Haydn’s capacity for invention was as fresh as ever. The second CD couples quartets from two distinctively different periods. The earlier quartet (34) is the fourth of the so-called “Sun” quartets, composed in the key of D major. This is coupled with Hoboken III:74, the last of the second set (Opus 74) of the “Apponyi” quartets. The final CD is a complete performance of The Seven Last Words of Christ (Hoboken III:50–56), conceived as music for meditation during the Lenten period.

Readers that have followed this site for some time probably know my advocacy of Leonard Slatkin’s precept: “You can never conduct enough Haydn or Schubert.” The Guarneri players may not have shared his enthusiasm, but they definitely knew how to capture Haydn’s spirit. Thus, while there are a total of 49 CDs in this new release, I suspect that it will be likely that I tend to gravitate back to the modest number of quartets honoring that spirit.

The Bleeding Edge: 3/31/2025

There will be only one new event this week on the Bleeding Edge. The rest of the week will involve continuations of previously-reported performances as follows:

• Once again, New Voices will continue at Audium on Thursday, April 3, Friday, April 4, and Saturday, April 5 beginning at 8 p.m. For those that do not yet know, the venue is located at 1616 Bush Street. Doors will open at 7:30 p.m., and admission will be between $20 and $30.
• Elliot Sharp will give performances at the Center for New Music at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 3, and Friday, April 4.
• Old First Concerts will present the 21V choral ensemble at 8 p.m. on Friday, April 4.
• Ghost Ensemble will perform at The Lab at 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 5.

The one remaining event is also a familiar one:

David Boyce playing his soprano saxophone (from the weekly BayImproviser Web page for Medicine for Nightmares)

Friday, April 4, Medicine for Nightmares, 7 p.m.: As usual reed player David Boyce will host his semi-regular Friday evening series entitled Other Dimensions in Sound. This week’s performance will be by Red Fast Luck. This is a duo with Boyce performing with percussionist PC Munoz. 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.

Schwabacher Series to Conclude with Crocetto

Next month will see the conclusion of the annual Schwabacher Recital Series, presented jointly by the San Francisco Opera (SFO) Center and the Merola Opera Program. The final recitalist will be soprano Leah Crocetto, who will be accompanied at the piano by Carrie-Ann Matheson. Some readers may recall her involvement with the Momenti trio, performing with bass-baritone Christian Pursell and pianist Ronny Michael Greenberg. A little over a year ago, this site reported the release of their Momenti album.

Leah Crocetto (photograph by Jiyang Chen, from a Classical Post Web page)

Crocetto has prepared an impressively diverse program for her Schwabacher performance. She has compiled a diverse assortment of art song selections by Clara Schumann, Richard Strauss, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. She will also be joined by baritone Lester Lynch to sing “Ciel! mio padre” from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Aida. On the more popular side, she will sing “Losing my mind” from Stephen Sondheim’s musical Follies and wrap up with Sammy Fain’s “I’ll be seeing you,” setting lyrics by Irving Kahal.

This performance will take place in the Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater on Thursday, April 10, beginning at 7:30 p.m. This venue is on the fourth (top) floor of the Veterans Building, which is located at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. General admission will be $30. Tickets may be purchased online through an event page on the San Francisco Opera Web site. Note that wheelchair accessible seating is an option. The telephone number for the Box Office is 864-3330. In addition, subject to availability, student rush tickets will go on sale at 7 p.m. at the reduced rate of $15. There is a limit of two tickets per person, and valid identification must be shown.

Naama Liany’s Old First Concerts Recital

The cover of Naama Liany’s Daydream album, which includes most of the selections she performed (from The Origin Music Group Web page for the album)

Late this afternoon, mezzo Naama Liany finally (after a month’s delay) brought her Daydream program to Old First Presbyterian Church for the final Old First Concerts program of the month. She performed works by five twentieth-century composers setting texts in four languages. The program began with Francis Poulenc’s Banalités, drawing upon five poems by Guillaume Apollinaire. This was followed by “Heimlich zur Nacht,” taken from the radio opera The Piano Blue composed by Albena Petrovic-Vratchanska. The first half of the program then concluded with the first and last songs from the collection Combat del somni (dream combat) by Federico Mompou.

The second half of the program was “all American.” It began with the five songs in Samuel Barber’s Opus 41 Despite and Still. This was followed by the wittier I Hate Music! by Leonard Bernstein. Liany then took two encores, neither of which were announced. I drew a blank on the first one, but she wrapped things up by going back to Bernstein with his operetta Candide. He wrote his own lyrics for the song “I Am Easily Assimilated,” given tango treatment.

Liany’s delivery was consistently solid. She knew just how to tune her disposition to the semantics behind each of her selections. She kept any talk to a minimum, allowing the full panoply of her selections to speak for themselves. Mind you, not all of her selections were my personal favorites. Nevertheless, for all of my misgivings about Bernstein, I was more than a little impressed by how she nailed her sense of pitch during the “I Hate Music!” song. I was also amused to hear the voice of her pianist Christopher Koelzer, covering for the chorus response (so to speak) in “I Am Easily Assimilated.”

Sundays have been consistently busy for me over the course of this new year, but I was glad to settle down in front of my television late this afternoon to view the Old First Concerts livestream.

One Can Still Speak Truth to Power!

I can't wait to see the next episode of Have I Got News for You:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/30/white-house-correspondents-dinner-cancels-comedian-appearance

Philharmonia Baroque to Present a Suite Program

The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (PBO) will conclude its 2024/25 season with a program led by the final candidate for the next Music Director. Avi Stein is currently Associate Organist and Chorus Master for Trinity Wall Street and Artistic Director of the Helicon Foundation. The title of the program is Tout de Suite; and it will conclude (appropriately enough) with a “Suite du théâtre,” consisting of instrumental excerpts from music that Jean-Philippe Rameau composed for staged performances of Naïs, Dardanus, Les Boréades, and Les Indes galantes. The program will begin with a dance suite composed by Jean-Féry Rebel in 1715 entitled Les Caractères de la danse. PBO will play an arrangement of this music (presumably for a larger ensemble than Rebel had in mind) by Johann Georg Pisendel. The first half of the program will then conclude with Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1068 (third) orchestral suite in D major. The intermission will be followed by a concerto grosso by George Frideric Handel, the tenth in his Opus 6 collection.

Avi Stein (courtesy of The Juilliard School)

This program will be conducted by the final candidate for the new PBO Music Director, Avi Stein. As usual, the performance will take place in Herbst Theater, located at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 10. Ticket prices range from $40 to $132. They may be purchased through a City Box Office Web page, which includes a diagram showing where seats are still available.

Thomas Dunford’s Lute Recital at St. Mark’s

Thomas Dunford in a French setting (courtesy of San Francisco Performances)

Last night St. Mark’s Lutheran Church hosted the latest recital presented jointly by San Francisco Performances and the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts Dynamite Guitars concert season. The recitalist was Thomas Dunford; but his instrument was a lute, rather than a guitar. Because some of the selections on the program were composed as songs, he also added vocal work where appropriate.

The program began with a set of English works, including songs, by John Dowland and concluded in Italy with one selection each by Girolamo Kapsberger and Joan Ambrosio Dalza. All of the other selections were arrangements by Dunford. The most ambitious of these was the entirety of Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1007 suite for solo cello in the key of G major, which Dunford transposed into the key of C major to accommodate his instrument. This was preceded by two works each by Erick Satie (the first selections in both the Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes series) and Marin Marais (“Les voix humaines” and “L’américaine,” movements from suites originally composed for viol). The encore selection was “Blackbird,” composed jointly by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

The entire journey was short enough to be played without intermission. Dunford’s delivery was engaging and affable, interjected by commentary when he thought it was necessary. Every now and then, he would offer a bit of witticism. The most obvious gesture came when he injected Lennon’s “Imagine” as a “coda” to the Satie “Gymnopédie.” Nevertheless, his focus was almost entirely on the music for its own sake. He offered his audience an ambitious journey; but, by the time the recital completed, there seemed to be almost unanimous agreement that it had been a journey worth taking.

New Pentatone Album from Tamara Stefanovich

Tamara Stefanovich on the cover of her latest album (from its Amazon.com Web page)

According to my records, my last encounter with Tamara Stefanovich took place in June of 2017 when I wrote about her contribution to the Complete Works for Ensemble and Choir album of music by György Kurtág. Her latest recording is a solo piano album entitled Organized Delirium. It will be released this coming Friday, but the preceding hyperlink can be used to place pre-orders through Amazon.com. It is a collection of five solo piano sonatas, each by a different composer. Only the last of those composers, Domenico Scarlatti, is not from the twentieth century. The “order of appearance” of the other four composers is:

• Pierre Boulez
• Hanns Eisler
• Béla Bartók
• Dmitri Shostakovich

Boulez is represented by his second piano sonata in four movements. A photograph in the booklet suggests that Stefanovich consulted him in preparing to make her recording. Boulez was, of course, a master of abstraction unto an extreme; but he was also a stickler for expressive performance. My guess is that he coached her in bringing expressiveness to her performance. Nevertheless, expression tends to be in the ear of the listener; and I suspect that many well-intentioned listeners may find themselves overwhelmed by the abstractions, rather than the expressiveness.

In that context, the other three twentieth-century selections will almost definitely come across as highly accessible. The one I know the best is the Bartók sonata, which I have often enjoyed in the past. My guess is that the final Scarlatti track was included as an “exclamation point” for the entire album, but the eleven tracks of “serious content” that precede it tend to undermine any suggestion of wit!

Stefanovich reminds me of Peter Schickele’s epithet about “holding a black belt in piano.” She approaches every track on the album with fearless dedication. Nevertheless, I would prefer listening to the compositions on this album individually, rather than undergoing a beginning-to-end journey!

JIVE to Celebrate First Anniversary for Passover

JIVE performers Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, Simon Barrad, Elizabeth Castro Greenberg, and Ronny Michael Greenberg (courtesy of JIVE)

Almost exactly a year ago, JIVE - Jewish Innovative Voices & Experiences was launched as a concert series. The founders were pianist Ronny Michael Greenberg, countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, and baritone Simon Barrad. As was the case last year, the season will begin with the celebration of Passover. Once again, the founders will be joined in their performance by violinist Elizabeth Castro Greenberg.

The Passover story will be presented through a multi-genre program of Yiddish songs, traditional Ladino music, jazz, operetta, and music from the films Prince of Egypt and Frozen (“Let Us Go”). The program will also include arrangements and compositions by Flory Jagoda, Ernest Bloch, Leslie Adams, Erwin Schulhoff, Joseph Beer, Simon & Garfunkel, and Bonnie Tyler. As might be expected, the music will be enhanced with wine and traditional foods, as well as cocktails appropriate for the holiday.

Once again, the performance will take place at The Century Club of California, which is located at 1355 Franklin Street, between Post Street and Sutter Street. It will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 9. General admission will be $100. However, for parties of four or more, admission will be $75 per person. Those aged 30 and under may purchase tickets for $65. Tickets may be purchased through an Eventbrite event page.

Dalene and Hong Disappoint in Herbst

Violinist Johan Dalene (photograph by Mats Bäcker, courtesy of SFP)

Violinist Johan Dalene made a significant impression a little over two years ago, when he made his San Francisco debut through the Shenson Spotlight Series curated by the San Francisco Symphony. Last night he returned, giving a San Francisco Performances recital in Herbst Theatre, accompanied, once again, by pianist Sahun Sam Hong. This time the impression was not as memorable.

The program was at its best at its “central core” with a performance of Witold Lutosławski’s 1984 partita. What struck me most about this offering was that violin and piano were on equal footing, the best possible testament to the partnership that Dalene has formed with Hong. The work consists of three primary movements separated by “Ad libitum” interjections. Since this was my first encounter with the music, I have no idea how much of the music was improvised; but the performance came across as if both violinist and pianist were muddling their way through the score.

Polish Lutosławski, who led off the second half of the program, was “paired” with Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara’s “Notturno e Danza” in the first half. There was no end of elaborate detail outlined in the program notes by Eric Bromberger, but none of that really came across in Dalene’s delivery. His capacity for expression registered more convincingly with the more traditional composers, the “Tzigane” by Maurice Ravel and the “bookends” of sonatas by Robert Schumann (Opus 105 in A minor, his first) and Edvard Grieg (Opus 13 in G major, the second). There was also an encore of an unnamed work by Grażyna Bacewicz (who was, herself, a violinist).

Taken as a whole, this was an evening best forgotten.

Center for New Music: April, 2025

Next month at the Center for New Music will be only a little bit busier than the current month. The extra offering that increased the number of programs for the month will be a second pancake event, which will take place in the evening, rather than at the usual noon hour. As most readers probably know by now, the venue is located at 55 Taylor Street, half a block north of the Golden Gate Theater, which is where Golden Gate Avenue meets Market Street. Each of the below dates is hyperlinked to an event page through which tickets may be purchased as follows:

Thursday, April 3, 7:30 p.m.: The month will begin with a solo performance by Elliott Sharp. His history is a prodigiously diverse one, but he has established himself as a leading pioneer in the use of fractal geometry, chaos theory, and genetics for approaches to musical composition and interaction. He will perform on a Harley Benton GuitarBass (eight strings) with electronic enhancements. His selections will be interleaved with readings from his upcoming book, Feedback: Translations From The IrRational.

Friday, April 4, 7:30 p.m.: Sharp will give a trio performance with pianist Brett Caron and Jordan Glenn on percussion. He has prepared a graphic score, which will be projected as a movie entitled ReGenerate. This will be visible to all three performers and will also allow opportunities for improvisation.

Saturday, April 12, noon: Following up on last month’s blunder, the next G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|N|O|I|S|E|P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S event will offer the usual opportunity to enjoy vegan pancakes while listening to “bleeding edge” music. There will be five sets. These have the usual “bleeding edge” eccentricities in the names as follows:

• Zero Collective
• Fat Cog and Ram Daw (presumably the quartet of “Holland,” “Pereira,” “Cocoran,” and “Fritz”)
• Eric Glick Rieman
• the Human De-Selection and Realization Nature Group
• Earth Jerks

Friday, April 18, 7:30 p.m.: Presumably, the Earhart Trio takes its name from Amelia Earhart, the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. The ensemble is a “traditional” piano trio, whose members are pianist Kumiko Uyeda, Kate Stenberg on violin, and cellist Mary Artmann. Full program details have not yet been announced. However, they plan to perform five piano trios by Franz Schubert, Dmitri Shostakovich, Astor Piazzolla, Lera Auerbach, and Bent Sørensen, respectively.

Poster design for the evening pancake event (from its Web page)

Thursday, April 24, 8 p.m.: This will be the “evening version” of the pancake event, given it own title: G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|||||||NIGHT|||||||N|O|I|S|E||P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S. The food offerings will include Thai-styled corn fritters. Like the Saturday version, there will be five sets

• Magnetic Stripper
• Kurumi Kadoya
• Arelate Orchestra
• Aaron Oppenheim
• Shutter

Saturday, April 26, 8 p.m.: The Accidental Composers Collective consists of an instrumental trio (clarinet, violin, and cello) and a soprano. The vocalist is soprano Hailey Gutowski. Stephen Zielinski plays the clarinet, joined by Maki Ishii Sowash on violin, and cellist Victoria Ehrlich. The program will consist of the following premiere performances:

• Allan Crossman: soirtrios
• Alden Jenks: Tanka
• Vance Maverick: The Garden
• Davide Verotta: Nel Tardo Mezzo
• Shawne Workman

Sunday, April 27, 2 p.m.: The month will conclude with the next performance to be presented by the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the National Association of Composers/USA (NACUSA/SF). The performers for this program have not yet been identified. However, the works to be premiered will be as follows:

• John Bilotta: Songs for a Modern Child (soprano and piano)
• Allan Crossman: Five Various Songs (soprano and piano)
• James W. Cook: Episodes for Solo Violin
• Robert Fleisher: Five Songs from Carl Sandburg’s Prairie (soprano and piano)
• John Mackay Foray Numbers 3 and 11 (solo piano)
• Soheil Shirangi NAVAYE MAHZOON (solo piano)
• Davide Verotta (Lagrangian Point) (soprano and percussion)

(By way of an aside, as one holding both a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and an doctorate in applied mathematics, I must confess that intimations of the mathematics behind fluid dynamics rub me the wrong way!)

Valčuha’s Latest Perspective on Eastern Europe

Last night Slovakian conductor Juraj Valčuha returned to the podium of Davies Symphony Hall for his latest visit to the San Francisco Symphony, where he made his debut in May of 2013. His preference has been for Eastern European composers, including Béla Bartók, Antonín Dvořák, Zoltán Kodály, Sergei Prokofiev, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Those preferences continued last night, beginning with Johannes Brahms’ Opus 77 violin concerto in D major, followed after the intermission by Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 93 (tenth) symphony in E minor.

Violinist Gil Shaham overlooking Central Park in New York (photograph by Chris Lee, from Shaham’s Web site)

The concerto soloist was Gil Shaham, who is no stranger to Davies. According to my records, his last appearance was in February of 2019, when he performed Sergei Prokofiev’s Opus 19 (first) violin concerto in D major with Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) on the program. An earlier performance with MTT was in March of 2018. This account of Alban Berg’s violin concerto was later released on an all-Berg SFSmedia compact disc. (However, I should confess to a caveat about that hyperlink: When that recording was released, I cautioned readers that “I do not think that I have yet encountered a recording of Berg’s music that lives up to the experience of listening to the selection in a concert performance.” I wrote that in March of 2021, and I am afraid that things have not changed very much since then! Nevertheless, on a more positive note, the CD of the performance by Louis Krasner, for whom the concerto was composed, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra led by Anton Webern is still available through an Amazon.com Web page!)

In other words, last night may very well have been my “first contact” with Shaham at his most traditional. His appearance on the stage presented an attentiveness to not only the conductor but also Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik, suggesting that he both appreciated and valued the idea of music as a fundamental partnership. As a result, I came away the experience of listening to music as familiar as the Brahms concerto was not only at its most engaging but also nuanced in ways that I had not previously considered.

As might be expected, Shaham returned to play a solo encore. This turned out to be a timely reflection on the recent pandemic entitled “Isolation Rag.” The composer was Scott Wheeler, who co-founded the Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble with Rodney Lister and Ezra Sims, both of whom I remember from my student days at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This was the perfect “follow-up” to the high spirits of the final movement of Brahms’ Opus 77.

The Shostakovich symphony, on the other hand, was a sharp contrast from those high spirits. Opus 93 was composed in 1953 after the death of Joseph Stalin. Those familiar with the composer’s history would probably recognize, in the opening Moderato movement, a certain restlessness as if Shostakovich was still haunted by Stalin’s ghost. The movement is a lengthy one, suggesting that the composer was struggling to exorcise those demons of the past. Fortunately, the symphony, as a whole, emerges from darkness to light. Finally, in the third movement (not explicitly identified as a scherzo), the “autobiographical” D-S-C-H motive comes into play with a vengeance; and some perky clarinet riffs lead the final Allegro movement to an upbeat conclusion.

Valčuha’s command of the performance could not have been better. He knew how to make every gesture matter, and it seemed as if every member of the ensemble knew how to respond. This was definitely a performance to remember, and it is worth reminding readers that two more performances remain, tonight at 7:30 p.m. and tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m.!

SFS in April: All the Options in Davies

Once again, events taking place in Davies Symphony Hall will include more than the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) Orchestral Series Concerts. In fact, due to all the other events, there will be only one performance in that series. However, in the spirit of facilitating planning, this article will continue to account for all of the performance-related events of the month in chronological order, as follows. As usual, each of the dates will be provided with a hyperlink to facilitate ticket purchases.

Sunday, April 6, 7:30 p.m.: Once again, the month will begin with a Great Performers Series recital. The recitalist will be violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, accompanied at the piano by Lambert Orkis. She will begin with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 301 violin sonata in G major, which will be followed by Franz Schubert’s D. 934 fantasy in C major (which includes a set of variations on his D. 741 song “Sei mir gegrüßt”). The next two selections will be by female composers. The first of these, Aftab Darvishi, was born in Iran in 1987; and her contribution is entitled “Likoo.” She will be followed by the more familiar Clara Schumann, who will be represented by her Opus 22, a set of three “Romances.” The program will conclude with Ottorino Respighi’s violin sonata in B minor.

Wednesday, April 9, 7:30 p.m.: The next Shenson Spotlight Series artist will be pianist Martin James Bartlett. He will give a chronological account of François Couperin (“Les Barricades mystérieuses”), Jean-Philippe Rameau (selected movements from the RCT 5 suite in A minor), Robert Schumann (the Opus 15 Kinderszenen), and Maurice Ravel (“Pavane pour une infante défunte” and “La valse”). There will also be two arrangements by Franz Liszt. The first of these will be the song “Widmung” from Schumann’s Opus 25 song cycle Myrthen. The other will be the “Liebestod” from Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde.

Thursday, April 10, Friday, April 11, and Saturday, April 12, 7:30 p.m.: Guest conductor Marin Alsop has prepared a program entitled Music of the Americas or the only Orchestral Series event of the month. This will include the first SFS performances of Gabriela Montero’s first piano concerto, to which she gave the title “Latin.” The program will begin with Gabriela Ortiz’ “Antrópolis.” The remaining selections will reflect on the United States. Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” will be followed immediately by Joan Tower’s “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman.” The program will then conclude with Samuel Barber’s first symphony.

Sunday, April 20, 7:30 p.m.: The second Great Performers recitalist will be pianist Evgeny Kissin. He will begin with Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 826 (second) keyboard partita, composed in the key of C minor. This will be followed by three works by Frédéric Chopin: two nocturnes (Opus 27, Number 1 in C-sharp minor and Opus 32, Number 2 in A-flat major) and the Opus 54 (fourth) scherzo in E major. The remainder of the program will be devoted to Dmitri Shostakovich. Following his second piano sonata in B minor, Kissin will select prelude-fugue couplings from the Opus 87 collection, which accounts for all of those couplings in the major and minor keys.

The Piazza Navona in Rome, presumably the site Respighi had in mind for the final episode of his “Roman Festivals” (photograph by Myrabella, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license)

Saturday, April 26, 7:30 p.m.: As might be expected, this concert has already been sold out. My guess is that the best way to check for returned tickets will be to call the Box Office at 415-864-6000. Readers will probably have guessed by now that this will be the concert celebrating the 80th birthday of Music Director Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT). The soloists will be four vocalists: Sasha Cooke, Ben Jones, Frederica von Stade, and Jessica Vosk; and Jenny Wong will prepare the SFS Chorus. The vocal selections will include the final movement of Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and selections from songs composed by MTT. The program will begin with Benjamin Britten’s “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” and conclude with “Roman Festivals” by Ottorino Respighi.

Sunday, April 27, 2 p.m.: The month will conclude with the next Chamber Music recital. I described one of this month’s selection as “highly imaginative,” but next month promises to be even more so! The program will begin with Charles Chandler, Bowen Ha, Orion Miller, and Daniel G. Smith joining forces to play “Passione amorosa,” which Giovanni Bottesini composed for four double basses. This will be followed by “Café Music” a seriously raucous work that Paul Schoenfield composed for piano trio. The next offering of seldom-encountered instrumentation will be the 1959 nonet by Bohuslav Martinů, scored for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horn, violin, viola, cello, and double bass. The program will then conclude with another more standard ensemble performing Sergei Prokofiev’s Opus 50, his first string quartet composed in the key of B minor.

Soap Opera at the Met (without the soap)

Jess (Emily D’Angelo) with her fellow pilots in an episode from Grounded (from the Web page for this opera on The Metropolitan Opera Web site)

Yesterday evening was my first opportunity to watch the latest Great Performances at the Met broadcast, which I had recorded thanks to the software provided by xfinity. The opera was Grounded, composed by Jeanine Tesori on a commission from the Metropolitan Opera, working with a libretto by George Brant, based on his play with the same title. The narrative behind the title involves the fighter pilot Jess, who has to give up flying her jet after an unplanned pregnancy. She then channels her talents into drone operation.

All this comes across as little more than soap opera with a full orchestra in place of a Hammond organ. Tesori’s text muddles its way from one cliché to another with episodes that amount to beads on a string. Most interesting for those of my generation was how much the nature of military service has changed since the middle of the last century; but this is the stuff of a well-researched history book, rather than an opera libretto. Thus, even the best efforts of Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin with mezzo Emily D’Angelo as Jess and tenor Ben Bliss as her husband could not rescue this production from being little more than a tedious slog.

Choices for April 4–6, 2025

The first weekend of next month will be even busier than the first weekend of this month. For the most part, these will involve familiar ensembles at familiar venues. However, there will be a diverse number of options from which choices can be made. As a result, readers should make sure that they have a scrolling facility for making their selections among what follows.

Friday, April 4, 7:30 p.m., San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM): There will be two different events, each taking place in a different venue but beginning at the same time. Both events will be taking place at the Bowes Center, which is located at 200 Van Ness Avenue, across the street from Davies Symphony Hall. They will take place in “opposite extremes” on the first and eleventh floors, respectively. Specifics are as follows:

1. First Floor: Ensemble for These Times (E4TT) will present a multimedia musical evening entitled Women in Transit. The program has been prepared in partnership with the SFCM Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) department. E4TT and TAC partnered in holding a composition competition for students in that department. That winning entry has not yet been announced. However, the program will begin with another world premiere, a piano trio by Niloufar Nourbakhsh entitled “Cavities.” This will be followed by Han Lash’s “Orchesography,” scored for piano trio, narrator, and dancer. The title is taken from a treatise by Thoinot Arbeau, a study of social dance in France during the late sixteenth-century, which included not only illustrations but also the earliest instance of dance notation. The remaining works on the program will be “Okean,” composed for cello and fixed media by Tamara McLeod, Emma O’Halloran’s “Vertical Fields” for piano trio, and the solo cello composition “ko’u inoa,” written by Leilehua Lanzilotti. The performance will take place on the first floor in the Cha Chi Ming Recital Hall. It will be preceded by a composer talk at 7 p.m. There will be no charge for admission.
2. Eleventh Floor: The next performance by the New Music Ensemble will present a survey of compositions by Gabriela Lena Frank. This will mark the termination of her residence at SFCM as the Andrew W. Imbrie Visiting Chair in Composition. As usual, the ensemble will be conducted by Nicole Paiement. The specific works on the program have not yet been finalized. The venue will be the Barbro Osher Recital Hall on the eleventh floor.

Friday, April 4, 8 p.m., Old First Presbyterian Church: Next month’s Old First Concerts series will begin with a performance by 21V. This is a professional ensemble of soprano and alto voices. They have developed a repertoire to focus on contemporary times. The title of their program is Promise and Peril. It will begin with world premiere performances of works by Eric Tuan and Karen Siegel. The other composers to be included on the program will be Juan Stafforini, Diana Syrse, and Victor Daniel Lozada. This performance will be available for live stream through YouTube. The venue is located at 1751 Sacramento Street, on the southeast corner of Van Ness Avenue. There will also be two further events this month, both taking place on weekends:

1. Saturday, April 12, 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.: This will be the sixteenth annual musical celebration to honor the life and work of sarod master Ali Akbar Khan.
2. Sunday, April 27, 4 p.m.: The Wooden Fish Ensemble will return with a program entitled Piano and String – 100 Years! As tends to be the case, the second half of the program will be devoted to compositions by Hyo-shin Na, two of which will be world premieres. The first half of the program will begin with the string quartet composed by Ruth Crawford in 1931, performed by violinists Sue-mi Shin and Rick Shinozaki, Sarah Lee on viola, and cellist Thalia Moore. This will be followed by two solo piano performances by Thomas Schultz. The first of these will be Ferruccio Busoni’s BWV 289 “Drei Albumblätter” (three album-leaves). Schultz will the play his solo piano arrangement of Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s “The Banjo.”

Saturday, April 5, 2 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church: Daniel Hope will serve as both Music Director and Concertmaster in the next performance by the New Century Chamber Orchestra. The program will conclude with one of Richard Strauss’ most elaborate compositions, “Metamorphosen,” which was composed for 23 solo strings. The intermission will be preceded by a concerto grosso for string orchestra by Jungyoon Wie entitled “A Prayer for Peace.” This work was jointly commissioned with the A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra, and the performance will be its West Coast Premiere. The program will begin with the “Sonata de Chiesa,” also for string orchestra, composed by Adolphus Hailstork. The church is located on Cathedral Hill on the southwest corner of O’Farrell Street.

Photograph of Ghost Ensemble by Sarah Krasnow (from their event Web page for The Lab)

Saturday, April 5, 7 p.m., The Lab: The Lab will host a visit by Ghost Ensemble, which creates experimental music that expands our perceptual horizons through shared immersive experience. They will perform “Basso Continuo,” which they commissioned for composer Sarah Davachi. The program will include three other composers known for adventurous undertakings: Pauline Oliveros, Stepančić, and Phil Niblock. The Lab is located in the Mission at 2948 Sixteenth Street, just east of Mission Street.

Saturday, April 5, 8 p.m., Heron Arts: One Found Sound will present the world premiere of the winner of last year’s Emerging Composer Award, Ty Bloomfield. The title of his work is “FLUX/DRIVE.” This will follow the intermission, which will be preceded by the West Coast premiere of Sami Seif’s “Shubho Lhaw Qoio.” These recent offerings will be framed by more traditional works. The program will begin with the Adagietto movement from Gustav Mahler’s fifth symphony. It will conclude with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 550 symphony in G minor (his penultimate symphony). Heron Arts is located in SoMa at 7 Heron Street.

Sunday, April 6, 3 p.m., Herbst Theatre: Chamber Music San Francisco will present a solo piano recital by Yefim Bronfman. He will begin his program as One Found Sound concluded theirs, with music by Mozart. He will play the K. 322 sonata in F major. He will then advance the timeline with performances of Robert Schumann’s Opus 8 “Arabeske” and the second set in Claude Debussy’s Images collection. The second half of the program will be devoted to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 37, his “Grand Sonata,” composed in the key of G major. Herbst Theatre is located on the southwest corner of McAllister Street and Van Ness Avenue.

Sunday, April 6, 4 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church: American Bach Soloists will perform three of the cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach: BWV 4, BWV 106, and BWV 192. These will all reflect the title of the program, BACH’S PARADISE. The program will then conclude with the final Brandenburg Concerto, BWV 1051 in B-flat major. This was scored entirely for low-register strings with solo parts for two violas and cello.

Sunday, April 6, 4 p.;m., Chez Hanny: The first combo to visit Chez Hanny this month will be the David Janeway Trio. Pianist Janeway will lead his rhythm support by Peter Barshay on bass and drummer Sylvia Cuenca. As always, Chez Hanny is located at 1300 Silver Avenue; and the performance takes place in the downstairs rumpus room. Admission will be $25, payable by check or cash. Because Jazz Chez Hanny is now a 501(c)(3) public charity, tax-deductible donations will also be accepted.

April 6 will also be the date of the first performance in Davies Symphony Hall; but the April schedule events will be discussed in a forthcoming article (probably tomorrow).

Lortie Returns to SFP with All-Ravel Program

Pianist Louis Lortie (photograph by Elias Photography, courtesy of SFP)

Last night in Herbst Theatre, French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie returned to Herbst Theatre for his fifth recital hosted by San Francisco Performances (SFP). To mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of French composer Maurice Ravel, he prepared an all-Ravel program. Overall, the program was a stimulating blend of the familiarly engaging with the finger-busting challenging.

The most challenging of those offerings was the collection of three “poems for piano” entitled Gaspard de la nuit. The title was taken from a collection of prose-poems by Aloysius Bertrand, three of which inspired the three movements of Ravel’s composition. Those familiar with the repertoire know that this is one of the most technically difficult works of the twentieth century, if not of the entire keyboard repertoire. Lortie could not have done a better job in rising to the tidal wave of challenges confronting him in quick pace, one after another. His physical demeanor was remarkably composed, probably a sign of just how intensely he was focused on making sure that this overwhelming flood of notes came across sounding like music.

The second half of the program also concluded with a demanding undertaking. The eight movements of the suite Valses nobles et sentimentales were followed immediately by the solo piano version of “La valse.” Ravel originally composed the latter for orchestra but subsequently arranged it for both solo and two pianos. He packed so much content into the score that the solo version is seldom performed. Nevertheless, Lortie delivered a solid command of the music’s plethora of complexities, bringing his entire program to a stunning conclusion.

Lortie began his Ravel journey with one of the most familiar of Ravel’s compositions, the “Pavane pour une infante défunte” (pavane for a dead princess). I have to confess that there were too many heavy-handed moments to engage my attention, leaving me a bit nervous as to how the rest of the program would proceed. Nevertheless, Lortie clearly “warmed up” with that opening selection; and the following “Sonatine” commanded my attention from beginning to end. While the overall textures were thick, Lortie played with a clarity through which the attentive listener could identify each of the polyphonic voices deployed for this relatively brief three-movement composition. That command of texture was equally engaging (and just as compelling) in the performance of “Jeux d’eau” (play of the water) immediately following the intermission.

The evening concluded with only one encore; and, because it was unannounced, I can only speculate if it was an offering of more Ravel, who composed several shorter pieces early in the twentieth century.

SFS 2025–26: Works by Living Composers

As was announced on this site this past Thursday, this article will be the first of six to account for works that will be performed by the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) for the Orchestral Series of the 2025–26 season. This process will begin with the “Works by Living Composers” category. Rather than order those composers alphabetically, I shall order their respective appearance chronologically as follows:

• September 12: The Opening Gala will feature John Adams’ “Short Ride in a Fast Machine.”
• September 18–20: “The Block” by Carlos Simon
• October 3–5: “Market Street, 1920s” by Timothy Higgins
• November 20 and 22: the second nonet scored for string orchestra by Olli Mustonen
• April 17–19: “The Space Between Stars” by Ella Macens
• May 29–30: “Shift” by Jimmy López
• January 22–24: “The Rapids of Life” by Outi Tarkiainen
• May 22–24: a new work yet to be given a title by Tyler Taylor
• June 12–14: “Zhiân” by Imam Habibi
• June 25–27: “Flammenschrift” by Guillaume Connesson

SFS Principal Trombone Timothy Higgins

It is probably worth singling out two of these composers. Taylor is the winner of the 2024 Emerging Black Composers Project. Higgins, on the other hand, is probably best known and the SFS Principal Trombone. He had previously given the world premiere of his own trombone concerto; and in the new season he will be the soloist in “Shift,” which is also a trombone concerto.

It should go without saying that all of these performances 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. Tickets will go on sale on July 19, after which they should be available for purchase online, by calling 415-503-5351, or by visiting the Box Office in the Davies lobby.