Next PBO Program to Include Spirituals

Banner for the Web page being discussed

The title of the next program to be presented by the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra is Pearls of Sorrow. As was observed when the season was first announced this past July, it may be the first time that American spirituals will be included on the program. That program will be structured into five episodes, each of which interjects one or more spirituals to “rub shoulders” with works by composers from the Baroque period. Those composers will include both Johann Sebastian Bach and Johann Christoph Bach as well as many others, including Pietro Locatelli, Heinrich Schütz, and Dieterich Buxtehude. The vocalist will be countertenor Reginald Mobley, and Christine Brandes will conduct. The titles of the episodes will be as follows:

1. Trauma
2. Sorrow
3. Pain
4. All My Trials
5. Finding

To borrow a text from Eugene O’Neill, one may describe the overall program as “a long day’s journey into night.”

As usual, this 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 Friday, March 13. Ticket prices range from $40 to $125. They may be purchased through a City Box Office Web page, which includes a diagram showing where seats are still available.

Jennifer Koh Surveys Three French Composers

Jennifer Koh (photograph by Juergen Frank, from Wikimedia Commons Web page, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license)

Last night violinist Jennifer Koh returned to Herbst Theatre to give her fourteenth recital performance for San Francisco Performances. Accompanied at the piano by Thomas Sauer, her program was structured around three French composers from roughly a century ago. She began with the least familiar of those composers, Lili Boulanger, who lived only a quarter century but left a significant repertoire of music from the early twentieth century. The repertoire of the other two composers, Maurice Ravel and Gabriel Fauré (in “order of appearance” on the program) consisted of violin sonatas more familiar to chamber music lovers. Each half of the program also included a more recent composition. Tania León’s “Para Violin y Piano” was situated between Boulanger and Ravel, while Kaija Saariaho’s “Tocar” began the second half of the program.

As has been the case in my many previous recital encounters with Koh, her command of the repertoire was unquestionably solid. Nevertheless, as is often frequently the case, there were offerings that overstayed their welcome. I first became aware of León when I was living in Connecticut in 1981; and I have tried to follow her work since then, even as I moved from one coast to the other. That included keeping up with an album of her orchestral music released this past July. Nevertheless, last night’s selection went on longer than even sympathetic attention could sustain. To be fair, however, I felt the same way about the final movement of Ravel’s second violin sonata in G major, which concluded the first half of the program!

Far more interesting (for me at least) was my encounter with a performance of Kaija Saariaho’s “Tocar.” I became familiar with this piece when I made it a point to start collecting recordings of that composer’s music, during the first decade of the current century. Koh’s performance triggered fond memories of when I first came to know “Tocar” through that collection. The contrast with the Fauré sonata that followed it made the second half of the program the high point of the evening for me.

It is always good (if not healthy) to leave a recital with a sense of satisfaction!

Next CBS Program to Explore Aspects of Loss

The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame (painting by Georges de La Tour on the Web page for the concert being announced)

The full title of the next program to be presented by the California Bach Society is On Leaving: Music for Parting and Passage. If the overall theme reflects on loss, longing, and transcendence, the plan is that the music will offer comfort, harmony, and hope. Yuko Tanaka will be the organist, there will be one vocalist, tenor Corey Head, and three instrumental soloists: Stacy Pelinka on flute, David Morris playing Baroque cello, and Farley Pearce on violone.

The program will begin with Max Reger’s setting of the poem by Matthias Claudius whose first line is "Der Mensch lebt und bestehet nur eine kleine Zeit" (Man liveth and endureth but a short time). This is the first of the eight motets in his Opus 138 collection, inspired by the motets of Johann Sebastian Bach. This will be followed by the motet for four unaccompanied voices “Ecce quomodo moritur justus” (see how the just dies), composed by Jacob Handl (Jacobus Gallus) for his Opus Musicum II collection. The first half of the program will then conclude with a motet that is by Bach, the BWV 229 “Komm, Jesu, komm” (come, Jesus, come).

The second half of the program will begin with “Na Ishod” (on leaving) by the Ukrainian composer Galina Grigorjeva. This five-movement composition was inspired by Orthodox chant, complementing the German and Latin selections in the first half of the program. However, the program will conclude by going “back to Bach” with the performance of another one of his motets, “Jesu, meine Freude” (Jesus, my joy) BWV 227.

The San Francisco performance of this program will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, February 27. The venue will be St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, which is located 1111 O’Farrell Street. Individual tickets are available for general admission at $40 with discounted rates for seniors and students. Tickets may also be purchased an advance until midnight of February 26 through a Web page, in which case general admission will be only $35.

Van Zweden Returns with Beethoven Coupling

Conductor Jaap van Zweden (photograph by Simon van Boxtel, courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony)

Once again, conductor Jaap van Zweden returned to Davies Symphony Hall. This time he prepared a program of two symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven separated by a decade. The first of these tends to receive relatively little attention (other than “marathon” events covering all nine of the symphonies). This was Opus 36, the second symphony in D major, composed in 1802. Ten years later Beethoven was up to his Opus 92 (seventh) symphony in A major, music that is far more familiar to most concert-goers.

As in the past, van Zweden gave his all to both of the selections. From my vantage point it seemed as if the San Francisco Symphony musicians could not have been more attentive to his baton work and the expressiveness he brought to the contrast between these two symphonies. Mind you, it is very likely that a large percentage of the audience had albums of all nine symphonies back at home; and some percentage of that percentage makes regular visits to all of those symphonies with their own listening gear. Nevertheless, van Zweden had his own in-the-moment approach to both symphonies, making it clear that he knew how to establish and maintain all of those listeners’ attention (including the ones with the record collections).

For my part, listening could not have been more engaged. That said, I spent less time watching van Zweden’s baton work and more time watching his results. Having spent more than a little time following the scores of these symphonies while listening to recordings, I seem to have arrived at a point at which I knew exactly where to look for every measure in the score. Van Zweden was clearly in charge, but my eyes were more interested in following the results of his leadership as they manifested from one section of the orchestra to another.

Perhaps that is why I have come to look forward to van Zweden’s visits. He is confident enough to recognize that the music is more about the performers themselves than about the conductor. Yes, the conductor is the “leader;” but van Zweden’s approach to leadership tends to cede the emphasis to the musicians, using his post on the podium to establish the path for that emphasis and let the players follow that course. He could also share his own insights into the factors that established the contrasts emerging from the decade separating the two symphonies. It seemed as if every member of the Symphony had internalized every one of those contrasts and knew exactly how to deliver them to the ears of the attentive listener.

Earplay’s “Second Answer” to Ives

Some readers may recall that last month saw the beginning of Earplay’s 41st season, entitled Answering The Unanswered Question. I described this series of three programs as inspired by Charles Ives’ enigmatic orchestral composition, “The Unanswered Question;” and each program would feature a new composition serving as an “answer,” commissioned by Earplay. For the second of these programs, the “answer” will be provided by composer Hyo-shin Na. The title of her work is “Search for the Way;” and she scored it for flute (Tod Brody), clarinet (Peter Josheff), violin (Terrie Baune), and cello (Thalia Moore).

Once again, the “answer” will follow a performance Bruce Bennett’s arrangement of “The Unanswered Question,” this time with a slight change in instrumentation. The instruments will again include flute (Tod Brody), clarinet (Peter Josheff), violin (Terrie Baune), viola (Ellen Ruth Rose), and cello (Thalia Moore). This time, however, Keisuke Nakagoshi will add keyboard work alternating between organ and synthesizer.

Composer Shuying Li (from the Earplay Web page for next month’s concert)

The program, entitled Kaleidoscopic, will conclude with another world premiere performance. This one involved an adaptation of a text by Joseph Moncure March provided by Jeffrey Hastings. This will be a full-ensemble offering entitled “The Wild Party,” composed by Shuying Li. Brody, Josheff, Baune, Rose, and Moore will again perform, this time with Margaret Halbig on piano. They will be joined by soprano Chelsea Hollow with Mary Chun conducting. “Haikus Notebook” by Benet Casablancas, which won Earplay’s 2025 Donald Aird Composers Competition, will be given its United States premiere performance by flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano. This will be followed by Mark Winges’ “Loki’s Lair,” which he composed in 2018 for a trio of flute, viola, and cello.

This concert will again begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Noe Valley Ministry, which is located at 1021 Sanchez Street, between 23rd Street and Elizabeth Street. As usual, there will be a pre-concert talk at 6:45 p.m. General admission will be $32 with a $10 rate for students. Tickets can be purchased through a ThunderTix Web page.

YouTube Finds its Way to Television

I must confess to a bit of pleasure in encountering this article from The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/19/youtube-uk-tv-set-most-popular

My wife and I get our television from xfinity, and it did not take me long to discover that the service included a plethora of apps. Most of these were of little interest, but I was glad to see that YouTube was one of them.

One of the screenshots captured from a Detroit Symphony Orchestra performance on YouTube 

There are any number of settings in which a television screen is preferable to a computer screen. However, the asset that probably means the most to my wife and I is our ability to watch performances by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. We have been watching the live broadcasts since September of 2012. Because these begin at 5 PM on the West Coast, we usually have dinner while watching. Some may see this as a decadent approach to “serious music,” but neither of us feels that eating distracts from listening! Some readers probably already know that, after the concert, I can go back to the computer and find a screenshot to include with the article I write about the performance!

Salhov Returning to Chez Hanny with New 4tet

Shay Salhov playing his saxophone (from his home page)

This year March will come in like a lion with the return of saxophonist Shay Salhov to Jazz Chez Hanny. Once again, his drummer will be Jason Lewis, who is likely to be familiar to those attending Chez Hanny gigs regularly. Percussionist Dillon Vado will play vibraphone, and the remaining member of the quartet will be guitarist Scott Sorkin. All four members of the quartet have performed at Chez Hanny in the past.

Those familiar with Jazz Chez Hanny probably “know the drill” by now. Performances take place on a Sunday afternoon beginning at 4 p.m., and the next one will be on March 1. The venue is Frank Hanny’s house at 1300 Silver Avenue, and the musicians play in the downstairs rumpus room. The price of admission is $25. 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; and the doors will open at 3:30 p.m. Reservations are preferred by sending electronic mail to jazz@chezhanny.com. Masks are optional, but attendees should be vaccinated. Vaccination will be based on the honor system. Finally, volunteer efforts for cleaning up after the show and moving furniture to accommodate both players and listeners are always appreciated.

Attacca Quartet to Continue its SFP Series

Vocalist Theo Bleckmann (photograph by Caterina diPerri, courtesy of SFP)

At the end of this month, the Attacca Quartet will return to Herbst Theatre to present the second of the three performances in their Contemporary Chamber concert series prepared for San Francisco Performances (SFP). Presumably, at least some readers probably already know that the members of this quartet are violinists Amy Schroeder and Domenic Salerni, Nathan Schram on viola, and cellist Andrew Yee. This next offering will put the title of the series to the test, since the program will be devoted in its entirely to the contemporary Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang. The full-evening work to be performed will be “note to a friend,” composed for string quartet and vocalist; and it will be receiving its West Coast premiere. The vocalist to perform with Attacca will be Theo Bleckmann.

According to the advance material on the Groupmuse Web page, the work was “born from three reimagined texts by novelist Ryūnosuke Akutagawa that probes love, death, family, and deeper human meaning.” For those unfamiliar with the name, Akutagawa was the author of the short story “In a Grove,” which later led Akira Kurosawa to create the film Rashomon, named after a gate where a woodcutter and a Buddhist monk take shelter from a downpour.

This recital will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, February 27. As those familiar with SFP will probably guess, the venue will be Herbst Theatre, on the ground floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. Ticket prices will range from $45 to $65, and a Web page has been created for online purchases.

Dealing with Trump on a Solemn Occasion

There were no end of news sources this morning reflecting on the death of Jesse Jackson. Nevertheless, I could not avoid checking out how this news would be presented “on the other side of the pond.” As a television viewer, I appreciate my cable provider giving me access to the British Broadcasting Corporation. However, when it comes to reading text, I have discovered that the Web site for The Guardian has become a preferred source.

So it was this morning that I found, on that site, the headline “‘One of America’s greatest patriots’: US political leaders pay tribute to Jesse Jackson.” Guardian Web pages tend to begin with a photograph, and the choice could not have been better. On March 4, 1990, Jackson led the way in the recreation of a march in Alabama in 1965, beginning in Selma and ending at the State House in Montgomery:

Jesse Jackson at the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Alabama (photograph by Jamie Sturtevant, provided by Associated Press)

For many of my generation, this was one of the most significant historical moments in the twentieth century; but, as Richard Luscombe, the author of the article following the photograph, made clear, this was but one of the significant events in Jackson’s life. He documented a generous number of interviews over the course of his article, including Jackson’s colleague Al Sharpton and, from the following generation, Kamala Harris.

I suppose it was inevitable that Luscombe would also write about the current President of the United States. As a result, the article concluded with the following three paragraphs:

Donald Trump, in a post on his own Truth Social network, called Jackson “a good man” and a “friend”, also claiming to have provided office space in New York for his Rainbow Push Coalition.

Trump’s post, as is often the case, quickly turned political, and about himself. The president attacked the “scoundrels and Lunatics on the Radical Left” who, he said, “falsely and consistently” called him a racist, and sought recognition for “funding Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), which Jesse loved”.

Trump also took a swing at a familiar political foe, former president Barack Obama, whom, he claimed, Jackson “could not stand”.

To be perfectly frank, that last sentence did not surprise me; but I am pretty sure that Obama is far too dignified to respond to such a slur! Fortunately, there are more than enough encomiums in Jackson’s honor to let one sour grape get in the way!

The Judiciary Stands Up to the Executive

Most readers in the United States known that our Federal government has three branches, each independent of the other two. The Executive is the branch of the President, the Legislative is the branch of the Congress, and the Judiciary is the branch of the Supreme Court, as well as the “next level down” of District judges.

Visitors to the President’s House Site in Philadelphia (photograph by Matt Rourke for Associated Press)

Yesterday saw an example of what happens when one branch disagrees with another. On the Executive side, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to restore “truth and sanity to American history” as it is exhibited at museums, parks, and landmarks. More specifically, it involved an exhibit in Philadelphia prepared by the National Park Service. According to an Al Jazeera news article, the exhibit showed “nine people who were enslaved by former President George Washington at a historical site.”

In the immortal words of Bullwinkle Moose, this was the sort of thing that got Trump’s dandruff up. As the article put it, he “directed the Interior Department to ensure the sites do not display elements that ‘inappropriately disparage Americans past or living’.” Fortunately, the Judiciary exercised its independence from the Executive. At this point, it is more than worthwhile to cite the Al Jazeera text at greater length:

US District Judge Cynthia Rufe ruled that all materials must be restored in their original condition while the lawsuit challenging the removal’s legality plays out. She prohibited Trump officials from installing replacements that explain the history differently.

In her scathing 40-page decision, Rufe accused the federal government of trying to erase US history, much like the fictional authoritarian regime that ruled George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984.

“As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984 now existed, with its motto ‘Ignorance is Strength,’ this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims – to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts,” Rufe wrote. “It does not.”

Rufe had warned Trump administration lawyers during a hearing in January that they were making “dangerous” and “horrifying” statements when they said government officials could choose which parts of US history to display at NPS sites.

As of now, it is unclear what will happen next, since, according to the article, there was “no immediate comment from the Trump administration.”

I have to confess that, when I was studying American History in high school, the classes devoted to the Constitution were the ones I enjoyed the most. (It helped that my teacher had a similar enthusiasm.) In that context, I find it hard to avoid cringing whenever I listen to of news clip of Trump and wonder whether he would have been better off continuing his career in television entertainment! Come to think of it, could it be that he sees his current role as just another phase in such entertainment?

The Bleeding Edge: 2/16/2026

Tonight’s live (and free) performance by the duo of George Grydkovets and Lorin Benedict was announced in last week’s Bleeding Edge article. There will be only three more events taking place this week. They will be held on consecutive evenings beginning this Thursday. All of the venues will be familiar as follows:

Thursday, February 19, 7 and 8:45 p.m., Mr. Tipple’s Jazz Club: My last account of a performance by the Simple Excesses Quartet led by pianist and composer Motoko Honda took place this past September at the Center for New Music. Personnel has not changed since then. The other performers will still be Cory Wright on a diversity of wind instruments with rhythm provided by drummer Jordan Glenn and Matt Small on bass. 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. A single Web page has been created for making reservations for both sets. Tickets prices will range between $15 and $30. Both food and drink are available and may be purchased separately.

Friday, February 20, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: This week’s Other Dimensions in Sound program, curated and hosted by reed player David Boyce, will consist of two sets. Nader (or Nadar, since both spellings appear on the BayImproviser Web page) will play synthesizer in both of them. The first will be a solo set, followed by a duo performance with Boyce alternating between reeds and special effects technologies. 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.

Pamela Z, Mari Kimura, and Thea Farhadian on the poster for the performance they will share at the Center for New Music

Saturday, February 21, 7:30 p.m., Center for New Music: This will be an evening of solo works and trio improvisations for violins, voice, live electronics, and gesture-controlled instruments. Two of the musicians will be violinists: Mari Kimura and Thea Farhadian. The vocalist will be Pamela Z. Admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for members and students. For those that do not yet know, the venue is located at 55 Taylor Street, just north of Market Street.

Another Cookie for Another Mouse

Some readers may recall that, at the beginning of this year, I used Laura Joffe Numeroff’s children’s picture book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie as a metaphor for conditions in Venezuela and President Donald Trump providing refuge for Nicolás Maduro when he had to flee that country. Apparently, the metaphor has now extended beyond Venezuela. An article for The Guardian by Aisha Down suggests that the consultancy business also has to contend with tempting cookies and hungry mice.

The KPMG Australia building (photograph by Diego Fedele, Australia Associated Press)

Here are the first three paragraphs:

A partner at the consultancy KPMG has been fined for using artificial intelligence to cheat during an internal training course on AI.

The unnamed partner was fined A$10,000 (£5,200) for using the technology to cheat, one of a number of staff reportedly using the tactic.

More than two dozen KPMG Australia staff have been caught using AI tools to cheat on internal exams since July, the company said, increasing concerns over AI-fuelled cheating in accountancy firms.

As a “veteran” from the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), my immediate reaction to this report was: “Well, what did you expect?” AI is just another cookie, and any “hungry mouse” will probably figure out how to use it with little effort.

When I began my freshman year, I quickly learned that there was a rich “hacking” culture at MIT. For the most part, this involved relatively innocuous pranks enabled by basic technology tools and techniques. Every and then, the pranks would go “over the top;” and, very early in my freshman year, I encountered four students that had been suspended for a year due to one of those pranks. As I recall, all four of them were relatively resilient and completed their degrees after returning, perhaps with a broader perspective than that of most undergraduates.

Personally, I am not surprised that someone at KPMG that had ascended to partnership may have acquired a portfolio of “hacking” skills during his student days. After all, “hacking” usually arises from “thinking outside the box;” and consultancy is little more that providing clients with “outside the box” perspectives they have overlooked. It all comes down to the “Cui bono?” question: Who benefits from those perspectives? An innocuous prank is one thing; but, if a “corporate ox” is being gored, the issue is far more serious!

Entropy Applies to More than Thermodynamics!

 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62dlvdq3e3o

Voices of Music Presents a Valentines’ “Rerun”

This afternoon the Voices of Music Sunday Mornings at Ten program presented a rerun of a program entitled Love is in the Air Valentine Special, which was performed three years ago. This turned out to be a marathon of 33 selections from video recordings of past performances, resulting in an overall duration of about three hours. Regardless of what one may think about Valentine’s Day, this was the perfect way to stay indoors and avoid the rainy afternoon!

The entire performance was structured as a YouTube playlist. One simply had to go to the home page for the entire program and click the “Play all” button. YouTube would then automatically advance through the 33 Web sites in the order found on the home page.

Since YouTube has done it for me, I shall not provide readers with a blow-by-blow account of all 33 of the compositions. Rather, I shall call attention to some of my more memorable personal moments. One of these was the surprise that only one of the selections was by Johann Sebastian Bach. Soprano Laura Heimes sang the first aria in the BWV 213 cantata Laßst uns sorgten, laßst uns wachen (let us take care, let us watch over). (“For the record,” as they say, this aria was a revision of one of the arias in the BWV 248 Christmas Oratorio.)

Soprano Anna Dennis preparing to sing “Fairest Isle” (screen shot from the Voices of Music video)

There were also back-to-back performances of two settings of texts by William Shakespeare. Soprano Anna Davis sang “Take, O take those lips away;” and her performance was followed by one of “It was a lover and his lass,” composed by Thomas Morley and sung by Jennifer Ellis Campani. Towards the end of the program, Shakespeare reappears with two compositions by Anthony Holborne, “The Fairie Round” and “Hearts-Ease.” These were flanked on either side by soprano Anna Dennis singing “Fairest Isle” from Henry Purcell’s Z. 628 “semi-opera,” King Arthur.

Bear in mind, however, I am just accounting for my favorites. To be fair, each of the 33 videos is a gem unto itself. There may be some questions about any connection to Valentine’s Day. Nevertheless, all of the selections were irresistible; and that is really all that matters!

Weilerstein Solos on Latest DSO Live-Stream

For the second year in a row, cellist Alisa Weilerstein appeared as concerto soloist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) in a performance that was live-streamed. Last year she performed Edward Elgar’s Opus 85 cello concerto in E minor. This year was, in the words of Monty Python, “something completely different.”

Alisa Weilerstein and Joan Tower taking bows after the performance of “A New Day” (from the YouTube live-stream of the concert being discussed)

The difference was that Weilerstein performed a concerto explicitly written for her, and DSO co-commissioned its composition. The composer was Joan Tower, who was present in Orchestra Hall for the occasion. The concerto, given the title “A New Day,” was structured in four movements, each of which had its own title:

1. Daybreak
2. Working Out
3. Mostly Alone
4. Into the Night

In the notes I jotted down during the performance, I suggested that the last movement implied a subtitle: “Farewell to Life.”

Ironically, I have had little exposure to Tower’s music. However, the real irony is that my last encounter with that music took place less than a year ago, when Marin Alsop conducted the San Francisco Symphony in a performance of Tower’s “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman.” As a result, I am finally beginning to get my head around her music; and my efforts were reinforced by Weilerstein’s encore selection, Tower’s “Six Variations” for solo cello.

Fortunately, I was able to enjoy a bit more familiarity on either side of the program. The opening selection was “Three Latin American Dances” by Gabriela Lena Frank. However, my awareness of her music goes back at least as early as my Examiner.com days in November of 2012 when the 2012–2013 BluePrint season of the New Music Ensemble at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music presented her “Manchay Tiempo” (time of fear). In that context I was glad to see that, under Bignamini’s baton, the DSO ensemble served up a stimulating account of Frank’s Latin-based rhetoric.

All of this “recent” music was sharply contrasted by the final selection on the program: Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 60 (fourth) symphony in B-flat major. This symphony tends to be overshadowed by its two “monumental neighbors,” Opus 55, the third (“Eroica”) symphony in E-flat major and Opus 67, the (say no more) fifth symphony in C minor. What amuses me most about Opus 60 is the possibility that Beethoven may have known a thing or two about Henry Purcell. The trio section of the third movement scans perfectly with a bawdy catch set to music by Purcell:

     Tis women makes us love,
     'tis love that makes us sad,
     'tis sadness makes us drink,
     and drinking makes us mad.

Given that there is a fair amount of humor in the rest of Opus 60, I have to believe that other lovers of this symphony have also encountered this “Purcell connection!”

C4NM Contributing to Composers Now Festival

Until this morning I had no idea that there was a Composers Now Festival. That is probably because the event is distributed across a diversity of venues, most of which are in New York City limits. Nevertheless, it has been around since 2014; and this year one of those events will be taking place in San Francisco later this month.

Mari Kimura, Pamela Z, and Thea Farhadian (photograph courtesy of Pamela Z)

That program will present solo works and trio improvisations for acoustic and gesture-controlled instruments. All three of the performers work with electronics. The best known (at least to most readers of this site) will be Pamela Z, who is also a vocalist. The other two, Mari Kimura and Thea Farhadian, play violin in addition to working with electronic gear. Each of these musicians will give solo performances, and they will also join forces for trio improvisations.

The performance will be hosted by the Center for New Music (C4NM). It will take place in the Concert Hall at 55 Taylor Street. As most readers know by now, this is a short walk from the Van Ness Muni station. General admission will be $17.85 with $12.51 admission for members and students. Eventbrite has created a Web page for online ticket purchases.

Anthropic Echoes “Boss” Tweed

Photograph of Claude being used on a cell phone (provided by GK Images/Alamy, used under the headline of the article from The Guardian being discussed)

Marvin Minsky, one of the “founding fathers” of artificial intelligence (AI), was my advisor for the thesis papers I wrote in my senior undergraduate year and my doctoral dissertation. As a result, it is difficult for me to encounter any news article purporting to write about that topic without my “Spidey-sense” tingling. This happened this morning when I was reviewing my news feeds from The Guardian. When I saw the headline “US military used Anthropic’s AI model Claude in Venezuela raid, report says” I could not resist reading further.

The critical sentence near the beginning of the article is as follows:

Anthropic’s terms of use prohibit the use of Claude for violent ends, for the development of weapons or for conducting surveillance.

This appeared shortly after the opening sentence:

Claude, the AI model developed by Anthropic, was used by the US military during its operation to kidnap Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela, the Wall Street Journal revealed on Saturday, a high-profile example of how the US defence department is using artificial intelligence in its operations.

One would think that this is a cut-and-dried case of cognitive dissonance. However, this seems to be a case in which silence is louder than dissonance. William Christou, author of the article, put it this way:

A spokesperson for Anthropic declined to comment on whether Claude was used in the operation, but said any use of the AI tool was required to comply with its usage policies. The US defence department did not comment on the claims.

In other words, both sides are waffling, recalling the words of Boss Tweed when reporters tried to call out his corruption: “What are you gonna do about it?” One would think that both Anthropic and the Department of Defense should be called out to answer that question. For now, however, it seems as if we shall have to cope with deafening silence!

Why "Selling It" Still Takes Priority over Safety

 https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/e-bike-crash-injury-21331489.php

Sixth Station Trio Returns to Old First Concerts

Sixth Station Trio members Anju Goto, Katelyn Tan, and Federico Strand Ramirez performing last night at Old First Presbyterian Church (screen shot from the live video stream)

Last night the Sixth Station Trio returned to the Old First Presbyterian Church to give their third performance in the Old First Concerts series. As has previously been observed, all three of the trio members have had experiences with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM). The pianist is Katelyn Tan, who received her Masters degree from SFCM in 2020. That same year, violinist Anju Goto completed his SFCM undergraduate degree. Finally, cellist Federico Strand Ramirez holds both a Bachelor of Music degree and an Advanced Certificate from SFCM.

The program was devoted to the music that Joe Hisaishi composed for Hayao Miyazaki’s animated fantasy film Howl’s Moving Castle. By way of full disclosure, I should make it clear that, while I have been aware of Miyazaki for some time, I have not seen this film, nor have I even seen excerpts from it! On the basis of last night’s performance, I would assume that the film had a “primary theme” around which other versions and themes would develop.

As in the past, I chose to watch the Sixth Station performance through the live-stream of the performance. Also as in the past, there were microphone problems, with the piano having to deal with the most difficulties. Nevertheless, the performers did their best; and I did my own best to keep up with attentive listening. However, had my schedule allowed, I would have preferred to have attended their Groupmuse house concert last month, which included piano trios by Joseph Haydn and Robert Schumann!

Stella Chen Returning to SF for Chamber Music

Cellist Brannon Cho, violinist Stella Chan, and violist Matthew Lipman (from the Groupmuse Web page for their coming recital)

Next month violinist and Bay Area native Stella Chan will return to San Francisco for the third program in the 2026 season presented by Chamber Music San Francisco. Unless I am mistaken, she was last in town in July of 2024, which she came to Davies Symphony Hall to make her debut as concerto soloist with the San Francisco Symphony. She will return next month as part of a trio, whose other members are violist Matthew Lipman and cellist Brannon Cho. The three of them have been performing as a trio since 2023.

They have prepared a “two centuries” program, which will be presented in reverse chronological order. The composer for the first half of the program will be Ernst von Dohnányi. His Opus 10 is a string trio, which was given its first performance in Vienna in 1904. The composer entitled the piece “Serenade,” and it consists of five movements. The second half of the program will be devoted to one of the major chamber music undertakings of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His K. 563 divertimento in E-flat major is a six-movement composition, whose fourth movement is a set of seven variations on a theme in B-flat major.

The venue for this performance will be the Presidio Theater, which is located in the Presidio at 99 Moraga Avenue. This will be a Groupmuse event with a Web page for purchasing tickets. Ticket prices are $20 with the discounted $15 for Supermusers. The performance will begin at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 8. Ticket sales will close at noon on Thursday, March 5.

[added 2/18, 6:35 a.m.: As of this writing, only four Groupmuse tickets are available. Remaining tickets will be sold through the Chamber Music San Francisco Web page. Ticket prices are $69 and $35.]

Climate Control Receives a “Knockout Punch”

Donald Trump explaining to reporters the “hoax” of climate change (photograph by Kenny Holston for The New York Times)

 https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/climate/trump-epa-greenhouse-gases-climate-change.html

Voices of Music to Celebrate Valentine’s Day

The Voices of Music ensemble led by Hanneke van Proosdij at the harpsichord (from the Web page for purchasing tickets)

Those that recall the announcement of the four concerts scheduled by Voices of Music for its 2025–2026 season probably know that the third of those performances in San Francisco will take place this coming Saturday on Valentine’s Day. The title of the program will be Love Songs from the 17th Century. The program will be organized around composers from England (Henry Purcell and John Blow) and Italy (Salamone Rossi, Arcangelo Corelli, and Marco Uccellini). The ensemble will be led jointly by Hanneke van Proosdij from the keyboard and lutenist David Tayler. The vocalist will be soprano Danielle Reutter-Harrah, with string performances by Elizabeth Blumenstock and Augusta McKay Lodge on baroque violins and cellist William Skeen.

The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. this coming Saturday, February 14. The venue will be the Old First Presbyterian Church at 1751 Sacramento Street on the southeast corner of Van Ness Avenue. A Web page has been created for purchasing tickets. Ticket prices are $63 for adults, $58 for seniors, $40 for “Young Professionals” under the age of 40, and $10 for full-time students with valid identification.

SFCA to Celebrate Music for Jewish Traditions

Poster design for next month’s concert (from the Web Page for purchasing tickets)

Next month will see the second of the three programs to be presented this season by San Francisco Choral Artists (SFCA). The title of this program will be L’Chaim! A Celebration of Life, and the theme will be a global perspective on Jewish tradition. Those traditions will be expressed through music of praise and devotion, intimacy, and hard-won hope, inspired by the Biblical psalms and lamentations.

As is often the case, this will be a “past and present” program. The past will be acknowledged through compositions by Salamone Rossi, who served as concertmaster for the court of Mantua from 1587 to 1628, and Felix Mendelssohn from the nineteenth century. The contemporary composers on the program will be Tzvi Avni, Matt Van Brink, Sylke Zimpel, L Peter Deutsch, and Alice Parker. As usual, there will also be world premiere performances of music by Composer-in-Residence Max Marcus and Composer-Not-in-Residence Peter Hilliard.

The San Francisco performance of this program will take place at 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 15. The venue will be the Noe Valley Ministry, which is located at 1021 Sanchez Street. A Web page has been created for online ticket purchases on a pay-what-you-will basis. Tickets at the door will be sold for $35 with a $30 rate for seniors and $15 for those under the age of 30.

Another Seldom-Encountered Rochberg Piece

If my search engine is behaving properly, composer George Rochberg has not shown up on this site since March of 2022. On that occasion, his setting of Psalm 150 was performed by the San Francisco Choral Artists; and this turned out to be my latest missed opportunity to listening to his music. Mind you, this did not surprise me. Rochberg was in the Music Department at the University of Pennsylvania at the time that I was teaching computer science there (and hanging out with the early music crowd in my spare time); and I never once saw the man, let alone had an opportunity to listen to any of his compositions.

Guitarist Laura Lootens performing her arrangement of one of George Rochberg’s “Caprice Variations,” composed for solo violin (from a YouTube video released by the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts)

I was thus pleasantly surprised this morning to learn that I would be able to sample his efforts through yesterday’s release of a new YouTube video by the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts. This was the latest performance by an Omni guitarist of music not originally composed for guitar. “Caprice Variations” was composed by Rochberg for unaccompanied violin as a “response” to the call of the solo violin Caprice compositions by Niccolò Paganini. On this new video, guitarist Laura Lootens performs the second of those variations.

I was more than a little disappointed that this variation should be taken out of context. Indeed, Rochberg’s music is performed so seldom that anyone encountering Lootens’ performance through “blind listening” would probably guess that the music was composed by someone else! To be fair, however, listening to this one variation puts the composer at a disadvantage. Consider the text provided on the YouTube Web page for this performance:

George Rochberg’s Caprice Variations for solo, unaccompanied violin, written in 1970 were built as a large set of character variations on Paganini’s well-known Caprice No. 24. Rochberg uses the famous Paganini theme as a kind of “laboratory” to move through sharply contrasting historical styles and expressive worlds in a virtuosic display, making the piece both a technical tour de force and a statement about tradition and modern musical language.

It is next to impossible to even guess what “came out of the laboratory” by listening to only a single variation!

That said, Lootens delivered a well-polished account of that second variation in Presto tempo; but any serious listener deserves an opportunity to listen to Rochberg’s composition in its entirety!

Balanchine Returns to San Francisco Ballet

The full ensemble for George Balanchine’s “Serenade” (from the San Francisco Ballet Web page for the program currently being presented)

Last night saw my return to the War Memorial Opera House for the second program in the 93rd season of the San Francisco Ballet. The title of the program was Balanchine: Father of American Ballet, and it presented three different aspects of George Balanchine’s highly inventive approaches to choreography. The program began with “Diamonds,” the last of the three Jewels ballets, set to the last four of the five movements of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 29, his third symphony in D major. The “keystone” of the program was the first choreography by Balanchine to be performed in New York. “Serenade” was set to Tchaikovsky’s Opus 48, his four-movement “Serenade for Strings.” The evening concluded with Balanchine’s best known “Americana” ballet, “Stars and Stripes,” set to music by John Philip Sousa, orchestrated by Hershy Kay.

I came to know all of these ballets during my student years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Once I had my own car, I would make regular trips from Cambridge into Manhattan. At that time the Boston Ballet repertoire included both “Serenade” and “Stars and Stripes;” but I still enjoyed watching the members of the New York City Ballet (NYCB) in Lincoln Center. With all that context, last night’s performance amounted to an extended trip down memory lane.

Fortunately, the trip was a good one. Mind you, NYCB has received its share of attention through the Great Performances television series; and I continue to enjoy watching those programs, even when they are repeated. Nevertheless, there is no substitute for the immediacy of the performance of ballet on the stage; and last night the San Francisco Ballet dancers could not have done better justice to that immediacy. Also, from my vantage point in the Dress Circle, I could fully appreciate the diversity of spacial designs that Balanchine invented for his choreography.

All three of last night’s performances were engaging from beginning to end. For works like these, I tend not to focus in individual virtuoso turns. I like to maintain awareness over the full stage, relishing the geometry of the patterns that unfold one after another. Mind you, since I was familiar with all three of these ballets, I knew what to expect and where to direct my glances! As a result, by the end of the evening, I was more than satisfied to have my memories of some of my favorite ballets revived and presented with all the detail and energy that Balanchine would have expected.

2026 Schwabacher Recital Programs Announced

Banner for this year’s Schwabacher Recital Series (from the Web page for the Series)

This year the annual Schwabacher Recital Series will not begin until April (which, as some readers may recall, was the month of the last performance last year). This series of programs, presented jointly by the San Francisco Opera (SFO) Center and the Merola Opera Program, is now in its 42nd year. Regular readers probably know by now that the series is named after James Schwabacher, who was a co-founder of the Merola Opera Program; and it provides an opportunity to showcase the talents of the exemplary artists who have participated in the training programs of the Merola Opera Program and/or the SFO Center.

This year each of the performances will be held in a different venue. All of them will take place on weekdays beginning at 7 p.m. Tickets for the three-concert subscription will be $75, and single tickets will be sold for $30. A single Web page has been created for all ticket purchases. The Box Office is located in the lobby of the War Memorial Opera House at 301 Van Ness Avenue (across the street from City Hall).

Program specifics have not yet been finalized. Nevertheless, there will be the usual three recitals, and the pianists have been identified for all of them. Vocalists for the first two recitals have been announced, but only one of several has been named for the final performance. Current information for each of the dates is as follows:

Wednesday, April 1, Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater: The performers will be second-year Adler Fellows. Pianist Ji Youn Lee will accompany soprano Mary Hopkins and baritone Olivier Zerouali. The venue will be the Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater, which is on the fourth (top) floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue, adjacent to the War Memorial Opera House.

Tuesday, May 5, First Unitarian Universalist Society: Baritone Gabriel Natal-Báez will be the only vocalist. He will be accompanied at the piano by Tzu Kuang Tan. The venue is at 1187 Franklin Street, at the intersection with Geary Boulevard.

Tuesday, June 16, Barbro Osher Recital Hall: Bass-baritone Kyle Ketelson is currently Artist in Residence with SFO. He will perform with the Merola Artists he is currently coaching. The accompanying pianist will be Carrie-Ann Matheson. The venue is located on the eleventh floor (top) of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music building at 200 Van Ness Avenue.

The Bleeding Edge: 2/9/2026

This will be a busy week on the Bleeding Edge. Only two events have been previously announced:

1. Sarah Cahill’s Music History and Literature, which will take place this evening at 7:30 p.m. in the Barbro Osher Recital Hall on the eleventh floor of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music building at 200 Van Ness Avenue
2. The performance by Splinter Reeds at The Lab, located in the Mission at 2948 16th Street

With one exception, all other events will take place at familiar venues as follows:

Thursday, February 12, 8 p.m., Peacock Lounge: This will be the usual evening of four adventurous sets. Kristin Miltner is the composer and designer of video game consoles “designed to seize you by the roll of quarters and pull you headlong into unfolding multidimensional space.” This will be followed by Bevin Kelley, who is half of the duo Blectum From Blechdom. The next set will be performed jointly by PCRV and Appliancide, both based in Fargo, North Dakota. The final set will be taken by Dead Fern, with further information provided by its Bandcamp Web page.

The Peacock Lounge is located in the Lower Haight (sometimes known as Haight-Fillmore) at 552 Haight Street, between Fillmore Street and Steiner Street. Doors will open at 7:30 p.m. to enable the first set to begin at 8 p.m. sharp. Admission will be on a sliding scale between $5 and $15. As in the past, no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Friday, February 13, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: Details have not yet been announced for this week’s Other Dimensions in Sound program. As always, the venue is 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, February 13, 8:30 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: Jazz percussionist Kahil El'Zabar will lead a performance by The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble. As usual, the venue is located in Glen Park at 653 Chenery Street. The cover charge is $35 with a student rate of between $10. Those wishing to make reservations can call 415-586-3733.

Saturday, February 14, 12:00 p.m., Center for New Music: This will be the usual G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|N|O|I|S|E|P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S event with the usual opportunity to enjoy vegan pancakes while listening to “bleeding edge” music. It appears that this month there will be five sets with “bleeding edge” eccentricities in the names as follows:

1. Amphibious Gestures
2. Leyya Mona Tawil
3. Rot Diet
4. Adult Math
5. Kink Disposal Unit

Admission will be $10 with a $6 rate for members and students. For those that do not yet know, the venue is located at 55 Taylor Street, just north of Market Street.

Sunday, February 15, 2 p.m., Center for New Music: 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 new works for piano, oboe, violin, flute, and electronics by John G. Bilotta, Monica Chew, James W. Cook, Mary Fineman, Robert Fleisher, John F. McGrew, Amy Stephens, Davide Verotta, and Ludmila Yurina. Admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for members and students.

Lorin Benedict, whose performance often involves only his microphone

Monday, February 16, 8 p.m., Harlan Records: This record store, located at 18 Harlan Place, will host a live (and free) performance by the duo of George Grydkovets and Lorin Benedict.

Bronfman Returns to SFS Great Performers

Pianist Yefim Bronfman (from the Web page for his SFS Great Performers Series recital)

Last night pianist Yefim Bronfman returned to Davies Symphony Hall to present another recital in the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) Great Performers Series. His last visit was in April of 2024, when he presented a “usual suspects” program of solo piano compositions by Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, and Frédéric Chopin. However, he also added Esa-Pekka Salonen’s “Sisar” for a departure from the nineteenth century.

Last night’s departure was far less radical. The most recent work on the program was the second of the two “books” that Claude Debussy composed under the title Images. There are only three pieces in this collection, the first depicting the sound of bells, the second evoking the setting of the moon, and the last entitled simple “Poissons d’or” (goldfish). Each of these pieces presents the composer’s command of the evocative at its best. Sadly, while Bronfman gave a dutiful account of all the notes, any of the evocations of the “images” in the movement titles was not particularly compelling. That failure to seize and maintain attentive listening was equally evident at the beginning of the program with a performance of Robert Schumann’s Opus 18, the “Arabesque” in C major, which rambled on with an uneven sense of the overall structure.

Each half of the program concluded with a sonata by one of the “three B’s,” Johannes Brahms prior to the intermission and Ludwig van Beethoven at the conclusion. The Brahms selection was an early one, his Opus 5, the third piano sonata in F minor. There was no shortage of expressiveness in the composer’s early compositions, but Bronfman seemed to do little more than ramp up that expressiveness with little sense of the overall content. The dynamics in the first movement were particularly extreme. The Beethoven selection was about half a century earlier (not in 1853 as printed in the program book). Opus 57, known as the “Appassionata,” was completed in 1805; and, like its recent predecessor, the Opus 53 “Waldstein,” it has received a generous amount of attention. Sadly, Bronfman did not invoke the attention it deserved with too much “hammering” in the first movement and too much blurring in the last.

There were two encores, neither announced and neither particularly compelling. I have come away from past Bronfman recitals with an abundance of satisfaction. This one left me with disappointment.

Chanticleer to Celebrate the City of its Origin

Next month will see the third of the four programs prepared for Chanticleer’s 48th season. The all-male ensemble made its debut on June 27, 1978 at the Old Mission Dolores in San Francisco. Since that time it has developed a prodigious repertoire extending from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Poster design for next month’s Chanticleer program, reflecting on its title

In that context the title of their next program will be I Left My Heart in San Francisco, reflecting on the ensemble’s origins. Specifics have not yet been finalized. However, the Web page for this event serves as a preview for the selections to come:

In this program, we honor the city’s diverse musical heritage, lifting up the works of Bay Area composers past and present, echoing the spirituals of resilience, the jazz of revolution, the folk of protest, and the contemporary sounds that continue to shape the cultural landscape. Interwoven through this program are tributes to the many identities that call this city home—voices of LGBTQ+ pride, immigrant spirit, and creative defiance.

This will be an afternoon performance, beginning at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 28. The venue will be the Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, which is located at 50 Oak Street, just west of Van Ness Avenue. Tickets are now available for purchase through a City Box Office Web page, which includes a diagram for both general admission and reserved seating. Ticket prices for general admission are $40 and specific reserved seats may be selected through the Web page for $71.

Calidore Shifts from Beethoven to Americana

The members of the Calidore String Quartet on the cover of their latest album

Having released their box set of the complete string quartets composed by Ludwig van Beethoven last year, the Calidore String Quartet has entered the new year with the release of an all-American album. The title of the new album is American Tapestry, and it will be released this coming Friday. However, as at least some readers probably already know, Amazon.com has already created a Web page for processing pre-orders.

The press release for this new album describes the content as “a panoramic portrait of American musical expression across the 20th and 21st centuries.” The earlier century is represented by the “bookends” of the album. It begins with Samuel Barber’s Opus 11, his first string quartet, whose second movement was subsequently arranged for string orchestra under the title “Adagio for Strings.” The “program” concludes with Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Opus 34, his third string quartet in D major, composed in Los Angeles after the end of World War II. This is preceded by “With Malice Toward None,” composed by John Williams for the biographical film Lincoln. Barber’s quartet is followed by Wynton Marsalis’ three-movement suite, At the Octoroon Balls.

This is clearly an ambitious undertaking, but the Calidore players serve up a convincing performance, particularly for those inclined to listen to an album from start to finish. One reason may be that the ensemble has maintained its membership. Violinists Jeffrey Myers and Ryan Meehan are still performing with Jeremy Berry on viola and cellist Estelle Choi. Having enjoyed their approaches to Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven, I definitely appreciate their “great leap forward,” having already whetted my appetite when they performed the Korngold quartet in Herbst Theatre in March of last year.

San Francisco Performances: March, 2026

Next month San Francisco Performances (SFP) will present two solo recitals. Each will be for a different instrument, taking place at a different venue. Each of the dates will be hyperlinked to a Web page for purchasing tickets. Specifics are as follows:

Thursday, March 12, Herbst Theatre: French pianist Lise de la Salle gave her third solo recital for San Francisco Performances in April of 2023. The second half of her program was devoted entirely to Franz Liszt’s monumental B minor piano sonata. Next month she will return to Herbst for another performance of this music. This time she will follow up with two additional Liszt selections. The first of these will be “Cantique d'amour,” the tenth of the compositions in Liszt’s Harmonies poetiques et religieuses. She will then conclude the program with Liszt’s “Réminiscences de Don Juan,” a fantasy based on themes from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 527, Don Giovanni. The program will begin with the first and last of Frédéric Chopin’s “Ballade” compositions, Opus 23 in G minor and Opus 52 in F minor. The venue is located on the ground floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street.

David Russell with his guitar (from the SFP Web page for his recital)

Saturday, March 14, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church: The Robert and Ruth Dell Guitar Series will present its fourth concert, a solo recital by David Russell. As is usually the case, this event will be shared with the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts. Much of the program will be devoted to music originally composed for piano by Isaac Albéniz, including selections from his Opera 92, 97, and 165 collections. These will be preceded by “Prelude and Andante,” Russell’s transcription of music by Johann Sebastian Bach (without any further details announced). The program will begin with Mauro Giuliani’s Opus 61, entitled “Grand Overture.” The remaining works on the program will be “Don Quijote,” by Welsh composer (and guitarist) Stephen Goss, and selections from Homage to Charles Chaplin by Spanish guitarist Gabriel Estarellas. St. Mark’s Lutheran Church is located at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of the corner of Franklin Street. Doors to the lobby will open half an hour before the beginning of the performance. [added 2/20, 12:55 p.m.: 

Friday, March 20, Herbst Theatre: Violinist Augustin Hadelich will return for his next performance in the SFP Shenson Great Artists and Ensembles series. He will be accompanied at the piano by Francesco Piemontesi. Hadelich has structured his program around the three violin sonatas composed by Claude Debussy, Francis Poulenc, and César Franck. The last of these will be preceded by György Kurtág's Tre Pezzi. The other two will be arrangements of early music by Piemontesi. The composers will be Nicolas de Grigny and Jean-Philippe Rameau, respectively.

Friday, March 27, Herbst Theatre: Bassist Edgar Meyer will return to SFP. He will be joined by the members of the Dover Quartet:  violinists Joel Link and Bryan Lee, violist Julianne Lee, and cellist Camden Shaw. The central selection on the program will be present two of Meyer’s own compositions, a string quintet and "“2 Duets for Cello and Bass.”]

Nicholas McGegan Returns to PBO Podium

Banner for the Web page for the program being discussed

Last night Nicholas McGegan returned to Herbst Theatre to lead the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (PBO) & Chorale in a program of sacred and secular music entitled Baroque Garlands. Each half of the program consisted of a single composition, beginning with the sacred and concluding with the secular. The composer for the first half of the program was George Frideric Handel, followed by Jean-Philippe Rameau in the second half. There were only two vocal soloists, soprano Nola Richardson and tenor Aaron Sheehan.

The Handel selection was HWV 232, a setting of the Latin text of Psalm 110, whose title consists of the first two words, Dixit Dominus (“The Lord said”). Five of the nine movements are choral, and they are interleaved with a rich diversity of solo performances. The second and third movements were sung by countertenor Kyle Sanchez Tingzon and soprano Nola Richardson, respectively. They then joined the vocal quintet in the sixth movement, whose other members were soprano Victoria Fraser, tenor Aaron Sheehan, and bass-baritone Chung-Wai Soong. The penultimate movement was a soprano duo with Tonia D’Amelio joining Richardson. Taken as a whole, this was an engaging journey of diversity, given a delightfully upbeat account by McGegan.

The intermission was followed by Rameau’s “La guirlande, ou Les fleurs enchantée,” described in the program book as an “Acte de ballet with a libretto by Jean-François Marmontel.” There are only two characters in the narrative, Zélide (Richardson) and Myrtil (Sheehan). The “enchantment” is that both characters have garlands that will stay fresh as long as they are faithful to each other. As might be expected, the narrative involves the withering of the garlands and their eventual restoration. The “happy ending” is celebrated with dances by herdsmen,  shepherds, and shepherdesses.

As has been the case so often, the entire evening was carried by the enthusiastic attentiveness of McGegan on the podium. He was as committed to engaging listener attention as he had been over the course of his 34-year tenure as Music Director. (Having also seen him conduct the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, I know this his commitment is not limited to any particular period in music history!) I also appreciated the way in which he prepared a program coupling the contrasting spirits of sacred and secular music. Hopefully, he will continue to visit PBO in future seasons.