San Francisco Performances in September

Last year around this time, San Francisco Performances (SFP) released its fall calendar for the 2025–26 season. Only one recital has been planned for next month, but it will be followed by a very busy October. Last year accounted for both months in a single article; but that was because there were only three performances, one in September and two in October. This year there will again be only one performance in September, but October will be far busier. As a result, I shall limit myself to September in this article and later take on the six October events.

Tenor Mark Padmore (from his SFP event page)

The season will begin with the first program in the Art of Song series. As was previously reported, the vocalist will be tenor Mark Padmore, accompanied at the piano by Paul Lewis. I have already noted that Padmore’s last visit was in March of 2022; but, if my records are correct, the last time he was accompanied by Lewis was in April of 2016. That occasion provided a generous offering of songs composed by Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Hugo Wolf.

The duo’s return will focus entirely on Schumann.There will be two full cycles preceded by the first four of the five songs in Opus 40. The texts are all by Hans Christian Andersen, translated from the Danish into German by Adelbert von Chamisso. This will be followed by Liederkreis, the Opus 39 setting of twelve texts by Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff. The final work on the program is likely to be the most familiar to many listeners. This will be the Opus 48 Dichterliebe (a poet’s love), setting texts from Das Buch der Lieder by Heinrich Heine collected under the title Lyrisches Intermezzo.

This performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, September 26.  It will take place in Herbst Theatre, which is located on the first two floors of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue, convenient to public transportation on both Van Ness Avenue and McAllister Street. Ticket prices will be $80 for premium seating on the Orchestra level and in the front of the Dress Circle, $70 for the Boxes, the remainder of the Orchestra, and the remainder of the center Dress Circle, and $60 for the Balcony and the remainder of the Dress Circle. As of this writing, single tickets will not yet go on sale until; August 27. However, readers will know from the preview article for the Art of Song series that a Web page has been created for subscriptions to the entire series.