Midori to Return to SFP with West Coast Premiere

Violinist Midori (from the SFP event page, photograph by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders)

In a little over a week’s time, violinist Midori will return to San Francisco to present her latest recital program for San Francisco Performances (SFP). Her accompanist for this concert will be pianist Özgür Aydin. The program will conclude with the West Coast Premiere performance of “Resonances in Sprit,” which was composed for her by the young Che Buford, who is also a violinist.

All of the preceding works on the program will be by familiar composers from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The program will begin with Johannes Brahms’ Opus 78, the first of his three violin sonatas (not counting the collaborative “F-A-E Sonata”) in the key of G major. This will be followed by Francis Poulenc’s only violin sonata (FP 119), which he composed in memory of the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca. The remaining two works on the program will both be by Maurice Ravel. “Tzigane” was originally composed for violin and piano (but with the option of a luthéal attachment to evoke the sonorities of a cimbalom). “Kaddish,” on the other hand, was originally the first of the Two Hebrew Songs, setting an Aramaic text for the vocalist; but it was subsequently arranged for violin and piano by Lucien Garban.

As is usually the case for SFP events, this program will be performed in Herbst Theatre, beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 11. The entrance to Herbst Theatre is the main entrance to the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue, located on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. The venue is excellent for public transportation, since that corner has Muni bus stops for both north-south and east-west travel. 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). They may be purchased through an SFP secure Web page.

Verve Releases Another “Unearthed” Ella Album

Ella Fitzgerald with her band (photograph by ©Tom Copi, courtesy of Verve Records)

Those that have followed this site for some time may recall my delight in writing about the album Ella: The Lost Berlin Tapes, a “live” recording of a performance given by vocalist Ella Fitzgerald at the Berlin Sportpalast on March 25, 1962, performing only with the trio of Paul Smith on piano, Wilfred Middlebrooks on bass, and Stan Levey on drums. This album was released by Verve in the summer of 2019; and it is still available through an Amazon.com Web page in both vinyl and CD formats. For those that share my enthusiasm for the Fitzgerald discography, I am happy to report the recent release of a new Verve album, this one entitled The Moment of Truth: Ella at the Coliseum.

Since I am a resident of San Francisco, the venue for this recording is much closer than Berlin; and it captures a much earlier period in Fitzgerald’s career. It was recorded on June 30, 1967 (around the time that I earned my Bachelor’s degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) at the Oakland Coliseum. She is accompanied, for the most part, by members of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, including such well-known performers as trumpeters Mercer Ellington and Cootie Williams, Chuck Connors on trombone, and reed players Paul Gonsalves and Johnny Hodges. However, there are also trio performances by pianist Jimmy Jones, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and drummer Sam Woodyard.

Two of the tracks are first-time recordings for Fitzgerald: “Alfie” and “Music To Watch Girls By.” Both of these are familiar to my generation and would have shown up as “regulars” (by other performers) in broadcasts from the campus radio station (where I spent my recreational time). On the other hand, the title track (which is also the first track) was a “first contact” experience for me, as were a few of the other tracks.

In other words, while Fitzgerald died in 1996, I find that I am still discovering new aspects of her performances and loving every minute of all of them!

Rojo Fumbles Full-Length Ballet for SFB

Photograph of a scene from the original production of Raymonda at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in 1898 (public domain in the United States)

Last night saw the opening of the third production for the 2025 Repertory season of the San Francisco Ballet. Raymonda was the second full-length ballet of the season, following up on Manon, which began the season. The choreography was by Artistic Director Tamara Rojo, based on a version that she created in January of 2022 for the English National Ballet. “For the record” (as they say), I first encountered this ballet in its entirety when Mikhail Baryshnikov staged it for American Ballet Theatre in 1980.

The original narrative is set in Hungary, where the title character is the fiancé of the crusader knight Jean de Brienne. Wedding preparations are interrupted with the arrival of the Saracen knight Abderakhman. The narrative then wanders into the dream world in which Abderakhman woos Raymonda. This is where different productions vary in what happens next. However, ultimately, Abderakhman is slain by Jean de Brienne by the end of the second act (which may or may not take place in that dream world). The third act is then devoted entirely to Raymonda’s wedding ceremony.

Rojo decided to shift the narrative from a timeless fairy tale to the Crimean War. The extended episode in the dream world is significantly reduced, but the result is a muddled account of who is on which side of the brutal battle in Crimea. The serious balletomane would probably do well to set aside any effort to make sense of the story and just treat the entire program as a series of corps de ballet performances with interjections of solo and duo efforts. In that context the music by Alexander Glazunov provides little more than “background;” but in last night’s performance it was at least given a moderately engaging interpretation in the orchestra pit by conductor Martin West.

This then raises the obvious question from the viewer in the audience: Is it worth the time to muddle through all those episodes strung together by a flimsy excuse for a narrative? The good news is that, for the most part, last night performers were in fine form when it came to executing the choreography they had been taught. The scenery may have been ambiguous, but it certainly did not distract the viewer from the dancers. The only real question is whether or not an entire evening should be spent on a series of well-performed episodes in the context of an overall “concept” that never rose above the level of “muddled.”

SFCM Highlights: March, 2025

Last month saw a modest diversity of highlighted events at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) This month will be downright sparse, with only two events of note, one of which will be given two performances and both taking place during the same week. All three will begin at 7:30 p.m., and the following summaries will provide the necessary hyperlinks for the respective dates:

Tuesday, March 11: This month’s visiting artist for Chamber Music Tuesday will be violist Kim Kashkashian. There will be only two works on the program; and, presumably, she will perform with SFCM students for both of them. The first half of the program will be devoted entirely to Gabriel Fauré’s Opus 45, his second piano quartet composed in the key of G minor. The intermission will be followed by Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 97, his string quintet in E-flat major.

Playbill cover for the 1974 Broadway production of Candide (Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7501091)

Friday, March 14, and Saturday, March 15: The next production to be presented by SFCM Opera began as a Broadway musical inspired by a novella by Voltaire, which composer Leonard Bernstein preferred to call a “comic operetta.” This was Candide, which opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on December 1, 1956, in a production directed by Tyrone Guthrie. The production will be directed by Frederic Wake-Walker, and SFCM Music Director Edwin Outwater will conduct.

SFS: A Disconcerting Evening with Robin Ticciati

Visiting conductor Robin Ticciati (photograph by Benjamin Ealovega, courtesy of SFS)

Conductor Robin Ticciati’s debut with the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) in January of 2023 could not have been more memorable. He coupled a solid account of Gustav Mahler’s fourth symphony in G major in the second half of the program with the SFS premiere of the first violin concerto composed by Jörg Widmann in the first. Last night he returned to Davies Symphony Hall, and the performance could not have been more forgettable.

While he could not previously done a better job of managing the wide dynamic range of Mahler’s symphony, last night’s dynamic range was reduced (with only a few exceptions) to loud and louder. This was particularly evident during the second half of the program, which was devoted entirely to Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Opus 27 (second) symphony in E minor. This provided yet another example of the composer’s fondness for triplet passages. However, it also recalled the anecdote of how the music critic Julius Korngold dismissed the efforts of his composer son Erich Wolfgang Korngold with the injunction, “Don’t bathe!” Particularly in the third (Adagio) movement, Ticciati’s interpretation came across as little more than a bubble bath.

The first half of the program was devoted entirely to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 58 (fourth) piano concerto in G major. The soloist was Francesco Piemontesi, and conductor and soloist came across as made for each other. More often than not, Piemontesi’s fingers approached the keyboard as if they were jackhammers; but his approach seemed to complement Ticciati’s rhetorical evocations of “scowling Beethoven.” Those that take music history seriously tend to agree that Opus 58 was one of Beethoven’s finest efforts, but Ticciati’s partnership with Piemontesi reduced all those efforts to little more than trivia.

Hopefully, things will pick up again when Elim Chan returns to the Davies podium in about two weeks.