April to Conclude with Another Busy Weekend

April is turning out to be such a busy month that it was necessary to provide separate articles for Saturday and Sunday of next weekend. On the following weekend the month will conclude with busy days on Friday and Saturday. One of the events was already reported at the beginning of this month: the performance of The Days Pass Quickly Immersed int he Shadow of Eternity, composed by Lea Bertucci for sampled and live early flutes in 8-channel sound. As usual, there will involve a diversity of other performances at a diversity of venues. As of this writing, specifics are as follows:

Friday, April 24, and Saturday, April 25, 7:30 p.m., St. Ignatius Church: The San Francisco Choral Society, led by Artistic Director Robert Geary, is preparing for a new work by the Ukrainian composer Oleksandr Shchetynsky entitled Signs of Grace. The performance will be preceded by more familiar sacred music from Eastern Europe, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Opus 37, the “All-Night Vigil,” setting fifteen texts from the Russian Orthodox ceremony. Tickets are being sold by City Box Office at prices from $40 to $65 with discounts for seniors, students, and those under the age of 30. Tickets may be purchased online, and City Box Office has created separate Web pages for Friday and Saturday. In addition, the Saturday performance will be livestreamed with digital tickets sold for $40. The church is located on the campus of the University of San Francisco at 650 Parker Avenue, on the northeast corner of Fulton Street.

Friday, April 24, 7:30 p.m., Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall, San Francisco Conservatory of Music: The next Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts program is entitled A to Z Guitar Duo. That title refers to two of the most commanding guitarists currently in Europe, Aniello Desiderio and Zoran Dukić. Program details have not yet been announced. General admission will be $70. Tickets may be purchased through a Humanitix Web page. The Concert Hall is located in the Conservatory building at 50 Oak Street.

Friday, April 24, Saturday, April 25, Friday, May 1, and Saturday, May 2, 8 p.m., Saturday, April 25, Sunday, April 26, Saturday, May 2, and Sunday, May 3, 2 p.m., and Tuesday, April 28, Wednesday, April 29, and Thursday, April 30, 7:30 p.m., War Memorial Opera House: Mere Mortals is a full-evening ballet created by choreographer Aszure Barton. The narrative amounts to a technology perspective on the Pandora myth. This will be the return of a ballet originally commissioned for the inaugural season of Artistic Director Tamar Rojo. A single Web page has been created for ticket purchases. As many (most?) readers know, this venue is located on the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and Grove Street.

1971 photograph of Astor Piazzolla with his bandoneon (from a Wikimedia Commons Web page, copyright by Pupeto Mastropasqua)

Saturday, April 25, 2 p.m., Presidio Theatre: The New Century Chamber Orchestra will conclude its season with a program entitled Radiance in Rhythm. The guest soloist will be guitarist Pablo Sáinz-Villegas, who will be the soloist in the final selection, the “Concierto de Aranjuez” composed by Joaquín Rodrigo. Sáinz-Villegas will also perform Michael Daugherty’s “Bay of Pigs,” a reflection on a darker period in the past history of our country. There will also be a world premiere performance of “Blues Variations,” composed by Henry Dorn on a New Century commission as part of the Emerging Black Composers Project. The other composers on the program will be Astor Piazzolla (“Fuga y misterio”) and Alberto Williams (“Primera Suite Argentina”). As usual, Daniel Hope will serve as both music director and concertmaster. The venue is located in the Presidio of San Francisco on the south side of the Golden Gate and the bridge that crosses it. City Box Office has created a Web page for online ticket purchases.

A Northern Lights Festival in Detroit

Yesterday evening the Detroit Symphony Orchestra presented its latest live-streamed performance. Once again, due to the shift in time zones, my wife and I settled down to dinner while viewing the concert through the YouTube app on our living room television set. The title of the program was Northern Lights Festival, presenting three Scandinavian composers. The ensemble was led by Principal Guest Conductor Tabita Berglund.

The first of those composers was Einojuhani Rautavaara. “Cantus Arcticus” is also known as “Concerto for Birds and Orchestra,” since the full forces of the orchestral ensemble are augmented with recordings of birdsong. (The composer’s source was the sound-effects collection of Finnish Radio.) There was no questioning the uniqueness of sonorities in the interplay of the birdsongs with the instrumental sonorities. Nevertheless, it did not take the composer long for establishing that interplay in the mind of the attentive listener. After that, the composition began to overstay its welcome for a duration that gradually became intolerable.

Johan Dalene, violin soloist for the performance of the Sibelius violin concerto conducted by Tabita Berglund (screen shot from last night’s YouTube’s video feed of the performance)

Fortunately, the composer Jean Sibelius (who died in 1957 at the ripe old age of 91) had a much better command when it came to sustaining attention. His D minor violin concerto was completed in 1904 with subsequent revisions in 1905. The music is particularly demanding on the soloist, but Johan Dalene brought a freshness to this music that has received a lot of attention from a lot of violinists.

The second half of the program was devoted entirely to music that Edvard Grieg composed for Henrik Ibsen’s verse-play Peer Gynt. The play is in five acts, and Grieg’s original score consisted of 26 movements. Berglund began with the prelude music for the first act, given the title “At the Wedding.” This was followed by the two suites extracted from the full score, played in reverse order with the four movements of Opus 55 preceding the four in Opus 46. For many, this meant that the final selection was the most familiar.

The United States is a significant distance from Scandinavia, but yesterday’s live-streamed performance definitely established a “meeting of two worlds!”

Signum Revives Martines Keyboard Repertoire

Marianna Martines (portrait painting by Anton von Maron, a pupil of Pietro Metastasio, photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art, from Wikimedia Commons)

Signum Classics (also known as Signum Records) has made a name for itself in providing releases of “previously un-heard music” (quotation from their Web page). This Friday will see the release of an album on which not only the music selections but also the composer are likely to be unfamiliar to most listeners. The neglected composer is Marianna Martines, who is known (by those that know anything at all of her biography) for having been a favorite four-hands partner for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The new album has a cover that claims to account for Martines’ complete keyboard works. The release consists of two CDs, the first of which presents all four of her keyboard concertos. The second CD then presents three solo keyboard sonatas followed by a single instrumental sinfonia. The pianist on the album is Idith Meshulam Korman, and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey.

This is the sort of release that is likely to find its way into listening parties. Whoever is in charge has the honor of playing a track from the album and then asking everyone else, “Who composed this?” My guess is that anyone quick enough to reply with Martines’ name is someone with close ties to Signum!

To be fair, I have now listened to this album several times; and the experience has been consistently engaging. There are even a few “gestural surprises” that spring up every now and then. If Spock were as serious about listening to classical music as I am, I suspect that his eyebrow might get raised more times than I could count!

Nevertheless, I feel it is more important that individual compositions find their way into the repertoire of ensembles that have established faithful audiences. Here in San Francisco, that would mean the San Francisco Symphony; but, given the historical context, I suspect that the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra would be just as worthy of the undertaking. I dare not speculate on how this music will be received on the “other coast” or in other major cities for concert music, such as Chicago and Cleveland. All that really matters, however, is that I shall have to find space for a new plant in my garden!

PBO to Close Season with “Kinks and Quirks”

Conductor Shunske Sato (photograph by Elvira Demerdzhy, courtesy of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra)

The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra will conclude its 2025/26 season with a program entitled Kinks and Quirks. Violinist Shunske Sato will lead the ensemble, also serving as soloist in the performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s D minor concerto. Note that this is not the Opus 64 concerto in E minor, completed in 1844. The D minor concerto was composed in 1822 when the composer was thirteen years old!

The remaining works on the program will be more “mature.” It will begin with the third (in the key of F major) of four symphonies that Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach composed for the Baron Gottfried van Sweiten in the 1770s. This will be followed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 345, incidental music composed for Thamos, King of Egypt, a play by Tobias Philipp von Gebler. The program will conclude with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 21, his first symphony, composed in the key of C major following his study of Emanuel Bach’s An Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments.

As usual, the San Francisco performance will take place in Herbst Theater, located at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 23. Ticket prices range from $20 to $125. They may be purchased through a City Box Office Web page, which includes a diagram showing where seats are still available.

Engaging Coupling of Beethoven and Schubert

Richard Goode at the keyboard (photograph by Steve Riskind, courtesy of San Francisco Performances)

Yesterday evening pianist Richard Goode returned to Herbst Theatre to present his eighteenth recital for San Francisco Performances. (He made his first visit in October of 1985.) His program consisted of only two compositions, one on either side of the intermission. Both pieces were the products of First Viennese School composers. The first half of the program presented music from Ludwig van Beethoven’s late period, his Opus 120, entitled “33 Variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli.” The intermission was followed by Franz Schubert’s final piano sonata, D. 960 in B-flat major.

I know from personal experience that D. 960 is a significant undertaking. I put a lot of effort into getting my hands around those four movements. It would be unfair to say that I eventually could do justice to Schubert’s score, but I definitely came away with significantly increased respect for the composer! The sonata is one of the composer’s longest works, and I did not feel short-changed when Goode decided not to enable the repeat sign in the sonata’s first movement. Even in the absence of that repetition, he delivered a thoroughly engaging account of the diverse and adventurous journey through the four movements of Schubert’s sonata.

The title of Beethoven’s Opus 120 also makes it clear that any performance involves a major journey. I suspect that there are many that have tried to establish an architectural framework for those 33 variations, but I am not one of them! Personally, I find that the variations unfold in what might be called a musical form of stream-of-consciousness. One step follows another, each as sure as the next; and the listener is left to revel in the diversity of it all. (That diversity includes a prankish nod to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, working in a motif from beginning of the opera Don Giovanni.)

Goode’s focus could not have been more attentive in interpreting these two “late works.” Indeed, his attention was so focused that he saw no need for an encore. Personally, I agree with his decision. After two such major undertakings, one does not need a “That’s all folks!” sign-off. Better to let the memories of Beethoven and Schubert reverberate as one leaves the auditorium to head back home.

Music in the Mishkan Concluding 27th Season

Alexander Malinas, a former recipient (in June of 2024) of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) Highsmith Competition for Orchestra Composition (from an SFCM Web page)

Some readers may recall that only two performances were planned for the 27th season of chamber music presented by Music in the Mishkan. The program for the second program in the season was planned by violinist Randall Weiss. He will perform with violist Dmitri Yevstifeev, Victoria Ehrlich on cello, and pianist Amy Zanrosso for piano quartets that will both begin and conclude the program. The opening selection will be one of the best-known of those quartets, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 478 in G minor. The conclusion will be less familiar, Camille Saint-Saëns’ Opus 41 piano quartet in B-flat major. Between these “bookends” Weiss, Ehrlich, and Zanrosso will present the world premiere performance of Alexander Malinas’ “VaYeira,” composed for piano trio. This will subsequently be the first work to be presented in the composer’s Senior Recital at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, which will take place at the end of this month at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 25.

As usual, the performance will begin at 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 12. The venue will be the Sha’ar Zahav synagogue, which is located in the Mission at 290 Dolores Street. Ticket prices are $30 for members and $35 for others. There will be no physical tickets, but a list will be kept at the door. A Web page has been created for payment to register for attendance. Electronic mail will be sent to confirm registration; it will include a Zoom hyperlink for those preferring to watch at home.

Berliner Barock Solisten Record Kirnberger

Reinhard Goebel on the cover of his new album

Some readers may recall that, for quite some time, I have been able to draw upon the resources of Naxos of America to discover both album labels and performers previously unknown to me. My latest discovery this week has been that of Reinhard Goebel, who, at the end of last year, released an album for hänssler CLASSIC of the eight sinfonias composed by Johann Kirnberger. This composer was born on April 23, 1721, and died on July 27, 1783, meaning that he lived through the transition from the “baroque” period to the “classical.”

Johann Sebastian Bach was an early influence on Kirnberger, the former having given lessons in composition to the latter between 1739 and 1741. Those lessons included Bach’s chorale settings, and Kirnberger published 24 of them (BWV 690–713). Nevertheless, his own efforts owe more to that composer’s sons, particularly Carl Philipp Emanuel, than to their father.

The conductor on this new release is Reinhard Goebel, who founded the Musica Antiqua Köln in 1973. On this album he conducts the Berlin Baroque Soloists, which he has been leading since 2018. The ensemble consists primarily of strings, but six of the sinfonias include parts for two horns. In addition, two flutes contribute to the last of the eight sinfonias. This allows for at least a modest diversity in sonorities well-balanced by both composer Kirnberger and conductor Goebel.

The entire album is slightly more than an hour in duration and is likely to make for an engaging journey of discovery for most listeners.

When “Cool” AI Software May Be High-Risk

Photograph of home page for Anthropic’s Claude (photograph by Dado Ruvić, courtesy of Reuters)

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/10/us-summoned-bank-bosses-to-discuss-cyber-risks-posed-by-anthropic-latest-ai-model

Bernard Labadie Shifts from Mozart to Bach

Conductor Bernard Labadie (photograph by Winnie Au, courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony)

Conductor Bernard Labadie made his debut with the San Francisco Symphony in 2005 and has been making regular visits since then. His most recent visit took place in November of 2024, when he presented a program devoted entirely to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This week he prepared another single-composer program, this time surveying the sacred music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach.

The program began and concluded with two significant choral compositions. The program began with a slightly belated account of BWV 249, the Easter Oratorio. This is one of Bach’s less familiar compositions, and last night’s performance was the first ever given by SFS. (It is also significantly shorter than many of the more familiar major sacred music compositions.) The concluding selection was the BWV 243 setting of the “Magnificat” canticle. Labadie provided this performance with an “overture” in the form of the opening sinfonia for BWV 29, the cantata Wir danken dir, Gott. Unless I am mistaken, this was the first time that Labadie prepared a program of sacred music since April of 2008, when he presented two choral compositions by Joseph Haydn.

Last night saw a solid account of all three of the selections. Labadie charted just the right course through the many diverse dispositions that Bach brought to his sacred music. He devoted equal attention to the instrumentalists, the vocal soloists, and the chorus, all of whom seemed to be perfectly satisfied in following his lead. The soloists were soprano Joélle Harvey, countertenor Hugh Cutting, tenor Andrew Haji, and baritone Joshua Hopkins. It may seem a bit “out of touch” to refer to a performance of sacred music as “refreshing;” but it was that aspect of Labadie’s rhetorical stance that made the listening experience engaging from start to finish. Sacred music can do justice to liturgical passages without being somber about them, and that was precisely how Labadie approached Bach’s music last night.

Volti to Visit San Francisco State … Tonight!

Portrait of the Volti vocalists photographed on the altar of the Noe Valley Ministry (courtesy of San Francisco State)

There is nothing quite like receiving a last-minute announcement for the day before it is even 6 AM. However, that is exactly what happened this morning when the Morrison Chamber Music Center at San Francisco State University announced that it would be hosting the Volti vocal ensemble, led by its Artistic Director Robert Geary, this evening. On the basis of the material that was available to me, it appears that only one composition will be performed. This will be Jody Talbot’s “Path of Miracles,” which has a duration slightly longer than an hour.

This will be the latest event in Morrison’s LCA Live series, which is supported by the College of Liberal & Creative Arts. As usual, the performance will take place at Knuth Hall, which is in the Creative Arts Building on the SFSU campus, north of Holloway Avenue and to the west of 19th Avenue (which is accessible to public transportation). There will be no charge for admission. However, tickets are recommended, and a Web page has been created for acquiring them. The performance will begin at 7 p.m. this evening, April 9.

The View from the “Other Side”

During my morning review of feeds through The Old Reader, I realized that none of my sources in my “World News” category came from the United States. Two of them come from the United Kingdom (BBC and The Guardian); and the other is Al Jazeera, whose news I try to watch once a day, even if the only way I can do so is through YouTube. As might be guessed, Al Jazeera has its own take on how our country’s policies guided by our President are evolving.

Woman walking past a mural in Tehran protesting the United States military forces (from an Al Jazeera Web page)

This morning that take was captured in the following headline: “Trump says US forces to stay near Iran, ready for ‘next conquest.’” As of this writing, there is a ceasefire between our country and Iran, which, ironically, was brokered by Pakistan. Regardless of who was doing what, I felt I could breathe easier knowing that I would not be reading news of further hostilities. Nevertheless, I still had misgivings, first with the noun “conquest” and then after reading the following paragraph in the article with the aforementioned headline:

Yet Trump’s language underscored how quickly the truce could unravel. He reiterated US demands that Iran abandon any nuclear weapons ambitions and ensure safe passage through the vital shipping lane, while boasting that US forces were “Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest”.

The Guardian is having a say of its own in this matter. This morning ran an article about George Clooney giving a speech to 3,000 high school students in Cuneo, Italy. (Mind you, this setting allows Donald Trump to accuse Clooney of being un-American!) Here is what Clooney had to say:

Families are losing their loved ones. Children have been incinerated. The world’s economy is on a knife’s edge. This is a time for vigorous debate at the highest levels. Not for infantile name calling. I’ll start. A war crime is alleged ‘when there is intent to physically destroy a nation,’ as defined by the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute. What is the administration’s defense? 

This November’s election will have an impact on the membership in both houses of the Congress. I see this as a “litmus test” to measure how many voting citizens in the United States are willing to push back on Trump’s approach to foreign relations. My greatest concern is that this may be too long of a wait!

Center for New Music: April, 2026

Once again there has been a lapse in keeping up with monthly accounts of events at the Center for New Music (C4NM). The good news is that this will be a busy month, which C4NM has decided to name “Astonishing April.” Over the course of the month, there will be four events, one of which will be (of course) the monthly G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|N|O|I|S|E|P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S offering. As most readers probably know by now, the venue is located at 55 Taylor Street, half a block north of the Golden Gate Theater, which is where Golden Gate Avenue meets Market Street. Each of the dates below is hyperlinked to an event page through which tickets may be purchased as follows:

The Departure Duo of Edward Kass and Nina Guo from the poster for their visit to C4NM this month

Friday, April 10, 7:30 p.m.: As was reported in yesterday’s Bleeding Edge article, the month will begin with “a radical program of new works for soprano [Nina Guo] and double bass [Edward Kass],” whose performers call themselves the Departure Duo.

Saturday, April 25, noon: This will be the monthly G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|N|O|I|S|E|P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S performance. As is usually the case, there will be five sets with at least some of the titles guaranteed to raise eyebrows:

1. Elaine Carey
2. Eric Glick Rieman
3. Flue (Bill Hsu, Matt Endahl, and Mike Khoury)
4. Mystic Commandos
5. Imprint Design

The last of these will be visiting from Los Angeles. Also as is usually the case, general admission will be $10 with a $6 rate for C4NM members and students.

Saturday, April 25, 5:30 p.m.: Walking the Path of the Dream Masters will be a three-set program. The opening set will be a solo performance by Mathew Creer, who performs under the name Perpendiculous. He creates, in his words (presumably), “unrepentant modern soundscapes that are based in micro tonal [sic] tuning for rhythm and pitch.” The second set will be taken by xtra.dae, described as “the nonbinary alter ego of Daeun Maroon Hwang, who is premiering an experimental performance piece that tunnels through memories and mutates it into a dream.” The final set will see the debut of Golden Dream Vulture, which is the duo of nonbinary artists Mathew Creer and Laura Cohen.

Sunday, April 26, 2 p.m.: This will be the next performance to be presented by the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the National Association of Composers/USA (NACUSA/SF). Program details are not as specific as they were last year, but they will feature solo and ensemble music for voice, strings, winds, guitar, piano, and electronics by Alden Jenks, Ariel Wang, Davide Verotta, Harrison Jones, James W. Cook, Jean-Paul Perotte, John Bilotta, Kyle Hovatter, Monica Chew, and Robert Fleisher. Admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for members and students.

SFP’s 2026 Subscriber Gift Concert

Mezzo Nikola Printz (photograph by Destiny Grace, courtesy of SFP)

Last night in Herbst Theatre, San Francisco Performances (SFP) presented its annual Gift Concert. For those that do not already know, the “gift” is that subscribers and donors are entitled to tickets at no charge. The performers were the Catalyst Quartet, whose violinists, Karla Donehew Perez and Abi Fayette, alternate in occupying first chair. The other members of the quartet are Paul Laraia on viola and cellist Karlos Rodriguez. The ensemble has been visiting SFP since March of 2018, and last night was their ninth appearance. In the second half of the program, they were joined by mezzo Nikola Printz, along with Terrence Wilson on piano.

The program began with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Opus 5, a set of five “Fantasiestücke” (fantasy pieces) composed for string quartet. Born in London, he entered the Royal College of Music at the early age of fifteen, studying under Charles Villiers Stanford. Early in his career he attracted the support of Edward Elgar, who commissioned a composition for the Three Choirs Festival. His other major support came from Antonín Dvořák. Nevertheless, each of the five Opus 5 pieces had its own characteristic voice for an engaging journey of discovery. The first half of the program concluded with Libby Larsen’s “Sorrow Song and Jubilee,” a reflection on the spiritual “Swing Low Sweet Chariot.”

The second half of the program began with Noah Luna’s arrangement of “Going Home,” a spiritual-like song that appropriated the principal theme from the second (Largo) movement of Antonín Dvořák’s ninth symphony, given the title “From the New World.” Printz was the vocalist, who then went on to sing the five vocal settings in Edward Elgar’s Opus 37 Sea Pictures in an arrangement by Donald Fraser. Printz’ delivery could not have been more engaging, particularly in the diversity of dispositions in the Elgar cycle.

While only four works were performed, last night was a “gift” of rich diversity, the perfect way for SFP to thank its generous supporters.

The Bleeding Edge: 4/7/2026

This will be a very busy week, with the first of the events taking place tomorrow. Only one of those events has already been announced, the third of the four programs prepared by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players for its season entitled American Reflections. The title of this month’s program will be Steps Toward Ascent, and it will begin on Saturday (April 11) in the Taube Atrium Theater on the top (fourth) floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue. Performances will take place this week both before and after this particular event with details as follows:

Ben Goldberg (from a BayImproviser Web page)

Wednesday, April 8, 7 p.m. and 8:45 p.m., Mr. Tipple’s Jazz Club: Clarinetist Ben Goldberg will give his latest quartet recital. He will be joined on the front line by Kasey Knudsen on alto saxophone. Rhythm will be provided by Mat Muntz on bass and drummer Tim Bulkley. For those that do not yet know about this venue, Mr. Tipple’s is located at 39 Fell Street, on the south side of the street between Van Ness Avenue and Polk Street.

Thursday, April 9, 7 p.m. and 8:45 p.m., Mr. Tipple’s Jazz Club: The following evening Knudsen will return to Mr. Tipple’s, but the other members of her quintet have not yet been announced.

Thursday, April 9, 8 p.m., Peacock Lounge: This will be the venue’s latest four-set evening. Ven Voisy will give a solo performance abetted by kinetic automata. Thomas Dimuzio will also perform solo, presenting his innovative techniques of sound synthesis, signal processing, algorithmic mixing, and custom crossfade looping. Leah Victoria will be visiting from New York City, performing under the name Holy People. She channels stories from different characters' voices and ancestral perspectives, calling her work “clown poetics.” The final set will be taken by Angst Hase Pfeffer Nase, who last appeared at the Peacock in June of last year. The Lounge is located in Haight-Ashbury at 552 Haight Street.

Friday, April 10, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: This week will present a very special evening of Takai Ginwright films with a live musical score. Performers have not yet been announced; but it is likely that reed player (and curator) David Boyce will be one of them. The venue is located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street. As always, there is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book.

Friday, April 10, 7:30 p.m., Center for New Music: Departure Duo will present “a radical program of new works for soprano [Nina Guo] and double bass [Edward Kass].” They will begin the program with Christian Wolff’s “Charles North’s 15 Poems and Liner Notes 2.” (Readers may recall that Wolff’s music will be performed again near then end of this month when Dafne Vicente-Sandoval (bassoon) and Charles Curtis (cello) visit The Lab.) The duo will present works commissioned for composers Erin Gee, Andrew Watts, and Tomas Gueglio; and the remaining composer on the program will be John Liberatore. As most readers probably know by now, the venue is located at 55 Taylor Street, half a block north of the Golden Gate Theater, which is where Golden Gate Avenue meets Market Street.

Friday, April 10, and Saturday, April 11, 8:30 p.m., SoundBox: For those unfamiliar with the venue, it is located on the southwest corner of Davies Symphony Hall. (The street address is 400 Franklin Street.) Gabriella Smith will give a solo performance in a space conceived to bring “extraordinary multisensory experiences” to an “underground club atmosphere.” Ticket availability is limited, but a single Web page has been created for purchases for both evenings.

Sunday, April 12, 7:30 p.m., Canessa Gallery: K/S/R is the name of the trio whose members are Ben Kujawski (Rhodes piano, accordion, and bass), Abigail Smith (flute, drums, and other percussion), and Justin Rhody (violin, guitar, and harmonica). There will also be a duo performance by Kanoko Nishi-Smith and Aine Nakamura, as well as the trio of Tom Djll, Bryan Day, and Kevin Corcoran. The program will also include a solo set by Max Abner. The gallery is located at 708 Montgomery Street, near the foot of the Transamerica Pyramid.

No Longer an Independent Branch of Goverment?

Screen shot from Al Jazeera video cited below  

Has the United States Congress forgotten that the Constitution established it as a division of the government independent of both the Judiciary and (of particular importance) the Executive (as in the President of the United States)?

https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/4/7/trump-threatens-iran-a-whole-civilisation-will-die

Johann Sebastian Bach “Underappreciated?”

When it comes to reading the latest news, The New York Times has been one of my primary sources pretty much for as long as I have been adding articles to this site. However, when the Times ventures away from “hard news,” I often find myself raising my left eyebrow (as I was originally influenced by Star Trek). This is the way I felt this morning when I encountered the following Times headline: “Is This Bach’s Most Underrated Music?” There is then a “follow-up” sub-headline: “The sprawling organ collection ‘Clavier-Übung III’ is not as widely known as it should be. An excellent new recording could change that.”

I should begin by explaining to (or reminding) readers that my CD collection includes two “complete works” collections of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. I did not waste time in purchasing the Bach 2000 collection (compiled jointly by Das Alte Werk and Teldec) when it was released. Several years later, my wife added the Brilliant Classics Bach Edition, which was given to her by one of her teaching colleagues. Over the years, both of these collections have provided me with many hours of informative listening, thus reinforcing my favorite Leonard Slatkin quote (“You can never conduct enough Haydn or Schubert.”) but applying it to listening to Bach!

English organist James McVinnie on the cover of his Clavier-Übung III album (from the Amazon.com Web page for this album)

In such a context, I would dare to say that anyone that appreciates Bach has no trouble applying that appreciation to the full canon. As a result, I would dare to say that David Allen, the author of the Times article, is not one of those “appreciators!” More likely, he was responding to the new release of a Pentatone recording on which English organist James McVinnie performs the Clavier-Übung III collection in its entirety. My guess is that both Allen and McVinnie are unfamiliar with the old advertising slogan of the Times Sunday edition: “You don’t have to read it all, but it’s good to know it’s all there!”

More relevant, however, is probably my favorite old joke about Mount Fuji. For those that did not encounter it when I wrote about Franz Liszt’s “Faust Symphony” a little over three years ago, the joke goes as follows: “The Japanese believe that there are two kinds of fool in the world. The first applies to anyone that has never climbed Fuji. The second is anyone that has climbed Fuji twice!” Allen may have likened comparing Clavier-Übung III to Mount Fuji, but for me the music provides no end of opportunities for discovery every time I return to it!

Friction to Continue Season with Janáček

René-Xavier Prinet’s “The Kreutzer Sonata” (from its Wikimedia Commons Web page, public domain)

One week from this coming Friday will see the second of this season’s three recitals by the Friction Quartet at the Noe Valley Ministry. The title of the program will be Inspiration, explained on its Web site as follows:

This concert traces the hidden threads between sound and inspiration, from medieval poetry to pandemic resilience, beams of light in the dark, and a Russian novel’s fiery drama. Loren Loiacono’s Besides reimagines the lone surviving song of a 12th-century female troubadour, while Isaac Schankler’s Unveiling (written for Friction Quartet) captures the collective tension and tenderness of lockdown. Juhi Bansal’s Cathedrals of Light transforms shimmering imagery into sound, and Janáček’s quartet no. 1“Kreutzer Sonata” channels Tolstoy’s tragic tale—itself inspired by Beethoven’s violin sonata.

I must confess to a personal attachment to Leoš Janáček’s quartet, whose title refers to a novella by Leo Tolstoy. I have always felt that each of the four instruments represents one of Tolstoy’s characters: a woman, her husband, her lover, and a “narrator.” In that respect, the score is not so much a “literal” account of the narrative as it is an attempt to capture the interplay of the “eternal triangle” characters. To some extent, it strikes me that the first half of the program will establish a “narrative context” for the unfolding of Tolstoy’s tale in the second half.

Most readers probably know by now that the Noe Valley Ministry is located at 1021 Sanchez Street. This will be an evening recital beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 17. Tickets are being sold for $10 and higher. All tickets may be purchased online through the Friction Quartet event page for this performance.

Diplomacy under Threat

Apparently, Donald Trump has become so frustrated with his attempts to advance his policy in the Middle East that he ended up showing his true colors:

https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/4/5/trump-threatens-iran-in-expletive-filled-social-media-post

Screen shot from Al Jazeera video 

Choices for April 19, 2026

Having accounted for the diversity of offerings this coming Saturday, April 18, I can now move on the choices for the following Sunday. Once again, the schedule will begin with a performance by pianist Ian Scarfe, who must be very busy these days preparing for the coming weekend. The three recitals may not overlap, but trying to get from one to its successor probably should not be recommended! This time the first two of the three events have been announced by Groupmuse. Specifics are as follows:

1:45 p.m., Century Club of California: For his second gig of the weekend, Scarfe will perform in a trio, whose other members are violinist Petr Mašek with James Jaffe on cello. The program will begin with Ludwig van Beethoven’s piano trio in E-flat major, the second of his two Opus 70 trios. The repertoire will then shift to the other end of the nineteenth century with trios by Bedřich Smetana (Opus 15 in G minor) and Antonín Dvořák (Opus 90, given the title “Dumky,” named after the Ukrainian folk song genre). The program will then conclude with selected dances by Johannes Brahms (taken from the WoO 1 collection of 21 Hungarian dances) and Dvořák (from the two Slavonic Dances collections Opus 46 and Opus 72). 65 of the 75 spots are still available. As is usually the case with Groupmuse, specific address information will be provided once tickets have been purchased.

3 p.m., Presidio Theatre: This will be the next event in the current Chamber Music San Francisco (CMSF) season. The recitalist will be violinist Nathan Meltzer, and the pianist has still not yet been named. The program has not changed from when CMSF first announced its season. It will begin with Francis Poulenc’s Opus 141, an “Improvisation” based Johannes Brahms’ best known song, “Wiegenlied” (cradle song), the fourth in his Opus 49 collection. This will be followed by Gabriel Fauré’s Opus 108 second violin sonata. The second half of the program will begin with Sky Macklay’s “FastLowHighSlow,” followed by Franz Schubert’s D. 934 Fantasia, which includes variations on the composer’s D. 741 song “Sei mir gegrüßt.” For those that do not yet know, the Presidio is located at 99 Moraga Avenue.

The Palaver Strings ensemble (photograph by Titilayo Ayangade, courtesy of Noe Music)

5 p.m., Noe Valley Ministry: Tenor Nicholas Phan will perform with the thirteen-member Palaver Strings, which will be visiting from Portland, Maine. The title of the program will be A Change is Gonna Come, inspired by the rich legacy of American protest songs. Indeed, the program will present the world premiere of “Protest Songs,” composed by Errollyn Wallen. The other selections will include Nico Muhly’s “Stranger” and “Fear the Lamb” by Akenya Seymour. The venue is also likely to be familiar to most readers, located in Noe Valley at 1021 Sanchez Street.

7:30 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall: As was announced about a month ago, violinist Joshua Bell will return to Davies for a duo recital with pianist Shai Wosner. This will be a straightforward program of three sonatas: Franz Schubert’s D. 574 in A major, Edvard Grieg’s Opus 45 (his third) in C minor, and Sergei Prokofiev’s Opus 94b (his second) in D major. This will be the next event in the Great Performers Series presented by the San Francisco Symphony.

Choices for April 18, 2026

Signs of this being a busy month were already surfacing at the end of last month. Now it turns out that the mid-month weekend will be busy enough to warrant separate articles for Saturday and Sunday. Saturday afternoon will see the latest announcement of a Groupmuse event, and there will be overlapping performances in the Civic Center during the evening. Specifics are as follows:

3 p.m., Parnassus Heights: The earliest event will be Virtuoso Duo in Cole Valley. Pianist Ian Scarfe will be familiar to many for his virtuoso talents, and he will be joined by Czech violinist Petr Mašek. Full specifics have not yet been announced, but the program will feature one of the ten violin sonatas composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. There will also be a set of romantic pieces by Antonin Dvořák and a vigorous account of the Hungarian Czárdás. As of this writing, only six of the 25 spots are still available; so those interested in attending should not wait too much longer, after which details about the venue will be provided.

7:30 p.m., Old First Church: Soprano Molly Netter will be the soloist performing with the Voices of Music ensemble. She has prepared a program entitled The Secret Garden, which will begin with the medieval mysticism of Hildegard von Bingen. More familiar will be English folk tunes including “In a garden so green” and “Gather ye rosebuds.” There will also be selections of fiddle tunes from John Playford’s The English Dancing Master. Finally, the program will conclude in the immediate present with the world premiere performance of a composition by Voices of Music Co-Director Hanne van Proosdij. Voices of Music has created a Web page for online purchases between $10 and $63.

Claire Chase with one of her flutes and another in the background (from the SFP Web page for purchasing tickets)

7:30 p.m., Herbst Theatre: For those that prefer the new to the old, San Francisco Performances (SFP) will present a flute recital by Claire Chase. For the most part this will be a solo performance, given the title Density 2036. However, she will be joined by pianist Sarah Cahill to present Terry Riley’s “Pulsing Lifters.” Chase will also play The Holy Liftoff, a solo suite by Riley, as well as solo compositions by Annea Lockwood, Susie Ibarra, Marcos Balter, and Du Yun. SFP has created a Web page for online purchases between $50 and $70.

French and German Composers for Clarinet

Anthony McGill with his clarinet (photograph by Martin Romero, courtesy of San Francisco Performances)

Last night in Herbst Theatre San Francisco Performances presented the final program in The Shenson Great Artists and Ensembles Series. The “great artist” was clarinetist Anthony McGill. accompanied at the piano by Gloria Chen. McGill prepared a “two nationalities program.” He began the evening with an engaging diversity of French composers: Claude Debussy, André Messager, and Camille Saint-Saëns (the “order of appearance”). The second half was devoted to two German composers from either end of the nineteenth century, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms.

In the first half Messager could have won a prize for the abundance of notes in his “Solo de concours.” Actually, all those notes were conceived for the end-of-term examination of clarinet students at the Conservatoire de Paris (Paris Conservatory). This could not have been a better offering for McGill to unleash the full extent of his technical skills without devolving into banal “exercise music.” Messager was preceded by Debussy’s “Première rhapsodie” (first rhapsody), which he composed as an examination piece for students at the Conservatoire de Paris. The “French portion” then concluded with Saint-Saëns’ Opus 167 sonata in E-flat major for clarinet and piano. The third movement involved the lower register of the clarinet, which was my favorite area back when I played the instrument. (Sadly, I never had an opportunity to play bass clarinet.)

The second half of the program began with Schumann’s Opus 73, a three-movement duo entitled simply “Fantasiestücke.” This was followed by the second of the two Opus 120 clarinet sonatas composed by Brahms. Those sonatas were the composer’s final chamber music compositions, written about three years before his death. They were composed for Richard Mühlfeld, who had impressed Brahms with his performances of Carl Maria von Weber’s first clarinet concerto and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 581 clarinet quintet.

Taken as a whole, this was an impressive diversity of rhetorical approaches to chamber music. Fortunately, McGill captured the unique foundation for each of the five selections, providing the attentive listener with an engaging journey (which probably included at least one “way station” of discovery in Messager’s competition composition). McGill made his first SFP debut in November of 2021, and his most recent visit was in December of 2024. The clarinet is a rather sophisticated instrument with registers in three distinctively different sonorities, and McGill had no trouble making the most out of all of them.

Danny Clay to Bring New Work to Roar Shack

Composer Danny Clay has enjoyed a long and productive engagement with The Living Earth Show (TLES). My last encounter with him was almost exactly two months ago, when his composition “Still Cycles” was choreographed by Dani Rowe for the final program in this year’s PIVOT Festival. One week from today TLES will host a visit by Clay to their “home base” at the Roar Shack.

Poster design for the performance being discussed (from its Eventbrite Web page)

Clay has prepared a full-evening performance entitled Possible Paths. Departing about as far as possible from the usual concert experience, Clay’s composition will involve (in the words of the TLES announcement) “musical scavenger hunts, improvisatory games, and video-game-style musical obstacle-courses to create interactive, immersive, and achingly beautiful music that can be played by any human at any age or level of musical experience.” (Those of my generation might recall “Anything Can Happen Day,” which took place on every Wednesday broadcast of The Mickey Mouse Club.)

Possible Paths will be given only one performance taking place at The Roar Shack, which is located in SoMa at 34 Seventh Street (just south of Market Street). The entire performance will be for 90 minutes, beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 10. [updated, 4/8, 2:30 p.m.: This performance has be rescheduled to Sunday, June 7.] Eventbrite has created a Web page for online advance purchases. Admission will be on a Pay What You Can basis.

Clarinet Quintets Two Centuries Apart

Cover of the album being discussed, presumably on the Dorset coast of England, near where the album was recorded

A new Orchid Classics album of quintets for clarinet and strings is due for release from Orchid Classics one week from today. The composers are from two centuries on either side of the nineteenth century: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Gordon Jacob. The latter’s quintet was composed in 1940.

I must confess that I know very little about Jacob other than his textbook The Elements of Orchestration, which was used for the orchestration class I took at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since my “primary” instrument was the clarinet, I was well aware of Mozart’s K. 581 quintet, even if I never had an opportunity to work on it with a willing string quartet. The album concludes with a “bonus track” of sorts. K. 516c is a fragment of the first movement of an earlier Mozart quintet in B-flat major. On this album that single movement was provided with a completion by Duncan Druce.

From a purely personal point of view, there was little on the track to draw my attention. However, 75 minutes has become a familiar maximum duration for CD; and that last track comes to close to filling out that duration. Where the Jacob quintet is concerned, I am just beginning to get to know it; but I found myself enjoying its contrast against the all-too-familiar K. 581. It is also worth noting that Mozart extended the range of the clarinet in that quintet, which the clarinetist on the album, Richard Hosford, managed by switching to a basset clarinet when necessary. The members of the string quartet with which he performed, violinists Marieke Blankestijn and Ulrika Jansson, Iris Juda on viola, and cellist Ursula Smith, did not have to worry about any “out-of-range” notes in the score!

Congress Questions Executive Authority (at last)

As I was going through this morning’s news feeds, I found two back-to-back articles from The Guardian (which, hopefully, at least a few readers may know began as the Manchester Guardian) involving efforts of the Legislative Branch of our government to have as much say as the Executive Branch. Mind you, I suspect that the current President of the United States may not be informed about what the Constitution has to say about both of those branches. Fortunately, there are members of the Congress who are better informed about these matters and have decided to push back against some of the President’s latest efforts.

The first of the two articles involved the President considering withdrawal from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The treaty was signed in 1949 to create an alliance that would deter any threat from the Soviet Union and the other Warsaw Pact countries. The second involved providing funds to aid Israel’s defense forces. For the second half of the twentieth century, Israel had reason to be threatened by all of the countries on its borders. (Full disclaimer: My first job after receiving my doctoral degree involved teaching graduate and undergraduate computer science at the Technion, often called, with a nod to the state of Massachusetts, the “Israel Institute of Technology.”)

The focus of the first article is Mitch McConnell, currently Chair of the Senate Rules Committee; and it concerns the fact that the Senate has a NATO observer group, which is chaired jointly by Democrat Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Thom Tillis. Both of them are strong advocates of NATO, strong enough for McConnell to agree with their rejection of the possibility of withdrawal.

The leader in the second article is Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She used social media to release a statement beginning as follows:

The Israeli government is well able to fund the Iron Dome system, which has proven critical to keep innocent civilians safe from rocket attacks and bombardment.

Consistent with my voting record to date, I will not support Congress sending more taxpayer dollars and military aid to a government that consistently ignores international law and U.S. law.

The first page of the first edition of Thomas Paine’s pamphlet The American Crisis (from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

I have to confess that, for the most part, I tend to be skeptical of “social media.” Nevertheless, if The Guardian was willing to accept Ocasio-Cortez’ post on X, I am willing to take the same stand. The fact is that we are now back on a “turf” that Thomas Paine first published in 1776 under the title The American Crisis: “These are the times that try men’s souls.” Our President may be happy enough with the state of his soul, but it looks like there is a rising tide of those disagreeing with him. Since that tide involves Republicans as well as Democrats, I personally think that it is too serious to be ignored!

The Lab: April, 2026

Next month The Lab will host three concert events. For those that do not yet know, The Lab is located in the Mission at 2948 16th Street. This is particularly convenient for those using public transportation, since it is a short walk to the corner of 16th Street and Mission Street. Busses stop at that corner for both north-south and east-west travel, and downstairs there is a station for the BART line running under Mission Street. Doors open half an hour in advance of the performance; and specific information for each event, including a hyperlink to the Web page that provides both background material and hyperlinks for ticket purchases, is as follows:

Friday, April 17, 8:30 p.m.: The first performance of the month will be a two-set evening. Skylight is a duo with vocals by Gelsey Bell accompanied on saxophone by Erin Rogers. Both are members of the new music collective thingNY, where they have worked for over fifteen years. The other set will be taken by the Thingamajigs Performance Group, which rang in this year with its concert at Artists’ Television Access. Co-founders Edward Schocker and Dylan Bolles will join forces with composer Suki O’Kane, sound artist Keith Evans, and guest artist Wayne Grim. The performance will be based on “traditions of durational performance, alternate tuning, group and open compositional formats, interdisciplinary and inter-cultural collaboration, and site work.”

Friday, April 24, 8 p.m.: Lea Bertucci will present her new composition for sampled and live early flutes in 8-channel sound. The title of her work is The Days Pass Quickly Immersed in the Shadow of Eternity. She composed the work for Norbert Rodenkirchen, who played flute with the early music group Sequentia. She describes the piece as follows: “this work reaches back through the spans of history and catapults ancient music into an immersive present.” She will share the program with Rodenkirchen, who will perform “live fragments of ancient songs and improvisations related to the origin of the flutes.”

Dafne Vicente-Sandoval and Charles Curtis giving one of their duo performances (from the event page for the concert they have prepared)

Saturday, April 25, 7:30 p.m.: The month will conclude with two musicians that present adventurous performances of low-register instruments. Those instruments will be bassoon (Dafne Vicente-Sandoval) and cello (Charles Curtis). They have worked collectively with composers Alvin Lucier, Tashi Wada and Éliane Radigue. They will also give solo performances of works by Jakob Ullmann, Phill Niblock, Peter Ablinger, La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela (a partnership), Christian Wolff, and Vicente-Sandoval; and Curtis will present at least one of his own compositions.

Dennis Mitcheltree Returning to Chez Hanny

Dennis Mitcheltree on the cover of his Union album (from its Amazon.com Web page)

Some readers may recall that saxophonist Dennis Mitcheltree visited Chez Hanny a little over a year ago. On that occasion he shared leadership of a quartet with pianist Johannes Wallman. Rhythm was provided by Will Lyle on bass and drummer Andy Sanesi.

One week from this coming Sunday, Mitcheltree will return to Chez Hanny. He will again lead a quartet consisting of three “new faces.” The pianist will be Adam Kipple, influenced by both McCoy Tyner and Cecil Taylor. In that context it is also worth adding Kipple’s past performance with the Sun Ra Arkestra. The other rhythm players will be Jesse Crawford on bass and drummer Bill McClellan, the latter being a veteran of the Mingus Big Band.

As always, 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, April 12. Admission will be $25, payable by check, Zelle, or cash. Because Jazz Chez Hanny is now a 501(c)(3) public charity, tax-deductible donations will also be accepted.

There will be two sets separated by a potluck break. As a result, all who plan to attend are encouraged to 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.

Omni Foundation to Present Brazilian Weekend

Guitarist Yamandu Costa (photograph by Rodrigo Lopes, courtesy of the Omni Foundation)

Next month the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts will present Brazil Fest, two consecutive evenings of Brazilian guitar music. The first evening will see the return of Yamandu Costa, who plays a seven-string instrument. He will be followed by a duo performance on the following evening bringing Brazilian guitar virtuoso Alessandro Penezzi together with local mandolinist Mike Marshall. As of this writing, program details have not yet been announced for either of these programs.

Both concerts will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April, 10 and Saturday, April, 11. They will take place at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church (1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of the corner of Franklin Street). Tickets for both concerts may be purchased for $99 from a single Web page. Tickets for single concerts will be $70, purchased from a Web pages for Friday and Saturday.

The Bleeding Edge: 3/30/2026

After several busy weeks, things will quiet down a bit on the Bleeding Edge. Unless my search engine has betrayed me, only one new event will join the “usual suspects” Bleeding Edge venues. Nevertheless, those “usual suspects” will, as in the past, have much to offer. Full details (to the extent that they are available) are as follows:

Thursday, April 2, 7 p.m., Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA): This will be a two-set program. The second set will be devoted to both composed and improvised performances by Pamela Z. She will be preceded by Jon Leidecker, performing under the name Wobbly (which he has assumed since 1990). Prior to the opening, visitors will be free to view the content of the galleries, beginning at 5 p.m. Doors to the Forum, where the performance will take place, will open at 6:30 p.m. There will be no charge for admission, but those planning to attend can make RSVP arrangements through a YBCA Web page.

Friday, April 3, 6 p.m., Bric-a-Brac: This appears to be a new venue for adventurous listeners. The program will consist of five sets, three of which involve performers visiting from out of town. Coinshortage will come all the way from Chicago, while the Ben Rempel/Justin Gunter percussion duo is distributed between Los Angeles and New York City. The other visitor, Jake Parker-Scott is based in Los Angeles. “Local talent” will account for the beginning and end of the program. The opening set will be taken by flatways, which is the trio of Jordan Glenn, Sudhu Tewari, and matt robidoux. The final set will be a solo performance by Lx Rudis. The venue is located at 175 Leland Avenue. Admission will be $10, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

David Boyce with his soprano saxophone (from this week’s BayImproviser Web page for Medicine for Nightmares)

Friday, April 3, 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 will be part of a tenor saxophone trio, whose other members are Nora Free and Francis Wong. 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.

Friday, April 3, 8:30 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: This venue will also host a trio gig but with more diverse instrumentation. Bassist Dan Seamans will lead the group, joined by Darren Johnston on trumpet and guitarist Scott Foster. This will be the third event in a long-weekend series of concerts entitled Poetryx2 + Jazzx5 = 4/2-4/5, running from Thursday, April 2, to Sunday, April 5. For those encountering the venue for the first time, it is located in Glen Park at 653 Chenery Street. Admission will be $20.

Why Al Jazeera?

Screen shot of Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Al Jazeera English

Readers have probably noted a flurry of URLs directed toward Web pages for Al Jazeera English. This involves a somewhat elaborate story, which goes back to the fact that my first job after receiving my doctoral degree in 1971 was at the Technion, whose “subtitle” was “Israel Institute of Technology.” In other words, I completed my education at one “institute of technology” (in Massachusetts) and began my professional life at another!

I spent only two years at the Technion before returning to the United States for an Assistant Professorship at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. I was glad to be back in a setting that was willing to view both Israeli and Arab cultures on common ground. Indeed, I relished that common ground the following summer, when I planned a vacation that took me to both Cairo in Egypt and Amman in Jordan.

Nevertheless, news about the Middle East that accounted for both Israel and its Arab neighbors tended to be a “sometime thing” among most United States television channels. It was not until 2006 that Al Jazeera, based in Doha, Qatar, launched a 24-hour English-language news channel. Unfortunately, while I could usually count on good cable service wherever I happened to be living at the time, none of those services seemed willing to include Al Jazeera English as a channel.

As usual, the Internet came to my recuse. United States television networks may have tried to avoid Al Jazeera English, but YouTube had no problems with creating a Web page providing a live feed! Now I get my television service from xfinity, and guess what? The service includes more channels than I can ever hope to keep up with, but it also includes an “Apps” category. It did not take me long to discover that YouTube was included in that category, making it easier for me to watch YouTube content on a television (usually with my wife), rather than on a computer screen.

My guess is that I am far from the only one to get my news this way. Indeed, that aforementioned Web page claims that “more than 270 million households in over 140 countries across the globe" account for Al Jazeera English viewers. Now, if I feel I need perspective from a source outside the United States, I have an alternative to the BBC!

Olé!

 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/30/spain-closes-airspace-to-us-planes-involved-in-war-on-iran

Does "Meaning" Mean Anything Anymore?

I have decided that, regardless of what is actually happening in the world, the Republican Party has decided to declare war on the word “meaning;” and what frightens me is that they may be winning:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/30/rubio-tells-al-jazeera-strait-of-hormuz-will-reopen-one-way-or-another 

SF Civic Symphony’s “American Sound”

Yesterday afternoon my wife and I returned to Herbst Theatre, this time for the latest program presented by the San Francisco Civic Symphony of the San Francisco Civic Music Association. The full title of the program was The American Sound - in celebration of America’s Semi-quincentennial. The ensemble was led by Music Director Paul Schrage, and the concerto soloist was pianist Daniel Glover. He departed from the usual “American” performance of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” preferring, instead, the three-movement “Concerto in F.”

Conductor Walter Damrosch had attended the world premiere of “Rhapsody in Blue” on February 12, 1924; and the following day he commissioned Gershwin to compose a full-length piano concerto for the New York Symphony Orchestra, which he conducted. It receives far less attention than the “Rhapsody;” but, here in San Francisco, pianist Hélène Grimaud performed it as concerto soloist for this season’s opening night performance for the San Francisco Symphony. Glover was just as engaging in yesterday afternoon’s account, following up with an equally high-spirited account of Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s “The Banjo.”

Cover page of a piano arrangement of the first movement of Gottschalk’s first symphony (from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

As might be expected, the concerto was preceded by an overture. In this case the source of the “American sound” was Scott Joplin with the overture to his Treemonisha opera, which was followed by Aaron Copland’s symphonic approach to the “John Henry” folk song. The second half of the program began with Joplin’s contemporary, Florence Price. Many readers may be familiar with her violin concerto, which has been performed in Davies Symphony Hall. “The Oak” is a relatively short tone poem when compared with that concerto, but it is far more visceral and definitely seized listener attention following the intermission. This was followed by William Schuman’s orchestral arrangement of “Variations on ‘America,’” which Charles Ives had composed for organ for an Independence Day celebration. This provided the “comic relief” for the afternoon, and Schrage knew just how to capture that spirit. The program concluded with Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s first symphony, given the descriptive title “La nuit des tropiques” (night of the tropics). Gottschalk was one to “pull out all the stops;” and the second of the two movements is not only raucous but also, according to its Wikipedia entry, “the first orchestral setting of a samba!”

The ensemble is a “community orchestra,” meaning that all the members have a different “day job.” I performed in such an ensemble during my senior year in high school. The conductor was not afraid to be ambitious; and the high point of that year was a full performance of Joseph Haydn’s Hoboken XXI:2 oratorio The Creation. Yesterday afternoon’s program was just as ambitious, yet another example of what happens when amateurs are willing to take their music seriously!