The Second Summer Concert Program in Davies

Conductor Nicolas Ellis (from the Web page for last night’s performance)

Yesterday evening Davies Symphony Hall saw the second Summer Classics program performed by the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) as part of the Summer with Symphony concert series. The title of the program was A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Both my wife and I have fond memories of the Davies concert that presented all of the music that Felix Mendelssohn had composed for William Shakespeare’s play interleaved with a semi-staged performance of all of the texts associated with that music.

Sadly, this approach to Mendelssohn and Shakespeare did not take place last night. Instead, Midsummer was reduced to the three most familiar movements from the full score, the overture, the nocturne, and (of course) the “Wedding March.” This began the second half of the program, and Shakespeare prevailed with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Fantasy-Overture,” “Romeo and Juliet.” The first half of the program was framed by opera, beginning with the “Forest Murmurs” episode from the second act of Richard Wagner’s Siegfried and concluding with the “Carmen Fantasy” by Franz Waxman. This was originally composed for the movie Humoresque and was subsequently arranged for violin and symphony orchestra by violinist Jascha Heifetz. These two operatic offerings framed the performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending.” Violinist Geneva Lewis was the soloist in both this selection and the “Carmen Fantasy.”

Nicolas Ellis made his debut as conductor. Sadly, things got off to a shaky start with the forest more mushy than murmuring. Fortunately, Ellis managed to get his mojo working before Lewis took the stage. Their shared chemistry for “The Lark Ascending” could not have been more engaging, and their shared take on Georges Bizet’s opera could not have been more dazzling. Following the intermission, Ellis’ command of the podium was just as satisfying. Even if I have lost count of the number of times I have listened to Tchaikovsky’s take on Shakespeare, there was a freshness in Ellis’ interpretation that kept my attention from beginning to end.

SFS: A “Summer Classic” in Mid-July

Geneva Lewis, violinist for the selections by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Franz Waxman (from the event page for her performance)

“Serious” music tends to take a back seat in Davies Symphony Hall during the summer months. However, in a few week’s time the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) will present a program in its Summer Classics series given the title A Midsummer Night’s Dream. That title will refer to the music the Felix Mendelssohn composed for a performance of the play by William Shakespeare of that title. This will begin the second half of the program, and it will be followed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet,” which he called a “Fantasy-Overture.” The program will begin with the instrumental “Forest Murmurs” excerpt from Richard Wagner’s opera Siegfried, arranged for concert performance by Hermann Zumpe. This will be followed by Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending.” The program will then return to opera with Franz Waxman’s “Carmen Fantasy,” edited for violin and orchestra by Jascha Heifetz. The soloist will be Geneva Lewis, and the conductor will be Nicolas Ellis.

The San Francisco performance of this program will take place in Davies Symphony Hall at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, July 17. As usual, a Web page has been created for purchasing tickets online, showing availability and prices for the different seating areas. 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: Wagner with Tchaikovsky and Strauss

The text for yesterday evening’s latest YouTube livestream of the performance by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) began as follows: “Stories of tragic love unfold through the expressive power of the orchestra.” Each half of the program began with music by Richard Wagner: the Prelude and Liebestod episodes (the latter performed without vocalist) from Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde and the “Siegfried Idyll” tone poem, which serves as a supplement to the operatic tetralogy, Der Ring des Nibelungen  (the ring of the Nibelung). The first half of the program concluded with another tone poem, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Francesca da Rimini;” and the program concluded with an instrumental suite of excerpts from Richard Strauss’ opera Der Rosenkavalier. Music Director Jader Bignamini led the ensemble.

What struck me most positively was the conductor’s measure-by-measure sensitivity to Wagner’s dynamics. Those familiar with the composer know how his sensitivity to dynamics underscores the narrative subtleties that provide the backbone of the music. Those dynamics are better appreciated when the narrative is performed in its entirety, but there are always subtleties underlying many (if not most) of Wagner’s excerpts. One could appreciate those subtleties in watching Bignamini at work, even when the music has been deprived of its overall narrative context.

The music of the other two composers on the program was anything but subtle. The narrative behind Tchaikovsky’s tone poem was inspired by one of the “Inferno” episodes in the first of the three parts of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy. I must confess that the account of forbidden love borders on soap opera, and Tchaikovsky’s music just adds more soap to the narrative. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the composer’s approaches to instrumentation, particularly when he deploys a trio of three separate flute parts, given a thoroughly engaging account by last night’s Detroit musicians:

Three members of the DSO flute section playing Tchaikovsky (screen shot from last night’s YouTube livestream)

Where Rosenkavalier is concerned, I much confess that I prefer the full-length opera to the excerpts. The “magic” resides in the relationship between the music and the overall narrative. When selections are performed, they tend to be most meaningful only to those that know the whole story. The most significant case in point concerns the most familiar instrumental waltz, which is actually providing background for a scheming scoundrel! Fortunately, I could engage my own memories of the opera as context for Bignamini’s performance and could fully appreciate the excerpts he performed!

DSO Live-Streams Russian Program

Once again my wife and I had our dinner while watching the latest live-streamed performance by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO). The title of the program was Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” and Other Tales, but I would have preferred to call the event a “Russian excursion.” Three of the four composers on the program were Russian, each with a different background. In “order of appearance,” they were Dmitri Shostakovich, Igor Stravinsky, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The first composer on the program was John Adams; but he was represented by “Slonimsky’s Earbox,” named after the Russian-American musicologist who may be best known for the throughly engaging book he wrote entitled Lexicon of Musical Invective.

Cellist Wei Yu performing Shostakovich’s concerto (screen shot from yesterday’s live-stream)

The program was led by the Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu, who had a solid command in approaching all four of the composers. The concerto soloist was DSO Principal Cello Wei Yu, performing Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 107, the first of his two cello concertos, composed in the key of E-flat major. The second half of the program began with Stravinsky’s poéme symphonique, “Le chant du rossignol” (song of the nightingale), followed by selections from Tchaikovsky’s full-length ballet Swan Lake. All of these offerings were richly orchestrated; and, as is usually the case with these telecasts, the camera work guided the viewer through the panoply of diverse instrumental sonorities.

The performance was consistently satisfying from start to finish. Lintu knew just how to capture the brash rhetoric of Adams’ overture. I was fortunate enough to see Slonimsky “in action” with his coy but always perceptive rhetoric. I would like to believe that Adams was just as fortunate, because his music definitely aroused my own personal memories of the musicologist.

Nevertheless, the concerto was the high point of the evening; and the soloist’s command of the extended cadenza was nothing less than jaw-dropping. I would have thought that he had enough by the conclusion of his performance, but he returned to given an encore. This was the opening Prelude movement of Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1012 (sixth) solo cello suite (which always seems to remind me of “The Irish Washerwoman”).

“Le chant du rossignol” is based on one of the more poignant fairy tales by Hans Christian Anderson. Stravinsky composed a full-length opera based on this tale, and the tone poem is basically a distillation of the opera. The distilled version is as engaging as it is brief, and I am somewhat disappointed that the music does not receive more attention. (The last time I wrote about it was in September of 2016, when Michael Tilson Thomas conducted a performance by the San Francisco Symphony.) The instrumentation shows Stravinsky at his best, and those qualities were excellently captured by last night’s camera work.

Given that my writing career (so to speak) began in my efforts as a ballet critic, I am still more than familiar with the full score of Swan Lake. It is usually abbreviated down to the music for the second of the four acts for concert purposes. However, Lintu assembled a suite of his own that accounted for all of those acts (but not with any regard for the narrative). He began with the prologue for the second act (because that is the most familiar music); but this was followed by the waltz in the first act. While his selections did not provide much of an account of the narrative, where this performance is concerned, there was no need to do so!

Olga Kern Returns to CMSF, Joined by Quartet

Olga Kern seated at a Steinway piano (photograph by Natalia Roslova, Web page from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)

Yesterday afternoon saw the penultimate recital in this year’s season in San Francisco presented by Chamber Music San Francisco (CMSF). The recitalist was Russian-born pianist Olga Kern, who has made frequent appearances in past CMSF seasons. The first half of her program presented solo performances of compositions by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Alexander Scriabin, and Mily Balakirev. For the second half she was joined by the Dalí Quartet, whose members are violinists Ari Isaacman-Beck and Carlos Rubio with Adriana Linares on viola and cellist Jesús Morales. They concluded the program with Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 81, the second of his piano quintets, composed in the key of A major. This was preceded by a string quartet performance of Astor Piazzolla’s Tango Ballet.

Each half of the program had its own approach to encores. Kern preceded the intermission with three solo offerings. She began with “Feux d’artifice” (fireworks), the last of the 24 pieces in Claude Debussy’s Préludes collection. This was followed by “Spinning Wheel,” a composition by Charles Lisberg that has been in Kern’s repertoire for many years. Her final selection was “Étincelles” (sparks), the sixth piece in Moritz Moszkowski’s Opus 36 collection, 8 Characteristic Pieces. The encore following the Dvořák performance was the Scherzo movement from Robert Schumann’s Opus 47 piano quartet in E-flat major. Sadly, there was a lack of clarity in Kern’s account of the piano part for that energetic movement.

The performances were more than somewhat mixed. There were significant problems with a blurring of thematic lines in just about all of Kern’s solo selections, not just in her approach to the Schumann quartet. On the other hand, Linares’ viola work practically soared with expressiveness in both the Dvořák quintet and the “Encuentro–Olvido” movement of Tango-Ballet. In other words, there were any number of moments of engaging performances; but, unfortunately, none of them involved the pianist.

May 30: Two Overlapping (contrasting) Events

As of this writing, the last Saturday of this month, May 30, will see (at least) two overlapping performances, both beginning at 7:30 p.m. My guess is that making a choice will not be too difficult for many readers, since the performing organizations are decidedly different. One of these will be the final program in the current season of the San Francisco Philharmonic, while the other will be the penultimate performance by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus (SFGMC). Specifics are as follows:

Anne Richardson and Jessica Bejarano on the poster design for the next San Francisco Philharmonic concert

The guest soloist for the San Francisco Philharmonic will be cellist Anne Richardson, Associate Principal Cello of the San Francisco Symphony. Music Director Jessica Bejarano will lead the performance of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 33, “Variations on a Rococo Theme.” This will be followed by an equally imaginative approach to variations by Edward Elgar. Each of the movements in his “Enigma Variations” is a character sketch of one of the composer’s acquaintances. Taken as a whole, the duration of the program will be approximately 90 minutes. 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. All tickets are being sold for $30 and may be purchased through a City Box Office Web page.

The full title of the SFGMC program is Shine On: An Ensemble Showcase. As many readers probably know, there are smaller ensembles embedded in the full chorus. Two of them will be featured on the program: HomoPhonics and The Lollipop Guild. There will also be guest performers visiting from both the north and the south. Cascade is one of the smaller groups in the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus, while the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles will send its own embedded Aftershock group. The venue will be the Chan National Queer Arts Center, which is located in the Mission at 170 Valencia Street. Premium seating is now sold out, but general admission tickets are still available for $35. SFGMC has created its own Web page for purchasing these tickets.

SFS: After Half a Decade Slobodeniouk Returns

Conductor Dima Slobodeniouk (2016 photograph by Elisardojm, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license)

Last night Finnish conductor Dima Slobodeniouk returned to the podium of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) in Davies Symphony, having made his debut here in January of 2020. He studied both violin and conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Finland, where his teachers included Leif Segerstam, Jorma Panula and Atso Almila. As might be expected, his debut program included Jean Sibelius’ Opus 47 violin concerto in D minor with Armenian virtuoso Sergey Khachatryan as soloist. His symphony selection was a familiar warhorse, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 92 (seventh) in A major. However, his overture was more adventurous, the SF premiere of Jörg Widmann’s “Con brio,” whose title reflected the final movement of Beethoven’s Opus 92.

This week’s program devoted the first half to French composers and the second to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky with a performance of his Opus 36 (fourth) symphony in F minor. The concerto (which, as usual, preceded the intermission) was the flute concerto that Jacques Ibert composed in 1934 with SFS Principal Flute Yubeen Kim as soloist. The overture was composed 30 years later by another Frenchman, Henri Dutilleux. “Métaboles.” This amounted to a musical study of metamorphosis, which is deployed for melodic content, harmonies, and rhythms, the latter involving a generous and diverse collection of instruments in the percussion section.

I have to confess that, while that first half was impressively diverse, I find that my “morning after” recollections were not particularly vivid. There were more than enough challenges in Ibert’s concerto to keep Kim on his toes, but he delivered a solid and convincing account of the three-movement concerto. Taken as a whole, it was a dazzling display of virtuosity, given free rein in Ibert’s thematic material. After jumping through the composer’s many hoops, Kim then settled back to provide the audience with an encore solo performance of Claude Debussy’s “Syrinx.” While both of the French compositions in the first half of the program were engaging, Kim’s performance of “Syrinx,” for all its brevity, was the selection that seized and sustained attention from beginning to end.

In the second half of the program, Slobodeniouk’s virtue was his ability not to overplay his hand. Opus 36 is the “Fate” symphony with a dark theme that overshadows the entire composition. However, as is often the case, what is most important is the diversity of instrumental combinations that Tchaikovsky deployed. The overall rhetoric may be a bit too much on the heart-on-sleeve side; but the journey through all of those sonorities always seems to make the listening experience an engaging one. However familiar the music was to many (most?) in the audience, Slobodeniouk’s interpretation elicited no end of perspectives more than worthy of attention.

Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain: the 3rd Visit

The members of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain making it clear that they take their music seriously (photograph by Stefan Mager, courtesy of San Francisco Performances)

Last night in Herbst Theatre, San Francisco Performances concluded its 2025–26 season with a third appearance of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. George Hinchcliffe continues to manage as Musical Director; but, as in the past, he did not make an appearance. The stage was occupied, as it was at the last visit in April of 2024, by seven performers playing a diversity of instruments. The Concert Ukulele was played by Guy Hargreaves and Leisa Rea, the latter doubling on sopranino ukulele. Peter Brooke Turner played soprano ukulele. Ben Rouse and Laura Currie both played tenor ukulele with the lower register shared by Ben Hales on baritone ukulele and Laurie Higgins on bass ukulele.

As usual, the program was a diverse one. Television was honored with theme music from both Bonanza and The Muppet Show (one for each side of the pond). The concert genre was shared by the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies” from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet and the can-can music from Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld. The more popular side saw a quodlibet of “Fly Me to the Moon,” “Love Story,” and “Killing Me Softly.” These were the most familiar selections from the broader diversity of the entire evening.

Taken as a whole, the content was as rich as ever; but the musicians kept things going at their usual breakneck clip. Personally, I enjoy an evening in which the performance technique is as diverse as the selections being performed. Indeed, the diversity of this one single program served as a perfect reflection on the overall diversity of this season’s offerings. I look forward to many return visits by this ensemble in the future.

SF Philharmonic to Feature String Ensemble

Poster design for this month’s performance by the San Francisco Philharmonic Orchestra

This month’s performance by the San Francisco Philharmonic Orchestra will be hosted by the Saint Joseph’s Arts Society. The title of the program will be String Masterworks, and the entire program will be performed by the string section. The program will conclude with one of the major compositions for a string ensemble, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 48 in C major, given the title “Serenade for Strings.” This significant work for the string section will be complemented in the first half of the program with Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings.” The program will begin with “Palladio,” composed by Karl Jenkins in 1995. This will be followed by Joaquín Turina’s “La oración del torero,” originally composed for either four lutes or a string quartet. The remaining work on the program will be the strings-only version of the fifth “Hungarian Dance” composed by Johannes Brahms.

This concert will take place one week from today, beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, May 8. The venue will be Saint Joseph’s Arts Society San Francisco, which is located at 1401 Howard Street, on the southwest corner of 10th Street. Tickets may be purchased in advance through a City Box Office Web page for $35 or $40. Tickets will be sold at the door for $50. The duration of the program will be 90 minutes.

Joshua Bell Returns to SFS Great Performers

Violinist Joshua Bell (from the Web page for last night’s recital)

Last night violinist Joshua Bell returned to San Francisco as the recitalist in the latest event in the Great Performers Series presented by the San Francisco Symphony. He was accompanied at the piano by Shai Wosner for a program of four violin sonatas, two each from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The composers for the first half of the program were Franz Schubert and Edvard Grieg, and those in the second half were Sergei Prokofiev and Maurice Ravel.

The program got off to an uneven start in which Bell and Wosner seem to have had different approaches to Schubert. Schubert has had a significant role in Wosner’s repertoire, and he has released several Onyx Classics albums of that composer’s piano music. On the other hand, I am not sure that I have had an opportunity to listen to Bell play Schubert previously. Last night I could see why, since Bell never seemed to find the right way to fit himself into Wosner’s account of the D. 574 violin sonata in A major.

Things got better when Bell advanced to the other end of the nineteenth century. He was much more in his element with movements having tempo adjectives such as “appassionato,” “espressivo,” and “animato.” Nevertheless, he overplayed his hand even when Wosner tried to establish a more disciplined frame of reference. On the other hand, Bell consistently found the right approaches to expressiveness in the Prokofiev and Ravel sonatas, and his chemistry with Wosner could not have been better. The evening concluded with an encore performance of “Mélodie,” the last of the three movements in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir d’us lieu cher (memory of a dear place). In many ways, the brevity of the Tchaikovsky movement came across as more expressive than any of the multi-movement sonatas, making for a “less is better” evening.

NCCO to Feature Two Local Composers

Nathaniel Stookey (courtesy of the Las Vegas Philharmonic)

March will see the next performance by the New Century Chamber Orchestra (NCCO). The program will feature premiere performances of works by composers currently living in San Francisco. Both of them created their works on New Century commissions, and one of them will be receiving its world premiere. That will be “Bubble Chamber,” which was composed by Nathaniel Stookey to honor Gordon Getty.

For those unfamiliar with the title, a bubble chamber played a major role in the study of nuclear physics in the last century. Its inventor Donald A. Glaser was awarded the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physics for his efforts. Sadly, it is now little more than a relic, having been replaced by wire chambers, spark chambers, drift chambers, and silicon detectors, all of which are more conducive the current research practices.

The program will begin with the other commissioned work, a composition by Jake Heggie entitled simply “Overture.” (The title clearly speaks for itself!) Each of the two commissioned works will be paired with a predecessor, the first from the eighteenth century and the second from the nineteenth. Music Director and Concertmaster Daniel Hope will be the soloist in one of the many violin concertos composed by the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, presumably to display his skills as a violinist! The concerto is in the key of A major; and, because Saint-Georges composed two of them in that key, I cannot be more specific about Hope’s selection! On the other hand, I can be specific about the final work on the program, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 70, a string sextet for pairs of violins, violas, and cellos, composed in the key of D minor and given the title “Souvenir de Florence.”

The San Francisco performance of this program will take place on Saturday, March 14, beginning at 2 p.m. This early start is due to the fact that the concert will be followed by this season’s New Century Gala event! The venue will be the Presidio Theatre, which is located in the Presidio at 99 Moraga Avenue. Tickets may be purchased through a City Box Office Web page with prices between $35 and $80.

Balanchine Returns to San Francisco Ballet

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

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

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

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

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

13th OFS Season Begins with Holiday Tradition

Jamael Smith with fellow OFS bassoonist Georgeanne Banker (from San Francisco Classical Voice)

Some readers may recall that it was about a year ago that One Found Sound (OFS) launched its twelfth season with the annual Holiday Pop Rox! program. This year oboist Jesse Barrett passed the baton to bassoonist Jamael Smith, whose narrations provided the “spinal cord” of the entire performance. As usual, there was an emphasis on vocal works, most of which were delivered by Melinda Campero, who commanded a generously diverse repertoire. The “holiday tradition” also saw the return of reigning Drag Queen of the Year Nicki J.

This year selections from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 71a, The Nutcracker Suite, provided most of the instrumental offerings. The “Miniature Overture,” “Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy,” and “Russian Dance” interleaved with Campero’s selections. Appropriately enough, she launched the entire program with Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” She also delivered a delightful account of “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” made popular by Andy Williams but composed by Edward Pola and George Wyle. Personally, however, I preferred the “meat” between these two “slices of bread,” “I Put a Spell on You,” which brought Screamin’ Jay Hawkins to the attention of just about every disc jockey. (Hawkins himself wrote the song, working with Herb Slotkin.)

The performance took place at the Saint Joseph’s Arts Society, which was previously a church. This is a vast space, but it definitely drew an enthusiastic crowd. Even music as dated as Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” was welcomed in the holiday spirit. (Fun fact: Anderson began work on this during a heat wave in July of 1946.)

Personally, I was glad to see that the OFS ensemble continues to present thoroughly engaging approaches to the music they perform (as always, without a conductor); and I look forward to the coming concert season!

SFCO to Begin Family Concerts in Holiday Spirit

Some readers may recall that the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra (SFCO) began its MainStage season a little less than a month ago. However there is also a Family Concerts season, which will get under way during Thanksgiving weekend. Traditionally, the first of those concerts is entitled Nutcracker “Sweet,” which offers a performance of music from the ballet score composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky designed for young audiences.

The Puppet Company’s version of the protagonist in Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker ballet (from the Eventbrite Web page for the performance being discussed)

As might be guessed, the performance will be visual, as well as auditory. The ensemble to provide music for a performance by The Puppet Company, bringing Tchaikovsky’s music “to life.” Furthermore, there will be a show-and-tell of the different puppet types to illustrate the roles they will play in the setting of the score. (Spoiler alert: one of those roles will be a fire-breathing dragon.)

The event has been scheduled with “family hours” in mind. The San Francisco performance will begin at 2 p.m. on Saturday, November 29. The venue will be the Noe Valley Ministry, located at 1021 Sanchez Street, just north of 24th Street and two blocks to the west of the trolley stop at 24th and Church Street. There will be no charge for admission, but those planning to attend should consider making reservations through the Eventbrite Web page for this offering.

Violin-Piano Recital Coming to Noontime Concerts

Karen Bentley Pollick and Daniel Glover (from their Noontime Concerts Web page)

My last notification of a recital presented by Noontime Concerts™ in Old St. Mary’s Cathedral on the south side of Chinatown involved a solo recital by Slovenian classical guitarist Mak Grgić. This was a program of Macedonian and Slovenian music. One week from today, Noontime Concerts will present a duo recital by violinist Karen Bentley Pollick, accompanied at the piano by Daniel Glover. The program will feature three sonatas by the early twentieth-century Austrian composer Hugo Kauder, two of which will be United States premieres. These will be followed by an arrangement of the Canzonetta movements from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 35 violin concerto in D major.

Like all events in the Noontime Concerts series, the performance will take place in the sanctuary of Old Saint Mary’s beginning at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 18. The cathedral is located at 660 California Street, on the northeast corner of Grant Street. There is no charge for admission, but this concert series relies heavily on donations to continue offering its weekly programs.

Perlman’s Great Performers Recital at Davies

Violinist Itzhak Perlman (from the San Francisco Symphony Web page for his recital)

Last night violinist Itzhak Perlman returned to Davies Symphony Hall for his latest recital in the San Francisco Symphony Great Performers Series. Perlman has not been a stranger to San Francisco; but, according to my archives, I have not encountered him since his Opening Night Gala performance with the San Francisco Symphony in September of 2018. He used that event to promote his Perlman Music Program, bringing six of the alumni in tow. Last night was a more traditional duo recital with pianist Rohan De Silva as accompanist.

Where violin recitals are concerned, “traditional” usually means “beginning with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.” Sure enough, the evening began with the two-movement K. 301 sonata in G major. The rest of the program took a one-century leap into the last decades of the nineteenth century. The intermission was preceded by César Franck’s A major sonata and followed by the G major sonatina, Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 100.

There were, of course, encores: six of them, all probably familiar to those following violin recitals. Fritz Kreisler was represented by both the familiar “Liebesfreud” (love’s joy, the first of the three Alt-Wiener Tanzweisen pieces) and the less-encountered Opus 3, “Tambourin Chinois.” The other composer given two encores was Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the “Chant sans paroles” and “Humoresque,” the second of the two Opus 10 pieces. Perlman then concluded the encores with the one that probably drew the most listeners, the theme that John Williams composed for the movie Schindler’s List.

Taken as a whole, this was an evening of satisfying diversity. However (perhaps because age is catching up on me), it was hard to come away without thinking this had been a “business as usual” encounter. Perlman is clearly as skilled and focused as ever. Nevertheless, there was little, if any, among the stimuli to excite the “little grey cells.” I almost (but not quite) felt that revisiting the album tracks would have been just as stimulating.

Two Centuries of Russian Composers at Davies

Last night in Davies Symphony Hall German conductor David Afkham made his debut in leading the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). He presented a program based entirely on two Russian composers from the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. The evening began with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 35, his only violin concerto composed in the key of D major in 1878. The second half of the program was devoted to Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 65, his eighth symphony in C minor, composed in 1943, a time during World War II when the Red Army was beginning to take the offensive over Nazi Germany.

The concerto soloist was Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan. As is often the case, Tchaikovsky’s score provided rich instrumentation for the ensemble; but, under Afkham’s leadership, the balance between Khachatryan and the ensemble could not have been better. However familiar this music may have been to most of the audience, last night’s performance made for both an engaging blend of sonorities and a “grand tour of dispositions,” which unfold over the course of the concerto’s three movements.

Less familiar, however, was Khachatryan’s approach to taking an encore. He performed an improvisation on music associated with the Armenian duduk. This is a double reed instrument, which is usually played in pairs. A melodic line unfolds against a steady drone, which, in this case, was provided by Associate Concertmaster Jason Issokson. I would not be surprised if this was “something completely different” for the entire audience; but it was an engaging listening experience, which received a generous round of applause.

Dmitri Shostakovich as fireman during the Second World War (from the “Fireman Shostakovich” article in the London Review of Books, January 2, 2016)

Given the context in which Shostakovich’s Opus 65 was composed, it is not surprising that this is one of his darkest compositions. Indeed, the Largo fourth movement, structured as a passacaglia, was clearly intended as a funeral march. While the music was clearly conceived by the composer as patriotic support, the darkness did not go down well with the Soviet authorities.

Things were not much better on this side of the pond. SFS did not perform this music until February of 1994, when it was conducted by Herbert Blomstedt. The most recent performance was conducted by Juraj Valčuha at the end of May of 2019. Afkham accounted for the many different shades of darkness; and, while the rhetoric was unrelenting, he clearly knew how to engage with the attentive listener. One may not have left Davies with an upbeat disposition, but one could still relish the memories of the listening experience. Nevertheless, the unrelenting intensity is such that encountering this music once in a decade should be enough.

A Premiere and Two Warhorses at Davies

Conductor Gustavo Gimeno (photograph © Marco Borggreve, courtesy of SFS)

Last night conductor Gustavo Gimeno returned to Davies Symphony Hall for the first of this week’s three subscription concerts performed by the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). Also returning was the concerto soloist, pianist Javier Perianes, who made his SFS debut in June of 2015. On that occasion he played Manuel de Falla’s “Night in the Gardens of Spain” under the baton of Charles Dutoit. Last night his selection was Edvard Grieg’s Opus 16 piano concerto in A minor.

Familiar Grieg was coupled with one of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s most familiar symphonies, his Opus 64 (fifth) in E minor. These two warhorses were preceded by the world premiere of “Market Street, 1920s,” composed on an SFS commission by Principal Trombone Timothy Higgins. Those that have followed this site for some time may recall that I have taken a generous interest in Higgins’ efforts as a composer. His last effort performed in Davies, “Concert Music for Brass, Percussion and Timpani,” was composed for the brass players in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and was first performed here in March of 2024. As is almost always the case, “first impressions” do not always sustain; and I wish that things would unfold in such a way that last night’s encounter with Higgins’ latest effort will not be my last! [added 10/5, 8:30 a.m.: According to Steven Winn’s account of this performance in the San Francisco Chronicle, Higgins will be moving to the Chicago Symphony this coming fall; so it is unclear when (if ever) I shall have another encounter with his compositions!]

One thing is certain: “Market Street” was the freshest offering on the program. The remainder of the program consisted of what are sometimes politely called “chestnuts.” To be perfectly honest, I was already listening to too many performances of the Grieg concerto when I was in high school! Those are not the fondest of memories, and concerto soloist Javier Perianes’ delivery was so heavy-handed that I thought I was back in high school again! His encore of one of the plethora of the composer’s Lyric Pieces compositions was equally over-emoted, so I did not care very much which of the Opus collections was the one that supplied it.

Fortunately, things improved after the intermission. Tchaikovsky’s Opus 64 may be a warhorse, but every one of the clarinet passages delivered by Carey Bell made me sit up and take notice. (Some readers may know that the clarinet was my instrument in my high school days.) To be fair, this is one of those symphonies that gives the entire orchestra a generous workout; and Gimeno had no qualms in “pulling out all the stops” for the second (Andante cantabile) movement. Thus, while Bell’s clarinet work may have seized my attention, Gimeno’s conducting sustained it through to the conclusion of the final movement.

Jaap van Zweden Launches SFS Season

Last night in Davies Symphony Hall, Jaap van Zweden led the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) in its first performance for the 2025–26 season. This was the 46th anniversary of the All San Francisco Concert, which will be followed late this afternoon with Opening Night festivities. While Opening Night is a somewhat elite affair, the All San Francisco Concert is SFS’s was of saying “Thank You” to the citizens of San Francisco as a whole; and those working for Bay Area nonprofit, social services, and grassroots organizations are offered admission for a significantly reduced fee.

Pianist Parker Van Ostrand (from the Local News Matters Web page for last night’s performance)

This year’s program was an engaging variation on the traditional overture-concerto-symphony structure. The concerto soloist was pianist Parker Van Ostrand, performing what may be the most familiar piano concerto in the repertoire, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 23, his first piano concerto in B-flat minor. The overture was firmly rooted in the Bay Area with John Adams’ “Short Ride in a Fast Machine.” The intermission was followed by Ottorino Respighi’s four-movement tone poem, “Pines of Rome.”

“Short Ride” was first performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1986, but Adams is very much a major presence in the Bay Area. When Michael Tilson Thomas was Music Director, a performance in Davies was recorded on September 7, 2011 and subsequently released on an SFS Media CD, coupled with Adams’ “Harmonielehre.” I was glad to see that Amazon.com still has a Web page for this album, since it could not be more representative of Adams’ intimate relationship with SFS. Zweden had no trouble capturing and communicating the spirit of “Short Ride,” and I was glad to see that he will be returning to Davies in both January and February.

The Tchaikovsky concerto is, for many, the one concerto to rule them all. Ostrand is still a student at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, but he is definitely on the path to a future to be reckoned with. Mind you, he approached the opening movement with an energy that was almost Olympian. Nevertheless, he clearly had a command of everything that Tchaikovsky presented in the score. Once he got past the inevitable here-we-go-again rhetoric of the first movement, he began to settle into finding his own path to expressiveness over the course of the remainder of his performance.

Ostrand may be familiar to those with long memories of this site. He was the final solo recitalist in the 2023 San Francisco International Piano Festival. On that occasion his encore was the Alla Turca movement that concludes Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 331 sonata in A major. However, what he really played was the “Concert Paraphrase on Mozart’s Turkish March,” composed by Arcadi Volodos (which I first heard performed as a Yuja Wang encore). Last night, for his first appearance with SFS, he decided it was time to play this encore again; and listening to it was as much fun as it was on my “first contact.”

As usual, the Respighi performance pulled out all the stops. That included the two brass quartets situated on either side of the choir loft above the orchestra. “Pines of Rome” also includes a nightingale in its third episode on the Janiculum Hill. Respighi had a phonograph recording prepared for that episode. (I had a high school music teacher, who argued with me that recordings had not yet been invented. He did not know that “Pines of Rome” was composed in 1924!) Respighi died in 1936, meaning that he never experienced the emergence of concrete music as a genre!

George Balanchine’s “Serenade” Sustains

The critical moment when the “newcomer” joins the other dancers at the conclusion of George Balanchine’s choreography of the first movement of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 48, the “Serenade for Strings” in the key of C major (from the Great Performances video of New York City Ballet in Madrid)

Once again I find myself waxing lyrical over “Serenade,” the first ballet that George Balanchine created in the United States. This was his first major effort after his move to the United States. It was first performed by students of his School of American Ballet. The venue was not in New York City. Rather, the premiere took place on the estate of Felix M. Warburg in White Plains on June 9, 1934. By the end of that year, the School had a producing company; and the first public performance was held in the Avery Memorial Theatre in Hartford, Connecticut.

It would probably not be an exaggeration to say that the choreography for “Serenade” spread like wildfire to schools of ballet and performing companies associated with them. The venues included San Francisco, and I have lost count of the number of times I have seen it performed on Public Television (PBS). It was also one of the ballets that sustained me through the pandemic during the “Digital Spring Season” of the New York City Ballet.

The most recent Great Performances broadcast of “Serenade” on PBS will discontinue streaming at the end of this month. The abstract classicism of this ballet was coupled with the “earthier” “Square Dance” (originally performed with a caller) for the full video program. In many ways this program couples the Russian tradition with American “folk roots.” Nevertheless, Balanchine provided the choreography for both of these works; and the visual experience continues to be consistently engaging. The program has the usual 90-minute duration; and there would be much to be gained from finding an available 90-minute slot prior to midnight!