Getting the Jump on Christmas Music

The “Nativity” cover for the Pastorales de Noel album (courtesy of PIAS)

It seems as if celebrating the spirit of Christmas through music gets earlier and earlier by the year. This year, “first out of the gate” seems to be a harmonia mundi album of performances by Les Arts Florissants entitled Pastorales de Noel. It will be released this coming Friday; but, as many readers will probably expect, Amazon.com has already created a Web page for processing pre-orders.

This is a two-CD release of six compositions, all vocal in a diversity of combinations. Accompaniment is provided by instruments associated with music from the late seventeenth century. There are six compositions distributed roughly equally across the two CDs and a rich diversity of vocal soloists. The ensemble is Les Arts Florissants directed by William Christie. This combines the full extent of vocal ranges (including countertenor) with accompaniment by period instruments including winds, strings, and organ. For the most part, the vocal sources reflect on the Nativity, but there is also a Magnificat with instrumental accompaniment for countertenor, tenor, and bass.

The entire album is devoted to a single composer, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, who flourished for much of the last quarter of the seventeenth century. (He died in 1704.) As an atheist, my approach to music associated with the Nativity is an abstract one. Nevertheless, there is an engaging diversity in how Charpentier finds just the right ways to associate instrumentation with text. Unless my ears are playing tricks on me, all of the vocal compositions are sung one-to-a-part; and often the individual qualities of the singers blend engagingly with the individual qualities of the instrumental resources.

Charpentier should not be a stranger to at least some readers. Both American Bach Soloists and the California Bach Society have included them in their respective repertoires. Where recordings are concerned, Jordi Savall led a performance of Charpentier’s setting of the Te Deum hymn for an Alla Vox album. I have not followed Christie as closely as I have tried to keep up with Savall, but I still enjoy Christie’s Monteverdi album (the entirety of Claudio Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione de Poppea), which dates back a little over seven years ago!

SF Philharmonic Announces “Season of Titans”

Tchaikovsky and Mahler “face off” on the San Francisco Philharmonic poster for the first concert of its season of “Titans” (from the Groupmuse Web page for this performance)

Early next month will mark the beginning of the new season of the San Francisco Philharmonic. The overall title is Season of Titans, and the first program will live up to that name … literally. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Gustav Mahler’s first symphony, composed in the key of D major. The title of this article is a reflection on the following sentence from the Wikipedia page for this composition: “For the 1893 Hamburg and 1894 Weimar performances, Mahler gave the piece the title Titan after the novel by Jean Paul, although Mahler specified that the piece was not in any way ‘about’ the book; the nickname is often used today, but properly only applies to those two versions.” That said, those familiar with the last of the four movements of this symphony will probably agree that the prevailing rhetoric is “titanic!”

The first half of the program will also present a single composition. This will be Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 49, best known as the “1812 Overture.” (The original title was “The Year 1812, Solemn Overture.”) This was the year in which the Russian army prevailed of Napoleon’s French invasion. The opposition is reflected in the music, which begins with the music of the Eastern Orthodox “Troparion of the Holy Cross.” The French national anthem, “La Marseillaise,” “invades” the orchestra; and Russia responds to battle with selections of Russian folk music. The French finally retreat, and the overture concludes with a rousing performance of “God Save the Tsar.”

Taken as a whole, the duration of the program will be approximately 90 minutes. It will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 3. The performance will take place in Herbst Theatre, which is located in the Veterans Building on the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and McAllister Street. This will be a Groupmuse Night Out performance, and tickets will be sold for $22 through the Groupmuse Web page. (“Supermusers” will be able to purchase tickets for $17.) As of this writing, a generous number of tickets are available.

The Bleeding Edge: 9/21/2026

This continues to be a busy month. Fortunately, a generous number of the events have already been reported. In “order of appearance,” those events are as follows:

1. The 25th Annual San Francisco Electronic Music Festival at 8 p.m. on Thursday, September 24, Friday, September 25, and Saturday, September 26
2. The five Metamorphosis compositions by Philip Glass performed by pianist Patrick Anderson, also on Saturday, September 26 but at 6:15 p.m.
3. Saxophonist Kasey Knudsen leading a jazz sextet for a Jazz Chez Hanny concert on Sunday, September 27, with door opening at 3:30 p.m.
4. The Atom String Quartet of violinists are Dawid Lubowicz and Mateusz Smoczyński, performing with Michał Zaborski on viola and cellist Krzysztof Lenczowski for the last Old First Concerts performance of the month, also taking place on Sunday but beginning at 4 p.m.

Remaining events will also take place between Thursday and Sunday at a diversity of venues, many (most?) of which will be familiar to readers:

Thursday, September 24, and Sunday, September 27, 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m., and Friday, September 25, and Saturday, September 26, at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., Black Cat Jazz Supper Club: Saxophonist Stacy Dillard and trumpeter Josh Evans  will lead a quintet whose other members have not yet been identified. In their words, the repertoire will be “hard swing, sharp interplay, and the kind of late-night jazz energy that keeps the room on edge.” Admission for all performances will be $30. The club is located in the Civic Center at 400 Eddy Street.

Thursday, September 24, 7 p.m., Mr Tipple’s: Japanese jazz pianist Rumi Abe is now based in San Francisco, following her career in Tokyo, where she appeared in over 200 performances annually. She will lead a quartet with drummer Akira Tana and bassist John Wiitala. Saxophonist Kasey Knudsen will take the front line. As many readers probably know by now, the venue is located at 39 Fell Street.

Friday, September 25, 7 p.m., Community Music Center: Persistence is a program of two nights of music and poetry performed both nationally and internationally by Bay Area artists. On the first of these programs, the poets will be devorah major and Josiah Luis Alderete. Each reading will be followed by a combo. The first of these will be a quartet called Red Fast Triple Luck, whose performers will be David Boyce and Francis Wong on reeds, keyboardist Chris Trinidad, and spoken word artist PC Muñoz. The second will be the Music at Large quartet, identified only by the performers: Lewis Jordan, Sandi Poindexter, Ollen Erich Hunt, and Jimmy Biala. For those that do not already know, the venue is located in the Mission at 544 Capp Street.

Friday, September 25, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: The next Other Dimensions in Sound performance to be curated by “Boohaabian multi reed player extraordinaire David Boyce” will see him playing saxophones and special effects as part of a quartet. He will be joined on the front line by saxophonist Francis Wong. Rhythm will be provided by Chris Trinidad on bass with percussionist PC Munoz who will supplement his drum kit with boom stick and flying hook-rug. As many (most?) readers probably know by now, 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.

Bruce Ackley with his soprano saxophone (from the BayImproviser Web page for his performance this week)

Saturday, September 26, 7 p.m., Community Music Center:  The second performance of Persistence will present a poetry reading by Genny Lim. The program will conclude with Poetic License (with no further information currently provided). Saxophonist Bruce Ackley will perform with The Don Robinson Abstract, whose set will be followed by Music at X-Large.

Saturday, September 26, 7:30 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: Drummer Devin Gray is currently based in Berlin. However, he is currently on a West Coast tour, which will bring him to San Francisco. He will lead a quartet with trumpeter Darren Johnston on the front line. He will be joined in the rhythm section by Lisa Mezzacappa on bass and guitarist Liberty Ellman. For those that do not already know, the bookstore is locate at 653 Chenery Street, a short walk from the Glen Park station for both Muni and BART.

Sunday, September 27, 7 p.m., Bric-a-Brac: Johnny Bell, who performs on a diversity of instruments, is currently on his Basin & Range Tour. He will be performing with “an outstanding bill of Bay Area artists.” He will be joined by the vocal duo of Eda Er and Tasya Abbot. There will also be a duo performance of traditional and experimental string band music by Sadie Siskin and Waldner Kalb, as well as solo improvisations by guitarist Joseph Bradshaw. The venue is located at 175 Leland Avenue. Admission will be $10, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Sunday Bach

The first half of this month has been relatively quiet, and things will begin to rev up in the Civic Center over the course of the coming week. San Francisco Opera is beginning its season with Giuseppe Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra and Thea Musgrave’s Mary, Queen of Scots; and the San Francisco Symphony will have its Opening Gala concert on Thursday, September 24, followed by the annual All San Francisco Concert on Friday. In that context I decided that this morning would be a good time to “take refuge” in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

I rather enjoy the luxury of having two “complete works” collections of recordings of Bach’s music. The first one I acquired was the Teldec Bach 2000 release. A few years later my wife happened on the Brilliant Classics collection, and I have been enjoying compare-and-contrast listening ever since! This morning I found myself revisiting the Brilliant CD of seven of the keyboard toccatas performed on the harpsichord by Menno van Delft, who was a student of Gustav Leonhardt for both harpsichord and organ.

Fragment of the opening measures of BWV 565, copied by Johannes Ringk (from the Wikimedia Commons Web page, public domain)

When “Bach” and “toccata” appear in the same sentence, most readers almost immediately think of BWV 565, the coupling of toccata and fugue in the key of D minor. That music has been performed in so many different settings that it has become almost a cliché (perhaps not even “almost”). As might be guessed, the word has its own Wikipedia page, whose first sentence is: “Toccata (from Italian toccare, literally, ‘to touch’, with ‘toccata’ being the action of touching) is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers.”

However, there are seven more toccatas that Bach composed for harpsichord: BWV 910–916. Only two of these are in major keys: BWV 912 in D major and BWV 916 in G major. As the Wikipedia page puts it, all seven of them “are multi-sectional works which include fugal writing, rhetorical flourishes, recitative, and aria-like movements as part of their structure.” The Wikipedia page also cites that all of these toccatas emerged from Bach’s rich capacity of improvisation. As a result, I found that listening to the seven toccatas on the Brilliant CD was a refreshing experience, reminding me of how long it has been since I last played that album.

My only regret is that, to the best of my knowledge and/or memory, I have not had a chance to listen to any of those “seven other” toccatas in performance!

Keyboard Arrangement This Time for 2 Guitars

The Montenegrin Guitar Duo of Goran Krivokapić and Danijel Cerović (screenshot of their performance of BWV 812 in Montenegro)

Readers may recall that it was almost exactly a month ago when Omni on-Location released a video of the Andalusian Guitar Quartet playing three of the four movements in Manuel de Falla’s 4 Piezas españolas (four Spanish pieces). A little over half an hour ago, the latest Omni on-Location video was released, this time with a performance of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. The guitarists for this video were Goran Krivokapić and Danijel Cerović, who call themselves the Montenegrin Guitar Duo.

The Bach selection was BWV 812, the first in the composer’s collection of six “French” suites. This one is in the key of D minor. My guess is that anyone familiar with Bach’s music will know what the movements are in this suite: Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, a coupling of two Menuets, and the concluding Gigue. As might be guessed, the performance was filmed in Montenegro, more specifically at the Saint Nicholas’ Church in Perast.

BWV 812 is one of those suites where all of the movements are composed for three-voice polyphony. As many readers might guess, arranging that polyphony for two guitars should not be too challenging! However, what is more important is how the guitarists realize that polyphony through their arrangements. The result is that the attentive listener can readily appreciate the inventive breadth in Bach’s polyphony as well as the depth required by the two guitarists to realize that breadth. This is a video that is definitely “one for the books!”

SFS: Afkham Leads Season Opening Concert

Last night saw the first performance in Davies Symphony Hall for the new San Francisco Symphony (SFS) concert series. The conductor was David Afkham, who had made his SFS debut in the fall season of 2025. On that occasion his program was based entirely on two Russian composers from the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Dmitri Shostakovich. This time the program was structured around Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms, the “dynamic duo” of the mid-nineteenth century. The program, as a whole, consisted of overture, concerto, and symphony, but not in the usual order.

Unsuk Chin (courtesy of Boosey & Hawkes)

The second half of the program was devoted entirely to Brahms with the performance of one of his early compositions, the Opus 15 (first) piano concerto in D minor. This was paired on the other side of the intermission with Robert Schumann’s final symphony, the Opus 120 (fourth) in D minor. The program began in the more immediate present with Unsuk Chin’s “subito con forza,” composed in 2020. Garrick Ohlsson was the concerto soloist; and he performed a single encore of Frédéric Chopin’s, the first (in the of A-flat major) of the three waltzes collected in Opus 34. Following tonight’s second performance, Ohlsson will return to Davies on Sunday afternoon for chamber music performances of Johannes Brahms Opus 87, his second piano trio in C major, and Amy Beach’s only piano quintet, her Opus 67 in F-sharp minor.

The title of Chin’s composition was a reflection on Ludwig van Beethoven, more precisely his Opus 62 “Coriolan Overture.” While she seems to have been inspired by Beethoven’s confrontation with his hearing loss, I was more drawn to the overall rhetoric of her music, turning Beethoven’s intense gestures into a wild ride. She also had a keen sense of timing, knowing how to sustain a duration that was neither too short nor too long.

Taken as a whole, one could say that the program was a confrontation between the present and nineteenth centuries. That said, the intensity of rhetoric in both Schumann and Brahms definitely withstood that confrontation! Next week’s All San Francisco Concert will provide another such confrontation, and I am looking forward to it!

San Francisco Opera Turning to Massenet

Next month will see the third production in the 104th season of the San Francisco Opera (SFO). This will be a revival of Vincent Boussard’s staging of Jules Massenet’s Manon, which was last performed at the War Memorial Opera House in 2017. Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim will conduct the SFO Orchestra. Soprano Amina Edris will sing the title role with tenor Pene Pati portraying the Chevalier des Grieux.

This is an opéra comique in the French language, the genre that interleaves spoken dialogue with settings of the music. It is based on the 1731 novel by the Abbé Prévost entitled L'histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut. Most of the novel involves narration by the chevalier, which involves, on the Wikipedia Web page for this novel, a narrative of “moral decline.” The chevalier is so smitten with Manon that his moral decline is described by Wikipedia as “gambling, fraud, theft, murder, and Manon's death as a deportee [from France] in New Orleans.”

Banner of Manon on the Web page for purchasing SFO tickets

Boussard will return to San Francisco to direct the revival of this performance. The staging will be shared with performances by the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre and the Israeli Opera. The first performance will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 15; and the other evening performances will take place at the same time on Wednesday, October 21, Saturday, October 24, Tuesday, October 27, and Friday, October 30. There will also be two Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. on October 18 and November 1 (the final performance). A single Web page has been created for purchasing tickets for all seven of these events.

SFCO Begins MainStage Series Next Month

Music Director Jory Fankuchen conducting the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra (from the Eventbrite Web page for purchasing tickets)

The San Francisco Chamber Orchestra (SFCO), led by Music Director Jory Fankuchen, will begin its latest MainStage Concerts series almost one month from today. The title of the program will be Beethoven’s Eroica, A Hero’s Journey, and the entire program will be framed by two compositions by Ludwig van Beethoven. The second half of the program will be devoted to that composer’s Opus 55, his third symphony composed in the key of E-flat major. Many readers probably know by now that Beethoven originally wished to call this the “Bonaparte” symphony; but, after Napoleon proclaimed himself as Emperor, he chose not to praise a tyrant. As a result, he changed the title of the symphony to “Eroica.”

The program will begin with a Beethoven overture composed around the same time as Opus 55. This will be the 1807 “Coriolan Overture,” which takes its name from the title of a five-act play Heinrich Joseph von Collin. That title is based on the name of the Roman general Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus. He was the protagonist in William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus tragedy, but Beethoven’s overture has nothing to do with Shakespeare. Instead, it was composed for the performance of the play Coriolan by Heinrich Joseph von Collin.

These two selections will frame a twentieth-century composition. Sea Sketches is a five-movement suite for string orchestra composed by Grace Williams. Each of the movements has a title depicting a different aspect of the sea:

1. High Wind
2. Sailing Song
3. Channel Sirens
4. Breakers
5. Calm Sea in Summer

The San Francisco performance of this program will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, October 16. The venue will be the 50 Oak Street building of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. There will be no charge for admission, but reservations are recommended. They may be established through a “Reserve a spot” hyperlink on the Eventbrite Web page for this program

The Latest Repetition of History?

Once again, philosopher George Santayana is in the spotlight with his best-known aphorism, “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.” This time it involves a NewsFeed Web page on the Al Jazeera Web site involving the United Nations. The headline says it all: “US bars Palestinian president from attending UNGA [United Nations General Assembly] for second year.”

The history I have in mind involves the ongoing question of legitimacy. In the last centuries, countries like Germany tried to deny the legitimacy of its Jewish population. It would not be an understatement to say that the consequences were ghastly, but ultimately they led to the creation of Israel as a sovereign state. The resulting governance gave Jews a “voice,” which had been denied in many regions in Europe.

Many who benefitted from that preference had not been born in the territory that is now Israel. They were more likely to come from Europe than from other countries, such as the United States. For my part, I left the United States to teach in Israel after I achieved my doctoral degree. Since my thesis advisor had not prepared me for what I would do after receiving that degree, teaching at the Technion in Haifa was the only job I managed to get! So it would be fair to say that Israel played a significant role in launching my professional career.

That said, the best thing to result from that career was that it prepared me for returning to the United States to teach Computer Science at the University of Pennsylvania! This allowed me to use my summer break to do something that I could not have done when I was living in Israel. I arranged a vacation for visiting Egypt and Jordan, after which, I prepared for an overland move to Jerusalem. This endowed me with a much broader view of the history and governance in that region, a view in which Palestinian Arabs had as much right to participate in governance as the Jewish population did.

The plaque on the base of the Statue of Liberty with the text of Emma Lazarus’ sonnet, “The New Colossus” (from the Wikimedia Commons Web page, photograph provided by the National Park Service, public domain)

As many might guess, this was an idealistic perspective, which has yet to come to terms with reality. The latest attack on that idealism showed up on that Al Jazeera Web page cited in the opening paragraph. Apparently,  seeing to “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” only seems to apply to “masses” from some regions in the world but not others!

Harnoncourt Concludes Collection with Dvořák

Photograph of Antonín Dvořák’s funeral in Prague on May 5, 1904 (from Jarmil Burghauser’s catalog of Dvořák’s works and the reason for the “B” catalog numbers)

I have now listened to the final four CDs in the Warner box set of 42 CDs of recordings made by Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. Some readers may recall that, in my last article, Johannes Brahms was allocated only three CDs. That leaves four CDs devoted entirely to Antonín Dvořák, which made for a particularly stimulating conclusion.

The first three of those CDs account for the last three symphonies: the seventh (B. 141) in D minor, the eighth (B. 163) in G major, and the ninth (B. 178) in E minor, usually known by its title “From the New World.” The final CD presents Dvořák’s only piano concerto, B. 63 in G minor with French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard as soloist. Each of these four CDs concludes with a tone poem. In “order of appearance,” these compositions are:

1. The Wild Dove (B. 198)
2. The Noon Witch (B. 196)
3. The Water Goblin (B. 195)
4. The Golden Spinning Wheel (B. 197)

I must confess that the first pocket score I ever purchased was for B. 178 (although those catalog numbers were not used at that time). I think it was my father that thought this would be a good start, but he had forgotten that we did not have the music in our record collection. As a result, it was a while before I could put that score to good listening use; but it has now served me well for several decades!

That said, Harnoncourt’s conducting is often as good a “tour” through any piece of music as one would encounter through score-following. Mind you, where Dvořák is concerned, I still treasure my Naxos seventeen-CD box set: The Complete Dvořák Published Orchestral Works. Past encounters with Harnoncourt, on the other hand, are more distant. Ironically, they involve another Warner box set, Gidon Kremer: The Warner Collection, which outdoes the Dvořák box with 21 CDs. However, Harnoncourt appears in this collection in only two of those CDs, one for Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 61 violin concerto in D major and the other for Johannes Brahms’ Opus 77 violin concerto, also in D major, which also includes the Opus 102 “double” concerto in A minor with Clemens Hagen playing cello.

In other words, prior to the release of the Warner box set, it has been about half a decade since I last wrote about my listening experiences of Harnoncourt. On the other hand, the Concertgebouw box covers a decidedly longer period of time. The earliest recordings date back to 1980, and the most recent were recorded in 2001.

The music, on the other hand, is limited to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; but, where most of the composers are concerned, depth matters more than breadth. When it comes to Harnoncourt’s career, he did not retire until December 5, 2015, which was the day before his 86th birthday! He would die the following year, on March 5, 2016.

American Bach Announces 38th Season

Poster design for the coming American Bach season

San Francisco performances of the 2026–2027 season of American Bach will get under way in a little less than a month’s time. Once again, this will be a “movable feast” with three different venues: St. Mark’s Lutheran Church at 1111 O’Farrell Street, on the southwest corner of Franklin Street, Grace Cathedral, which is located on Nob Hill at 1100 California Street, and Herbst Theatre, which is entered on the ground floor of the Veterans Building of the San Francisco War Memorial at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. There will be five programs, only three of which will be conducted by Jeffrey Thomas. Specific dates, in chronological order, are as follows:

Sunday, October 11, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 4 p.m.: The first concert will be performed without a conductor. Featured soloists will be cellists Joseph Howe and Gretchen Claassen, and soprano Mary Wilson will perform the opening selection. That will be one of the five settings of Psalm 113 composed by Antonio Vivaldi. (As of this writing, I cannot be more specific!) Two of the selections are listed as “Scarlatti,” without adding the first name of either Domenico or Alessandro! Somewhat more specific is a trio sonata in B-flat major by Antonio Caldara, known as the “Chaconne” trio sonata. There will also be a Sinfonia a cinque in C major by Tomaso Albinoni, most likely taken from his Opus 2 collection 6 Sinfonie & 6 Concerti a cinque. The program will conclude with the fourth concerto da chiesa in Arcangelo Corelli’s Opus 6 collection, composed in the key of D major.

Thursday, December 10, and Friday, December 11, Grace Cathedral, 7:30 p.m.: This will be the annual performances of George Frideric Handel’s HWV 58 oratorio Messiah. Thomas will conduct the American Bach Soloists and the American Bach Choir. There will be four soloists: Hélène Brunet (soprano), Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen (countertenor), Steven Soph (tenor), and Christian Pursell (bass-baritone).

Saturday, December 12, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 7:30 p.m.: Messiah will be followed by a program entitled A Baroque Christmas. Two of the concertos have titles referencing “Il Santissimo Natale,” the first by Vivaldi and the second by Giuseppe Torelli. There will also be two compositions by Michel Corrette from his Symphonie des Noëls, one in A major and the other in D major. Winds will have their say in the “Concerto Pastorale” in F major composed by Johann Christoph Pez. The program will conclude with a “Gloria” setting by Handel (which lacks an HWV number). YuEun Gemma Kim will be the solo violinist, and the vocal performance of the “Gloria” will be sung by Brunet. This will be the second program performed without a conductor.

Thursday, December 31, Herbst Theatre, 4 p.m.: This program has not yet been finalized. However, soprano Nola Richardson and mezzo Sarah Colt will perform arias and duets. As might be expected, Handel will be one of the composers, along with Vivaldi and Johann Adolph Hasse.

Sunday, February 28, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 4 p.m.: Life, Hope, and Joy  will be a rich vocal program. The five vocalists will be sopranos Brunet and Morgan Balfour, countertenor Nicholas Burns, tenor Soph, and bass-baritone David McFerrin. Most of the program will be divided between Johann Sebastian Bach and Dieterich Buxtehude. There will be one selection on the program by Franz Tunder.

Sunday, May 2, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 4 p.m.: The season will conclude with a program entitled Fantastic Baroque. Soloists will be Bethanne Walker on flute and violinists Tatiana Chulochnikova and Kim. The program will be devoted almost entirely to Johann Sebastian Bach and Vivaldi, beginning with a solo violin account of BWV 565, Bach’s coupling of a toccata and fugue in the key of D minor, originally composed for organ. (According to the Wikipedia Web page for this composition, the music “may have been a transcription of a lost solo violin piece.”) There will also be the familiar pairing of canon and gigue by Johann Pachelbel.

175 Years!

The New York Times is 175 years old:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/insider/new-york-times-175-anniversary.html

Even in San Francisco, I still follow its content. Mind you, my primary focus is on the “Arts,” with particular attention to performances of music. After all, many of the performers tend to tour; so recital programs that begin in New York may end up in San Francisco later in the season. (For all I know, this sometimes happens the other way around!)

“O Canada!”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addressing the European Parliament with Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney on the right (photograph by Jean-Christophe Verhaegen for Agence France-Presse, from an Al Jazeera Web page)

Some readers may recall that this past Saturday I wrote about United States President Donald Trump’s approach to diplomacy in an article entitled “How to Lose Friends.” This morning Al Jazeera created a Web page with the title “EU chief von der Leyen proposes ‘associate member’ status for Canada,” drawing upon sources from both Agence France-Presse and Reuters. That title is immediately clarified in the opening sentence: “European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has raised the prospect of Canada becoming the 27-nation European Union’s first ‘associate member’, a striking overture as both seek to pivot away from a hostile United States under President Donald Trump.” It ultimately concludes with von der Leyen having the last word:

We believe that power does not belong to the strongest, the richest or the loudest – but to all of us. That democracies have the freedom to choose with whom to work. So, we are joining forces [with Canada] voluntarily.

Now, to be fair, when I was in high school I was taught that our government was a republic, rather than a democracy. Much of what I learned about American History involved the difference between these two concepts and why that difference matters. Nevertheless, it would be fair to say that democratic freedom of choice has always played a strong role in our country’s approach to governance. In a little over a month, the electoral process may involve major changes in the House of Representatives and perhaps also in the Senate. This may result in a decrease of “harmony” between the Legislative and Executive branches. Put in other words, Trump may confront a major reduction in what he has taken to be “free rein.”

How he will respond to this reduction will be anybody’s guess. Personally, I am hoping that the Constitution will have the last word. I hope I am not being too optimistic about what the future may bring!

Brahms a Little Less “Modest” than Bruckner!

Some readers may recall that yesterday’s article about the Warner box set of the recordings made by Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam was described as a “modest” account of Anton Bruckner, because it was limited to two of his early symphonies. It turns out that Harnoncourt’s attention to Johannes Brahms was only slightly less “modest,” if not surprising. The content consists of four concertos on three CDs; and I have to confess that I felt a bit frustrated that none of the four symphonies were included in the collection. Mind you, having now listened to those four concertos, I am happy enough to take what I received, which amounts to new perspectives on compositions that have been familiar to me for quite some time.

Cover design for the concerto album begin discussed, showing both conductor and piano soloist (from the Amazon.com Web page for this CD album)

The first two CDs account for the composer’s two piano concertos: Opus 15 in D minor and Opus 83 in B-flat major. By way of personal digression, I would like to observe that Opus 83 was one of the earliest releases by Columbia on a “long playing” (LP) disc. When my parents bought their first LP player, it came with a few Columbia albums, one of which was Opus 83. My enthusiasm for that concerto resulted in one of my earliest purchases of a pocket score for the music. The pianist on that album was Rudolf Serkin.

By way of digression, I have to confess that I am looking forward to Garrick Ohlsson playing Opus 15 this Friday (in the hopes that there will be a performance). According to my archives, the last time it was performed was in November of 2022 when conductor Michael Tilson Thomas led the San Francisco Symphony with Emanuel Ax at the keyboard. However, while Opus 83 has tended to be the more popular of the two concertos, my last encounter with it in Davies Symphony Hall was even earlier, in April of 2019 when, again, Emanuel Ax was soloist, this time under the baton of Andrey Boreyko.

In the Harnoncourt performances both concertos have Rudolf Buchbinder as soloist. In the past I have been more familiar with him as a recital soloist, having written this past June about his Song Transcriptions CD, accounting for solo piano transcriptions of 28 songs by Franz Schubert. I had the opportunity to see him as a concerto soloist in Davies Symphony Hall, but that was back in October of 2016, when Michael Tilson Thomas conducted the San Francisco Symphony in a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 466 piano concerto in D minor. Sadly, that concerto was not included in the Harnoncourt recordings.

The final Brahms CD in the box set accounts for two Brahms concertos, both with Gidon Kremer as violin soloists. The first of these is the composer’s only violin concerto, Opus 77 in D major. This is followed by the Opus 102 “Double Concerto,” the second soloist being cellist Clemens Hagen. Both of these concertos are personal favorites, and I continue to enjoy opportunities to listen to Kremer. Nevertheless, I have to wonder why it is that Harnoncourt decided to shy away from any of the four symphonies. I would have thought that such recordings would make for interesting compare-and-contrast listening when paired with the Bruckner recordings!

Just Sayin’

Nvidia CEO Jenson Huang doing his best to listen patiently to United States President Donald Trump (screen shot from an Al Jazeera video)

I realize that this may sound a little brash. However, given my own background at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, I feel an interjection may be necessary. This involves video that showed up this morning as a NewsFeed article from Al Jazeera. The descriptive text for that video reads as follows:

US President Donald Trump makes a surprise call to the CEO of AI chip company, Nvidia, interrupting a live event to discuss recent fears of AI development. While talking to Jensen Huang over speakerphone, Trump called the concerns ‘a hoax’.

I suppose that, as usual, our President just wanted to attract attention to himself; but I think that he should leave matters of artificial intelligence to students and practitioners of artificial intelligence!

The Bleeding Edge: 9/14/2026

This week will be even busier than the last. This time, however, there are two events that have already been taken into account. The first is the monthly G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|N|O|I|S|E|P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S event, which is presented by the Center for New Music. 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. The other will be the return on the SIMM (Static Illusion Methodical Madness) Series this coming Sunday. Readers should now prepare to “fasten their seatbelts” for a ride through a plethora of other performances. As usual there will be hyperlinks for date, time, and venue provided by the BayImproviser Web site as follows:

Tuesday, September 15, 7 p.m., Make-Out Room: This month Jazz at the Make-Out Room will present a “wily evening of cutting-edge jazz, free improvisation, and creative music.” The first two sets will be taken by Anime Aliens and Teja Gerken, and it appears that none of the performers have been willing to provide any addition information! Fortunately, the evening will conclude with a more familiar offering. This will be the Bristle quartet with bassist Lisa Mezzacappa providing rhythm for Murray Campbell on violin joined by two reed players: Randy McKean and Cory Wright. For those that do not yet know, the Make-Out Room is located in the Mission at 3225 22nd Street. Doors will open at 6 p.m.

A reminder of why people like to visit Mr. Tipple’s (from a BayImproviser Web page)

Wednesday, September 16, 7 p.m., Mr Tipple’s: Mezzacappa will move into the Civic Center to lead her 5(ish) quintet. Tenor saxophonist Aaron Bennett will take the front line, joined by Mark Clifford on vibraphone. In the rhythm section, Mezzacappa will perform with pianist Brett Carson and drummer Jordan Glenn. The venue is located at 39 Fell Street.

Wednesday, September 16, 7 p.m., The Foundry SF: Leafar Legov, who is based in Germany, will present a live ambient project that has not yet been released for performance. He is likely to make good use of The Foundry's hi-fi quadrophonic audio system, working with modular synthesizers and field recordings, enhanced by experimental vocals. He will be followed by a duo set by the two hosts of the venue: Viewfinder and to.ne. The venue is located in the Mission at 1425 Folsom Street, on the southwest corner of Tenth Street.

Wednesday, September 16, 7:30 p.m., Et al.: To the best of my knowledge, this is my first encounter with the venue. The title of the performance is A Synesthete’s Atlas: Cartographic Improvisations. Those improvisations will involve real-time manipulation of digital maps by Eric Theise. He will be accompanied by shakuhachi player Nancy Beckman, Tom Bickley playing a diversity of recorders, vocalist Ron Heglin (who is inclined to invented languages), and Petra Zélie providing a continuo (so to speak) of electroacoustic noise. The venue is located at 2831A Mission Street on the southeast corner of 24th Street. The charge for admission will be $15, but the organizers will not turn anyone away for lack of funds.

Thursday, September 17, 8:30 p.m., Rite Spot Cafe: Trumpeter Darren Johnston will lead a quintet called Deep Space. The other four members will account for rhythm: guitarist JC O’Donnell, Dave Brandt on vibraphone and other percussion instruments, drummer O. Scheiber, and Pete Schmitt alternating between bass and guembri, a North African three-stringed lute. The venue is located at 2099 Folsom Street, on the northeast corner of 17th Street.

Friday, September 18, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: The next Other Dimensions in Sound performance to be curated by “Boohaabian multi reed player extraordinaire David Boyce” will see him playing saxophones and special effects as part of a trio. Rhythm will be provided by drummer Brian Rodvien and Bryan Dean on bass. As many (most?) readers probably know by now, 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, September 18, 7:30 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: Guitarist Scott Foster will lead his own combo with a guest appearance by Darren Johnston on trumpet. As of this writing, the other members of the group have not yet been finalized. For those that do not already know, the bookstore is locate at 653 Chenery Street, a short walk from the Glen Park station for both Muni and BART.

Friday, September 18, 7:30 p.m., Adobe Books: For this evening the bookstore has prepared a poster that seems designed to encourage the viewer to decode it! Assuming one reads the text the same way one would read any book page, the program will begin with a duo performance by José Solares with flatways. They will be followed by Raffi Garabedian and Marcus Stephens, either as a duo or as two solo sets. This will be a similar case for Mike Meanstreetz, Adam Lion, and K Francis Messer, who may be either a trio or an ordering of three solo sets. The program will conclude with Isabelle Waldner Kalb (who also answers to Isabelle W-K). As most readers probably know by now, Adobe Books is located in the Mission at 3130 24th Street. A $10 donation is usually requested to support the performers. In the absence of any further information at present, readers should be free to call 415-864-3936.

Friday, September 18, 8 p.m., Hotel Utah: The title for the program will be A Night of Guitar/Synth/Punk/Alt/Noise. The only other information on the BayImproviser Web page is the following list: Mechanical Plague, Necessary Noise, Adams Audacity, Tulips. Presumably these will be the performers for a four-set evening, but presumption can be risky on the Bleeding Edge! The venue is located at 500 4th Street, on the southwest corner of Bryant Street (which happens to be “fed” by an off-ramp from Interstate 80).

Saturday, September 19, 7 p.m., Adobe Books: This will be an album release show, the title of the album being Department of Science and Mathematics. Given my Bachelor’s and Doctoral degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this should be right up my alley; but I know not to set my expectations too high! The album was created by Ahmed Kap Animo, who was inspired by science fiction sources. He will be joined by a wide diversity of performers, some of whom, such as David Leikam, may be familiar to readers, while others, such as Stigma, seem to have gone to great lengths to conceal identity.

Sunday, September 20, 1:30 p.m., Prelinger Library: Thom Blum has been performing at this venue for several years, but it has been a while since I caught up with his performance commitments. He will partner with Kattt Atchley in a performance of the Resonant Margin. The event is expected to take about two and one-half hours. The venue is located in SoMa on the southeast corner of Folsom Street and 8th Street.

Sunday, September 20, 6 p.m. and 7:45 p.m., Mr Tipple’s: Saxophonist Beth Schenck will return to this venue. As was the case this past June, she will be giving a quartet performance, presumably with her previous colleagues: bassist Mezzacappa, Brett Carson on piano, and drummer Jordan Glenn. Since the venue is basically a supper club, listeners are encouraged to purchase food and drink.

A Modest Concertgebouw Account of Bruckner

I am beginning to feel a sense of “gradual attrition” as I work my way through the Warner box set of the recordings made by Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart “rules the roost” in this collection with eleven CDs allocated to operas preceded by nine instrumental albums. Joseph Haydn, who outlived Mozart, followed in the collection with six CDs, accounting almost entirely for late symphonies. Franz Schubert then was given an account of all of his completed symphonies on four CDs.

That made for a generous share of “serious” music. As a result, the next three CDs definitely lightened things up for the attentive listener. They accounted for Johann Strauss II with a complete account of his best-known operetta, Die Fledermaus occupying two of the CDs. These were preceded by shorter Strauss selections, beginning with the overture to The Gypsy Baron, and followed by what amounted to a selection of “bonbons,” concluding with Strauss’ best-known Opus 314, “The Blue Danube.”

Cover design for Anton Bruckner: The Collection (from the Amazon.com Web page for this box set)

I have now listened to the following two CDs, each presenting a symphony by Anton Bruckner. Bruckner was about a year older than Strauss. They were both Austrian but could not have been more different! Strauss appealed to listeners with his keen sense of brevity, while one of the adjectives I have previously encountered in writings about Bruckner has been “expansive.” That expansiveness can be experienced in the two major collections I already have acquired, the 23 CDs in the Profil release, Anton Bruckner: The Collection, and the Naxos release entitled simply The Symphonies, consisting of “only” eighteen CDs.

The two symphonies in the Warner collection are relatively early and consecutive. The more familiar of them is WAB 104, the fourth symphony in E-flat major, given the title “Romantic.” The other is its immediate predecessor, WAB 103. This one also has an associated title, “Wagner Symphony;” but I am almost certain that I have not previously encountered that name! However, the title refers to the fact that Bruckner presented the score to Richard Wagner and then asked permission to dedicate it to him. That said, the Wikipedia page for the Bruckner symphonies serves up an “afterthought” about WAB 103 that deserves repeating: “One factor that helped Wagner choose which symphony to accept the dedication of was that the Third contains quotations from Wagner's music dramas, such as Die Walküre and Lohengrin. Most of these quotations were taken out in the revised versions.” The recording in this collection is the 1877 revision, which is often known as the “Leopold Nowak Edition,” named after the musicologist who edited Bruckner’s scores for the International Bruckner Society.

While these two symphonies may have been composed early in Bruckner’s career, Harnoncourt’s interpretation makes them both certain to appeal to the attentive listener.

Kasey Knudsen to Bring Sextet to Chez Hanny

Kasey Knudsen with her saxophone (from the Photos Web page on her Web site)

Some readers may recall that I last wrote about saxophonist Kasey Knudsen to announce her appearance at Bird & Beckett Books and Records near the end of this past July. On that occasion she led a quartet with fellow reed player Harvey Wainapel joining her on the front line with rhythm provided by John Witala on bass and Jon Arkin on drums. Her next performance will be a Jazz Chez Hanny concert, where she will lead a sextet; and the only member of the quartet to reappear will be Knudsen herself!

That sextet will be equally divided between front line and rhythm. Knudsen will be joined on the front line by two brass musicians: trumpeter Henry Hung, who has recorded with the GRAMMY-winning Pacific Mambo Orchestra, and Danny Lubin-Laden on trombone. (Some readers may recall that Lubin-Laden last appeared on this site as a member of clarinetist Ben Goldberg’s quartet album, Trouble Trouble.) Dahveed Behroozi will be the pianist in the rhythm section, joined by Sam Bevan on bass and drummer Jon Arkin.

As most readers will probably know by now, the venue will be Frank Hanny’s house at 1300 Silver Avenue, with the performance taking place in the downstairs rumpus room. Admission will be $35 (taking into account the size of the ensemble), payable in cash, as a check to Jazz Chez Hanny, or a Zelle transfer to jazz@chezhanny.com. 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. on Sunday, September 27. 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 are always appreciated.

O1C: This Week More Disappointing than Last

Readers may recall that last week’s annual Old First Concerts (O1C) performance by jazz pianist Mike Greensill and a bevy of his friends felt like he was nearing the end of the road. That said, this week’s performance, entitled Look to This Day, left me wondering if the road even existed any more. The program was organized by Kevin Lee Sun, who played piano for all four of the works on the program.

Daniel De Togni playing shakuhachi with Kevin Lee accompanying him on piano

Two of those were solo compositions by Hyo-shin Na, entitled “Rain Study” and “Autumn Study.” (Those with O1C “history” will probably know that Na is as familiar to attendees as Greensill is.) Sadly, both of her works left me with the impression that there was little to the music other than “noodling.” (Ironically, I came away from an Old First Concerts recital exactly the same way almost exactly a year ago.)

Na’s pieces were framed on either side by West Coast premiere performances of compositions by Daniel De Togni. The first of these, Death Poems, was a cycle composed for shakuhachi and piano with the composer playing the shakuhachi part. This is an instrument which is particularly demanding when it comes to breath control, and the composer complemented the pianist with an engaging unfolding of microtones.

Less satisfying was the concluding selection, Songs of Becoming, a cycle sung by soprano Wallis Lucas. Sadly, her diction was, to say the least, uneven; and I was disappointed to see that even the O1C Web page ignored providing a copy of the text. The best I could come up with was the program note on that page, which concluded by summarizing the six songs in the cycle as an exploration of “themes of personal growth, dreaming, homelessness, depression, and the preciousness of each day.” As far as my own listening was concerned, that exploration did not take me very far!

Shelby Yamin: Voices of Music Soloist

Following up on the UNCOVERED series of Azica Records, whose fourth and final volume was released at the end of this past May, this morning’s installment of the Sundays at Ten videos compiled by Voices of Music turned its attention to one of the most interesting figures in the late eighteenth century. This would be Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, who established himself as (in the words of his Wikipedia page) “a French violinist, conductor, composer, and soldier of African descent.” Violinist Shelby Yamin was the soloist in a performance of Bologne’s Opus 8 violin concerto in G major. She was accompanied by a relatively modest string ensemble, conducted from a harpsichord keyboard by Hanneke van Proosdij.

Violinist Shelby Yamin performing a solo passage in the first movement of Joseph Bologne’s Opus 8 violin concerto in G major (screen shot from the YouTube video of this performance)

Encounters with compositions by Bologne have begun to cultivate enthusiastic audience responses. Nevertheless, they arise seldom and more often through album releases. This made this morning’s Voices of Music program all the more engaging. Rather than simply listening to a CD, one could now observe a string ensemble “in action” led from the harpsichord, rather than a conductor’s podium. Nevertheless, as can be seen above, the camera work made it a point to focus on Yamin’s solo performance.

Those unfamiliar with Bologne may do well to consult that YouTube page. The second paragraph begins: “Space here does not permit to list all the details of his extraordinary career.” This is followed by an excerpt from his Wikipedia page. While the YouTube page provides a useful summary of the diversities in his life, the full account of his biography and career by Wikipedia is far richer and, as far as I am concerned, much more interesting! Meanwhile, this morning’s video made for not only engaging listening but also the revival of knowledge about the composer himself.

Mourning and Redemption from CalBach

Johannes Agricola aus Eisleben, author of the chorale text “Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ”

Next month will begin with the first program to be presented by the California Bach Society (CalBach). As often seems to be the case, the title is a lengthy (but informative) one: The Merciful Goodness: Music of Mourning and Redemption by Handel and Bach. Each of these composers will be represented by a single work, separated by an intermission. The Handel selection will be the HWV 264 anthem, Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline, first performed in Westminster Abbey at the aforementioned funeral on December 17, 1739. The intermission will be followed by the BWV 177 cantata composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (I call to You, Lord Jesus Christ). According to its Wikipedia page, this concluded Bach’s second annual cycle of chorale cantatas composed for the sacred services for 1724/25.

The CalBach choir, a 30-voice chamber choir, will be led by Artistic Director Nate Widelitz. There will also be three vocal soloists, soprano Jennifer Paulino, countertenor Kyle Sanchez Tingzon, and tenor Corey Head. Instrumental accompaniment will be by the Jubilate Baroque Orchestra.

The San Francisco performance of this program will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, October 2. The venue will be St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, which is located 1111 O’Farrell Street. Individual tickets are available for general admission at $35 with discounted rates for seniors and students. However, there will also be a relatively modest fee when tickets are purchased through the Ticketstripe Web page. This Web page can also be used for tax-deductible donations to support CalBach.

The Impossible Orchestra to Release First Album

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

This coming Friday, Outhere Music will release the inaugural album in collection entitled Fuga Latina. As is often the case, Amazon.com has already created a Web page for processing pre-orders. The full title of the album is Horizons: Live at Festival PAAX GNP. Information about that festival on the Amazon Web page is minimal, saying little more than the fact that the event took place on “Mexico’s Mayan Riviera.”

The album presents three compositions, all works of composers whose careers began in the second half of the last century: Paquito D’Rivera, Omar Massa, Yamandu Costa, and Sérgio Assad. The last of the three pieces was a joint effort by Costa and Assad. Alondra de la Parra conducts an ensemble called The Impossible Orchestra, described on its Facebook Web page as “30 outstanding artists from 14 different countries brought together by Alondra de la Parra to support women and children in Mexico.”

The full title of D’Rivera’s composition is “The Journey: Concerto for Violoncello, Clarinet, Erhu and Orchestra, ‘The Rice and Beans Concerto.’” For those unfamiliar with that last instrument, the Wikipedia page for erhu describes it as “a Chinese two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, that is sometimes known in the Western world as the Chinese violin or a Chinese two-stringed fiddle.” The concerto is in three movements, entitled, appropriately enough, “Beans,” “Rice,” and “The Journey.” The erhu makes its first appearance at the beginning of the second movement.

Massa’s work also carries a similarly extended title: “Concerto for Bandoneon and Orchestra, ‘Buenos Aires-Berlin.’” This also has three movements: “Prologue & Tango,” “Prayer. Adagio,” and “Tango Scherzo. Finale.” Finally, the Costa-Assad “Ilhas Concertantes” has three movements with descriptive titles that I have yet to decode: “Itaparica,” “La Graciosa,” and “La Invernada.”

I have now listened to this album several times, and I am not quite sure what makes the ensemble “impossible.” Perhaps it has something to do with bringing together instruments distantly located in different regions of the globe. That definitely makes for diverse sonorities, but most of the tracks display an upbeat rhetoric that never really dwells on nationality. By the same count, there is nothing “impossible” in de la Parra’s leadership of the ensemble. If anything, the music is engaging for the attentive listener from the beginning of this album to the final track!

MTT Will Have a Predecessor in October

I have to back off from my headline for the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) Special Event entitled A Concert for MTT. The text said it would “begin October” with a performance on Friday, October 2; but it turns out that, like the calendar, October will begin on Thursday, October 1! This will be when the month’s Orchestral Series will get under way with four Orchestral Series programs, all of which definitely deserve attention.

The entire month will present another impressively busy and diverse series of performances, all taking place in Davies Symphony Hall. Those determined not to miss out on any of these events next month, will, as usual, be able to take advantage of the hyperlinks in this article for purchasing tickets; and (of course) tickets may also be acquired at the Box Office, which is at the entrance to Davies on the south side of Grove Street, between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street. The four events of the month are as follows:

Thursday, October 1, and Sunday, October 4, 2 p.m., and Saturday, October 3, 7:30 p.m.: The month will begin with the Orchestral Series debut of conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali. His program will be devoted entirely to two major compositions by Richard Strauss. The first of these is Four Last Songs, a title provided by Ernst Roth, who published the four songs as a single unit in 1950, about two years after Strauss died. The vocalist for this performance will be soprano Renée Fleming. The intermission will be followed by what is sometimes called Strauss’ “biographical” tone poem, “Ein Heldenleben.”

Friday, October 9, and Saturday, October 10, 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, October 11, 2 p.m.: Karina Canellakis will return to the Davies podium. She will begin by introducing the audience to a tone poem composed by Victoria Borisova-Ollas in 2003, “The Kingdom of Silence.” The remainder of the program will be divided by two major Russian composers from the twentieth century. The first of these will be Sergei Prokofiev with his Opus 63 (second) violin concerto, composed in the key of G minor. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Symphonic Dances.”

Friday, October 16, and Saturday, October 17, 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, October 18, 2 p.m.: Some readers may recall my having written about conductor Xian Zhang’s “fixation” on “ninth symphonies.” In May of 2022 she led SFS in a performance of Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 95 (ninth) symphony in E minor (“From the New World”) and then followed up in December with the symphony just called “the ninth,” Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 125 (“Choral”) in D minor. For her return to Davies, she has selected Dvořák’s Opus 88 (eighth) symphony in G major, shifting her attention to a major key. The intermission will be preceded by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 33 “Variations on a Rococo Theme,” which explores a diversity of major and minor keys. The program will begin with “Dances of Galánta,” a composition by Zoltán Kodály based on Hungarian folk sources.

Johannes Brahms about six years after his composition of “Nänie” (photograph by Fritz Luckhardt, public domain)

Thursday, October 29, Friday, October 30, and Saturday, October 31, 7:30 p.m.: This will be the first SFS performance by conductor Elim Chan since her appointment as Music Director Designate earlier this year. The second half of the program will be devoted to another “first,” the performance of John Adams’ “Doctor Atomic Symphony,” based on the overture, interludes, and orchestral settings of music from his Doctor Atomic opera. This will be preceded by Arvo Pärt’s “Magnificat,” which will also be a first SFS performance. The first half of the program will present music from the nineteenth century in reverse order. The intermission will be preceded by Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 64, his violin concerto in E minor with soloist Renaud Capuçon. The program will begin with the SFS Chorus, directed by Jenny Wong, performing “Nänie,” a setting of the poem of the same name by Friedrich Schiller, the Opus 82 of Johannes Brahms.

Johann Strauss at the Concertgebouw

Johann Strauss II (from the Wikimedia Commons Web page, photographer unknown, public domain)

I must confess that, in following yesterday’s account of the four CDs of symphonies by Franz Schubert in the Warner box set of the recordings made by Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, I was not prepared for “something completely different!” That said, the next composer in the collection is Johann Strauss II, who was about three years old when Schubert died. Thus, the transition from one composer to the next is a far cry from “passing the torch!”

To be fair, only three CDs are allocated to Strauss; and two of them are devoted to his best-known operetta, Die Fledermaus (the bat). (The other CD consists of instrumental selections, some of which will probably be familiar while others will make for engaging journeys of discovery.) I have known much of this music since my childhood, but my most memorable experience was a telecast from Covent Garden with Placido Domingo conducting the Royal Opera Orchestra. Kiri Te Kanawa sang the leading role of Rosalinde with Hermann Prey joining her in the role of Rosalinde’s husband, Eisenstein. This is now available as a DVD on an Amazon.com Web page.

This is a very “visual” operetta; and I have had the good fortune to see several performances, most of which were engaging from beginning to end. As a result, I found that I could not resist “visual memories” while listening to the Harnoncourt recording. That said, Edita Gruberova and Werner Hollweg delivered solid accounts for those roles. However, the “scene stealer” in just about any production is Rosalinde’s maid, Adele. (In a staged performance, we see her before we first see Rosalinde.) Under Harnoncourt’s baton, that coloratura soprano was given a dynamite delivery by Barbara Bonney.

If I read her Wikipedia page correctly, Bonney is no longer performing. However, she has been teaching at a generous number of venues throughout Europe. That said, what I most like about her is the humor that concludes that article:

Bonney opened a boutique clothing store based in Salzburg, LUNA Dress Design, on her 55th birthday in 2011. The brand is currently called "Bonney & Kleid".

The best performance of Fledermaus are the ones in which the performers are not afraid to get raucous. Bonney was one of those performers, and that spirit seems to have carried over to her latest undertaking!

How to Lose Friends

Those that do not follow domestic news closely may have missed the coverage of United States President Donald Trump’s two-day visit to Ireland. They would do well to check out the report of the event by Rory Carroll, Ireland correspondent for The Guardian. The opening four paragraphs speak for themselves:

Donald Trump has said he would “love” to see a united Ireland and that it “may as well happen now”.

The US president appeared to endorse the push for constitutional change on the island at the start of a two-day visit to Ireland on Saturday. The unexpected intervention prompted a swift rebuttal from the UK government and Northern Ireland’s unionist leaders.

“I don’t want ⁠to cause any problems, ​but ‌I will ‌tell you, I’d love ‌to see it unified,” Trump told reporters at joint press conference with the taoiseach, Micheál Martin, in Dublin. “I think it would be a great feather in everybody’s cap if that happened. You know what? The way I look at it, it’s going to happen eventually. It may as well happen now.”

The unification of Northern Ireland with the republic of Ireland would be “fantastic”, Trump said. “The UK will have something to say about it, obviously. But I think it would be a great thing. I mean, how can it be bad?”

I would assume that the State Department provided Trump with the necessary background to bring to his visit. I would also guess that any such information was skimmed, if it was viewed at all. Personally, my interest in the relations between Ireland and the United Kingdom go all the way back to my studies on world history in high school. Unless I am mistaken, I once applied for a teaching job at the School of Computer Science and Information Technology at University College Cork, which was a rather “remote” venue; and I was not particularly disappointed when I did not “make the cut!” Nevertheless, I would not be surprised to learn that I was more informed about the country than our President was when he set off for his visit!

This takes us back to what Trump said prior to his visit. Most likely he did not anticipate the reception he received in Dublin:

Donald Trump’s reception in Dublin (photograph by Natalia Campos for Reuters)

The image can be reinforced by the words of Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservative party in the United Kingdom:

President Trump is shooting from the hip as usual, just like he did with Greenland and Canada becoming the 51st state. This sort of loose talk about the future of democratic countries is deeply unhelpful and creates unnecessary tension.

That said, what matters more is what the United States currently thinks about these matters in the context of viewpoints from Europe. While there will not be a Presidential election this year, the year still has an even number. That means that, as of this writing, there is, at least, a potential shift for change in both Houses of Congress. Those familiar with the Constitution know that there are many ways in which the Legislative branch can challenge the Executive, if not override it. As a result, whatever our feelings about Trump may be, the best course of action is to prepare for Election Day and, more importantly, prepare for the results that follow!

Outsound SIMM Series Back on Radar!

Bill Noertker and Scott R. Looney on the poster design for this month’s SIMM Series program (courtesy of Outsound Presents)

I regret to say that it has been about half a year since I last encountered an Outsound Presents event. Nevertheless, their latest announcement claims that this year will celebrate “35 years of independent cutting edge music.” Exactly one week from today will see the latest of those events. That said, the SIMM (Static Illusion Methodical Madness) Series will present a two-set program. The first set will be taken by Scott R. Looney, who alternates between piano and prepared piano.

However, the “main event” will see the return of Noertker’s Moxie, which was originally formed by Bill Noertker in 2001. Personnel for this group has varied, but this occasion will be a trio performance. Noertker will lead from his double bass, and Annelise Zamula will alternate between clarinet and flute. The third member of the trio will be drummer Elihu Knowles.

As always, the SIMM Series performance will take place at the Musician’s Union Hall, which is located at 119 Ninth Street, just below Market Street. The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 20. Admission will be by donation with a suggested amount between $10 and $25.