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.