Korngold’s Only Symphony: A “Deluxe” Edition

Erich Wolfgang Korngold at the piano on the cover of the new recording of his only symphony (from the Amazon.com Web page)

According to my records, today is the day when Amazon.com announced the release of The Korngold Symphony. Erich Wolfgang Korngold composed only one symphony, his Opus 40, written in the key of F-sharp major. Korngold was born in Moravia (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) in 1897. At the request of motion picture director Max Reinhardt, he moved to Hollywood, where he composed scores for sixteen films, many of which were swashbucklers. However, his symphony, which he completed in 1952, was dedicated to the memory of Franklin D. Roosevelt. This was particularly the case for the Adagio: Lento movement; and the author of the symphony’s Wikipedia page cites that movement as “in the tradition of Anton Bruckner.” None of the other movements follow up on that tradition; and Korngold appropriated the military song “Over There” for the Finale!

My primary experience with Korngold has been through his opera Die tote Stadt, which was first performed in Germany in December of 1920. I had the good fortune to attend the performance by the San Francisco Opera in September of 2008. While the instrumentation for this opera was rich in its sonorities, the symphony gave Korngold the opportunity to explore an even wider scope of instrumental sounds. One can appreciate that palette of those sonorities in the performance by the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana conducted by John Mauceri.

However, that performance accounts for only one of the two CDs in the release. The other consists of excerpts from the symphony performed at the piano by Korngold himself. This is one of the many recordings maintained by the Korngold Family Archives. One even encounters the voice of Korngold himself announcing each of the excerpts. As one might guess, the restoration of the piano performance reveals far more than the composer’s commentary!

To be fair, I am just beginning to get my head around the orchestral qualities of this symphony. It would be fair to say that I would be even better informed had I the opportunity to listen to music in performance. In the absence of such an occasion, I can at least acknowledge that the accompanying booklet is a wealth of information, not only in its text but also in its collection of archival photographs.

I owned a CD recording of Die tote Stadt decades before I had the opportunity to see a fully-staged production. Nevertheless, I was well-prepared to see that opera performed, having become acquainted with the music. I plan to make just as much an acquaintance with Opus 40, building up a familiarity in the hope that I shall eventually encounter a concert performance!

Sam Reider to Return to Noe Music with Friends

According to my records, accordionist Sam Reider last visited the Noe Valley Ministry for a Noe Music recital about two years ago. Leading a group called The Human Hands, he presented a program of “modern folk music.” I encountered him again last year at the American Spring concert presented by the musicians of the Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival, led by Founder and Director Ian Scarfe, who performed his six-movement suite Hyampom, named after the town in the Trinity Alps where Reider had spent his childhood.

Sam Reider (left) performing with Jorge Glem (from the Web page for purchasing tickets for his next Noe Music performance)

In a little over a week’s time, Reider will return to Noe Valley. This time he will be joined by Jorge Glem, a master of the Venezuelan cuatro, a plucked instrument with four nylon strings. Program details have not yet been provided and will probably be announced from the stage. There will also be a “guest appearance” by Brazilian bassist Munir Hossn (which may involve performances of his own compositions).

This event will take place on Sunday, February 9, beginning at 4 p.m. The Noe Valley Ministry is located at 1021 Sanchez Street, between 23rd Street and Elizabeth Street. General admission will be $45 with $60 for seats in the first few rows. Student tickets are available for $15. Noe Music has prepared a Web page for purchasing all three levels of tickets.

Blomstedt Bridges Nineteenth Century at Davies

This afternoon in Davies Symphony Hall, Herbert Blomstedt conducted the San Francisco Symphony in the first of three performances of this week’s program. Blomstedt was Michael Tilson Thomas’ predecessor as Music Director, and his appearance was supported by the Louise M. Davies Guest Concert Fund. In addition, the Thursday matinee concerts are endowed by a gift in memory of Rhoda Goldman.

The program itself was the first of four in a special subscription series entitled Favorites in Focus. As I previously observed, the selections for all four programs are “firmly grounded in the nineteenth century;” so what made this program particularly interesting was that it consisted of only two compositions, each close to one of the ends of the century. The first of these was Franz Schubert’s D. 485 (fifth) symphony in B-flat major, which he completed on October 3, 1816. The intermission was then followed by Johannes Brahms’ Opus 68, his first symphony, composed over the course of 21 years and first performed on November 4, 1876.

Herbert Blomstedt, shortly after his 97th birthday, leading the Vienna Philharmonic at the annual Salzburg Festival (photograph by Marco Borrelli from a 2024 New York Times article by Joshua Barone reporting from Salzburg)

Readers that have followed this site for some time probably know by now that I try never to miss an opportunity to observe Blomstedt in action as a conductor. If that seems more than a little urgent, it is because he is now 97 years old; and the fact that he continues to lead international orchestras impels me to keep track of every visit he makes to Davies. Furthermore, there is a rhetoric of similar urgency in Brahms’ symphony, particularly in the two outer movements, while each of all four of the movements presents the attentive listener with a rich palette of instrumental sonorities. Thus, between all of my past encounters with this symphony, both in the concert hall and in my collection of recordings, this afternoon kept me on the edge of my seat with eyes consistently darting from one section in the ensemble to another.

Where Schubert is concerned, D. 485 is the earliest of his nine symphonies to receive consistently regular attention in concert programming. In the absence of brass and percussion, the music is not as stirring as many familiar works that would be composed later in the century. Furthermore, while Blomstedt (as always) made it a point to honor every repeat sign, one could come away with a sense that Schubert was only deploying repetition because he assumed that he was supposed to do so. Nevertheless, even with his body language limited by his age, Blomstedt knew how to maintain the attention of the serious listener.

As a result, I left Davies this afternoon with the feeling of an afternoon well spent and a strong desire to capture my impressions in writing while they were still fresh in my mind!

Idris Ackamoor Plans Four Performances in SF

Idris Ackamoor performing with The Pyramids in Karlsruhe, Germany in the summer of 2011 (from the YouTube Web page of this concert)

Last season marked the 50th anniversary of Idris Ackamoor’s performing career, primarily on alto and tenor saxophones but also as a composer given to exploring other instruments. He is now going strong in his 2025 home season with a touring schedule that will include four performances within the San Francisco city limits, each at a different venue. Available specifics are as follows:

Sunday, February 16, 7:30 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: This will be a quartet performance with rhythm provided by Bobby Cobb on guitar, bassist Mark Heshima Williams, and Randall Merritt on drums. The venue is located at 653 Chenery Street, a short walk from the Glen Park station that serves both BART and Muni. Admission has not yet been announced, but it is usually a cover charge of $25. 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.

Wednesday, February 19, 8 p.m., The Chapel: This event has not yet been listed on the Web site for The Chapel. Ackamoor will perform in a trio led by guitarist Nate Mercereau. Percussion will be provided by Carlos Niño. The Chapel is located in the Mission at 777 Valencia Street.

Saturday, April 9, 8 p.m., The Lab: Ackamoor will lead his Afrofuturist jazz pioneers The Pyramids. The program will feature selections from their new album Artistic Being. Once again, the event has not yet been listed on the venue’s Web site.

Sunday, June 15, SFJAZZ Center: This will be a full-ensemble performance by the Idris Ackamoor Ankhestra; unfortunately, this event has not yet been listed on the SFJAZZ Calendar Web page, meaning that even the time of the performance has not yet been finalized.

Clearly, much of Ackamoor’s schedule is still somewhat premature; but his faithful followers now know which dates to hold!

Pivot Festival Begins with Celebration of Gorey

During his lifetime Edward Gorey was known primarily along the New York-Boston corridor as an author and illustrator of odd little books that milked humor from the macabre. His works were anthologized after his death by Berkley Windhover Books in three Amphigorey volumes. I have been a “faithful follower” since my undergraduate days in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and those three volumes remain a treasured corner in my generously-endowed library.

Cover of the book that inspired Carla Kihlstedt’s 26 Little Deaths (from Wikipedia, fair use under the copyright law of the United States)

Last night in Herbst Theatre, the San Francisco Performances Pivot Festival began with a full-evening composition by Carla Kihlstedt, who performed as both vocalist and violinist. Her libretto was inspired by Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies, which was published in 1963 (the year in which I first encountered Gorey’s books at the Paperback Booksmith store in Harvard Square). Gashlycrumb is an alphabet book in which each letter of the alphabet introduces a child who comes to a bad end. So it was that Kihlstedt took this book and turned it into a cantata entitled 26 Little Deaths.

Since I was not sure what to expect last night, I brought along my copy of Amphigorey, in case I wished to consult the illustrations on each of the pages of The Gashlycrumb Tinies for reference. (The words had been familiar to me for quite some time. I even recall my composition teacher Ezra Sims setting them to music.) Those references tended to be helpful, since there was already a fair amount of activity on stage. 26 Little Deaths also included performances by pianist Sarah Cahill, the members of the Del Sol Quartet (violinists Hyeyung Sol Yoon and Benjamin Kreith, violist Charlton Lee, and cellist Kathryn Bates), Sandbox Percussion (Ian Rosenbaum, Terry Sweeney, Jonny Allen, and Victor Caccese), and five visitors from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (students and alumni), all conducted by Gabriel Kahane, who also served as Master of Ceremonies.

This may seem like a generous number of resources to assemble for a little alphabet book. However, the “Gorey Universe” is an expansive one, full of a diversity of rhetorical devices both in the texts and in Gorey’s illustrations for each of the letters of the alphabet. I have to confess that it was hard for me to repress the nostalgic feelings in my recollections of each encounter with a new Gorey book. More often than not, the text was grotesque; but there always seemed to be a twinkle in the author’s eye. (Except when he had to autograph books in the back room at the Gotham Book Store for Christmas sales. Then one heard howls of despair reflecting those images of the damned in Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment!)

Kihlstedt managed to find just the right path along which to negotiate all of Gorey’s twists and turns between the grotesque and the twinkles. Yes, her instrumentation was diverse; but so were the individual illustrations in Gashlycrumb, leading the attentive reader from one surprise to the next. Personally, I went in to 26 Little Deaths worrying that the performance would not capture the same spirit that those of us of Gorey’s generation had experienced. However, those worries had dispersed long before 26 Little Deaths had reached its halfway mark. Kihlstedt “got the spirit;” and Kahane knew exactly how to lead his ensemble to convey that spirit.

David Oistrakh’s Rarities on Warner

Readers may recall that last week I began my venture into the 31 CDs classified as Premières, Rarities & Live Performances in the Warner Remastered Edition box set collection of recordings of performances by Russian violinist David Oistrakh. This began with an examination of the two CDs identified as Early Recordings. I am now in a position to discuss those albums associated with the “Rarities” category.

The most unique of these is the complete recording of a recital that Oistrakh performed in Moscow on February 16, 1960. He was accompanied by Vladimir Yampolsky; and the “heart” of the program consisted of three sonatas, each from a different century. Oistrakh began with Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1019 duo sonata in G major. He then leap-frogged into the late Romantic period with the last of Johannes Brahms’ three violin sonatas, Opus 108 in D minor. Late Brahms was followed by the Opus 1 of Karen Khachaturian (nephew of Aram), a three-movement sonata without a key specification.

Presumably, the rest of the album involved the encore selections, of which there were five, most of which were probably unfamiliar to much of the audience. Oistrakh began with the prelude-fugue coupling that constituted a solo violin partita by Alfred Mendelssohn. This was followed by the Opus 7 “Ciaccona” by Giovanni Battista Vitali, composed in 1682 for two violins and continuo violone and arranged for violin and piano by Léopold Charlier. This was followed by Oistrakh’s own arrangement of the sixth of the nine piano arrangements by Franz Liszt of “valses-caprices” by Franz Schubert. The encores were concluded with two works by twentieth-century composers: Sergei Prokofiev (his “Melody,” Opus 35b, Number 3) and Maurice Ravel (the familiar “Tzigane”).

Sergei Taneyev (from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Two of the CDs are identified as “Sonata Rarities.” They live up to that title through the composers they represent (in order of appearance): Nikolai Medtner, Mieczysław Weinberg, Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov, Sergei Taneyev, Zara Levina, and Wilhelm Stenhammar. There is also a “Bravura” album, which is framed by Niccolò Paganini at the beginning (with five of his Opus 1 caprices, beginning and concluding with arrangements by Fritz Kreisler and Leopold Auer, respectively) and Pablo de Sarasate’s Opus 25 (“Carmen Concert Fantasy”) at the end.

Finally, there is an album classified as “Vignettes.” This consists of 21 tracks, all of which are shorter than ten minutes in duration. Nine of the tracks are premiere releases. They are framed by arrangements by Carl Flesch of arias by George Frideric Handel at the beginning and the “Mazurka-oberek” by Alexander Glazunov on the final track.

Personally, I can attest to the “Rarities” classification. Yes, there were many familiar encounters (which the reader will easily recognize above). However, my mind is still trying to “digest” the abundance of “first contacts” I experienced while listening to the six CDs in this category!

Greenberg to Present Valentine’s Day Program

One week from today Ronny Michael Greenberg will take a break from his JIVE (Jewish Innovative Voices and Experiences) programming to present a more secular (and seasonal) offering. The title of his next program is OPERALOHA With Love. This will be a celebration of Valentine’s Day in which, as Greenberg has put it (with appropriate punctuation) “Opera meets Aloha!”

Poster for the event being discussed showing pianist Ronny Michael Greenberg with the vocalists he will accompany (left to right): Christopher Oglesby, Maria Valdes, Aivale Cole, and Jongwon Han (from the Eventbrite Web page for this performance)

The former will be highlighted by the popular quartet “Bella figlia dell'amore” from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Rigoletto. Selections for the latter will include “Honolulu City Lights,” “Hanalei Moon,” and “Maui Girl,” along with some standards, such as “My Funny Valentine” and “Besame Mucho” (both appropriate for the season). Greenberg will provide piano accompaniment for four vocalists with international backgrounds: sopranos Maria Valdes (Cuban-American) and Aivale Cole (Samoan-New Zealand), American tenor Christopher Oglesby, and Korean bass-baritone Jongwon Han. Flamenco guitarist Freddy Clarke and Lenny San Jose on ukulele will also contribute to the instrumental accompaniment.

This show will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 5, beginning at 7:30 p.m. General admission will be $85; but, in honor of Valentine’s Day, a couple will be admitted with a pair of “Lovebird Tickets” for $120. Eventbrite has created a Web page through which these payments can take place. The performance will take place at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, which is located at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just to the west of Franklin Street.

American Bach Discovery Series: Handel Opera

Polyphemus catching Acis and Galatea “in the act” (sculpture by Auguste Ottin for the Medici Fountain in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris, courtesy of American Bach)

The second of the three Discovery Series concerts to be presented by American Bach will take place in a little less than a month’s time. The program will be devoted entirely to a concert performance of Handel’s HWV 49 opera Acis and Galatea. The title character Acis is a young shepherd from Sicily. He falls in love with the sea-nymph Galatea. However, the son of Poseidon (God of the sea) is the one-eyed giant Polyphemus. His desire for Galatea is so strong that he crushes Acis with a boulder. However, Galatea maintains her love for Acis by transforming him into a bubbling fountain. (In the immortal words of Anna Russell, “I’m not making this up, you know!”)

The title role of Galatea will be sung by Hélène Brunet, whose last appearance with American Bach was in the summer of 2023, when she was the soprano soloist in the annual performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 232 Mass in B minor. Tenor James Reese will take the role of Acis. He also had a “Mass experience” in San Francisco in 2023; but this was when he contributed to the performance of Georg Muffat’s “Missa in labore requies” (which required eight soloists) for a Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale concert. Another American Bach “veteran” will be bass-baritone Mischa Bouvier as Polyphemus. This will be a major change from his American Bach appearance last year in March, when he sang the “Christus” texts for Bach’s BWV 245 St John Passion. The final visiting soloist will be tenor Michael Jankosky, who will sing the role of the shepherd Silvio. His last appearance as a guest soloist was with the San Francisco Choral Society during their Summer Festival Chorus performance at Davies Symphony Hall in August of 2023.

This performance will take place in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church at 1111 O’Farrell Street, on the southwest corner of Franklin Street, beginning at 4 p.m. on Sunday, February 23. Tickets are priced between $44 and $111. Tickets may be purchased online through a Tix Web page. This site includes a diagram which shows where tickets are available (which is currently the case for all four price areas).

The Bleeding Edge: 1/27/2025

This will be one of those weeks when the number of events already reported on this site will equal the number of new ones. The hyperlinks for those previously reported events are as follows:

• Wednesday, January 29: Carla Kihlstedt’s 26 Little Deaths, the first of the three PIVOT Festival performances.
• Thursday, January 30: the last of the January performances at The Lab, co-presented by Arab.AMP
• Saturday, February 1: the Tracing Paths program to be performed by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players

The remaining events all take place at venues already reported. One of those is a relatively recent addition but is likely to become a “usual suspect.” Specifics are as follows:

Friday, January 31, Medicine for Nightmares, 7 p.m.: This will be the weekly Other Dimensions in Sound concert curated and hosted by Boohaabian multi-reed player extraordinaire David Boyce. This week’s performance will be by Free Press. 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.

Ian Carey and Kasey Knudsen at the Joe Henderson Lab of the SFJAZZ Center (screen shot from the YouTube video)

Saturday, February 1,  Bird & Beckett Books and Records, 7:30 p.m.: According to my records, the quintet led by trumpeter and composer Ian Carey gave a Jazz Chez Hanny performance this past August. Personnel have not changed since then. Carey will again be joined on the front line by two saxophonists, James Mahone and Kasey Knudsen. Rhythm will be provided on organ by Adam Schulman and by drummer Eric Garland. For those that do not already know, the venue is located 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. 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, February 1, Blue Heron Boathouse, 7:30 p.m.: This looks like it may join the “usual suspects” list. The boathouse is located in Golden Gate Park on Stow Lake. It is best approached from Fulton Street. This week percussionist Scott Amendola will give another duo performance with keyboardist Will Blades, possibly revisiting selections from their gig at Keys Bistro this past July.

SFS: Chamber Music Framed by Two Quintets

Yesterday afternoon Davies Symphony Hall hosted the latest performance of chamber music by San Francisco Symphony (SFS) musicians. The program was framed by two quintets separated by about 30 years. It began with the quintet for oboe and strings, composed by Arnold Bax in 1922, and concluded with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Opus 10, his F-sharp minor clarinet quintet. These selections served as a framework for a duet and a trio. The duet was Camille Saint-Saëns’ Opus 124, his “Fantasie” in the key of A minor scored for flute and harp. The trio players were violinist Dan Carlson, Leonid Plashinov-Johnson on viola, and pianist Marc Shaprio, performing “Two Pieces” by Benjamin Britten. These were “juvenilia” compositions written in the composer’s teens in 1929, which were not performed until 2003. Nevertheless, they did not “make the cut” for the Complete Works release by Decca in 2013; and yesterday afternoon’s performance suggested that Decca seems to have fumbled the ball in overlooking this music.

Still, the “primary substance” for yesterday afternoon was found in the quintets that began and concluded the program. Russ de Luna was the oboist for the Bax quintet, joined by violinists Carlson and Florin Parvulescu with Davis You on cello and Plashinov-Johnson again on viola. The music began with what seemed like evocations of Claude Debussy; but, by the time it progressed to the final movements, there was no mistaking the English influences! Bax is one of those composers that never seems to get the attention he deserves. In Davies he seems to be limited to chamber music, having made his last appearance a little over two years ago.

Coleridge-Taylor’s fate has not been much better. Nevertheless, I have encountered a fair amount of his music through recordings; and, as some readers may recall, clarinetist Anthony McGill performed his clarinet quintet when he made his debut with San Francisco Performances in November of 2021. Yesterday afternoon reminded me that this music definitely deserves more attention, and clarinetist Yuhsin Galaxy Su knew how to command that attention. Strings were provided by violinists Polina Sedukh and Olivia Chen, Katarzyna Bryla on viola, and cellist Sébastien Gingras.

Harpist Katherine Siochi (from her Meet the Musicians Web page on the SFS Web site)

For the most part, these performances were consistently engaging from beginning to end. I must confess that I found the Saint-Saëns selection to be a bit long-winded. Nevertheless, the interplay of Yubeen Kim on flute and harpist Katherine Siochi was so engaging that I never really felt that they overstayed their welcome! Once again, the SFS musicians provided an engaging journey of discovery for a Sunday afternoon!

Natsuki Tamura’s Duo with Guitarist Keiji Haino

Cover of the album being discussed

Yesterday I wrote about the latest albums from Libra Records as a “husband and wife” offering of pianist Satoko Fujii and her spouse, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura. On that occasion, I focused on Fujii’s release, Altitude 1100 Meters, promising that Tamura’s release would have an article of its own. Today I shall make good on that promise. The title of Tamura’s album is What happened there?, and it is a duo performance with guitarist Keiji Haino. It is divided into four tracks, which unfold without interruption for a duration of 36 minutes.

The advance material I received describes the performers as “[t]wo of improvised music’s greatest provocateurs.” That provocation arises from the fact that much of the performance itself involves vocalization. Since my knowledge of Japanese is hopelessly weak, I have no idea whether there were any lexical roots behind that vocalization. Nevertheless, there is no end of expressiveness in how those vocal passages are delivered, which a clear intention that what is being expressed need not have much to do with reality. In my own context of Japanese performances, I am not embarrassed to suggest that those vocalizations tend to evoke the spirit of Akira Kurosawa (or, perhaps, John Belushi in one of his samurai skits) on a bad acid trip.

Mind you, there is more to the performance than an intimidating “sonic wall.” On the assumption that this is a recording of a single spontaneous improvisation, it is worth noting that both players come to an agreement that quietude would be in order around midway through the performance. However, I see this as a device through which the players maintain listener attention by keeping him/her/them guessing about what comes next on the overall journey from beginning to end.

Personally, I find this sort of listening experience to be a lot of fun. Nevertheless, I suspect that just about everyone I know (including my wife and any of the “serious musicians” with whom I converse) will probably head for the hills before the first few minutes have elapsed. Perhaps the title of Tamura’s album raises a question that defies any answer based on what his music is or how it is being performed. Have listened to the album several times, I still feel at a loss when it comes to providing a clear and comprehensible account of “what happened.” To coin a phrase from an earlier generation, I have pretty much resigned myself to “go with the flow!”

Because, like Fujii, Tamura also records on Libra Records, the best venue for purchase is the CD Store Web page on the label’s Web site.

SFP Announces New Series at Presidio Theatre

Following up on the annual PIVOT Festival, which will begin this coming Wednesday, San Francisco Performances (SFP) will launch a new series of performances on Sunday afternoons. This will be the Beischer Family Sunday Strings Series, which will take place at the Presidio Theatre Performing Arts Center at 3 p.m. The curator will be Owen Dalby, whom readers probably already known as one of the two Artistic and Executive Directors of Noe Music. The programs planned for the specific dates are as follows:

Musicians for the first Sunday Strings concert (clockwise from upper-left: Alexi Kenney, Owen Dalby, Amy Yang, and Christopher Costanza, from the Web page for that event)

February 16: The series will get off to an imaginative start with two selections likely to be unfamiliar to most listeners. The major work on the program will be a suite composed by Erich Korngold in 1930 with somewhat unconventional instrumentation: two violins, cello, and piano left hand. This was composed for the pianist Paul Wittgenstein (the older brother of philosopher Ludwig), whose right arm had to be amputated during World War I. This will be preceded by a piano quartet composed by Danny Elfman (best known for his film scores) on a joint commission by the Lied Center for Performing Arts University of Nebraska in Lincoln and the Berlin Philharmonic Piano Quartet and first performed in February of 2018. Dalby will play viola in the Elfman quartet and second violin in the Korngold suite. The other performers will be violinist Alexi Kenney, Christopher Costanza on cello, and pianist Amy Yang.

April 6: The second program will present two string quartets from opposite ends of the nineteenth century. It will begin with Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 12 quartet in E-flat major and conclude with Alexander von Zemlinsky’s Opus 4 (first) quartet in A major. Dalby will play first violin for this program. He will be joined by second violinist Geneva Lewis, Masumi Per Rostad on viola, and cellist Hannah Collins.

May 4: The series will conclude with a solo recital by cellist Costanza. The program will present two cello suites in reverse chronological order. It will begin with Benjamin Britten’s Opus 80, the second of the three suites he dedicated to cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. This will be followed by Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1012, the last of his six suites.

As some readers may recall by now, the venue is located at 99 Moraga Avenue, in the southwest corner of the Presidio. Ticket prices are $60 and $45. A Web page has also been created to purchase tickets for the entire series for $165 and $120. Single tickets may be purchased through the hyperlinks attached to the above individual dates.

A Disappointing Guitar Recital in Herbst

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

Last night saw my first visit to Herbst Theatre in the New Year. The occasion was a solo guitar recital presented jointly by San Francisco Performances and the Dynamite Guitars series of programs presented by the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts. The recitalist was Miloš Karadaglić, who performs under only his first name and (at least in last night’s program book) all in capital letters. Sadly, the quality of his performance never quite rose to the level of his imaginative presentation of self.

The title of his program was The Arts and the Hours. This was the title of interlude music for Les Boréades, the last of the five operas composed by Jean-Philippe Rameau. The program note by Scott Cmiel suggested of this music that “one could almost imagine Mahler writing in the late nineteenth century;” but he was probably looking at Rameau’s score, rather than listening to Miloš’ interpretation on guitar, which lacked any sense of dramatic flow that one tends to expect from an interlude.

Much of the program was devoted to Rameau’s contemporaries, including (in order of appearance), Sylvius Leopold Weiss, George Frideric Handel, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Domenico Scarlatti. The Handel selection was identified only as “Menuet” but was not particularly recognizable as a minuet, let alone one by Handel; and Miloš’ approach to the chaconne movement from Bach’s BWV 1004 solo violin partita in D minor suggested that his understanding of Bach was no more secure. This concluded the first half of the program, while the entire program finished with “Amor Fati” by Mathias Duplessy, which was composed for a centenary recital for the guitar legend Andrés Segovia, based on his guitar arrangement of the BWV 1004 chaconne. Both accounts were equally disappointing, as was the Bach-inspired “Andante Religioso” movement from “La Catedral” composed by Agustín Barrios.

The one composer that “got some respect” from Miloš was Tōru Takemitsu, who had composed a set of transcriptions entitled 12 Songs for Guitar. His arrangement of Harold Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow” was the penultimate work on the program, while the encore selection was “Yesterday” composed for The Beatles by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. It is unclear how much Takemitsu knew about the guitar, but his knowledge of music was impressively diverse. Last night he emerged as the “saving grace” for an otherwise tedious encounter.

Satoko Fujii’s Suite for String Ensemble

Yesterday Libra Records released two new albums, which may be called “husband and wife” recordings. The first of these, Altitude 1100 Meters, will be the first work of written music for string ensemble by Satoko Fujii. The second, What happened there?, features her husband, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura. My original intention was to write about both of these in a single article, but the Fujii release is such a major departure from her previous albums that it deserves to be addressed strictly on its own merits. Because both of these albums are on the Libra label, the best venue for purchase is the CD Store Web page on the Web site for Libra Records.

Satoko Fujii conducting the members of her GEN ensemble (photograph by Shigeko Sekiguchi)

Altitude 1100 Meters is a suite in five movements, which Fujii wrote to celebrate her 65th birthday. It was composed for the group GEN, which is the Japanese word for string. Akira Horikoshi is the drummer, and the other performers perform on string instruments of one form or another. Fujii’s instrument is, as usual, piano; but the other four players perform with bowed instruments. These are violinists Yuriko Mukoujima and Ayaka Kato, Atsuko Hatano on viola (but doubling on electronic gear), and bassist Hiroshi Yoshino. The five movements basically account for the passing of a single day:

1. Morning Haze
2. Morning Sun
3. Early Afternoon
4. Light Rain
5. Twilight

The title of this suite was inspired by the fact that Fujii composed the work during the summer of 2023. She had moved to the highlands of Nagano with her parents to escape the city heat. She was inspired by how the air itself was different at an altitude of 1100 meters. It would be fair to say that the music itself does not specifically reflect on altitude. However, Fujii’s creativity seems to have been inspired by (in her words) “how the air made me feel.”

As might be guessed, Fujii took advantage of the violins and viola to explore glissando passages. At the other end of the spectrum, so to speak, Yoshino’s bass work often serves to provide a drone. As might be expected, Fujii brings her own intensity to her piano playing; but her equal-tempered instrument serves as a “baseline” against which she explores microtonal the intervals of the string players.

I must confess that I have not yet fathomed the logic behind her approach to microtonality, so I would like to riff a bit on my own past experiences. At the risk of sounding too simplistic, there are basically two ways in which microtones can be deployed. The simpler of these involves basically adding rhythm to glissando passages. The other is what I learned from my composition teacher, which is that an equal-tempered scale of 72 notes to the octave (dividing the semitone into six equal “subintervals”) allows a composer a more refined capacity to capture the frequencies of overtones beyond the 5:4 ratio of the major third. Since Fujii’s creativity tends to go beyond any concept of a scale, my guess is that her own work tends toward the former option!

I have come to expect that every new Fujii album will offer a journey of discovery, but Altitude 1100 Meters charts are journey more adventurous than I had anticipated!

Conductor Mark Elder Makes his SFS Debut

Conductor Mark Elder (photograph by Groves Artists, courtesy of SFS)

Mark Elder is no stranger for those that have followed the San Francisco Opera for some time. I first encountered him in the fall of 2015, when he had trouble keeping the brass section under control while conducting Richard Wagner’s score for Die Meistersinger con Nürnberg. My only other experience with his performance was in the spring of 2019, when he was the conductor for the Great Performances at the Met broadcast of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Dalila. Sadly, this was no more satisfying than his approach to Wagner.

Last night in Davies Symphony Hall, Elder made his debut conducting the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). Having more liberty to prepare a repertoire, he put together a program that was decidedly more engaging than either of his previous operatic encounters. The first half of the program accounted for French music from the two extremes of the nineteenth century. The “central” selection was Claude Debussy’s “Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un faune,” which was composed in 1894. This was flanked on either side by overtures by Hector Berlioz. The program began with his overture to Les Franc-juges, described in the program book notes by James M. Keller as his “first operatic failure.” The first half concluded with “Le roi Lear,” a concert overture inspired by William Shakespeare’s King Lear.

Berlioz was never shy when it came to instrumentation, and Elder displayed a solid command of the scores for both of these overtures. Of particular interest was the interplay across the first and second violin sections. This was enhanced through the conductor’s decision to have the two sections face each other, rather than play side-by-side. This afforded the attentive listener better opportunities to appreciate the many details in how Berlioz managed his orchestral textures.

Those textures were equally significant during the second half of the program, most of which accounted for Richard Strauss’ Opus 30 tone poem “Also sprach Zarathustra.” Strauss was heavily interested in the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, which he encountered in the early 1890s. Also sprach Zarathustra was conceived by Nietzsche as a four-part treatise; but it unfolds as a prose narrative, whose plot line (such as it is) provided Strauss with a framework for his tone poem. Each of the tone poem’s episodes reflects on a specific segment of Nietzsche’s text. To be fair, I have to confess that, over the course of my several listening experiences, I could easily apprehend the episodic structure without finding much of a relationship to a narrative thread. Nevertheless, Elder’s conducting could not have been clearer in guiding one through those episodes, regardless of any presence or absence of a plot-line.

He then decided that Strauss’ account of heavy philosophy deserved a lighter “punch line.” As a result, last night’s program concluded with one of John Adams’ most engaging compositions, “Short Ride in a Fast Machine.” This quickly blew away any of the “scholarly cobwebs” that may have been induced by Strauss’ musical reflections on Nietzsche! This music was an SFS favorite back when Michael Tilson Thomas was Music Director. Personally, I was glad to encounter it again.

Steven Isserlis to Return for SFP “Anniversary”

Presumably, readers know by now that this is the 45th anniversary season of San Francisco Performances (SFP), and the occasion is being celebrated by an additional subscription series presenting frequent past visitors. Next month will present two of those visitors. As was announced a week ago, the first of these will be pianist Marc-André Hamelin, who has prepared an impressively diverse program for his performance on Saturday, February 8.

Steven Isserlis and Connie Shih (from the SFP event page for tickets to their recital)

Hamelin will be followed exactly a week later by the second visitor. Cellist Steven Isserlis had been scheduled to return almost exactly two years ago, but that performance had to be cancelled due to travel and visa issues related to the pandemic. This year he will be Hamelin’s “successor,” performing (as he usually does) with pianist Connie Shih as his accompanist. The program will be framed by two relatively familiar cello sonatas, the first by Ludwig van Beethoven (the second of his two Opus 5 sonatas) and the last by Edvard Grieg, his Opus 36 sonata. The first half of the program will conclude with Bohuslav Martinů’s first sonata, and the intermission will be followed by a set of three pieces for cello and piano composed by Nadia Boulanger.

This performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. on (as already mentioned above) Saturday, February 15. The venue will be 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.

George Bernard Shaw Set to Music (again)

When I was growing up, the biggest hit on Broadway was My Fair Lady. Composer Frederick Loewe joined forces with Alan Jay Lerner to transform George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion into a musical comedy. This was no mean feat. When Shaw wanted to make a point, he had no trouble going on at great lengths to do so.

Poster design for the Lamplighters production of A Minister’s Wife (from the event page for this production)

I was therefore somewhat more than a little surprised to encounter news of another didactic Shaw play with a similar treatment. This time the play was Candida, which Michael Halberstam, Artistic Director of the Writers Theatre, deemed worthy of a musical setting. To this end he enlisted composer Joshua Schmidt to join forces with lyricist Jan Tranen with Austin Pendleton providing all the text for the “words without song.” The result was a musical entitled A Minister’s Wife. It received its premiere at the Writers Theatre in New York in 2009, followed by a series of performances at the Lincoln Center Theater during the 2010/2011 season.

In a little less than a month’s time, A Minister’s Wife will be performed in San Francisco. It will be the second production to be presented in the Lamplighters Music Theatre 2024/2025 season. Staging will be directed by M. Jane Erwin, working with Music Director Brett Strader.

This production will be given three performances in the Taube Atrium Theatre, which is on the top floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue, on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. There will be two matinee performances at 2 p.m. on Saturday, February 15, and Sunday, February 16, along with an evening performance at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 15. General admission will be $76 with a $71 rate for seniors (age 62 or older), and $31 for children aged eighteen or younger and students aged 25 and under.

David Oistrakh’s Early Recordings on Warner

This past Tuesday I prepared readers for the 31 CDs classified as Premières, Rarities & Live Performances in the Warner Remastered Edition box set collection of recordings of performances by Russian violinist David Oistrakh. This “appendix” to the collection was curated by Bruno Monsaingeon, whom I had previously encountered through the videos he had produced for another major Warner Classics anthology, The Menuhin Century. While I was not particularly taken with his video skills, his efforts with Oistrakh’s audio archives seem to be at least a bit more promising.

Dividing this new collection into “mind-sized chunks” (a phrase readers may recall from my articles about the Warner Remastered Edition of recordings of the conductor Otto Klemperer) was not a particularly easy matter. Nevertheless, I knew exactly where to begin: with the two CDs identified as Early Recordings. To be more specific, “early” accounts for a period between December of 1935 and October of 1949. It includes two multi-movement compositions from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and one from the late nineteenth century. The earliest of these is Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1043 concerto for two violins in D minor, with Georges Enescu (probably better known to most readers as a composer) taking the other violin part. This is followed by Franz Schubert’s D. 667 (“Trout”) quintet (whose other performers are probably unfamiliar). The “late work” is Ernest Chausson’s “Concert,” scored for violin, piano, and string quartet, from which the second (“Sicilienne”) movement has been omitted.

Now, to be fair, I have been a sucker for D. 667 for the better part of my writing career (if not my entire life). If the quality of the sound leaves much to be desired, I can still appreciate that balance maintained by pianist Lev Oborin in performing with the “non-standard” (violin, viola, cello, and double bass) quartet. Similarly, this was my first encounter with Enescu as a performer; and, while his performance with Oistrakh may not have been “historically informed,” I still enjoyed the interplay of their two solo parts. On the other hand, I came away with the impression that the Chausson selection was included because Monsaingeon did not know where else to put it!

Efrem Zimbalist, one of Oistrakh’s contemporaries, with his violin (from the George Grantham Bain collection at the Library of Congress, digitally altered by Royalbroil, no known copyright restrictions)

Where the shorter pieces are concerned, most readers probably have already seen my citation of “the generous number of encore selections that were recorded by Jascha Heifetz.” Ironically, two of those selections were recorded by Oistrakh, the arrangement of Claude Debussy’s song “Beau Soir” and the Sarabande movement from Bach’s BWV 808 in G minor, the third of his “English” keyboard suites. Also, as a Philadelphian, I could appreciate the arrangement by Efram Zimbalist of the “Persian song” from Mikhail Glinka’s opera Ruslan and Lyudmila. (When I was growing up, Zimbalist was Director of the Curtis Institute of Music, although, at that time, I was more interested in his son’s television career!)

Oistrakh also took on five (count them!) solo piano compositions by Frédéric Chopin. These included two mazurkas, two nocturnes, and one étude. I fear these fall into the dog-walking-on-hind-legs category of the achievement being done at all, regardless of whether it was done well! The fact is that, when I attend a recital, I usually I find a recitalist playing too many encores to be a bit irritating; and that is basically the impression that these Early Recordings CDs left with me. Perhaps it is just that I cannot relate to Monsaingeon’s talents as a curator.

Pre-College Guitar Prodigies at SFCM

This past Sunday, the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts released its latest video in the Live from St. Mark’s series of concerts filmed at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church. This one was particularly distinctive, since, rather than seasoned professionals, it presented a quartet of guitarists currently in the Pre-College program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM). Nevertheless, the repertoire is one that would challenge many (if not most) professionals, providing an excellent example of the high standards maintained in the SFCM Pre-College Guitar Department, chaired by Scott Cmiel, who introduced the program.

The members of the SFCM Pre-College Guitar Honors Quartet (Trent Park, Emilia Díaz, Kiran Lee, and Roan Holmes, not in order of appearance) playing Maher (from the YouTube video of their recital)

The performers on this video are the members of the SFCM Pre-College Guitar Honors Quartet: Trent Park, Emilia Díaz, Kiran Lee, and Roan Holmes. The selections are, to say the least, ambitious. The first is an arrangement by Stephen Goss of the opening section of the second movement of the first symphony by Gustav Mahler. To be fair, the guitar was not a stranger to Mahler; but he did not make use of it until his seventh symphony, whose instrumentation also included a mandolin (as well as cowbells). The music Goss chose to arrange, however, was the primary (opening) theme of the first symphony’s Ländler (second) movement. This was inspired by a traditional folk dance, but Mahler did not waste any time in departing from folk traditions. Nevertheless, Goss managed to capture the Ländler spirit in his arrangement; and the SFCM students could not have given a better account of that spirit.

Having given Mahler his due, the quartet could then move on to music that was actually composed for a quartet of guitars. Their selection was “Bluezilian,” composed by Clarice Assad. Those that have followed this site for some time are probably familiar with Assad’s capacity for upbeat rhetoric. Apportioning that rhetoric across four guitars just upped the ante of engagement with the attentive listener. To be fair, the selection was relatively brief (only about three minutes); but Assad always seems to know how to establish just the right expressiveness in just the right duration of time.

Taken as a whole, the video is relatively brief, clocking in at less than eight minutes. Nevertheless, there is just the right balance of depth and diversity to make the experience time well spent. Furthermore, when one considers the youth of the performers, one can hope that at least one (if not all) of them are ready to continue on a journey to future serious concert recitals.

Chez Hanny to Begin Next Month with Trio

Jazz guitarist Jack Radsliff

Following up on this past Sunday’s quartet performance at Chez Hanny, next month will begin with a trio. The leader will be Jack Radsliff, who is one of the leading jazz guitarists in the Pacific Northwest. Rhythm will be provided by Patrick Golichnik on bass and drummer Michael Raynor.

As always, 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 Sunday, February 2. 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. 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.

A New Year with SFRT at the Cadillac

Poster design for the performance being discussed (courtesy of the Cadillac Hotel)

Once again, January will see the return of the San Francisco Recovery Theatre to Concerts at the Cadillac. The title of the program will be the “logical follow-up” to last year’s performance: A Night at the Black Hawk 2025. The program will again be led by Artistic Director Geoffrey Grier featuring Eric Ward, Vernon Medearis, Gayle Rosemond, and Sherrie Taylor. As was the case last year, music will be provided by pianist Dave Austin and the Trio de Swing.

As usual, this show will begin at 1 p.m. on Friday, January 24. The Cadillac Hotel is located at 380 Eddy Street, on the northeast corner of Leavenworth Street. The lobby features the Patricia Walkup Memorial Piano, which will be Austin’s instrument. It is a meticulously restored 1884 Model D Steinway concert grand, whose original soundboard is still intact. All Concerts at the Cadillac events are presented without charge. The purpose of the series is to provide high-quality music to the residents of the hotel and the Tenderloin District; but all are invited to visit the venue that calls itself “The House of Welcome Since 1907.”

Warner’s CD of David Oistrakh’s Encores

Cover of the Seraphim album of Oistrakh encore recordings when it was released on vinyl by Seraphim (from the Amazon.com Web page)

This morning I listened to the single CD of encore performances in the Warner Remastered Edition box set collection of recordings of performances by Russian violinist David Oistrakh. This consisted of eight compositions, five of which were composed for violin and piano. Among the three arrangements, the only one familiar to me was the “Jota” movement from Manuel de Falla’s set of seven Spanish folksongs (Siete canciones populares españolas), arranged by Paul Kochanski. The other two arrangers are Alexandre Roelens and Vasily Bezekirsky. The “original” compositions are as follows:

• Eugène Ysaÿe: “Extase” (Opus 21)
• Josef Suk: “Píseň lásky” (“song of love,” the first in the Opus 7 collection of six piano pieces)
• Zoltán Kodály: arrangements of three Hungarian folk songs
• Henryk Wieniawski: “Légende” (Opus 17)
• Aleksander Zarzycki: “Mazurka” (Opus 26)

This makes for a rather modest offering when compared with the generous number of encore selections that were recorded by Jascha Heifetz. Nevertheless, the CD definitely serves up an engaging journey of discovery. Sadly, I do not have many opportunities to encounter violin recitals. However, now that I have been introduced to the works on this album, I would certainly enjoy encountering them in performance.

This completes my account of the Warner CDs of recordings that Oistrakh made for Columbia in New York and HMV in London. However, the box set also includes 31 additional CDs under the rubric Premières, Rarities & Live Performances, along with three DVDs. Quite honestly, I am not yet sure how I shall work my way through the rest of this collection. Watch this space for further developments and (hopefully) insights into Oistrakh’s reputation!

The Bleeding Edge: 1/20/2025

After last week’s relative quietude, this coming week will be a seriously busy one. It will even include a new performance venue. The only events already reported on this site will be those taking place this week at The Lab on Tuesday and Saturday. Almost all of the remaining performances will be “usual suspects” events with one exception, which will take place on Saturday. Specifics are as follows:

Tuesday, January 21, Make-Out Room, 7 p.m.: Jazz at the Make-Out Room will begin the year with a program of three sets, each consisting roughly of 45 minutes in duration. The opening set will be by the quartet Intangible, featuring vocals by Ken Ueno. He will be accompanied by rhythm provided by Jeff Schwartz on bass and percussionist Tim Feeney. The remaining member of the quartet will be visiting from Los Angeles. Gamin will perform on two Korean instruments, piri and saenghwang. The second set will be a solo account of experimental and free jazz by Nestor. The program will then conclude with the Revenant quartet. Tom Djill will bring his electronics into conversation with keyboard work by Rei Scampavia, Karl Evangelista on guitar, and percussionist Kevin Corcoran.

Friday, January 24, 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 drummer Jordan Glenn. The venue is located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street. As always, there is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book.

Friday, January 24, Bird & Beckett Books and Records, 8:30 p.m.: This will also be a solo performance. Gustavo Lorenzatti has prepared a program entitled Double Bass Dreams. He plays both bass and cello. He explores a diversity of performance techniques, including bowing, pizzicato, percussion, and his own voice to add to a uniquely layered sound.

Saturday, January 25, SFJAZZ Center, 7 p.m.: This will be the performance of ROOT PROGRESSIONS, previously announced on this site’s Web page for this month’s SFJAZZ performances.

Saturday, January 25, Center for New Music, 7:30 p.m.: This will be the performance of Midnight Serenades: Music by Women and Nonbinary Composers, another previously announced event.

Mat Muntz with his bass (F. Moretti Photography)

Saturday, January 25, Blue Heron Boathouse, 7:30 p.m.: This will be the one departure from the “usual suspects.” The boathouse is located in Golden Gate Park on Stow Lake. It is best approached from Fulton Street. It will provide the venue for a trio performance by saxophonist Dan White, Mat Muntz on bass (and possibly bagpipes), and percussionist Scott Amendola.

David Oistrakh on Warner: Twentieth Century

In his Warner Remastered Edition box set, David Oistrakh’s attention to the twentieth century was about as modest as his late Romantic recordings. Readers may recall that this earlier category focused primarily on Johannes Brahms with two recordings each of two of his compositions. The good news about the twentieth-century repertoire is that there are no overlaps across the eight CDs.

Croatian conductor Lovro von Matačić (photographer unknown, from Wikimedia Commons, made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication)

As might be guessed, the composer to receive the most attention is Sergei Prokofiev, accounting for three of those CDs. He is represented by both of his violin concertos, Opus 19 in D major and Opus 63 in G minor, as well as his Opus 94bis (second) sonata in D major. Both of the concertos were recorded in London, the first with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lovro von Matačić and the second with the Philharmonia Orchestra led by Alceo Galliera. Both of these are solid accounts, even if the conductors are not familiar to current listeners. The pianist for the sonata was Oistrakh’s usual accompanist, Vladimir Yampolsky. The CD of the first concerto begins with Max Bruch’s Opus 26 (first) concerto in G minor, making for a decidedly engaging compare-and-contrast experience.

The collection also affords a “Khachaturian family encounter.” Oistrakh’s account of Aram Khachaturian’s violin concerto in D minor was recorded with the Philharmonia Orchestra under the composer’s baton. More interesting is that the composer’s nephew Karen is included in this selection with a recording of his Opus 1 violin sonata (again with Yampolsky). There are two Russian composers of note, the earlier of which is Sergei Taneyev, whose Opus 28 Suite de concert is performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra under the baton of Nikolai Malko. More familiar is Dmitri Shostakovich, with his Opus 99 (first) concerto in A minor, performed by the New Philharmonia Orchestra led by Maxim Shostakovich.

Aside from Bruch, the only departure from the Russian repertoire is Jean Sibelius. Oistrakh performs his Opus 47 concerto in D minor with the Stockholm Festival Orchestra conducted by Sixten Ehrling. This is music that very much has a voice of its own. One might even say it deliberately resists Russian efforts to influence Finnish life. Oistrakh gives the concerto a solid account, but it would be fair to say that I have encountered more passionate interpretations from violinists more sympathetic to Finland than they were to Russia!

Levenstein to Bring Jazz Vocalists to Sunset

[updated 1/24, 8:15 a.m.: This morning I learned that, as of yesterday evening, this project has been cancelled.]

Most readers of this site probably know Daniel Levenstein as the founder of Chamber Music San Francisco (CMSF). Some may even recall that he announced the conclusion of his tenure as CMSF Director this past May. However (as I can attest), retirement does not come easily; so I was not surprised to learn that he has launched a new project directed at a new genre.

The title of the project is Jazz in the Sunset. As the title suggests, this will be a partnership with Sunset Music and Arts, which will provide the venue. As can also be guessed, that venue will be the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, which hosts the Sunset Music and Arts performances. For those that do not already know, that venue is located at 1750 29th Avenue, about halfway between Moraga Street and Noriega Street.

Jazz in the Sunset will launch with a series of four concerts, each providing a platform for a local jazz vocalist and all beginning at 7:30 p.m. on the following dates:

Friday, February 7: Jackie Ryan has a track record of successful albums, the most recent three of which all made it to the top of the national tracking chart maintained by Jazzweek. Her reputation is international, having been a regular performer for eight years at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London. Her tours have also taken her to the Netherlands (Amsterdam), Spain, and Germany. On the Pacific Rim she has performed in Japan, New Zealand, and Australia. On the other side of our continent, she has appeared at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Dizzy’s Club, and Birdland in New York. According to Amazon Music, her most recent album was released in October of 2022, Recuerdo De Mi Madre (memories of my mother), which she recorded with Paquito D’Rivera.

Friday, February 21: Lori Carsillo specializes in the Great American Songbook. Her influences include such “usual suspects” as Julie London, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis (probably from the Prestige years, rather than his later work with Columbia), and Bill Evans. Here in San Francisco she has performed at SFJAZZ and Yoshi’s, as well as the Fillmore Jazz Festival. Beyond the Bay Area she has given gigs at The Outpost in Albuquerque and contributed to the Santa Fe Music Collective Jazz Series. She has her own YouTube channel.)

Lara Louise playing and singing Johnny Mercer’s “Fools Rush In” (from her YouTube Web page)

Wednesday, March 5: Lara Louise was born in Nijmegen in the Netherlands. She was raised on folk song performance by Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen and also learned to play guitar. She was subsequently influenced by both jazz and bossa nova by vocalists such as Madeleine Peyroux, Carla Bruni, Julie London and Astrud Gilberto. Here in the Bay Area she has recorded songs with multi-instrumentalist and producer Gawain Mathews. She also has her own YouTube channel.

Wednesday, March 19: Tiffany Austin is a graduate of the School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley. Her studies in classical voice were at California State University at Northridge. She then pursued jazz in both London and Tokyo. She has released two albums, Nothing But Soul and Unbroken. The latter celebrates the full range of African-American music: blues, swing, spirituals, rhythm & blues, bebop, post-bop, and her own Louisiana Creole heritage.

Tickets for the full series of concerts are being sold for $100. Single ticket prices will be $35. All purchases may be made through the Jazz in the Sunset home page.

Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” in Detroit

A “picture of pagan Russia,” one of Nicholas Roerich’s designs for the first ballet performance of “The Rite of Spring” (from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Early yesterday evening my wife and I settled in over dinner to watch the latest “free live HD webcast” presented by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO). Some readers may recall that our last encounter took place this past November, when Music Director Jader Bignamini led a compelling program that coupled Joseph Haydn’s Hoboken I/100 in G major (often known as the “Military” symphony) with Gustav Mahler’s ninth symphony. Yesterday DSO presented a Russian program led by Daniele Rustioni. The second half was devoted entirely to Igor Stravinsky’s music for “The Rite of Spring,” a ballet choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky to evoke the score’s subtitle “Pictures of Pagan Russia in Two Parts.”

There is probably a consensus that this is one of the most significant works to be composed in the twentieth century. It even attracted the attention of Walt Disney (who, probably working with Leopold Stokowski, unfortunately butchered the score to suit his cartoon narrative). However, for all of this music’s familiarity, it was given a fresh and engaging account under Rustioni’s baton. As usual, the video direction guided the viewer through the different “sites of action” in the score; and it is clear that the crew was as well-rehearsed for the score as the performers were. Thus, I found that, however, familiar that score was to me, I could enjoy every moment of the freshness that Rustioni brought to his interpretation.

The other Russian composer accounted for the concerto selection in the first half of yesterday’s program. The soloist was violinist Francesca Dego (making her DSO debut), performing Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 77 (99), his first violin concerto in A minor. It was dedicated to the Russian violinist David Oistrakh. If the Guinness World Records had a category for “longest solo instrumental cadenza,” Opus 77 would probably be the undisputed winner. It follows up on the retrospective dignity of a passacaglia at a stately Andante tempo, forming a lengthy bridge preparing the listener for the final raucous burlesque movement.

Dego’s command of that cadenza was nothing short of jaw-dropping, allowing it to unfold with more than enough clarity to keep the attentive listener on the edge of his/her seat. She then announced that her encore would be a capriccio by Grażyna Bacewicz, but she did not say which one. (Bacewicz composed six of them.)

The “overture” for the program was Camille Pépin’s “Les Eaux célestes” (celestial waters). My guess is that most of the audience quickly recognized that the composer had taken Debussy as her point of departure. However, given the nature of the title itself, one can appreciate that the composer’s intention was to evoke, rather than describe. The good news is that the music did not go on for too long but left me hoping to encounter further listening experiences.

Dynamite Guitars: Xuefei Yang to follow Topchii

Guitarist Xuefei Yang (from her Omni Foundation Concert Calendar Web page)

Some readers may recall the announcement on this site this past Tuesday of the solo performance by Ukrainian virtuoso guitarist Marko Topchii. This will be the second Dynamite Guitars recital of the New Year, following up on this month’s solo recital by Miloš Karadaglić (better known under only his first name). Guitar enthusiasts will happy to know that the third recital of the year in this series will take place exactly one week after the second!

This will be Xuefei Yang’s fourth solo recital presented by the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts. It will follow up on the third solo recital she gave here in March of 2023, which featured music from the previous release of her Guitar Favorites album. For this return visit, she has prepared her own arrangement of a piece of traditional Chinese music. Final program details have not yet been released, but the contributing composers will be (in alphabetical order) Leo Brouwer, Carlo Domeniconi, Steve Goss, Lou Harrison, Jiří Jirmal, Nikita Koshkin, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Changjun Xu.

This will be the last of the three recitals of the season hosted by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Like the first, it will be performed in the Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall of the Ann Getty Center for Education, which is located at 50 Oak Street. The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 8. Admission will be $65 for all tickets, and they may be purchased online through a City Box Office event page. They may also be purchased by calling 415-242-4500, which will provide personalized service.