Volti Returns to SF State to Begin 48th Season

Robert Geary with members of the Volti vocal ensemble

The Volti vocal ensemble will begin its 48th season with a return to Knuth Hall, which is in the Creative Arts Building on the campus of San Francisco State University. Artistic Director Robert Geary has prepared a program entitled We Belong. The title will reflect a composition by Eric Tuan situated at the center of the program, “We Belong: Choral Reflections on Citizenship.”

The text was provided by Chinese-American poet and author Emily Jiang, and it is based on a biographical episode in the life of Wong Kim Ark. At the end of the nineteenth century, the citizenship of those of Chinese ancestry was often questioned; but, in this case it was resolved by the Supreme Court based on the principle of birthright citizenship. The program will also present selections from Trace the Sky, composed by Jens Ibsen during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This will be the latest event in Morrison’s LCA Live series, which is supported by the College of Liberal & Creative Arts. As usual, the performance will take place at Knuth Hall, which is in the Creative Arts Building on the SFSU campus, north of Holloway Avenue and to the west of 19th Avenue (which is accessible to public transportation). There will be no charge for admission. However, tickets are recommended, and a Web page has been created for acquiring them. The performance will begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday evening, November 12.

“Musical Chairs” to Receive Second Performance

Pianist and vocalist Shuo Zhai prepared a program entitled Musical Chairs on Willard Street for the afternoon of Saturday, October 24. This was arranged as a groupmuse event and quickly sold out. As a result, the pianist prepared a second performance, which will begin at 5 p.m. on the same date, preceded by a half-hour reception.

Zhai will perform with another pianist, Taide Ding, and cellist Summer Hu. The first two works on the program will be duets for cello and piano: Robert Schumann’s Opus 70 coupling of Adagio and Allegro movements, originally scored for horn and piano,  and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 69 (third) sonata for cello and piano. Zhai and Ding will then conclude the program with Ding’s four-hand arrangement of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ English Folk Song Suite.

Groupmuse has created a second Web page for this second event. Reservations will be $5, and those arriving without a reservation will be charged $30 at the venue. A map showing the venue location, near the campus of the University of San Francisco, is included on that Web page. As of this writing, only four of the 25 spots are still available. Both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks will be served; and some readers may wish to know that dogs live at the venue. More importantly, the venue will not be able to allow wheelchair access.

Maazel’s Final Warner Opera Disappoints

Cover of the Warner Classics album of Thaïs

Some readers may recall that this month began with my venture into the CDs collected in Lorin Maazel: The Complete Warner Edition. The very fact that the first of those two CDs accounted for symphonies by Anton Bruckner was enough to get my juices flowing! This morning I concluded the journey with the last of the three operas in the collection, Jules Massenet’s Thaïs. Ironically, this listening experience took place very shortly after I had seen another Massenet opera, Manon, performed by San Francisco Opera at the War Memorial Opera House. Sadly, the title of my article about that performance was “Not the Best Afternoon at the Opera!”

To be fair, I am sure there are many opera lovers that would be eager to attend Massenet offerings and would avoid any opportunity to listen to a Bruckner symphony in Davies Symphony Hall! Put another way, attentive listening is subjective, rather than objective; and subjectivity is, of course, a matter of personal taste. In my case listening to Maazel’s performance of Thaïs was much more of an ordeal than listening to his interpretations of Bruckner symphonies!

That said, Maazel brought together some of the best-known opera vocalists for his Thaïs recording. That began with soprano Beverly Sills in the title role. Athanaël, the Cenobite monk that tries to convert Thaïs to Christianity is performed by baritone Sherrill Milnes, and one could not ask for a more solid delivery. The same can be said of tenor Nicolai Gedda in the role of the nobleman Nicias, who is Thaïs’ current lover. The roles have the makings for an engaging plot; but the music for that plot unfolds over the course of two and one-half hours (not including the intermission between the two acts when the opera is performed).

These days vocalists such as Sills, Gedda, and Milnes are all but forgotten, even by collectors of recordings. My personal regret is that I almost never had an opportunity to see any of them perform, simply because I was never in the right place at the right time. Indeed, I think my only encounter with Gedda took place when I saw him in a performance of La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera; and, as I put it at that time, he was “too far past his prime” and only looked silly. Milnes, on the other hand, I have only known through recordings.

Things being what they are, Thaïs is likely to be the least-visited recording in my personal collection of the Maazel anthology!

The Bleeding Edge: 10/19/2026

Last week’s Bleeding Edge was decidedly limited compared to what will be coming this week. Last week the events did not begin until Thursday. This week they will begin tomorrow! To be fair four of the events have already been reported as follows:

• The Center for New Music will host events on both days of the weekend. Saturday will see this month’s G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|N|O|I|S|E|P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S event, which will take place, as always, at noon. This will be followed on Sunday with the duo performance by bassist H. Carr accompanied at the piano by Unpil Baek.
• The Lab will present the final two concerts of the month. The Tricky FM project will be presented on Thursday, October 22, at 8 p.m. Saturday, October 24, will see Tyondai Braxton will perform music from his latest album, Splayed Werks.
• SF Music Day will fill six hours on Sunday.

All of those events will take place after the other performances taking place this week between Tuesday and Friday:

Tuesday, October 20, 7 p.m., Make-Out Room: This month Jazz at the Make-Out Room will present three sets offered by familiar and unfamiliar performers. Sean Keenan and Abe Gibson will begin the evening with a duo performance. Unless I am mistaken, both of them will be playing a variety of instruments (not yet identified). This will be followed by Dave Thomas’s New Cycle, a quartet with the instruments involved identified! Leader Thomas plays guitar, joined by Chris Hall on a diversity of wind instruments, bassist Mark Collins, and Zach Berend on drums. In the final set, vocalist Lorin Benedict will be accompanied by two saxophonists, Kasey Knudsen and Beth Schenck. 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 group portrait of NO(w) Beauty (from the BayImproviser Web page for their performance)

Thursday, October 22, Friday, October 23, Saturday, October 24, and Sunday, October 25 7 p.m., Thursday, October 22, and Sunday, October 25, 9:15 p.m., and Friday, October 23, and Saturday, October 24, 9:30 p.m., Black Cat Jazz Supper Club: The venue will host NO(w) Beauty, a French-American quartet with trumpeter Hermon Mehari on the front line. Rhythm will be provided by pianist Enzo Carniel, Damien Varaillon on double bass, and drummer Stéphane Adsuar. They will probably play selections from their latest album (un)Seen. The supper club is located in the Civic Center at 400 Eddy Street.

Friday, October 23, 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Mr Tipple’s: Saxophonist Dan White will lead a quartet with Scott Amendola on drums. The other performers will be keyboardist Adam Klipple and Kai Lyons on guitar.The venue is located at 39 Fell Street.

Friday, October 23, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: “Boohaabian multi reed player extraordinaire David Boyce” will again curate an Other Dimensions in Sound performance. This will be another “double dose of sonic sustenance,” meaning that it will again be a two-set program! The first set will be a solo jazz-fusion performance by Rigo. The second set will be a trio with Darren Johnston on trumpet joined by Boyce and Carolina Chubb. (As of this writing, there is no information about how Chubb will contribute to the performance!) Once again, many (if not most) readers already know the drill: 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.

Maazel’s Second Opera: Carmen

Album cover of the recording of Carmen available through Amazon.com

The second of the three operas in the Lorin Maazel: The Complete Warner Edition is probably the most popular, Georges Bizet’s Carmen. The title role was sung by mezzo Julia Migenes Johnson; and the two significant men in her life, so to speak, are the soldier Don José (tenor Placido Domingo) and the bullfighter Escamillo (Ruggero Raimondi). Considering the number of recordings of this opera that have been released, it would be fair to say that, in this case, the cast makes the album worth the price of admission! Also, those that are attentive to all of the details will probably appreciate that the spoken texts are included! Thus, while this opera “is what it is” to just about all readers, its inclusion on the Maazel collection is likely to be a welcome one for opera lovers.

Not the Best Afternoon at the Opera

Yesterday afternoon my wife and I returned to the War Memorial Opera House to use the next round in our San Francisco Opera (SFO) subscription tickets. The performance presented the five-act opera by Jules Massenet, Manon. The libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille was based on a novel by the Abbé Prévost whose full title was L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut. (Those that know that “histoire” is French for “story” should have no trouble translating the title!)

The libretto is a narrative fraught with misfortune. In contemporary language, the title character may be described as a “free spirit.” Indeed, in the staging by Vincent Boussard, one gets the impression that she believes that everyone she meets is smitten with her. Sadly, however, I came away feeling that Massenet’s music was not particularly conducive to most (if not all) of the narrative. Mind you, this was an opera that required a fair amount of intense delivery by many of the vocalists; and I found it disappointing the set designs by Vincent Lemaire tended to undermine the vocal delivery.

Pene Pati as the Chevalier des Grieux in one of his more intimate moments with Manon (Amina Edris) (photograph by Cory Weaver, courtesy of SFO)

The leading vocalists were soprano Amina Edris in the title role and tenor Pene Pati as the hapless Chevalier des Grieux. Both of them delivered dynamite performances, regardless of the impact of the set designs. Their command of the many challenges in Massenet’s score were always “on the money.” Nevertheless, the narrative is just not a particularly engaging one; and, in many respects, the visual experience tended to be more compelling than the musical delivery.

The good news is that conductor Eun Sun Kim was “in full command” of that musical delivery. As usual, her command of the SFO Orchestra was a solid one, which was particularly engaging when the music tended to “take charge” of the narrative with more expressiveness than the vocal work! That said, Kim’s chemistry with the vocalists on stage was as solid as her direction of the instrumentalists. Nevertheless, there was little she could do when the music came across as “out of step” with the narrative. Apparently, Massenet’s relationship with Meilhac and Gille was not a particularly conducive one!

Hélène Grimaud will “Return to the Classics”

Pianist Hélène Grimaud (from the San Francisco Symphony Web page for her recital)

Hélène Grimaud is an impressively diverse pianist. At the beginning of San Francisco Symphony’s last season, she was the piano soloist in the performance of George Gershwin’s three-movement “Concerto in F,” written in 1925 the year after his best-known “Rhapsody in Blue.” This season she will return to Davies Symphony Hall to perform a solo piano recital. This will be a “back to the classics” program consisting of only two piano sonatas from the Classical period.

Both of these will be “last sonatas.” The program will begin with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 111 sonata in C minor. The intermission will be followed by Franz Schubert’s D. 960 in B-flat major. It would not be understatement to call this a “monumental” program, leaving me to wonder whether Grimaud will have any energy left for one or more encores!

This program will be given only one performance in Davies Symphony Hall, beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 10. Tickets may be purchased through the Web page for this event, and the Box Office can be reached by calling 415-864-6000. As usual, 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.

DSO Live-Streams a Second Program This Month

Yesterday evening saw the second live-stream performance by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra to be presented the month. The first was last week’s Bernstein & Appalachian Spring program conducted by Peter Oundjian. Yesterday saw the return of Music Director Jader Bignamini to present a program entitled Fountains & Pines of Rome. Most readers probably know that the title refers to the two best-known tone poems by Ottorino Respighi, and they accounted for the second half of the program.

The first half was “something completely different.” It began with “Emerge” by Michael Abels, who is primarily a film composer. The best description of the genre would probably be “maximal minimalism.” The minimalist thematic content unfolds through a gradual introduction to account for all of the instruments in the ensemble. The climax emerges with all the performers going at it with full force; but, from my vantage point, I felt that the score took far to much time to leave anything for the impact of the climax.

This “overture” was followed by a three-movement piano concerto by Leokadiya Kashperova. The soloist was Alexandra Dariescu, who, according to the notes available to me, had rescued this “cinematic” composition from obscurity. Sadly, the keyboard work for this composition could not have been more heavy-handed; and the music itself recalled that all-too-familiar trope from Amadeus about “too many notes.”

Fortunately, things improved when Dariescu returned for her encore. She was joined by Concertmaster Robyn Bollinger for the arrangement of Béla Bartók’s Sz. 68 “Romanian Folkdances for small orchestra.” I must confess a fondness for this music, since I played the solo clarinet part with a community orchestra in my student days. As far as I was concerned, that brief duo encore was far more satisfying than the three-movement concerto. However, during the intermission, the video feed screened a previous recording from 2025 of Dariescu playing the second movement of Maurice Ravel’s G major piano concerto, which was far more engaging than Kashperova’s efforts.

The pine trees in the Villa Borghese gardens of the Piazza di Siena (photograph by Howard Hudson, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license, attributed to Howardhudson at English Wikipedia)

The second half of the program accounted for the overall title, including the order in which the two tone poems were performed. This was the proper ordering, because the “Pines” score is the one with a final movement that builds to a thundering climax. The movement is a Tempo de marcia; and, every now and then, I run into comments suggesting that this was the march of Benito Mussolini’s troops! That said, this is music that makes the best of the full forces of an ensemble. When I last listened to it in Davies Symphony Hall, it was clear that the audience was having just as much fun as the musicians!

Classic Clifford Jordan Album to be Reissued

I must confess that my knowledge of tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan has been limited to his acquaintance with Charles Mingus. More specifically, he played in a European tour that Mingus arranged in April of 1964, which would eventually lead to the release of the album Charles Mingus Live in ’64. As a result, when I learned that Time Traveler Recordings would release a live album of a quartet led by Jordan, my curiosity got the better of me!

Album cover for Night of the Mark VII

The title of the album is Night of the Mark VII, and it documents a live performance of Jordan’s quartet in Paris (France) on March 26, 1975. The other members of the quartet on that occasion were pianist Cedar Walton, Sam Jones on bass, and drummer Billy Higgins. This is very much a “jazz from the last century” album, and I was delighted to encounter its reissue. The release date is this coming Friday (October 23); but the above hyperlink leads to an Amazon.com Web page that is processing pre-orders.

There are five tracks, only one of which, “Highest Mountain,” is by Jordan. There are also compositions by Walton (“Midnight Waltz”) and Jones (“One for Amos”). That leaves two other tracks, the better known being Thelonious Monk’s “Blue Monk.” The album begins with “John Coltrane,” composed by Bill Lee.

Personally, I always have a preference for Monk originals. That said, Jordan brings a sassiness to “Blue Monk” that is better expressed on saxophone than on a piano keyboard. On the other hand, the opening track composed by Bill Lee is titled “John Coltrane.” This struck me as an evocation that clearly honored “the master;” but I would have been more satisfied with a track of one of Coltrane’s compositions! On the other hand, I was a bit frustrated in listening to “One For Amos” because I hadn’t a clue who “Amos” was!

Nevertheless, I continue to have nostalgia for jazz from the last quarter of the last century; and there is more than enough on the five tracks of this album to satisfy that nostalgia!

Scarfe-Tolling Duo Returning to Century Club

Violinist Mads Tolling and pianist Ian Scarfe (from the Groupmuse Web page for next month’s recital)

As was the case last year, next month will see the return to the Century Club of California by the duo of pianist Ian Scarfe and violinist Mads Tolling. They will perform Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 100, his four-movement sonatina in G major, which was a high point in last year’s recital. Also George Gershwin will again lead off the second half of the program with his three solo piano preludes and selections from the opera Porgy and Bess, both arranged for violin and piano, most likely by violinist Jascha Heifetz.

The program will begin with selections from Edvard Grieg’s Opus 35 Norwegian Dances collection. This will be followed by a selection of Viennese dances by Fritz Kreisler, which do not appear to be included in the Wikipedia Web page that lists all of the composer’s compositions! Tolling will also perform works of his own composition.

This performance will begin at 2 p.m. on Sunday, November 8. For those that do not already know, the Century Club is located at 1355 Franklin Street, between Post Street and Sutter Street. However, all arrangements must be made through a Groupmuse Web page. Ticket prices are $30, with a discounted price of $24 for “Supermusers.” Doors will open at 1:30 p.m. Drinks will be provided (both with and without alcohol). However, the club itself is not wheelchair accessible.

SFS: Xian Zhang’s Eastern European Repertoire

Last night in Davies Symphony Hall, Xian Zhang returned to the podium of the San Francisco Symphony, having made her debut with the ensemble in February of 2018. The scope of her program extended from the last quarter of the nineteenth century to the second quarter of the twentieth. The composers, in turn, were all Eastern European.

Photograph of Zoltán Kodály taken some time in the 1930s by an unknown photographer (public domain, from Wikimedia Commons)

The program began in Hungary with Zoltán Kodály’s 1933 suite, Dances of Galánta. This was followed by the oldest work on the program, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 33, given the title “Variations on a Rococo Theme.” This was scored for cello and orchestra, and the visiting soloist was Pablo Ferrández. The second half of the program was devoted entirely to Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 88, his eighth symphony, composed in the key of G major.

According to my archives, this was Ferrández’ first visit to Davies since he made his debut there in May of 2024. The selection for his debut performance was Edward Elgar’s Opus 85 cello concerto in E minor, a longtime favorite in the Smoliar family household! I described that occasion as “one for the books;” and it was extended by Pablo Casals’ solo arrangement of the Catalan Christmas song “El cant dels ocells” (the song of the birds).

This time around, Ferrández again had an encore for his Tchaikovsky offering, but neither composer nor title were announced. His approach to Tchaikovsky acknowledged that the composer had no shortage of wit in his approach to variations. This was clearly more important to him than any selection of an encore, and it reminded me of just how engaging Opus 33 could be in contrast to the composer’s intense approach to his latter symphonies!

In that context, the Dvořák symphony was decidedly engaging, rather than intense. Ironically, my awareness of this symphony dates back to high school days, when Continental Classroom introduced its Government program with the fanfare that opens that symphony’s final movement. Taken as a whole, the symphony has all the affability that is often associated with G major; and, once the fanfare is out of the way, that last movement unfolds a set of variations with no end of engaging vigor.

That energy first emerged at the beginning of the program with Zoltán Kodály’s Dances of Galánta. Those dances unfold over the course of five movements. The first of the movements has a Lento tempo; and the pace keeps getting faster from one movement to the next, concluding with a wild Allegro vivace. Many readers probably know that both Kodály and Béla Bártok were ethnomusicologists, as well as composers; and Galánta, which is now part of Slovakia, provided a rich lode of Gypsy music. Kodály’s approach to those sources led to a composition which definitely “got the juices flowing” to prepare for the rest of last night’s program.

In that context, over the course of the entire program, Zhang maintained a keen sense of the flow of energy advancing from one composition to the next. Her leadership consistently managed that flow, which would be appreciated by any attentive listener in the audience. Zhang prepared a well-conceived start-to-finish journey; and, at the conclusion of the Dvořák symphony, the audience reception could not have been more enthusiastic. Under her interpretation, this was a performance that had most of the audience leaving the hall with a bit of energy in their respective gaits. I also realized that it has been over a year since I last wrote about Kodály, and I was more than delighted to have Zhang bring him back to my attention.

Maazel’s First Opera: Verdi

The “final stretch” in the CDs in the Lorin Maazel: The Complete Warner Edition involves complete opera recordings. Three operas are included in the collection, each by a different composer. The first of these presents the composer that is probably most associated with opera: Giuseppe Verdi. The opera selected from his prodigious repertoire is Otello.

The source for the two CDs that account for this opera is the soundtrack of a film of the performance directed by Franco Zeffirelli, which seems to have taken place at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. What strikes me as interesting is that the recording itself was made at the Milan Conservatory, also known as the Conservatorio di Milano and the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi. Recording took place in the summer of 1985; and, as a result, many are likely to view the vocalists in terms of a “bygone era.”

From my own point of view, however, those vocalists are decidedly memorable! The title role was sung by Plácido Domingo with soprano Katia Ricciarelli as his Desdemona. Iago closes the triangle of the narrative, so to speak; and he is sung by baritone Justino Diaz. Personally, however, I particularly enjoyed the way the narrative is advanced through “choral reinforcement;” and, as might be expected, the Teatro alla Scala has its own resident chorus.

Some readers may guess that this is not my favorite opera! That said, other readers may recall how I relished a Merola Opera Program performance by the second act of Otello. As “performers in training,” the Merolini delivered an edge-of-your-seat staging. Sadly, Maazel’s approach to this opera never got me close to the edge of my seat!

Album cover of the recording of Otello available through Presto Classical Limited

Those more interested in Maazel’s approach to the music may benefit through a Presto Classical Limited Web page, which provides a download of the audio but without a digital booklet (consistent with the fact that no librettos are provided in the Warner release).

SFO Orchestra Concert will Begin November

Drawing of Richard Strauss from the Web page for the performance being discussed

As in the past, the fall season of the San Francisco Opera (SFO) includes a concert performed by the SFO Orchestra under the baton of Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim. Some readers may recall that the program for this event has already been finalized. It will include a vocal performance by Adela Zaharia singing the six songs that Richard Strauss collected for his Opus 68, sometimes known as the Brentano Lieder for the poems by Clemens Brentano. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to the United States premiere of a new arrangement of a suite from Strauss’ Opus 59 comic opera Der Rosenkavalier (the knight of the rose). That arrangement is a joint effort of Philippe Jordan and Tomáš Ille. The program will begin with the most raucous of Strauss’ tone poems, his Opus 28 “Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks.”

The performance will take place in the War Memorial Opera House. It will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, November 6. Most readers probably know that the venue is located in the Civic Center at 301 Van Ness Avenue. Tickets are priced from $30 to $229. San Francisco Opera has created a Web page for online purchases. Tickets are being managed by the San Francisco Opera Box Office in the War Memorial Opera House at 301 Van Ness Avenue, across the street from City Hall to the east and Davies Symphony Hall to the south. The Box Office may also be reached by calling 415-864-3330.

Democrats Rejoice!

When Fox News complains about the competence of the new White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia with Election Day less than a month in the future, Republicans probably know by now that they are in trouble:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/16/white-house-press-secretary-katie-zacharia-fox-news

Familiar Faces Return to Davies as Trio

Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet (from the SFS Web page for last night’s performance)

Last night Davies Symphony Hall hosted a trio of musicians, all of whom had previously performed as solo artists with the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). The earliest, and probably most familiar, of these was pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, who made his debut with SFS in October of 1994. The other two made their first appearances with SFS in the current century. Cellist Gautier Capuçon made his SFS debut as a Shenson Young Artist in 2009, and violinist Lisa Batiashvili made her debut in 2024, an appearance that included a tour with the ensemble in Southern California.

The earliest work on the program was the G major piano trio that Claude Debussy composed in 1880. It is also one of Debussy’s earliest compositions, given the number L. 5 in the catalog compiled by François Lesure. Indeed, those unfamiliar with the music would probably be surprised to learn that it was by Debussy! Personally, I have been familiar with the work for some time, probably going back to when I wrote about the Warner Classic “complete works” release of the Debussy catalog. Thanks to chronology, the trio is the first selection of the first CD in the chamber music category! As a result, last night’s encounter with this trio was a trip down memory lane; and I am delighted that I loved every minute of it!

Just as refreshing was my encounter with Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 65 trio in F minor. According to my archives, I have not had an opportunity to write about listening to this composition since my Examiner.com days, when I wrote about a performance of the work by the Delphi Trio in the Old First Concerts series at Old First Church in September of 2012. This was composed about three years after the Debussy trio, and it was the third of the composer’s four piano trios. Each of these two trios was situated on either side of the intermission, making for an engaging compare-and-contrast experience.

The program began in the twentieth century with one of Dmitri Shostakovich’s earliest compositions. Ironically, my last encounter also involved the music introducing a program. The work itself was Shostakovich’s Opus 8, his first piano trio composed in the key of C minor; and it had previously been selected to open the San Francisco Performances Gift Concert for the 2023–24 season! As I had written at that time, the music was “so unfamiliar that a performing edition was not prepared until six years after the composer’s death.” In that context, I should be thankful that I had to wait only about two years for another encounter! That said, I felt that, last night, this music provided just the right way to get the audience to sit up and take notice!

Unless I am mistaken, this is the first time I have encountered a performance with the encore printed in the program! That selection was the piano trio arrangement of Manu Martin’s large-scale symphonic composition “LIM Symphony of Oceans.” The music was originally composed for Singaporean surgeon Dr. Susan Lim and Christina Teenz Tan as part of their project to explore the intersection of humanity, artificial intelligence, and nature through large-scale orchestral music. As a “veteran” of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it was not difficult for me to dismiss these intentions as little more than balderdash; and, as far as the music was concerned, I could only think back on that “too many notes” trope in the script for Amadeus!

Owen Dalby to Bring String 4tet to Noe Music

Many readers probably know by now that violinist Owen Dalby is Co-Artistic Director of Noe Music. Next month he will also be a performer. He has arranged a string quartet in which he will be joined by violinist Alexi Kenney, Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt on viola (founding violist of the Dover Quartet), and cellist Oliver Kenney.

Orlando di Lasso, artist unknown, from the International Museum and Library of Music, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to one of the best-known string quartets by Ludwig van Beethoven, his late-period Opus 130 quartet in B-flat major, which will be performed with the original final movement, now known as the “Grosse Fuge” (which translates as “great fugue”). The first half will offer particularly interesting diversity. It will begin with “Carrot Revolution,” composed by Gabriella Smith. The advance material I received describes this composition as “a patchwork of early music, bluegrass, jazz, rock and post-minimalism.” (Is the kitchen sink missing?) This will be followed by Alfred Schnittke’s third string quartet, which includes a phrase from Orlando di Lasso’s setting of the “Stabat Mater’” hymn to the Virgin Mary, Dmitri Shostakovich’s “DSCH” monogram, and the theme of the “Grosse Fuge.”

This will be a Sunday afternoon performance, beginning at 4 p.m. on November 1. As most readers probably know by now, the event with take place at the Noe Valley MinIstry, which is located (in Noe Valley, of course) at 1021 Sanchez Street. As of this writing, all Reserved Seating tickets have been sold; but General Admission tickets are still available for $45 with a $15 rate for students. A Web page has been created for online purchases.

Maazel’s Only 21st Century Recording

Composer John Adams (uploaded on January 5, 2008, by Macror from English Wikipedia, from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)

The last of the CDs of orchestral performances in the Lorin Maazel: The Complete Warner Edition provides the only account of music from the current century. “On the Transmigration of Souls” was composed by John Adams on a commission by the New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center's Great Performers. The work was intended as a “musical response” to the attacks on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 (now known colloquially as 9/11). It was premiered in Avery Fisher Hall of Lincoln Center by the New York Philharmonic on September 19, 2002; and the CD is based on recordings of the performances that took place between September 19 and September 24.

The music has the richest instrumentation of all of the orchestral compositions in the Warner collection. The instrumental resources require piccolo, three flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), three oboes, two clarinets, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, four trumpets, three trombones, two tubas, timpani, four percussionists, piano, celesta, “quarter-tone piano,” 2 harps, strings, and pre-recorded tape. There is only one vocal soloist, boy soprano Preben Antonsen, who is presumably a member of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, which is joined by the New York Choral Artists.

Those with even a smattering of music history know that, over many centuries, music has been composed as a “response” to the “call” of a historical event. The most familiar of those “responses” is probably Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 49, usually known as the “1812 Overture.” This was composed to celebrate a victory, which is very much the “flip side” of the event marked by “On the Transmigration of Souls.” That said, the Maazel recording was my “first contact” with Adams’ composition, leading me to wonder if I shall ever listen to it in Davies Symphony Hall!

Change in First Dynamite Guitars Recital

When I announced the coming Dynamite Guitars series for 2026–2027, I wrote that the season would begin this Saturday, October 17, in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church with a solo recital by Scottish-Indian classical guitarist Samrat Majumder. About 24 hours ago, I learned that the performance will take place at 7:30 p.m. and that it would still be a solo recital. However, there has been a change in the soloist!

Guitarist Hao Yang (from the Groupmuse event page for her recital this coming Saturday)

The performer will be classical guitarist Hao Yang. Her education includes studies at Yale University, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the University of Denver. She has prepared a program of music composed between the mid-sixteenth century and the almost immediate present.

She will begin with a set of three “Fantasías” from Alonso Mudarra’s collection Tres libros de musica en cifras para vihuela (three books of music in numbers for vihuela). The other composers will be from the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. In order of their year of birth, their compositions will be as follows:

• Joaquín Turina: “Sevillana” (Opus 29)
• Lennox Berkeley: Sonatina (Opus 52, Number 1)
• Leo Brouwer: Sonata Number 5 (“Ars Combinatoria”)
• Jeremy Collins: Elegy
• Emmet Edwards: Kilimanjaro

For those that do not yet already know, the venue is located at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of the corner of Franklin Street. Admission will be $25. However, Supermusers will be admitted for $18. Tickets may be purchased online through the Groupmuse event page for this performance.

Maazel’s 20th Century Preference for Ravel

In the CD collection Lorin Maazel: The Complete Warner Edition, conductor Maazel shows decidedly more interest in the nineteenth century than he does in the twentieth. (Some readers may recall that this site devoted an entire article to two symphonies by Anton Bruckner before going on to the other nineteenth-century composers in the collection: Johannes Brahms, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Antonín Dvořák.) Only five CDs account for the twentieth century, and three of them involve Maurice Ravel.

That said, there is much to be gained from listening to the Ravel CD that presents both of the composer’s piano concertos. The pianist is Jean-Philippe Collard, performing with the Orchestre National de France. Each of these concertos has its own rhetoric of sassiness and no shortage of moments that are downright outlandish. Ravel clearly had a sense of humor, and it is most evident in these concertos. To some extent that humor is also evident in at least some of his orchestrations of the movements Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition suite. Ironically, the CD for that suite has an “overture” track devoted to Claude Debussy’s “Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune” (prelude to the afternoon of a faun). Presumably, when that album was first released in 1962, someone, perhaps associated with the Philharmonia Orchestra, decided that Pictures needed an overture!

There is also a second Ravel CD with four familiar tracks. It is framed by “Boléro” at the beginning and “La valse” at the end. These serve as “bookends” for works originally composed for piano. The first of these is the orchestral version of “Pavane pour une infante défunte,” and it is followed by the “Alborada del gracioso” movement from the Miroirs suite.

The only other composer to receive more than one composition in this series is Richard Strauss. Most of his CD accounts for Also sprach Zarathustra. However, the seriousness of that tone poem is followed by “comic relief” with the performance of “Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks.”

The remaining CD accounts for two performances by pianist Sviatoslav Richter, each with a different orchestral ensemble. The CD begins with Béla Bartók’s second piano concerto with Maazel conducting the Orchestre de Paris. He then “crosses the Channel” (so to speak), leading the London Symphony Orchestra in Sergei Prokofiev’s Opus 55, his last completed piano concerto.

Sergei Prokofiev (cropped from a family portrait, photographer unknown, public domain)

From a personal point of view, I was particularly glad to have another encounter with Richter. Some readers may recall that I wrote about him a little less than a week ago in my “19th Century (‘beyond’ Bruckner)” article. Bartók and Prokofiev had decidedly different approaches to the keyboard, but each of them had his own way of departing from Johannes Brahms, so to speak. Mind you, Brahms’ Opus 83 concerto was one of my earliest pocket score purchases; but, when I first became a radio announcer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in my freshman year, I quickly gravitated to Bartók for the program of twentieth-century music that I hosted.

Sadly, the Bartók-Prokofiev CD will be Richter’s last appearance in this Maazel collection.

Readers may recall that this collection has not yet been released. That said, Tower Records has created a Web page for it. The preorder release date is this coming November 6.

George Szell Before Cleveland

Photograph of George Szell on the cover of the album being discussed (presumably taken during his tenure in New York)

Through my connection to Naxos B2B, I have had the good fortune to receive announcements of recordings on other labels, some of which have appealed to me through historical interest. Earlier this month I learned of the SOMM Recordings release the first volume in a series of remastered performances of George Szell when he was in New York conducting the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra (as it was known at that time). Back in my student days, we used to joke about Szell’s skill at “playing” the Cleveland Orchestra (as if it were a massive pipe organ, rather than an ensemble). Prior to that leadership, he had made his debut with the St. Louis Symphony in October of 1939; and in New York he had performed with both the Metropolitan Opera and the Philharmonic.

The first release in this series couples the late nineteenth century with the early twentieth. It presents two symphonies, the first of which is the only one composed by César Franck in the key of D minor. This is followed by Jean Sibelius’ Opus 43 (second) symphony. Both of these compositions drew a lot of attention during my years in both high school and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Szell’s interpretations of both of these symphonies were consistently engaging. One might almost say that the intensity of his relationship with the Philharmonic “foreshadowed” the more intense relationship he would cultivate in Cleveland.

Ironically, both of these symphonies seem to have faded into the past (or, at least, my personal past). I have not written about Franck’s symphony since my examiner.com days, when I recalled my recording of Arturo Toscanini playing this composition. More recently, I had last encountered the Sibelius symphony when it was included in the third BBC Legends volume released by ICA Classics. In other words, listening to this recording of performances by Szell that pre-dated his Cleveland days amounted to drawing upon a rather powerful time machine!

That said, this was my first encounter with a Szell recording that was not made in Cleveland. Personally, I enjoyed listening to his approach to the Philharmonic-Symphony. The ensemble seems to have felt the same way. He would perform with them over the course of 27 years!

Chez Hanny to Augment SF Music Day

About a week ago, InterMusic SF announced the date for this year’s SF Music Day. As in the past, this is an annual event that showcases a wide variety of music-making ensembles through a series of performances that begin at noon and continue through 6 p.m. on Sunday, October 25. All of those performances will take place in the Veterans Building of the San Francisco War Memorial at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. This venue affords three sites for performance: Herbst Theatre, whose entrance is on the ground floor, the Green Room on the second floor, and the Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater on the fourth (top) floor. This year there will be no charge for admission, which means that those attending will be encouraged to make a recommended donation of $30.

Participating performers and groups will be as follows:

• Anne Sajdera Quintet
• Bululú
• Cornelius Boots
• Dutt Campbell Duo
• Ensemble Humanité
• Ian Carey and Wood Metal Plastic
• Jordan Glenn’s BEAK
• Marielle V Jakobsons
• Nippon Kobo
• Pawlik-Zwiebel Duo
• Quinteto Latino
• Raffi Garabedian Quartet
• Rova Saxophone Quartet
• San Francisco Chamber Orchestra
• SixEight: Maclauchlan & Quale
• Sundra Manning Organ Quartet
• The Sampaguitas
• Trillian Welch

The schedule of which performances take place where and when will be available upon entry. This year, however, SF Music Day will overlap with another event.

Wayne de la Cruz at the keyboard of his Hammond organ

That event will be the usual Sunday afternoon performance by Jazz Chez Hanny, the house concert hosted by Frank Hanny. This will be the second offering of the month, performed by the Wayne de la Cruz Trio, led by de la Cruz at the Hammond organ. Rhythm will be provided by guitarist Dave Bell and Mark Lee on drums. The show will begin at 4 p.m. on Sunday, October 25. Hanny’s house is located at 1300 Silver Avenue, and the performance takes place in the downstairs rumpus room. Admission will be $25 and checks will be accepted, as well as cash or Zelle. 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 and may be made by sending electronic mail to jazz@chezhanny.com.

The Bleeding Edge: 10/12/2026

Interior of Old First Church, the venue for Old First Concerts

This week the number of events that have already been reported outnumber the new ones. This is due primarily to the fact that The Lab will be busy this week with performances on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. This will also be the week of The Women of Note project at Old First Concerts on Friday evening and the Icelandic program at the Center for New Music on Saturday. If that is not enough, there are four new events to attend this week as follows:

Thursday, October 15, 8:30 p.m., The Rite Spot Cafe: Saxophonist Rent Romus will give a solo performance entitled Deep Space. This will take place about a month after the last account of a performance at this venue, suggesting that it may be a monthly offering. The venue is located at 2099 Folsom Street, on the northeast corner of 17th Street.

Friday, October 16, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: “Boohaabian multi reed player extraordinaire David Boyce” will again curate an Other Dimensions in Sound performance. The program will be a “double dose of sonic sustenance,” meaning that it will be a two-set program! The first set will be taken by Wandering Clouds, a quartet led by Jaroba on tenor saxophone and bass clarinet. He will be joined on the front line by Kersti Abrams alternating between alto saxophone and flute. Rhythm will be provided by drummer Mike Villarreal and Eli Pontecorvo on bass. The second set will be taken by the improvisation group Warm Spell. Specific performers have not yet been finalized; but the members of the group are Marina Lazzara (vocals and percussion), Brian Lucas (bass), Tammy Fortin (guitar), Farfisa (JLee) Kevin Van YserLoo (violin), and Richard Marriot (conch shell, flute, and trumpet). Once again, many (if not most) readers already know the drill: 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, October 16, 7 p.m., Black Cat Jazz Supper Club: Pianist and composer Joe Block will bring his quintet to Black Cat. They will perform music from his debut album, There Is Always Hope. The other members of the quintet will be trumpeter Dylan Band, Sam Harris alternating between tenor and soprano saxophones, bassist Miguel Russel, and Christian McGee on drums. The club is located in the Civic Center at 400 Eddy Street.

Saturday, October 17, 7:30 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: Darren Johnston will lead his quartet in a performance of tracks from his latest CD release, Standard Issue. He is a trumpeter, but he is calling his instrument for this performance his “peace cannon.” The other members of the quartet will be Kai Lyons on guitar, bassist Marcus Shelby, and Lorca Hart on drums. As many (most?) readers know by now, admission will be a $20 cover charge at the door with a $10 student rate. Since the shop has limited space for a performance, reservations are advised and can be made by calling 415-586-3733. This is another familiar venue for readers, located at 653 Chenery Street, a short walk from the Glen Park station for both Muni and BART.

American Bach Begins SF Season at St. Mark’s

Late yesterday afternoon St. Mark’s Lutheran Church hosted the opening Discovery Series program presented by American Bach. 2026–2027 will be its 38th season, and the Artistic Director continues to be Jeffrey Thomas. Ironically, the title of the first performance was Italian Panache; and no member of the Bach family was included on the program.

The Antonio Vivaldi monument at the Rooseveltplatz in Vienna (photograph by C.Stadler/Bwag, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 international license, from Wikimedia Commons)

There were seven works on the program accounting for six composers. The only composer to be represented twice was Antonio Vivaldi. This seemed appropriate since Vivaldi was a significant influence on Johann Sebastian Bach, who rearranged a generous number of Vivaldi concerti for both keyboard and other instruments. In that vein, only one of those concertos was included on the program, RV 531, composed in G minor with solos for two cellos. The other Vivaldi selection was a vocal setting of Psalm 112 with soprano Mary Wilson as the vocalist.

All of the other composers on the program were from Vivaldi’s period. In “order of appearance,” they were Domenico Scarlatti (Sinfonia in C major), Tomaso Albinoni (Sinfonia à 5 in C major), Antonio Caldera (Ciaccona in B-flat major), Alessandro Scarlatti (Sonata à Quattro in F major), and Arcangelo Corelli (Concerto Grosso in D major). The result was seven imaginative approaches to making music during the transition from the seventeenth to eighteenth century.

For this period I find that I have a soft spot for the cello. I was therefore delighted to encounter two cellists contributing to the program. One of them, Gretchen Claassen, I have encountered (and written about) pretty much since I began this writing gig. The other, Joseph Howe, was new to me but got me to sit up and take notice in his performance of the Alessandro Scarlatti sonata.

PARTCH Ensemble Releases Fourth Volume

The PARTCH Ensemble performing the diversity of instruments required for the tracks on the album being discussed

I have not written about the Bridge Records’ Music of Harry Partch series since June of 2019. That was when I wrote about the third volume in the series, Sonata Dementia. It was only at the beginning of this month that I learned that the fourth volume is now available. The full title of the album is The Wayward: First Complete Recording; and, as I write this, the best Web page for purchase can be found on the Bandcamp Web site.

The album has six tracks, each of which has a lengthy title worth repeating:

1. Barstow: Eight Hitchhiker Inscriptions from a Highway Railing at Barstow, California (1941/54/68)
2. San Francisco: A Setting of the Cries of Two Newsboys on a Foggy Night in the Twenties (1943/55)
3. The Letter: a Depression Message from a Hobo Friend (1943/55)
4. U.S. Highball: A Musical Account of a Transcontinental Hobo Trip (1943/55)
5. Ulysses at the Edge: A Minor Adventure in Rhythm (1955/62)
6. Ulysses at the Edge: Improv Version

Personally, I was glad to receive this latest volume, even if I had to wait over seven years! The titles say all that the attentive listeners will need.

Old First Concerts: November, 2026

Next month there will be only two Old First Concerts (O1C) events taking place at Old First Presbyterian Church. Most readers probably know by now that this venue is located at 1751 Sacramento Street on the southeast corner of Van Ness Avenue. Each of the events is associated with a different organization: LIEDER ALIVE! and Ensemble for These Times (E4TT), respectively. As usual, tickets will be available for purchase through the hyperlinks attached to the dates, which are also available for live stream viewing. General admission is $30. with reduced rates for seniors, students, and children age twelve and under. Both performances will take place at 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoons as follows:

November 8: The LIEDER ALIVE! program will feature a debut performance by baritone Olivier Zerouali, who is currently an Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera. Details have not yet been finalized, but he will perform vocal selections composed by Franz Schubert, Richard Strauss, and Gabriel Fauré. He will be accompanied at the piano by Ji Youn Lee.

E4TT musicians Margaret Halbig, Megan Chartier, and Nanette McGuinness (photograph by Martyn Selman)

November 15: As at least some readers may already know, E4TT is the trio of soprano Nanette McGuinness, Megan Chartier on cello, and pianist Margaret Halbig. Grace Wahlen will conduct a larger ensemble with two additional vocalists: soprano Carina Kahane and mezzo Melinda Martinez Becker. In addition, Alex Malinas will contribute as narrator. There will be three other instrumentalists: Taylor Robinson alternating between flute and piccolo, clarinetist Zoe King, and Eddie Virtgaym on percussion. There will also be world premiere performances of a duo for cello and piano by Mary Bianco and Alex Malinas’ “Skazka.” The other contributing composers will be Andrea Casarrubios, David Garner, and Stella G. Gitelman Willoughby. The program will begin in the twentieth century with selections from Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 79, From Jewish Folk Poetry. The entire event will be co-presented by KlezCalifornia.

DSO Live-Streams Americana Program

Yesterday evening, my wife and I settled down with dinner to watch the latest YouTube livestream of a performance by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. The title of the program was Bernstein & Appalachian Spring, which accounted for about half of the selections. Most readers probably know that “Appalachian Spring” was composed by Aaron Copland for choreography by Martha Graham, and the “Bernstein” in the title was Leonard Bernstein. These icons of twentieth-century music were flanked on either side by the next generation of composers, beginning with Joan Tower and concluding with John Adams.

Paul Huang as soloist in the performance of Leonard Bernstein’s “Serenade” (screen shot from yesterday’s live-stream)

The conductor for this occasion was Peter Oundjian, and the soloist was violinist Paul Huang. The latter performed the Bernstein selection, “Serenade, after Plato’s ‘Symposium.’” This is often referred to as one of Plato’s dialogues, but it involves exchanges between Socrates and six other speakers, all presenting their personal praises of love. Bernstein divided those speakers across five movements as follows:

1. Phaedrus, Pausanias
2. Aristophanes
3. Eryximachus
4. Agathon
5. Socrates, Alcibiades

Sadly, the video for this performance provided no cues for the individual movements, which pretty much undermined the effort of any listener to negotiate the overall narrative of the music. Huang followed Bernstein with an encore performance of his own solo arrangement of a Taiwanese folk song.

Things were pretty much the same for “Appalachian Spring.” Graham’s choreography stands as a cornerstone for the early pioneer days in American history. The suite that Copland extracted eliminates much of the pioneer narrative, dwelling more on refreshing aspects of spring itself. That said, like the ballet, it concludes with a musical elaboration of the hymn “Simple Gifts;” and, in the suite, that music is anything but simple! Nevertheless, the music is familiar to many listeners; and Oundjian’s interpretation could not have been more engaging.

The program was framed by two contemporary composers, beginning with a suite that Joan Tower extracted from her “Concerto for Orchestra.” This was one of those energetic scores that attends to every instrument in the ensemble. Unfortunately, the camera work could not keep up with Tower’s pace; and I found that I was much better off attending to listening while ignoring the viewing. Adams kept up with that pace in one of his more recent compositions: “Frenzy: a short symphony.” Personally, I wish it had been shorter!

Ars Minerva’s Latest “Forgotten” Opera

In a little less than a month’s time, Ars Minerva will present its latest production. As at least some readers may know by now, Director Céline Ricci has a mission of bringing forgotten operas from the past back to life. Indeed, in many cases, the composers of these operas have also been forgotten!

Soprano Aura Veruni, who will be singing the title role in Ziani’s Andromeda (from the Ars Minerva Web page for this production)

For most readers, that will be the case for this season’s composer, Marc’Antonio Ziani, who was very prolific in composing operas. The one to be performed by Ars Minerva will be the last of those operas, Andromeda, composed in 1714. The libretto by Pietro Pariati draws upon the Greek myth of Perseus and Andromeda. As in the past, the opera will be sung in the original Italian, most likely with translation projected above the stage.

Also as in the past, the production will be given three performances, beginning at 7 p.m. on Friday, November 6, and Saturday, November 7, with a 2 p.m. matinee performance on Sunday, November 8. The venue will be the Creativity Theater at Yerba Buena Gardens, located at 221 Fourth Street in SoMa. Tickets for all performances may be purchased online through a single Web page.

Canellakis Brings More Rachmaninoff to Davies

It was somewhat less than a year ago that Karina Canellakis made her last visit to the podium of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). On that occasion her concerto soloist was Alexandre Kantorow in a performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s Opus 26 (third) piano concerto in C major. Yesterday evening Canellakis returned to Davies Symphony Hall to lead SFS in another Prokofiev concerto. This time the soloist was violinist Nicola Benedetti, playing Prokofiev’s Opus 83, his second violin concerto in G minor. “For the record,” as they say, my last account of her concerto work with SFS has been almost a decade. In March of 2017, she performed Max Bruch’s Opus 26 (first) violin concerto in G minor with then Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas on the podium.

Benedetti’s partnership with Canellakis could not have been better. This was, without a doubt, a “dynamite” account of the Prokofiev concerto. Each of the three movements had its own characteristic rhetorical stance, and Benedetti gave a clear and convincing account of each of those stances. Moreover, her relationship with the orchestra could not have been better. It was as if she was totally aware of every gesture in the orchestra score and complemented each of those gestures with her own rhetoric.

The Ashokan reservoir, which may have inspired Ungar’s music (photograph by Daniel Case, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, from Wikimedia Commons)

Audience reception demanded an encore, and Benedetti replied with American music that became familiar during the end of the last century. She gave a solo performance of Jay Ungar’s “Ashokan Farewell.” Those in the audience that recall the 1990 PBS documentary The Civil War would probably have felt a tinge of nostalgia. For my part, I could appreciate the music as a violin solo without any connotations of the Ghost of Television Past!

Prokofiev’s concerto was complemented, after the intermission, with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Opus 45, given the title “Symphonic Dances.” While the middle of the three movements was clearly a waltz, there was little in the overall rhetoric to invoke any sense of a dance. On the other hand, there was more to enjoy in appreciating the rich instrumentation; and my vantage point provided an excellent view of all the activity in the percussion section! Opus 45 provided just the right opportunity for a full orchestral ensemble to “strut its stuff;” and, under Canellakis’ leadership, they certainly knew how to strut!

The “overture” for the program was “The Kingdom of Silence,” composed by Victoria Borisova-Ollas. This composer has as firm a command of instrumentation as Rachmaninoff did, but she never managed to apply it with the same skill. She seemed more interested in invoking “special effects” instead of establishing and exploring a rhetorical stance. Thus, while the performance lasted a bit less than a quarter of an hour, it felt like it went on forever. The instrumentation may have been ambitious, but this ambition required “sterner stuff.”

That said, Canellakis’ decision to present three unique Russian perspectives was definitely an interesting one, even if one of those perspectives did not live up to the standards of the other two!

Stanislav Kochanovsky Conducts Early Prokofiev

Conductor Stanislav Kochanovsky on the cover of the album being discussed

Exactly one week from today, harmonia mundi will release an album of very early compositions by Sergei Prokofiev. The last four tracks of the album will probably be familiar to most listeners. They account for the composer’s Opus 25 (first) symphony in D major, known to many (if not most) listeners as the “Classical” symphony. Stanislav Kochanovsky conducts the NDR Radiophilharmonie; and, familiar as this music is, he provided a convincing and engaging account that will easily stand on its own merits.

That said, what makes this album particularly interesting is the selection on the first nineteen tracks. This is Prokofiev’s Opus 21, “Chout,” given the subtitle “Complete ballet in six scenes after the tale by Alexander Afanasyev.” This was the first ballet score that Prokofiev completed for Sergei Diaghilev, director of the Ballets Russes. The ballet was first performed in Paris on May 17, 1921, at the Théâtre Municipal de la Gaîté with choreography by Fyodor Slavinsky. The title of the ballet seems a bit long for a one-act performance: “Tale of the Jester Who Outwits Seven Other Jesters.”

I would not be surprised if any readers had previous acquaintance with this ballet. The fact that it does not appear in Balanchine’s New Complete Stories of the Great Ballets pretty much “seals the deal” of obscurity. For that matter, it has also been overlooked by the “revised and enlarged edition” of The Dance Encyclopedia, compiled and edited by Anatole Chujoy and P. W. Manchester. In the absence of these significant primary sources, it looks like the only viable one is the Wikipedia page!

That said, the score for Opus 21 is decidedly sassier than the one for Opus 25. The music may be unfamiliar, but one adjusts to the intensity of Prokofiev’s rhetoric without too much difficulty. Those curious about the narrative will see that the accompanying booklet for the album provides the titles (in both French and English) of the six episodes (tableaux) in the score. Personally, I have enjoyed the listening experience, particularly in the ways that “Chout” is much sassier that Prokofiev’s first effort at a symphony!

Those interested in pre-ordering this album will probably find that the best Web page has been created by Presto Classical Limited.

San Francisco Opera: from Massenet to Mozart

Hopefully, there are at least a few readers aware that, in a little less than a week’s time, the next full-length San Francisco Opera (SFO) production will begin at the War Memorial Opera House. This will be the revival of Vincent Boussard’s staging of Jules Massenet’s Manon, which was last performed at the Opera House in 2017. As a result, this will probably be a good time to prepare readers for the opera that will follow Manon.

That opera will be Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. By way of disclaimer, I should note that this may be the first “full-length” opera I ever saw. This was back in the Fifties when NBC would televise opera; and I used scare quotes because, while the performance accounted for all all four of the acts, the production would be abridged to make room for commercials (and was usually sung in English)! Many of those cuts probably involved recitative passages; so, for the most part, Mozart’s music suffered little damage!

The “Americanization” of Cavanagh’s staging of Mozart’s Figaro (photograph of Cory Weaver, courtesy of SFO)

SFO will present a revival of the production created by Canadian director Michael Cavanagh in 2019. The opera was composed in 1786, which aligns with Cavanagh setting the performance at a time after the American Revolutionary War, with the venue being a somewhat sumptuous manor house. In other words, the country had won its independence from the British; but “class distinction” was about the same in the “new world” as it had been on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean!

In this production the “upper class” is personified by the Count Almaviva, who will be sung by baritone Thomas Mole, making his role debut. Having won the hand of Rosina (soprano Olivia Smith) in The Barber of Seville, the count’s attention has been drawn to the countess’ maid Susanna (soprano Slávka Zámečníková). The problem is that the Count has given permission to his personal valet, Figaro (bass Peter Kellner, making his SFO debut), to marry Suzanna! The overall narrative comes across as one complication after another; but, in spite of the difficulties between Almaviva and his wife, the opera concludes with Figaro’s wedding to Susanna.

This production will be given ten performances in the Opera House. The first of these will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 31; and the other evening performances will take place at the same time on Tuesday, November 3, Saturday, November 7, Tuesday, November 10, Friday, November 13, Wednesday, November 18, and Friday, November 27. There will also be two Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. on November 18 and 29 (the final performance). A single Web page has been created for purchasing tickets for all ten of these events.