Los Angeles Guitar Quartet Visits Herbst Theatre

The members of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (from their San Francisco Performances event page)

Last night in Herbst Theatre, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet made its fourteenth visit to San Francisco Performances. As usual the concert was presented in association with the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts. According to my archives, the quartet last appeared a little less than six years ago, when the members were Scott Tennant, Matt Greif, John Dearman, and Bill Kanengiser. Since that time, Tennant has left the group, replaced by Douglas Lora. In addition, Kanengiser returned to Herbst for a solo recital in July of 2021.

Last night’s repertoire was a broad one, beginning with Johann Sebastian Bach (arranged by Tennant) at one end and Kanengiser at the other. The Bach selection was the final movement of BWV 1048, the third of the Brandenburg Concertos. Kanengiser reflected the spirit of this music with a work entitled “Air & Ground,” clearly focused more on music than on geology! The first half of the program concluded with a “synthesizes suite” of works by three different composers collected under the title Imagens do Brasil. The selections were Paulo Bellinati’s “A Furiosa,” Sergio Assad’s arrangement of “A Lenda do Caboclo,” composed for piano by Heitor Villa-Lobos, and “De Sábado pra Dominguinhos” by Hermeto Pascoal, arranged by Kanengiser.

The program was followed by two encores. The first acknowledged the bossa nova tradition of Sérgio Mendes with a performance of “Mas que nade,” his best-known song. This was followed by an energetic account of the “Hoe-Down” episode that concludes Aaron Copland’s score for the ballet “Rodeo.” These selections could not have been a better reflection on the overall diversity of the program that was prepared.