Collective Band Album off to a Good Start

Cover design of the album being discussed (from its Bandcamp Web page)

INSECT LIFE is a debut album for a collective band whose members are Raffi Garabedian (tenor saxophone), Ben Goldberg (clarinet), Danny Lubin-Laden (trombone), Ben Davis (cello), Gerald Cleaver (drums), and Zachary James Watkins (loops, processing, and sythesis). It was released this past November 7. As of this writing, its Bandcamp Web page accounts for the fact that only four of the CDs in the Limited Edition Digipack of 100 are still available. Fortunately, there is also a Digital Album release, which includes unlimited streaming through an app provided by Bandcamp, as well as downloads in MP3 and FLAC formats.

The album was produced by Zachary James Watkins, who also provides synthesized content consisting of sixteen tracks identified as “Scenes.” The fifth, eight, fourteenth, and last of those tracks are remixes of preceding content. Taken as a whole, this makes for an overall “evolutionary” performance. To be fair, however, I suspect that grasping that evolutionary process will probably require repeated listening to the entire recording. The number of repetitions required of the attentive listener must be left to the listener’s own capacities for awareness!

The sources for those Scenes emerged from weekly collaborative sessions hosted by clarinetist Ben Goldberg. In addition to Garabedian and Watkins, the participants in those sessions were trombonist Danny Lubin-Laden, Ben Davis on cello, and drummer Gerald Cleaver. This clearly not music for the casual listener. One must allow for the individual tracks to etch themselves into memory. Without that prerequisite, even the most attentive listener is unlikely to grasp the content going into the remix tracks.

Personally, I like the idea of an album in which only some of the tracks involve spontaneous improvisation. Those tracks then serve as the “building blocks” for the remix tracks. To be fair, I am still trying to get my own head around the overall “journey” through the album. This is likely to require more multiple listenings than I have yet encountered. Fortunately, I can be patient in these matters. If I can let each of the tracks grow on me in its own way, then I suspect that eventually I shall be able to grasp the overall growth leading to the final (sixteenth) track!

Another DSO Coupling: Bruch and Brahms

Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider playing Bruch’s first violin concerto while leading DSO (screenshot from the livestream being discussed)

Early yesterday evening my wife and I had our latest encounter with a livestream of a performance by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO). The guest conductor was Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, who also served as violin soloist in a performance of Max Bruch’s Opus 26 (first) violin concerto in G minor. The intermission was followed by a performance of Johannes Brahms’ Opus 73, his second symphony in D major. Szeps-Znaider’s encore selection following the Bruch concerto was Jascha Heifetz’ arrangement of Manuel Ponce’s “Estrellita.”

Taken as a whole, it would be fair to say that the entire performance was an engaging “snapshot” of the second half of the nineteenth century. What I appreciated was the contrast of these two compositions from the same period in music history. I have to confess that Opus 73 is my favorite of the four Brahms symphonies with just the right balance of a meticulous structure with an engagingly expressive rhetoric. A sense of kvell always seems to arise during the final measures of that composition. Even on the “small screen,” that disposition, as invoked by Szeps-Znaider’s conducting, could not be suppressed. Sitting in front of the television, I felt the same enthusiasm as those in the audience!

The Bruch concerto, on the other hand, was primarily “about” virtuosity. However, what draws me to this music is that, unlike the dazzling spectacle that one encounters in the concertos of Niccolò Paganini, Bruch gave more attention to the interplay between soloist and ensemble. The virtuosity is still there, but Bruch knew how to allow the orchestral performers have their say. (As usual, this could be appreciated in the camera work.) As a result, the entire program was a model of perfect balance, presenting a thoroughly engaging violinist whose command of the entire ensemble could not have been more convincing.

Terry Riley: Another Ten Trips Around the Sun

Photographs of Sarah Cahill and Terry Riley (courtesy of Jensen Artists)

American composer Terry Riley was born on June 24, 1935. Some readers may recall that pianist Sarah Cahill celebrated his 80th birthday by producing a four-CD album entitled Eighty Trips Around the Sun: Music by and for Terry Riley. The first two discs were devoted entirely to Riley compositions, while the other two documented reflections of composers influenced by him. In “order of appearance,” those composers were: Danny Clay, Gyan Riley (Riley’s son), Samuel Carl Adams, Christine Southworth, Keeril Makan, Elena Ruehr, Dylan Mattingly, and Pauline Oliveros (who was about three years older than Riley).

In a little over two weeks, Cahill will celebrate Riley’s 90th birthday. Riley is still alive, but the advance material I received said nothing about whether he will be present for the occasion. To the best of my knowledge, Cahill will give a solo performance which will probably incorporate Riley selections from Eighty Trips Around the Sun with the works that Adams and Clay composed for that album. The former will be represented by “Shade Studies” and the latter by the three-movement “Circle Songs.”

The performance will take place at the Main Branch of the San Francisco Public Library. It will be held in the Latino Room, which is on the lower level of the building. It will begin at 2 p.m. on Sunday, December 21, and it will be free and open to the public. For those that do not already know, the venue is located in the Civic Center at 100 Larkin Street; and, because this is a “public” library, there will be no charge for admission!

Trio Mediæval Returns to SFP with New Vocalist

Hildegard of Bingen with nuns, possibly leading them in chant (source unknown, public domain, from a Wikimedia Commons Web page)

Last night Trio Mediæval returned to St. Mark’s Lutheran Church to present their latest program of “early” music. The scare quotes are meant to denote that, while there was a significant emphasis on some of the earliest polyphonic compositions, all composed by Hildegard of Bingen, these were interleaved with seven pieces all composed in the 21st century (between 2002 and 2024). To be fair, I was much more familiar with Hildegard’s repertoire than I was with the more recent selections; but I was glad to have a new encounter with Gavin Bryars, whose “Benedicamus domino” concluded the program.

I must confess that, while my interest in music of the Middle Ages (reinforced by both book and record collections) has been with me since my days at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I was delighted with the Bryars selection. He clearly appreciated the mediaeval repertoire and found just the right way to shine a contemporary light on it.  By the same count, however, I have been listening to the Sequentia recordings of the complete works of Hildegard since 2017; but the experience of listening to last night’s performance was as fresh as ever.

The trio itself has changed since I last heard them in April of 2023. Anna Maria Friman is now the only founding member of the ensemble. Jorunn Lovise Husan was the first replacement of the group, joining in 2018. Last night I heard Ditte Marie Bræin performing with the group for the first time. Nevertheless, the spirit of the repertoire was as fresh as ever.

During that previous performance, Friman accompanied a Swedish love song playing a Hardanger fiddle. Last night instrumentation was provided by Kevin C. Devine, alternating between hurdy-gurdy and organetto. He also gave a duo performance with Friman this time playing a viol.

Taken as a whole, last night’s offering was as engaging as its 2023 predecessor. Among other factors, it reminded me of just how rich the musical repertoire of the Middle Ages was. There are clearly many more aspects to explore, and I hope that the Trio Mediæval vocalists will return soon to facilitate the exploration!

An AI Afterthought

Reflecting back on yesterday's thoughts about artificial intelligence (AI), I realize that, in the context of the Computers and Thought anthology that I cited yesterday, those currently claiming to pursue AI no longer seem to care very much about “thought,” because it is easier to invent and play with “bright shiny things!”

“Kindermusik” Album for Father and Son

Having written yesterday about the “Holly, Jolly” spirit of Christmas at the Cadillac Hotel, I would now like to turn to a more secular approach to having fun with making music. The “makers” are probably familiar to most readers, the more familiar being Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He shares a new harmonia mundi album, entitled Kindermusik [children’s music], with his father Leopold. While the overall program is not necessarily a coherent one, it lives up to the advance material I received, describing it as an exploration of “the mischievous world of the Mozarts, father and son.”

By way of disclaimer, I should begin by observing that I first came to know one of the selections on this album in my very early childhood, quite some time before I took my first music lessons. At that time I knew it as the “Toy Symphony,” composed by Joseph Haydn. As I grew older, I learned that it was the composer’s younger brother, Michael Haydn, that was the composer, followed only a little later by the discovery that the symphony’s three movements were previously found in the seven-movement G major cassation by Leopold. Thus, he takes full credit for the music on the new Kindermusik album, to which he also contributes the opening selection, a five-movement suite entitled Die musikalische Schlittenfahrt (a musical sleigh ride).

Each of these compositions is followed by a work by Leopold’s better-known son. The “sleigh ride” suite leads into K. 239, the “Serenata notturna;” and the “program” of the album concludes with the K. 522 “musical joke” (given the title “Ein musikalischer Spaß”). Thus, one may view the entire album as a “ride,” which concludes the journey with a raucous sense of humor. (When I say “raucous,” I single out the cadenza that gives the “last word” in K. 522.)

Cover of the album being discussed (from its Amazon.com Web page)

I must confess that this is the sort of music that is more fun in performance than on recording. Nevertheless, I was delighted to see how nicely the spirit of the music was captured in the design of the album cover. The chaotic array of toys could not be more apposite, while the black cat works his way along the bottom of the album hoping that he will not be blamed for the chaos. Any “secret Santa” that has to provide a gift for a music lover would do well to consider this Kindermusik album as an option!

Sunset Music and Arts: December, 2025

This morning I realized that my “sometime thing” relationship with Sunset Music and Arts meant that I never accounted for any end-of-year seasonal programming in the Sunset last year! Fortunately, yesterday provided me with an account of three programs, all in the Christmas spirit. This information arrived not a moment too soon, since the first of those concerts will be taking place this evening.

As usual, the date and time for each of those events will have a hyperlink to a Web page through which tickets may be purchased. For those not familiar with this concert series, it takes place at the Incarnation Episcopal Church, which is located in the Sunset at 1750 29th Avenue, about halfway between Moraga Street and Noriega Street. General admission for the first two events will be $25 with a $20 rate for seniors and students. Admission to the final performance will be by donation with a suggested amount of $10 per person. Specifics are as follows:

Friday, December 5, 7:30 p.m.: According to my archives, it has been two years since the San Francisco Boys Chorus visited Sunset for a holiday performance. The ensemble is still led by Artistic Director Ian Robertson. He usually prepares a diverse selection of choral compositions, accounting for both the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah and a diversity of Christian offerings.

Vocalist and pianist Matt Mangels, prepared for his seasonal performance (from his Sunset Music and Arts Web page)

Saturday, December 6, 6:30 p.m.: Matt Mangels is a vocalist who accompanies himself at the piano. He will celebrate the Christmas season with a program of original songs and covers. The latter will run a wide gamut from the distant past of “Greensleeves” to the far more contemporary “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer.” Those planning to attend should be prepared for Mangels encouraging the audience to sing with him!

Saturday, December 13, noon: This will be the annual Festival of Lessons and Carols. The Bible readings will account for the fall of humanity, the promise of the Messiah, and the birth of Jesus. A choir directed by Sally Porter Munroe will be accompanied by organist Vaughn Jones. Because this is a church service, there will be no charge for admission; but, as noted above, a donation of $10 per person is highly recommended.

AI Overwhelmed by the “Artificial”

Having previously established that the better part of my career involved artificial intelligence (AI) research, I have to say that I was delighted with today’s appearance on the SFGATE Web site of an article by columnist Drew Magary entitled “The time has come to declare war on AI.” Many of my generation first learned about AI through the book Computers and Thought, edited by Edward A. Feigenbaum and Julian Feldman. It would be fair to say that the “birth” of AI can be attributed to Alan Turing; and the play about him, Breaking the Code (adapted into a film for television), included a scene in which Turing takes his first stab at what it would take to build a “thinking machine.”

Over the last decade, I have encountered “name-dropping” of AI in many more settings than I had encountered during my professional years. At the risk of sounding too brutal, I would guess that none of those name-droppers would be able to grasp any single paragraph that Turing ever wrote (or, for that matter, any single sentence)! Instead, the term itself has devolved into accounting for an abundance of software that may or may not work (assuming that it had a specific objective in the first place).

To put the situation in a somewhat more vivid light, I would draw upon William Shakespeare. Over the last decade, artificial intelligence has been “untimely ripped” from the domain of serious (and sometimes tedious) practices of research and thrust into the mercenary side of development and marketing. Indeed, the questions of whether or not there is any utility value is dwarfed by the number of people that can be convinced to buy.

Personally, I like to remind readers of words by Smedley Butler written in a different context:

WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

When commercial interests promote artificial intelligence with more attention to profits than to achievements, it would be fair to say that their enterprise is just as much of a racket. The thing about rackets, though, is that they create so much noise that signals can no longer be perceived, let alone understood. Perhaps those of my generation are now experiencing the death of artificial intelligence (at least as it was first conceived); and we even know what to put on the tombstone: “Signal Overcome by Noise!”

“Holly, Jolly Christmas” Coming to the Cadillac

Vocalist Kathy Holly (from her Musicians Union Web page)

Last year the Holiday Spirit at the Cadillac Hotel got under way at the end of November. This year’s program, Holly, Jolly Christmas Show will take place a little less than a week before Christmas Eve. Kathy Holly will share vocals with songwriter Tom Stafford, performing with an instrumental combo whose members will be Kevin Fagan (guitar), Sandy Bailey (bass and ukulele), John Steiner (piano), and Bob Blankenship (drums).

As usual, this show will begin at 1 p.m. on Friday, December 19. The Cadillac Hotel is located at 380 Eddy Street, on the northeast corner of Leavenworth Street. The lobby features the Patricia Walkup Memorial Piano, which will be Steiner’s instrument. It is a meticulously restored 1884 Model D Steinway concert grand, whose original soundboard is still intact. All Concerts at the Cadillac events are presented without charge. The purpose of the series is to provide high-quality music to the residents of the hotel and the Tenderloin District; but all are invited to visit the venue that calls itself “The House of Welcome Since 1907.”

Watching a 3D Documentary on Television

Screenshot of a frame from Cunningham showing two contemporary dancers performing Cunningham’s “Summerspace” (from the IMDb Web page for the film)

This afternoon I used my HBO Max service to watch the 2019 documentary Cunningham. By way of disclaimer, I should note that, as a graduate student, I became “hooked” on the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC) as the result of an “accident.” In the summer of 1969, I followed my doctoral thesis advisor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) when he spent the summer at the University of Colorado at Boulder. I served as his teaching assistant, but my principal duty was to take notes for all of his lectures. This was a straightforward undertaking, but it left me with a lot of spare time.

Fortunately, on my first day of personal wandering, I discovered that John Cage was on the campus; and he had put up an announcement for those wishing to attend a “Music and Mushrooms” seminar. Cage, in turn, was the Music Director for MCDC, which was also on the Boulder campus. They were there in preparation for performing in Mexico City. They chose Boulder for its altitude, so they could get their lungs in shape for the higher altitude in Mexico.

Cage’s seminar turned out to be one of driving into the woods and then letting things happen. Since it was a dry summer, very few mushrooms were encountered. However, through Cage, I got to know the other musicians performing with MCDC, David Tudor and Gordon Mumma. I saw two complete (and different) programs performed that summer, and I was hooked. So much so that, when MIT declared January to be a “do whatever pleases you” month for all graduate students, I drove down to New York and watched a full Cunningham season at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

I kept a day-by-day diary of every program that I saw. That then found its way into an article in Ballet Review (Volume iii, issue 3). None of this went down very well with my thesis advisor. However, I was “rescued” through the time I was spending at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, where Marvin Minsky helped me find a way to write a doctoral dissertation that was as much about music as it was about parallel processing (an approach to digital computing which, at that time, was in it infancy).

All of these past experiences came back to me as I watch Cunningham. Even the way in which the film, directed by Alla Kovgan, was sequenced seemed to emerge as its own unique approach to parallel processing! Ironically, the documentary was originally created with 3D technology. While I never had the opportunity to see it that way, I knew enough about the “source material” that my mind could add the “third dimension” to just about everything I saw. Indeed, to be fair, Kovgan’s film used that third dimension relatively sparingly, since the lion’s share of the content involved archival footage, much of which filled me with more nostalgia than I anticipated.

I grant that, for those unfamiliar with the Cunningham choreography in the documentary, the “third dimension” would clarify Cunningham’s own “three dimensional” approach to the dances he created. The good news was that most of those dances were already burned into my memory, thanks to the many performances I was fortunate enough to attend. I just had to substitute the dancers I saw on television with those I remembered from the past performances I had attended and documented! Mind you, I would not pass up an opportunity to experience Kovgan’s 3D intentions; but I would not be surprised if that opportunity never arose!

Violinist Nancy Zhou will Begin New Year at SFCM

Violinist Nancy Zhou and pianist Jeffrey Kahane (from the SFCM Web page for their recital)

The first recitalist to begin the new year with the next Faculty Artist Series at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) will be violinist Nancy Zhou. She will be accompanied at the piano by Jeffrey Kahane. She has prepared an imaginative program reflecting on two different aspects of music history.

The first half of the program will be a Brahms-Schumann coupling, but not the one that most readers will expect! The opening selection will be Johannes Brahms’ Opus 78, his first violin sonata in G major. This will be followed by the second of the three romances (Allegretto) for violin and piano collected by Clara Schumann for her Opus 22. The second half of the program may amount to a “call and response” program. It will begin with the BWV 1016 sonata in E major for violin with keyboard accompaniment by Johann Sebastian Bach. This will be followed by Ferruccio Busoni’s Opus 36a, his second violin sonata in E minor.

This performance will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, January 26. The venue will be the Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall, located near the entrance to the SFCM building at 50 Oak Street, a short walk from the Van Ness Muni station. Tickets may be reserved from the event page for this concert. That Web page also includes a hyperlink for live-stream viewing (and listening).

J’Nai Bridges Cancels SFP Recital

Yesterday San Francisco Performances (SFP) announced that mezzo J’Nai Bridges had cancelled her performance with both pianist Terrence Wilson and the members of the Catalyst Quartet. Some readers may recall that they were scheduled to visit Herbst Theatre on March 19 as part of this season’s SFP Art of Song Series. The reason given for the cancellation was a scheduling conflict.

The options for those holding tickets for this event are the same as those for previous cancellations:

• Apply the value of the tickets towards another single performance in the current season.
• Convert the value of the ticket purchase into a tax-deductible donation to SFP.
• Request a full refund.

Patrons may contact SFP regarding their chosen option either through electronic mail to tickets@sfperformances.org or by telephoning 415-677-0325. For those wishing to phone, SFP business hours are between 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.

Pop Singer Goes After President

 Sabrina Carpenter (photograph by Jordan Strauss: Invision/AP Photo, from the Al Jazeera Web page for the article being discussed)

Apparently, the President has to worry about more than discontent on the Legislative side. Now he has to worry about pop singer Sabrina Carpenter as well. This morning Al Jazeera reported on the bone she has to pick with Donald Trump:

Pop singer Sabrina Carpenter and the publisher of the beloved children’s character Franklin the Turtle have disavowed US President Donald Trump’s administration’s use of their music and imagery to support its agenda.

I would hazard the guess that the concept of “copyright” is not in the President's working vocabulary. Perhaps it is time for the Oath of Office to be updated to include a more specific “RTFI” clause pertaining to the “instructions” specified in the Constitution!

A Profile in Courage

What motivated Ilhan Omar to denounce Donald Trump  (from AlJazeera video)

I fear that there will not be many readers that recognize the source for the above title. Nevertheless, the principle remains, even when many of us fear that is being disabled. The good news is that, while there are few, if any, signs of it in the Executive Branch, there is still hope on the Legislative side:

https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2025/12/3/ilhan-omar-denounces-trumps-degrading-tirade-against-us-somali-community

As my generation used to say, “Keep the faith!” 

Three Programs Remain in Volti’s 47th Season

Some readers may recall that Volti began its latest season about a month ago with its Sound & Transformation program at the Noe Valley Ministry on November 7. This morning’s electronic mail brought an announcement of the remaining three programs, each of which will involve a different partnership. All of the San Francisco performances will take place in the spring as follows:

Composer Chris Castro (from the LCCE Web page for Sound Stories)

Friday, March 20, 7:30 p.m., Noe Valley Ministry: Volti will share a program entitled Sound Stories with the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (LCCE). The program will begin with the world premiere of “Babel,” composed by Chris Castro for narrator and instrumental ensemble. This will be followed by Mark Winges’ “Seasons Falling Through the Clouds.” LCCE will take over the rest of the program beginning with selections from Robert Schumann’s Opus 12 Fantasiestücke, followed by Shaw Okpebholo’s “Fractured Water.” For readers that do not already know, the Noe Valley Ministry is located in Noe Valley at 1021 Sanchez Street.

The second event will be a revival of Path of Miracles, created by Volti in partnership with ODC Dance. This was first performed in Grace Cathedral in February of 2023. A revival has been planned for performance at Saint Joseph’s Art Society, taking place on Tuesday, April 14, Wednesday, April 15, and Thursday, April 16. The venue will be Saint Joseph’s Arts Society at 1401 Howard Street. Unfortunately, no further information is currently available.

Similarly, little information has been provided for the final performance on Saturday, May 9, other than the venue being Herbst Theatre in the Civic Center at 401 Van Ness Avenue, across the street from City Hall. The entire program will be devoted to Angel Island Oratorio, composed by Huang Ruo. Volti will be accompanied by the Del Sol Quartet, and there will be a staged performance by the Oakland Ballet. This will be the last of the three performances in the Dancing Moons Festival presented by Oakland Ballet.

Presumably, further details will be made available in the new year. For those that like to make their plans as soon as possible, earlier will be better than later. Hopefully, those that prefer earlier will be patient!

Keeping up with the “Bleeding Edge”

Some readers may have noticed that no articles were added to this site yesterday. Mind you, my Saturday article accounted for two new albums of performances by Roland Kirk, which provided me with more than enough to keep me occupied; but, since they were to be released on the same day (this coming Friday), I saw no reason to deal with them separately. So, if I took a break on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend, I could feel that it was a “day of rest” well earned!

This morning’s source of inspiration, Samuel Beckett (photograph by Roger Pic, from the Bibliothèque nationale de France, on a Wikimedia Commons Web page, released into the public domain by the photographer)

That rest actually helped “charge” me for this morning. This week’s Bleeding Edge accounted for eleven events distributed over five different venues. Mind you, when I have to account for so much information, I am always glad to have an imaginary Zen monk sitting on my shoulder to remind me of the meaning of “patience!” A more concrete reminder comes from a passage in Samuel Beckett’s Endgame:

Finished, it's finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished. Grain upon grain, one by one, and one day, suddenly, there's a heap, a little heap, the impossible heap.

Fortunately, I can enjoy the fact that my account of the week’s activities did not emerge as an “impossible heap!”

On the other hand, I am struck by the fact that the first half of this month is often the busiest time of the year. Everyone seems to be preparing for a celebration involving a generous amount of preparation. Most of those celebrations involve sacred events, but I suspect that the secular side has at least a few priorities of its own! So the fact that it took me longer than usual to write this morning’s article may just be another instance of why this time of year is so busy. All that really matters to me is that all of this morning’s efforts have led to the desire to take a break for a mid-morning snack!

The Bleeding Edge: 12/1/2025

The last month of the year will get off to a very busy start. Perhaps the evenings will be seen as a welcome time of relief after a hectic day of shopping! All the venues will be familiar to regular readers, and the options are impressively diverse. Details are as follows:

Tuesday, December 2, 8 p.m., The Knockout: DJ George Chen is celebrating his birthday by inviting friends to both perform and share DJ activities. He will alternate with Les Detrimental in spinning post-punk tracks and vinyl goofs. This is one of those gigs whose producer does not seem to care very much about background specifics.

The opening set will be by Magic Penny, whose members are Stanley Lam, Jon Constantino, and Jude. Information about instrumentation is provided for only the last of them, drummer Jude. The second set will be taken by Kevin Corcoran and Jacob Felix Heule, describing themselves as “two guys making scratching and rubbing noises on bass drums.” Boxleitner will take the final set, providing no advance information. The Knockout is located in the Mission at 3223 Mission Street (across from Emmy’s Spaghetti Shack). Admission will be $10.

Wednesday, December 3, and Saturday, December 6, 7:30 p.m., Thursday, December 4, 7 p.m., and Friday, December 5, 8 p.m., Grey Area Art And Technology: This will be the annual festival presented by Recombinant Media Labs, given the title Recombinant Network Editions 2025. Each day will have a different curator presenting a unique program of performers. Gray Area has created a Web page with specifics for each of the programs and a hyperlink for purchasing tickets, including a pass for the entire event. Gray Area is located in the Mission at 2665 Mission Street, between 22nd Street and 23rd Street.

Thursday, December 4, Friday, December 5, and Saturday, December 6, 8 p.m., Audium: 1000 Whispers From Our Future is “an auditory excursion that transcends the confines of our physicality and ascends listeners into the waves of the infinite.” More specifically, it is the result of almost a decade of work by Pat Mesiti-Miller inside California prisons, during which he recorded the sounds of the physical structures of incarceration. Over the course of the performance, listeners will be guided through three realms: The Realm of the Concrete, The Realm of Transcendence, and The Realm of Spirit. For those that do not already know, this performing space has 176 loudspeakers. It is located at 1616 Bush Street, and the price of admission will be twenty and thirty dollars. Doors will open at 7:30 p.m.

Friday, December 5, 6 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: The title of the next jazz gig at this venue will be John Calloway’s Fall to Winter Musings, a reflection on the change of the seasons. John Calloway plays flutes of different sizes, leading a quartet whose other members are pianist Murray Low, Sam Bevan on bass, and drummer Scott Amendola. This is another familiar venue for “bleeding edge” events; but, for those encountering the venue for the first time, it is located in Glen Park at 653 Chenery Street. The cover charge is $20 will a student rate of $10. Younger children will be admitted at no charge. Those wishing to make reservations can call 415-586-3733.

Friday, December 5, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: This will be the next Other Dimensions in Sound performance curated by reed player David Boyce. This week Boyce has been a bit coy about the program, describing it only as “a very special tribute to our friend eyevee.” As always, the venue is the bookstore located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street. There is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book.

Lost Trio musicians Phillip Greenlief, Tom Hassett, and Dan Seamans (from the BayImproviser Web page for their performance this week)

Friday, December 5, 8:30 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: This venue will present a second set, which will be “something completely different.” The performers will be saxophonist Phillip Greenlief, Dan Seamans on bass, and drummer Tom Hassett. They call themselves collectively The Lost Trio. As of this writing, no information about admission has been provided.

Resonance to Release New Roland Kirk Albums

This coming Friday Resonance Records will release two (as P. T. Barnum would have said, “Count them!”) albums of never-before-heard live performances by Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Kirk, who died at the early age of 42 on December 5, 1977, was best known for his skill in playing multiple instruments at the same time, most of them in the wind family. I was teaching computer science at the University of Pennsylvania in those days; but I had become aware of Kirk during my undergraduate years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, when I spent my spare time working at the campus radio station. As a result of those more “serious” commitments, I never had the opportunity to see him “in action.”

Cover of Roland Kirk’s Vibrations in the Village, showing his command of two saxophones (from the Amazon.com Web page for the vinyl release)

The title of the first of the albums is Vibrations in the Village: Live at the Village Gate, and the second is Seek and Listen: Live at the Penthouse. Many readers probably know that the Village Gate was located in New York City (in Greenwich Village, of course!). The Penthouse was a jazz club in Seattle, which was demolished in 1968. (The Village Gate did not close under February of 1994.) The Penthouse was the venue for the Impulse! Records album Live in Seattle, a sextet performance led by John Coltrane on September 20, 1965, which was not issued until 1971.

Both of the new Resonance albums see Kirk playing two saxophones simultaneously. The Seattle album draws upon two different performances on August 12 and 19, 1967, respectively. (This seems to be a more reliable set of dates than those in the Seek and Listen booklet.) Kirk led a quartet with rhythm provided by pianist Rahn Burton, Steve Novosel on bass, and drummer Jimmy Hopps. Vibrations in the Village was recorded on two successive nights, November 26 and 27, 1963. Henry Grimes played bass with Sonny Brown on drums. However, over the course of those two evenings, Kirk was joined by three different pianists: Horace Parlan, Melvin Rhyne, and Jayne Getz (not related to Stan).

Kirk became blind at the age of two. (His Wikipedia page describes this as the “result of improper medical treatment.”) This may have led to his auditory acuity, which, in turn, led to his exploration into playing multiple instruments at the same time. This was definitely not a “stunt.” His command encompassed a prodigious number of wind instruments (not just reeds), leading him to improvisations in which melody, harmony, and counterpoint all collaborated in the service of a rich palette of sonorities.

In consulting my archives, I discovered, a bit to my embarrassment, that I have not written about Kirk since my Examiner.com days. That was in March of 2015, when Kirk’s debut album, Triple Threat, finally found its way to release on compact disc (CD). That album is now coupled with We Free Kings for a single CD release. The Resonance pairing serves up an even more generous encounter with Kirk’s capacity for invention and his imaginative approaches to sonorities.

Alpha to Release Album for Pärt’s 90th Birthday

Estonian composer Arvo Pärt was born on September 11, 1935, meaning that he has now made it to the age of 90 years old. It would probably be fair to say that he first came to public attention when ECM New Series released its first album devoted entirely to his compositions, Tabula Rasa. The album title was also the title of the last of the four works on the album. This was preceded by two different versions of “Fratres,” one for violin and piano (Gidon Kremer and Keith Jarrett) and one for twelve cellos, and the “Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten” for string orchestra and bell (note the singular).

The latest album devoted entirely to Pärt’s music will be released one week from today by Alpha. The title of the album is Credo; and, as is usually the case, Amazon.com has already created a Web page for processing pre-orders. There are ten selections on the album, two of which revisit “Fratres” and “Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten,” respectively. The Estonian Festival Orchestra is conducted by Paavo Järvi. Nine of the ten tracks are instrumental, the one exception begin a setting of the “Credo” bringing together the Estonian National Male Choir, the Ellerhein Girls’ Choir, and the Ellerhein Alumni Choir.

First page of “Silhouette” (from the Web page for this composition)

The sixth of the ten tracks on this new album is a world premiere recording. “Silhouette” is dedicated to both Järvi and the Orchestre de Paris. Appropriately for the “French context,” this piece was given the title “hommage à Gustave Eiffel.” According to the Web page for this piece, Pärt was inspired by a “splendid book of illustrations of the plans and blueprints for the [Eiffel] tower.” I must confess that, after having listened to this track several times, I have yet to see the connection; but over the course of many years of listening to Pärt’s music, I know better than to try to second-guess him!

As far as I am concerned, all that matters is that I was struck by Järvi’s ability to establish the different rhetorical stances that run through this entire album, making it clear to the attentive listener that there is more to those ten tracks than “one thing after another!”

Retreat from Holiday Mania

Thanksgiving Day is now under way, marking the beginning of what I cited this past Monday as “holiday mania.” The good thing about today is that my news track is relatively quiet, particularly where the performing arts are concerned. In the past I have taken advantage of such a situation to reflect on music that I have not encountered for some time, and that seems to be the case today.

Cover of the last of the four Cozzolani albums (from its Bandcamp Web page)

In reviewing my files, I realized that my collection of recordings includes eight CDs accounting for the complete works of Chiara Margarita Cozzolani. Sadly, I wrote about those albums back in my Examiner.com days, meaning that anything I documented is now inaccessible. They were released as four two-CD albums; and I am somewhat disappointed to see that a Google search could only turn up the first two of those albums, available through Bandcamp. (Bandcamp has its own Web page, which accounts for all of the albums.) It goes without saying that I was disappointed that such a prolific female composer should be neglected; but, for all I know, musica omnia, which released the complete set, may have gone out of business! In the immortal words of Kurt Vonnegut, “So it goes!”

The good news is that my own personal listening experience was as drawn to Cozzolani’s compositions as it had been when I first encountered the albums!

Omni Releases Second “Best of Bach” Video

Cover design for the video being discussed, showing the participating guitarists: Ana Vidović, Zuzanna Bonarska, and Sandel Redžić (from the YouTube Web page)

This past March, the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts released a YouTube video of guitarist David Russell performing the four lute suites by Johann Sebastian Bach: BWV 996 in E minor, BWV 997 in C minor, BWV 995 in G minor, and BWV 1006a in E major. The title of the video was Best of Bach. Two days ago, a second “volume” in this Best of Bach series was released. This presented three guitarists, each in a different setting: Ana Vidović, Zuzanna Bonarska, and Sandel Redžić.

The last of the three performances was the lengthiest, consisting of two movements from the BWV 1004 solo violin partita in D minor: Sarabanda and Ciaccona. Most readers probably know that the first of these was much shorter than the second. Thus, while the Sarabanda was less than five minutes, the Ciaccona clocked in at over fifteen.

The latter is particularly challenging, not only for its duration but also for the journey through an extensive number of dispositions, all of which elaborate on a common bass line. Like many, I have been familiar with the music that Bach composed for this movement for some time; and I have enjoyed listening to it in a diversity of settings. That said, I still came away impressed by not only Redžić’s command of technique but also his ability to capture that sense of journey through dispositions.

Nevertheless, while this was a major undertaking, it did not overshadow the efforts of the other two guitarists. Bonarska performed David Russell’s arrangement of what is probably Bach’s most familiar chorale prelude. It first appeared as the fourth movement (“Zion hört die Wächler singen,” “Zion hears the watchman singing”) from the BWV 140 cantata, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (awake, calls the voice to us), which was later transcribed as BWV 645, the first of the six “Schübler” chorales for solo organ. Bonarska’s command of the interplay between the hymn theme and the elaborate accompaniment could not have been clearer or more engaging.

Vidović concluded the opening set with all four movements of the BWV 1001 solo violin sonata in G minor. This was preceded by the first two movements of the BWV 1013 partita in A minor for solo flute: Allemande and Corrente. Since each of the six movements had its own rhetorical structure, the entire set had an overall integrated structure of its own.

Taken as a whole, this “synthesized performance” was definitely a satisfying journey worth taking!

Snapshot 2026 to Showcase Four New Operas

West Edge Opera logo for Snapshot performances

A little over a month ago, West Edge Opera announced the return of the Snapshot program. Readers may recall that this series has served as a showcase for new and developing works with particular attention to West Coast composers and librettists. This season’s program will showcase four operas as follows:

1. Cry, Wolf is a variation on the werewolf narrative with two students at the University of California at Los Angeles as the protagonists. Clare Fuyuko Bierman created the libretto. The music was composed by JL Marlor.
2. Lisa Flanagan wrote the libretto for Threshold of Brightness. The narrative is about the Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad, a woman that defied conventions of expression usually associated with male poets. Niloufar Nourbakhsh composed the score for this controversial story.
3. The Joining is a contemporary reflection on past golem narratives. In this story they serve as artificial companions for the citizens of the Underground, who, in turn, rely on the prosperity of the Overland. The setting amounts to a confrontation between “artificial” and “human” intelligence. Isaac Io Schankler composed the music, working with a libretto by Aiden K. Feltkamp.
4. Case Closed is a “disaster narrative” about an aging local television news reporter and an accidental death; the libretto for that narrative was written by Steven Blum with music set by Martin Rokeach.

Only one performance of this program will be given in San Francisco, beginning at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 1. As in the past, the performance will take place in the Diane and Tad Taube Atrium Theater, which is located on the fourth floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. Tickets will go on sale in January.

Pocket Opera Announces 2026 Season

Pocket Opera seems to have announced its new season earlier than usual. As a result, season subscriptions went on sale this past Saturday, November 22; and single tickets will be available next month, beginning on Saturday, December 13. (Bearing those dates in mind, readers might wish to provide friends and family with season gifts of tickets!)

As in the past, each production will tour to both Mountain View (at the Mountain View Center) and Berkeley (at the Hillside Club). Also as in the past, the performances in San Francisco will take place in the Gunn Theatre on the lower level of the Legion of Honor Museum. There will again be four productions; and a Web page has been created for purchasing full subscriptions as well as those for either three or two productions. All performances will take place on Sunday afternoons beginning at 1:30 p.m. as follows:

• February 22: Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini
• April 26: A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Benjamin Britten
• May 17: Don Pasquale by Gaetano Donizetti (this will be the only performance of the production)
• July 26: La Rondine by Puccini

The Bleeding Edge: 11/24/2025

As we approach the “holiday mania” that spans from Thanksgiving Day to New Year’s Day, things seem to be quieting down on the Bleeding Edge in favor of more traditional pastimes. As a result, there will be only one event this week, which has come to be one of the most reliable “usual suspects.” As many readers might expect, that event is the Other Dimensions in Sound series of performances curated by reed player David Boyce. Perhaps in recognition of all those traditions, this week Boyce will present a solo set of his own.

How Medicine for Nightmares lives up to its name (from the bookstore’s home page)

As always, the performance will take place at Medicine for Nightmares, the bookstore located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street. The performance will begin at 7 p.m. on Friday, November 28. Boyce’s “sonic sustenance” should be provide a welcome recovery from the Thanksgiving Day feast! As usual, there is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book.

SFS Youth Orchestra Off to an Engaging Start

Yesterday afternoon Davies Symphony Hall saw the beginning of the 2025–26 season of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) Youth Orchestra led by Wattis Foundation Music Director Radu Paponiu. The program followed the traditional overture-concerto-symphony structure, with the exception that, for this particular program, each half had its own overture: one for the concerto and one for the symphony. These latter major works were both composed in the nineteenth century, Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 64 violin concerto in E minor prior to the intermission and Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 88 (eighth) symphony as the final offering.

That symphony, completed in 1889, was preceded by its own overture, Johannes Brahms’ Opus 80, the “Academic Festival Overture” composed in the summer of 1880. In the first half of the program, the concerto was preceded by the most recent work on the program, “Kayumari,” completed in 2021 by Gabriela Ortiz. I have to confess that my first impression of the recent work was somewhat mixed. There was an abundance of both energy and fun in Ortiz’ rhetoric, but those high spirits tended to be undermined by too much repetition. At the risk of sounding too old-fashioned, I have to confess that, when it comes to preparing the audience for the music that is to follow, Brahms gave a far more satisfying account than Ortiz did.

On the other hand, all of the nineteenth-century selections were thoroughly engaging. Aaron Ma was the soloist for the Mendelssohn concerto, and his command of the score could not have been better. The same can be said of his interplay with the ensemble passage.

However, the coupling of Brahms with Dvořák was definitely the high point of the afternoon. In that context it is worth recalling that Brahms first became aware of Dvořák when the former served on the jury of an Austrian State Competition in 1874. Brahms was so impressed with Dvořák’s skills as a composer that he recommend Dvořák to his publisher, Nikolaus Simrock, who gave Dvořák a commission that resulted in the Opus 46 Slavonic Dances collection.

As was announced about a month ago, today’s concert was the first of five. The next one will be the annual performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” at 2 p.m. on December 14. The remaining events will take place next year as follows:

• January 18, 3 p.m.: Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival
• March 8, 2 p.m.: Gustav Mahler’s fourth symphony in G major with soprano Hanna Cho as vocalist for the final movement
• May 17, 7:30 p.m.: Two major symphonies: Beethoven’s first (Opus 21 in C major) and Dmitri Shostakovich’s fifth (Opus 47 in D minor)

Chernikoff Returning to Chez Hanny Next Month

Jazz pianist and composer Tim Chernikoff

Some readers may recall that jazz pianist and composer Tim Chernikoff celebrated New Year’s Day by bringing his trio to Jazz Chez Hanny. One week from this coming Saturday, that trio will return for the other “bookend” for 2025. I am happy to report that the members of this trio have not changed. They are still drummer Kenneth Salters and Jakob Dreyer on bass. For those that did not see the announcement of his last appearance, it is worth repeating that his influences “date back to Maurice Ravel and advance through Thelonious Monk and Ornette Coleman to Frank Zappa.”

As many readers probably know by now, Chez Hanny is located at 1300 Silver Avenue; and the performance takes place in the downstairs rumpus room. It will begin at 4 p.m. on Sunday, December 7. Admission will be $25, payable by Zelle sent to jazz@chezhanny.com, check to Jazz Chez Hanny, or cash.

There will be two sets separated by a potluck break. As a result, all who plan to attend should bring food and/or drink to share. Seating is first come, first served, meaning that reservations are strongly recommended. They may be placed through an electronic mail address: jazz@chezhanny.com. Mail messages received after noon on the day of a performance are unlikely to be seen until after the show is over, and cancellations should be given at least 24 hours advance notice. Finally, volunteer efforts for cleaning up after the show and moving furniture to accommodate both players and listeners are always appreciated.

Pepe Romero’s Solo Guitar Recital at Herbst

Many readers probably know by now that last night in Herbst Theatre was originally scheduled to host a performance by the guitar quartet known as The Romeros, presented jointly by San Francisco Performances (SFP) and the OMNI Foundation for the Performing Arts. Unfortunately, the visit had to be cancelled due to a serious illness in the Romero family. As a result, last night hosted a solo performance by one of the quartet’s founding members, Pepe Romero.

The program was richly diverse, accounting for ten different composers, one of whom returned for the encore selection. Two of them were founders of the quartet. The final work on the program was Celedonio Romero’s “Fantasia Cubana,” which required non-standard finger technique. Pepe contributed to the program with a piece entitled “Granadinas.” Celedino also provided two transcriptions of piano compositions. The first of these was the “Andaluza” movement from Enrique Granados’ Danzas Españolas. This was followed by “Granada,” the first of the eight movements in Isaac Albéniz Opus 47, the first of his Suite española compositions.

The first half of the program was shared by Heitor Villa-Lobos and Joaquín Turina. The first composer was represented by the five preludes he composed for solo guitar. The second was “Sevillana,” the first of only five works for solo guitar composed by Turina.

Francisco Tárrega (photographer unknown, from a Wikimedia Commons Web page, public domain)

The encore selection was taken from the works of Francisco Tárrega. It was his “Gran jota Aragonesa.” He had previously appeared near the end of the program with the performance of “Capricho árabe. Taken as a whole, the diversity of the evening was consistently engaging, with Romero providing just the right course through all of that diversity.

CBS: Christmas Music from Three Centuries

Design by David Lance Goins used for the California Bach Society poster

As expected, California Bach Society (CBS) has prepared its next program for the holiday season. The full title of the program will be Laudate Coeli: Songs of Light in Winter’s Deep. (Note that, like the first program of the season last month, the title couples Latin and English!) Artistic Director Nate Widelitz will conduct. The vocal soloists will be soprano Rita Lilly, mezzo Mindy Ella Chu, tenor Corey Head, and bass Chung-Wai Soong. Instrumental accompaniment by strings, organ, and harp will be provided by members of the Jubilate Baroque Orchestra.

The program will be based on three centuries, but they will not be consecutive. The earliest composers will be from the seventeenth century: Dietrich Buxtehude (the BuxWV 13 for mixed chorus, strings, and continuo, “Das neugeborne Kindelein”) and two selections by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, “In nativitatem Domini canticum” (H.314) and one of the ten settings of the Magnificat canticle. The seventeenth century is then elided with two nineteenth-century compositions: the Oratorio de Noël by Camille Saint-Saëns and “O Heiland, reiß die Himmel auf,” the second of the two Opus 74 sacred motets for unaccompanied mixed choir composed by Johannes Brahms. Finally, the twentieth-century composer will be Hugo Distler, whose oratorio Die Weihnachtsgeschichte (the Christmas story) is based on the hymn, “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen”(a rose has sprung up).

The San Francisco performance of this program will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, December 5. The venue will be the Trinity+St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, which is located 1620 Gough Street. Individual tickets are available for general admission at $40 with discounted rates for seniors and students. A Web page has been created for such tickets, as well as for three-concert subscriptions, which will also include the February and May performance at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church. Doors will open at 7 p.m.

Friction to Perform its First Candlelight Concert

The altar of the Episcopal Church of St. Mary the Virgin (from the Fiction Quartet event page for the performance to be held there)

Hopefully, there are readers that are already familiar with the Candlelight Concert Series presented by the Episcopal Church of St. Mary the Virgin, which is located in Cow Hollow at 2325 Union Street. The series takes place on Sunday evenings at 5 p.m. The next offering will be on this coming Sunday (November 23); and it will mark the first time that the Friction Quartet has performed in the Series. There will be no charge for admission.

For those that do not already know, the members of the quartet are violinists Otis Harriel and Kevin Rogers, Mitso Floor on viola, and cellist Doug Machiz. The oldest work on the program will be Jessie Montgomery’s “Strum,” composed in 2006. The most recent will be the first selection, “DIRTWORK” by Michi Wiancko, completed last year. “Strum” will be followed by “Alma,” the title given to Samuel Carl Adams’ third string quartet. The program will then conclude with an assortment of folk songs arranged by the Danish String Quartet.

Pepe Romero to Perform Solo Tomorrow

Due to an illness in the Romero family, tomorrow’s guitar recital, presented jointly by San Francisco Performances (SFP) and the OMNI Foundation for the Performing Arts, will be a solo performance. Pepe Romero will be the soloist. As of this writing, the program has not been finalized; but it will include works by Enrique Granados, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Francisco Tárrega, Isaac Albéniz, and others.

Pepe Romero giving a solo recital in 2000 (photograph by Hans Bernard, from a Wikimedia Commons Web page, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)

The program will still begin at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 22. Ticket prices remain $85, $75, and $65. They are still available online through the SFP Web page. (The program on that Web page has not yet been updated.) They may also be purchased by calling 415-392-2545. They will also be available at the door along with 50% off student rush tickets and 20% off senior rush tickets. Those currently holding tickets but do not wish to attend the performance have several options:

• The tickets may be exchanged for any future performance in the 2025–26 season, and all exchange fees will be waived for the transaction.
• Those who wish, can donate the ticket(s) and claim a tax deduction for the total ticket value.
• The ticket(s) can be exchanged for a cash refund.

Contemporary Reflections on Music of the Past

Alexi Kenney with his violin (from the SFS Web page for the concert being discussed)

Yesterday afternoon violinist Alexi Kenney returned to Davies Symphony Hall to lead the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) on an adventurous journey of music from the past given interpretations from the immediate present. Most of the program was devoted to the two leading composers of instrumental music in the eighteenth century, Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi. These were preceded by a brief venture into the seventeenth century with Kenney leading his own arrangement of music by Barbara Strozzi. The only recent composition on the program was the opener, the second nonet that Olli Mustonen composed for strings.

The second half of the program was devoted to some of the most familiar works by Vivaldi. This was The Four Seasons, the first four violin concertos from the twelve collected in Opus 8, given the overall title Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (the contest between harmony and invention). Whether or not these pieces should be viewed as a “contest” can be left to the reader to decide; but the performance of this familiar music was as dynamic as I had ever encountered.

More importantly, while Kenney had to deal with most of the solo work while leading the ensemble, he was not shy in sharing the spotlight, so to speak. I was particularly interested in the generous amount of duo work he performed with Anne Richardson, Associate Principal of the cello section. More frustrating was the rich continuo work by a musician alternating between theorbo and period guitar, much of which was subdued but engaging improvisation. Sadly, that performer was never identified! Nevertheless, the chemistry of Kenney and the SFS ensemble significantly outweighed any of the annoyances.

The Bach selection was BWV 1050, the fifth of the six compositions usually given the title “Brandenburg Concerto.” Kenny led as violin soloist performing with Principal Flute Yubeen Kim and Jonathan Dimmock on harpsichord. Because I know this music so well, I have to confess that there were some significant balance problems, primarily because the resources of the harpsichord were too limited to take on both the soloists and the accompanying string ensemble. This was more than a pity since Dimmock’s solo work was as engaging as the contributions from the other two musicians.

The program began with two SFS debut performances. The Bach concerto was preceded by “Che si può fare,” the sixth of the compositions in Barbara Strozzi’s Opus 8 collection of twelve diverse compositions: five cantatas, six arias, and one serenata. Kenney provided his own instrumental arrangement of one of the arias. The full resources of the string section began the program with a three-movement nonet composed by Olli Mustonen. This was originally composed in 2000 for two string quartets and bass, but the composer himself provided the revised version for full string orchestra. I must confess that this music made little impression on “first contact;” but, to be fair, Mustonen was competing with three highly adventurous composers from the past!

Nevertheless, Mustonen’s nonet did get the “little grey cells” going in attending to the act of listening. If it provided a “warm-up” for music from two earlier centuries, then at least it served a purpose! The deeper impression of the afternoon, however, was how Kenney could take so much familiar Bach and Vivaldi and turn out a thoroughly refreshing experience!

Gay Men’s Chorus: Two Seasonal Programs

This year the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus (SFGMC), led by Artistic Director Jake Stensberg, will present two different seasonal programs next month. The chorus has 300 members, and they will be accompanied by an eight-piece band. The first of the programs will be Holiday Spectacular, the annual seasonal event that is taken on tour. In addition, there will be a “Special Christmas Eve Edition,” which will wrap up performances for the calendar year.

The Holiday Spectacular tour will begin In San Francisco, where it will be given three performances. There will be evening performances at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, December 12, and Saturday, December 13, as well as a Saturday matinee beginning at 1 p.m. This year the event will take place in the Golden Gate Theatre at 1 Taylor Street, where it intersects with both Golden Gate Avenue and Market Street. Ticket prices will begin at $35. A single Web page has been created with three hyperlinks, one for each of the events; and readers should be informed that, as of this writing, availability is low for all of them!

The City Box Office banner for the SFGMC Christmas Eve concert

Davies Symphony Hall will host the Christmas Eve performance, entitled Home for the Holidays. There will be two performances on that day, beginning at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Ticket prices will begin at $30, and there will be a 20% discount for those purchasing ten or more. This program will not be presented by the San Francisco Symphony. Rather, it is being handled by City Box Office, which has created a Web page with hyperlinks for purchasing tickets to each of those performances.

Is the Balanchine Legacy Going Stale?

During my graduate student years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I would take breaks by going down to New York to see performances by the New York City Ballet. This was back in the days when George Balanchine was still in charge, and I was consistently hooked on the ways that he could take concert music as repurpose it for his choreography. He had a particular interest in the Baroque period; and, while the  performance of the music coming out of the orchestra pit was seldom (if ever) “historically informed,” the choreography always seemed to find the right imaginative structures to go with compositions by the likes of Johann Sebastian Bach, Arcangelo Corelli, and Antonio Vivaldi.

Indeed, the last two of them provided the source material for one of Balanchine’s most interesting undertakings, “Square Dance.” The choreography was set to a collection of movements extracted from their compositions. In Balanchine’s New Complete Stories of the Great Ballets, the author observed that the music “was of course derived from old folk dance forms and rhythms that were later refined for the courts of Europe.”

That said, it is worth noting that, when “Square Dance” was first performed, the staging could not have been more literal. While the structure of the choreography may have been organized around Baroque music, Balanchine recruited Elisha C. Keeler, described in Complete Stories as “the famous square dance caller,” to call the steps drawing upon the texts he would invoke for any other square dance. Sadly, by the time I had an opportunity to see this piece performed, Keeler was no longer a participant. Mind you, I took that adverb in the last sentence very seriously because a square dance really is not a square dance without a caller!

An example of the “geometric” choreography of “Concerto Barocco” (photograph by Ewa Krasucka, from a Wikimedia Commons Web page, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license)

In other words, “Square Dance” is now just another ballet in which the performers dance to Baroque music. Put another way, it is little more than a revamping of one of Balanchine’s earliest creations, “Concerto Barocco.” True to its title, that earlier ballet was set to Bach’s BWV 1043 concerto for two violins and strings in D minor. It would be fair to say that just about any serious music lover knows this concerto, and I suspect that this would also have been the case when music lovers in the audience saw “Concerto Barocco” for the first time. As it is now performed, “Square Dance” is basically “‘Concerto Barocco’ redux;” and to be quite frank personally, I am much happier with choreography that follows a single coherent composition, rather than one that is a pastiche of multiple movements from multiple composers!

Vocalist ganavya to Give Second Performance

Vocalist ganavya (from the Noe Music Web page for tickets to her recital)

The Noe Music recital by vocalist ganavya, scheduled for 8 p.m. this coming Friday, has become a sold-out event. As a result, she will give an earlier performance, at the same venue, which will begin at 5:30 p.m. Some readers may recall that she will be leading a trio, accompanied by Charles Overton on harp and bassist Max Ridley, and her repertoire encompasses South Indian classical traditions, jazz, and devotional song. Reserved seating will be $60; and first-come-first-serve general admission prices will be between $15 and $45. Noe Music has created a Web page for on-line ticket purchases.