Next SFP Guitar Recital will Share with Sarod

Sharon Isbin and Amjad Ali Khan (from their SFP Web page)

The next program in the San Francisco Performances (SFP) Guitar Series will be a “cross cultural” affair. Guitarist Sharon Isbin will share the stage with three masters of the sarod, the Indian “cousin” of the Spanish guitar. As is always the case, this event will be co-produced with the Dynamite Guitars concert season presented by the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts. The sarod performers will be Amjad Ali Khan and his two sons, Amaad Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash. As is almost always the case with Indian classical music, the performance will also include percussion on tabla, performed by Amit Kavthekar. The program will be based on the album Strings for Peace, which was released in 2020.

This performance will begin, as usual, at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 22. Also as usual, the venue will be Herbst Theatre, which is located at 401 Van Ness Avenue, on the southwest corner of McAllister Street and directly across Van Ness from City Hall. SFP has created its own Web page for online ticket purchases. Tickets for the Boxes and Orchestra range between $60 and $70. The remaining tickets are in the Dress Circle and the Balcony, with prices between $50 and $70.

A Pre-School Metaphor for a Pre-School Show

The members of Sandbox Percussion: Ian Rosenbaum, Victor Caccese, Terry Sweeney, and Jonny Allen (from their Web site home page)

Last night the San Francisco Performances Pivot Festival concluded with a performance of Andy Akiho’s full-evening composition Seven Pillars. The players were the four members of the Sandbox Percussion quartet of Ian Rosenbaum, Jonny Allen, Terry Sweeney, and Victor Caccese. Allen provided a rich introduction to this music through his program notes, complete with a diagram of the composition’s episodes and another presumably showing the physical disposition of those pillars.

This was clearly a major cognitive undertaking. Sadly, the music itself was anything but cognitive. Granted, the percussionists had a keen sense of rhythm, particularly the polyrhythms that emerged when the full ensemble was performing. That diagram also suggested the significance of symmetry through the way in which the solo episodes were interleaved between the pillars. Unfortunately, none of that significance had much to do with what the performers were actually playing, making the entire evening feel like little more than (as Winston Churchill put it) “one damned thing after another!”

Personally, I think the quartet was taking their name too seriously. They were too busy playing with their metaphorical pails and shovels to care very much whether others might be listening to (or even watching) them. There was clearly a lot of talent up there on the Herbst Theatre stage. However, when it came to presenting that talent to the audience, there was just too much self-indulgence on the part of the performers. Perhaps they are more committed to their efforts when playing for friends in a SoHo loft!