SF Civic Music: November, 2025

I only learned about the San Francisco Civic Music Association (SFCMA) late yesterday afternoon. This organization has a two-fold mission: “We provide a place for musicians of all skill levels and experiences to play together, and we provide free live concerts to the general community.” Where the latter is concerned, next month will see three of those concerts, all taking place at 3 p.m. on weekends. There is no charge for admission, but donations between $10 and $20 per person will be “gratefully accepted!” The specific dates and the music to be performed will be as follows:

Sunday, November 2: The full ensemble of the SF Civic Symphony will present a program entitled Spinning Stories. The program will serve as a bridge between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Robert Schumann’s Opus 97, his symphony in E-flat major given the title “Rhenish.” The “overture” for the program will be Richard Strauss’ Opus 20 tone poem “Don Juan.” Soprano Madison Hatten will then be the vocalist for Maurice Ravel’s song cycle Shéhérazade. The conductor will be Paul Schrage. The performance will take place in Herbst Theater, located at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street.

Saturday, November 8: This will be an afternoon of chamber music. Each of the four selections will have its own unique set of performers. The first half of the program will couple Joseph Haydn with Johannes Brahms (who composed his own set of variations on one of Haydn’s themes, sometimes referred to as the “Saint Anthony Variations”). The program will begin with the first of Haydn’s six Opus 76 quartets (Hoboken III:75), composed in the key of G major. This will be followed by the second of Brahms’ two Opus 120 sonatas for clarinet and piano in E-flat major.

The second half of the program will begin with a less familiar composer, Italian-born Gaetano Brunetti, who was active in Spain during the reigns of kings Charles III and Charles IV. His music was cataloged by Germán Labrador, and the work to be performed will be L. 274, his second sextet in F major scored for oboe, two violin, two violas, and cello. The program will then conclude with Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 80, his sixth string quartet, composed in the key of F minor. The venue will be the Noe Valley Ministry, which is located at 1021 Sanchez Street, just north of 24th Street. Sanchez is two blocks to the west of the trolley stop at 24th and Church Street.

1825 portrait on Anton Reicha by “Counis” (from the Gallica Digital Library, public domain, from Wikimedia Commons)

Sunday, November 16: The Mozart to Mendelssohn orchestra will be joined by Chora Nova, based in Berkeley and directed by John Kendall Bailey. The program will begin with two works by Ludwig van Beethoven, the Opus 112 cantata setting two poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe under the title Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt (calm sea and prosperous voyage) and the shorter Opus 118 “Elegischer Gesang” (elegiac song), setting a text by Johann Christoph Friedrich Haug form his poem “Bey der Kunde von Jacobi's Tod.” In the second half of the program, these two Beethoven selections will be paired with two works by Felix Mendelssohn. The first will be the single-movement cantata “Verleih uns Frieden” (grant us peace), followed by the Opus 27 concert overture, “Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage,” inspired by Beethoven’s cantata. The program will conclude with Anton Reicha’s “Te Deum” setting, composed in 1825 for chorus, organ, and orchestra. This performance will also take place in Herbst Theatre.