Peter Horvath to Lead Trio at Chez Hanny

Pianist Peter Horvath on the cover of his new album, Absolute Reality

About a year ago, pianist Peter Horvath performed with the Scott Barnhill Quartet at Chez Hanny. This month he will return, leading his own trio. Rhythm will be provided by Dan Feiszli on bass and drummer Jason Lewis.

Regular readers probably “know the usual drill.” For those encountering Chez Hanny house concerts for the first time, the events begin at 4 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon. This one will take place on June 14. Admission will be $25, payable by check, cash, or a Zelle transfer to jazz@chezhanny.com. The “house” is located at 1300 Silver Avenue. This is best reached by public transportation by taking the Muni 44 bus going east from Glen Park Station. For those thinking of driving, parking tends to be available on Silver Avenue, Silliman Street, one block south of Silver, and Holyoke Street, which connects Silver and Silliman.

SFCA: Too Much of a Good Thing?

Late yesterday afternoon, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church saw the last of the three concerts of the season to be presented by San Francisco Choral Artists (SFCA), led by Artistic Director Magen Solomon. The title of the program was Love, Lost and Found, and it featured three new works. Two of them were by “usual suspects,” Composer-in-Residence Max Marcus and Composer-Not-in-Residence Perter Hilliard. The third composer was Yuri Lee, winner of the New Voices Project competition.

This, however, was just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. Contributing composers from the current and last centuries were be Roger Nixon, Kirke Mechem, Daniel Afonso, Russell Burnham, and Allen Shearer. Those from past centuries were Orlando di Lasso, Carlo Gesualdo, Claudio Monteverdi, Fanny Hensel, and Clara Schumann.

In the midst of this plethora of music history, past and present, Solomon delivered commentary on the offerings. Given the size of the program, this amounted to too much of a good thing. Thus, while Solomon could maintain a solid command of balance and phrasing in her ensemble, the event turned out to be more than most attentive listeners could handle. One might say that breadth of scope can be a good thing; but, when it is examined with a magnifying glass, it can easily become tedious.

Of course, this may be little more than a bias in my own approach to listening. Over the years I have cultivated the skilled patience to negotiate the extended durations of symphonies by Gustav Mahler and operas by Richard Wagner. Nevertheless, I came away yesterday with the feeling that I had sustained one you-know-what thing after another; and I am afraid that the overall experience was not particularly satisfying!