Pop! Goes the One Found Sound Gala

Last night my wife and I returned to Heron Arts for the final concert presented by One Found Sound. The title of the program was Divas Live! As might be expected, it involved a generous share of performances of music composed and/or sung by women primarily in the pop repertoire, such as Gloria Estefan, Dolly Parton, and Cher (the first three accounted for on the program). Those that share my own preferences could enjoy the efforts of three instrumental “divas,” two violinists and a violist in the One Found Sound ensemble.

Violinist Darren Sagawa (photograph from the Web site for the Carmel Bach Festival, where he is Music Librarian)

The first of these was Darren Sagawa (hence the scare quotes above), who performed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 373 rondo for violin and orchestra in C major. This was followed shortly thereafter by Annamarie Arai-López performing a movement from the “Summer” concerto in Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, RV 315. Finally, violist Alexandra Simpson delivered a dynamite account of a set of variations composed by Niccolò Paganini.

That said, pop ruled over the evening in both spirit and practice. This made for a long evening; but, for those that like diversity in their music, there was never a dull moment. The full ensemble was as attentive as ever with a festive spirit that was never lagging.

Spoleto Festival USA: the Final Release

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

As was the case with the preceding album, Live from Spoleto 2025: Chamber Music, Vol. 1, the second volume will be released this coming Friday. Once again, Amazon.com has already created a Web page for processing pre-orders for MP3 downloads. There are six tracks on the album, which are given a more formal structure than those on the first volume.

This structure basically amounts to a dialogue between two cultures. The more familiar is the Baroque period, represented by three of the “Four Seasons” violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi, those for summer, autumn, and winter. Each of these is a “response” to the “call” of a performance by Persian vocalist Mahsa Vahdat. The titles of those selections are “A Thousand Birds will Chant Your Song,” “Dialogue With the Beloved,” and “Vaya Vaya.” Finding any connections between the songs and the seasons will be left as an exercise for the listener!

Having now traversed all of the Spoleto 2025 albums, I have to say that this one was the most satisfying because it presented the most convincing structural framework. Indeed, one could take Vahdat’s performance as a point of departure and listen to the entire album as a “dialogue” between Persian songs and Vivaldi’s concertos. Mind you, I have not tried to seek out any connections between the texts of those songs and the seasons that Vivaldi depicts; but, from a purely listening point of view, the couplings are definitely satisfying. Of the three albums I encountered, beginning with the Orchestra release, this second volume of chamber music “led the pack” with both its structure and the quality of the performances.

Belated “Sundays at Ten” Released Yesterday

Hanneke van Proosdij performing Handel’s HWV 375 flute sonata with William Skeen on baroque cello and David Tayler on baroque guitar

Those wondering what happened to this past Sunday’s Sundays at Ten video compiled by Voices of Music (VoM) will be happy to learn that Episode 10 of Season 6, given the title Sperantes is now “in the system.” To appropriate an old Sesame Street idiom, the entire program was “sponsored” by the key of E minor. It was framed by two violin concertos composed by Antonio Vivaldi. The opening video of Augusta McKay Lodge playing the violin solo for the RV 278 violin concerto in E minor is the most recent video to be released by VoM. Chloe Kim was soloist for the concluding concerto, RV 277, given the title “Il Favorito.” (For those that prefer opus numbers, this is the second of the six concertos in Vivaldi’s Opus 11.) The concertos framed a recorder performance by Hanneke van Proosdij. Her selection was the “Minuetto” movement from movement from George Frideric Handel’s HWV 375 in E minor, the second of his three “Halle” flute sonatas.

The electronic mail announcing this release concluded with a quote by Johann Mattheson, who was a close friend of Handel. Mattheson is best known as a music theorist. This particular quote is taken from his 1713 treatise Das neu-eröffnete Orchestre as follows:

E minor is pensive, distressed, and sad; yet in such a way that one still finds some consolation in it; this key has something hopeful about it, whatever one may do with it, for otherwise it cannot tolerate any joy.

Bearing in mind that all twelve of Vivaldi’s Opus 11 concertos have fast-slow-fast structure, one can assume that Mattheson was referring to the slow movements! (To the best of my knowledge, “neu-eröffnete” translates into English as “reopened.” Perhaps Mattheson was writing about an ensemble that had disbanded and was subsequently revived.)

Would it be fair to say that, for the three selections on this program, Lodge, Proosdij, and Kim each had her own way of expressing those characteristics that Mattheson cited? Having revisited portions of this video, I would go at least as far as a decisive “maybe!” On the other hand, I am not sure that music theorists listen to performances the same ways that the rest of us do. (Full disclosure: I took several music theory courses in my student days.)

More importantly, the entire listening experience took only about half an hour; and, as far as I am concerned, that time could not have been better spent!

VoM Celebrates Xmas with Generous Episode

Violinists Augusta McKay Lodge and Isabelle Seula Lee, soloists for the Vivaldi concerto with David Tayler providing continuo on archlute

Yesterday afternoon Voices of Music (VoM) decided to celebrate the season with the Happy Holidays release of Episode 46 from Season 5. This was a particularly generous offering, since it consisted of two separate programs. The first of these was a complete account of the Vespro di Natale (Christmas vespers) collected in the 1630 publication by Alessandro Grandi. The second was a more secular review of selections from eleven past concerts. Each selection accounted for a different composer as follows:

1. Isabella Leonarda: Sonata Duodecima in D Minor
2. Johann Christian Bach: Symphony Opus 6 Number 6 in G minor (W C12)
3. Arcangelo Corelli: the “Ciaccona” movement from the trio sonata in G major, Opus 2, Number 12
4. Andrea Falconieri: his setting of “Folia”
5. Antonio Vivaldi: the eighth concerto in the Opus 3 collection, L’estro armonico (the harmonic inspiration), composed in A minor with solo parts for two violins
6. Maurizio Cazzati: Ciaconna
7. Giovanni Battista Buonamente: the second composition in the sixth book in the collection entitled Sonate et canzoni a due, tre, quattro, cinque, et a sei voci, a sonata for three violins in D minor
8. Anthony Holborne: “Almaine: The Night Watch” from Pavans, Galliards, Almains and other short Aeirs, both grave and light, in five parts, for Viols, Violins, or other Musicall Winde Instruments
9. Johann Sebastian Bach: “Badinerie,” the final movement of the BWV 1067 (second) orchestral suite
10. Michael Praetorius: instrumental dances from the Terpsichore publication
11. Giuseppe Torelli: Trumpet Concerto in D major (G.9)

It goes without saying that this is a generous list. However, because each of the individual selections was relatively brief, the program as a whole proceeded at an engaging clip. Because each of the pieces was captured on video from a different concert, there was a generous amount of diversity among the contributing performers. However, there was a consistency, particularly in the presence of Hanneke van Proosdij. While most of her work took place behind a harpsichord, she also presented her solid command of the recorder.

The good news is that the YouTube Web page allows the attentive listener to either enjoy the overall “flow” of the selections or take “deep dives” into individual offerings. It has been a while since I heard the old cliché “The Internet changes everything.” Nevertheless, this is a case in which a single Web site serves up a generous wealth of different ways to approach the early music repertoire.

Flutist Baibikov to Give Groupmuse Recital

Flutist Rustam Baibikov (screenshot from his Groupmuse Web page)

As of this writing, it appears that I am now ready to account for the first Groupmuse recital of the New Year. The recitalist will be flutist Rustam Baibikov, born in Ukraine but educated in Moscow. He has performed with both symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles, in addition to leading his own Tatar folk band. His accompanist will be pianist David Manley, whose background is equally diverse.

The most recent work on the program will be the “Fantasie Brillante on Themes from Bizet's Carmen,” composed by François Borne, the French flautist who taught at the Conservatoire de Musique de Toulouse during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This selection will be followed by music by the French violinist Benjamin Godard. According to his Wikipedia page, Godard was prolific enough to compose “eight operas, five symphonies, two piano and two violin concertos, string quartets, sonatas for violin and piano, piano pieces and etudes, and more than a hundred songs.” (He only lived to the age of 45, having died of tuberculosis.) Baibikov will play his Opus 116, Suite de trois morceaux.

The first half of the program will draw upon more familiar composers from the  Baroque period. It will begin with Antonio Vivaldi’s RV 52 sonata in F major for flute and continuo. This will be followed by two movements from Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1067 (second) orchestral suite, which highlights the flute. Those movements will probably be familiar to many (most?) readers: the Menuet and the Badinerie (which concludes the suite).

The Groupmuse event page has a hyperlink for making reservations in advance for $5. (The audience size will be limited to 30; and, as of this writing, twelve of those spots are still available.) The venue is not wheelchair accessible, and those allergic to pets should be warned that both dogs and cats live there! Both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks will be provided, but guests are also invited to bring their own libations. The exact address, which is in Noe Valley, will be sent by electronic mail once the reservation has been finalized; and visitors can arrive as early as 6:30 p.m. The performance will begin at 7 p.m. on Saturday, January 24.

VoM to Celebrate the Season with Vivaldi

The Voices of Music ensemble led by Hanneke van Proosdij at the harpsichord (from the Web page for the program being discussed)

This coming Saturday Voices of Music (VoM) will present its annual end-of-year festive offering. The title of this year’s program is Vivaldi Lights Up the Holidays; and, as might be expected, all the selections on the program will be works composed by Antonio Vivaldi. Because this is a seasonal offering, the major work on the program will be the first four violin concertos in Antonio Vivaldi’s Opus 8 collection, Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (the contest between harmony and invention). Those four concertos, of course, have a title of their own, Le quattro stagioni (the four seasons). The program will also include RV 580, the last of the concertos for four violins in the Opus 3 L'estro armonico (the harmonic inspiration) collection. The program will also include the RV 419 cello concerto in A minor and the one concerto not for a string instrument, the RV 444 recorder concerto in C major.

This concert will take place in the Caroline C. Hume Concert Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, located at 50 Oak Street, just west of Van Ness Avenue. The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. this coming Saturday, December 20. Ticket prices range from $10 to $63. The VoM Web site has created a Web page for online ticket purchases.

NCCO: The Coming of the Winter Season

SFGC in 2023 (photograph by Carlin Ma)

This afternoon in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, the New Century Chamber Orchestra presented its latest program, entitled In Winter’s Glow. Music Director Daniel Hope led as Concertmaster, sharing the program with the San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) prepared by Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe. In fact, compositions by William Billings, Benjamin Britten, and Ola Gjeilo, along with arrangements of “Deck the Halls” and “Silent Night” in arrangements by John Rutter, were performed only by SFGC.

Hope led performances of two multi-movement compositions. The first of these was a concerto for four violins in B minor, the tenth selection in the twelve concertos that Antonio Vivaldi collected in his Opus 3, given the title L'estro armonico (the harmonic inspiration). The other instrumental selection was Edward Elgar’s three-movement “Serenade for Strings.” The program concluded with a joint presentation of Nico Muhly’s “Whispered and Revealed.” There were also two joint presentations dedicated explicitly to the Christmas holiday. The first of these was two of the movements from Gordon Getty’s Four Christmas Carols followed by “I Wonder as I Wander” and “Christmas Time of Year” from Jake Heggie’s On the Road to Christmas. The encore selection was “Balulalow,” a Scottish cradle song, often associated with the Nativity.

This was an undertaking as diverse as it was generous. Nevertheless, it all fit neatly into a 90-minute program; and, at least from my vantage point, the audience seemed fixated to the performance from start to finish. Ironically, the only problems with diction seemed to arise in Rutter’s arrangements; but all the other SFGC performances were as clear as crystal.

I suspect that one of the reasons why this program was, for the most part, consistently engaging is that Hope and Sainte-Agathe had no trouble in working with each other. Each selection was greeted with sincere applause, but it was the overall journey through an impressive variety of dispositions that sustained attention. Hope and Sainte-Agathe may have alternated in leadership, but it was clear that they shared the vision of that overall journey. Listening to the final round of applause, it was clear that the audience could not have been more satisfied with that vision.

Contemporary Reflections on Music of the Past

Alexi Kenney with his violin (from the SFS Web page for the concert being discussed)

Yesterday afternoon violinist Alexi Kenney returned to Davies Symphony Hall to lead the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) on an adventurous journey of music from the past given interpretations from the immediate present. Most of the program was devoted to the two leading composers of instrumental music in the eighteenth century, Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi. These were preceded by a brief venture into the seventeenth century with Kenney leading his own arrangement of music by Barbara Strozzi. The only recent composition on the program was the opener, the second nonet that Olli Mustonen composed for strings.

The second half of the program was devoted to some of the most familiar works by Vivaldi. This was The Four Seasons, the first four violin concertos from the twelve collected in Opus 8, given the overall title Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (the contest between harmony and invention). Whether or not these pieces should be viewed as a “contest” can be left to the reader to decide; but the performance of this familiar music was as dynamic as I had ever encountered.

More importantly, while Kenney had to deal with most of the solo work while leading the ensemble, he was not shy in sharing the spotlight, so to speak. I was particularly interested in the generous amount of duo work he performed with Anne Richardson, Associate Principal of the cello section. More frustrating was the rich continuo work by a musician alternating between theorbo and period guitar, much of which was subdued but engaging improvisation. Sadly, that performer was never identified! Nevertheless, the chemistry of Kenney and the SFS ensemble significantly outweighed any of the annoyances.

The Bach selection was BWV 1050, the fifth of the six compositions usually given the title “Brandenburg Concerto.” Kenny led as violin soloist performing with Principal Flute Yubeen Kim and Jonathan Dimmock on harpsichord. Because I know this music so well, I have to confess that there were some significant balance problems, primarily because the resources of the harpsichord were too limited to take on both the soloists and the accompanying string ensemble. This was more than a pity since Dimmock’s solo work was as engaging as the contributions from the other two musicians.

The program began with two SFS debut performances. The Bach concerto was preceded by “Che si può fare,” the sixth of the compositions in Barbara Strozzi’s Opus 8 collection of twelve diverse compositions: five cantatas, six arias, and one serenata. Kenney provided his own instrumental arrangement of one of the arias. The full resources of the string section began the program with a three-movement nonet composed by Olli Mustonen. This was originally composed in 2000 for two string quartets and bass, but the composer himself provided the revised version for full string orchestra. I must confess that this music made little impression on “first contact;” but, to be fair, Mustonen was competing with three highly adventurous composers from the past!

Nevertheless, Mustonen’s nonet did get the “little grey cells” going in attending to the act of listening. If it provided a “warm-up” for music from two earlier centuries, then at least it served a purpose! The deeper impression of the afternoon, however, was how Kenney could take so much familiar Bach and Vivaldi and turn out a thoroughly refreshing experience!

Is the Balanchine Legacy Going Stale?

During my graduate student years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I would take breaks by going down to New York to see performances by the New York City Ballet. This was back in the days when George Balanchine was still in charge, and I was consistently hooked on the ways that he could take concert music as repurpose it for his choreography. He had a particular interest in the Baroque period; and, while the  performance of the music coming out of the orchestra pit was seldom (if ever) “historically informed,” the choreography always seemed to find the right imaginative structures to go with compositions by the likes of Johann Sebastian Bach, Arcangelo Corelli, and Antonio Vivaldi.

Indeed, the last two of them provided the source material for one of Balanchine’s most interesting undertakings, “Square Dance.” The choreography was set to a collection of movements extracted from their compositions. In Balanchine’s New Complete Stories of the Great Ballets, the author observed that the music “was of course derived from old folk dance forms and rhythms that were later refined for the courts of Europe.”

That said, it is worth noting that, when “Square Dance” was first performed, the staging could not have been more literal. While the structure of the choreography may have been organized around Baroque music, Balanchine recruited Elisha C. Keeler, described in Complete Stories as “the famous square dance caller,” to call the steps drawing upon the texts he would invoke for any other square dance. Sadly, by the time I had an opportunity to see this piece performed, Keeler was no longer a participant. Mind you, I took that adverb in the last sentence very seriously because a square dance really is not a square dance without a caller!

An example of the “geometric” choreography of “Concerto Barocco” (photograph by Ewa Krasucka, from a Wikimedia Commons Web page, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license)

In other words, “Square Dance” is now just another ballet in which the performers dance to Baroque music. Put another way, it is little more than a revamping of one of Balanchine’s earliest creations, “Concerto Barocco.” True to its title, that earlier ballet was set to Bach’s BWV 1043 concerto for two violins and strings in D minor. It would be fair to say that just about any serious music lover knows this concerto, and I suspect that this would also have been the case when music lovers in the audience saw “Concerto Barocco” for the first time. As it is now performed, “Square Dance” is basically “‘Concerto Barocco’ redux;” and to be quite frank personally, I am much happier with choreography that follows a single coherent composition, rather than one that is a pastiche of multiple movements from multiple composers!

NCCO: A Sacred and Secular December

Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe conducting the San Francisco Girls Chorus

Next month the New Century Chamber Orchestra (NCCO), with Music Director Daniel Hope as Concertmaster, will join forces with the San Francisco Girls Chorus to present a program entitled In Winter’s Glow. When I wrote about this program in the season announcement, I called it a “holiday program;” but it would be more accurate to say that the selections will balance both the sacred and the secular. The former will consist of a set of traditional carols arranged by John Rutter, followed by William Billings’ choral composition “Bethlehem” and Benjamin Britten’s “A Wealden Trio: Christmas Song of the Women.” There will also be selections from Jake Heggie’s On the Road to Christmas.

The first half of the program will be devoted to three selections for string ensembles. These will be performed in reverse chronological order, beginning with Rutter’s 1973 Suite for Strings. This will be followed by Edward Elgar’s Opus 20, given the title “Serenade for String Orchestra.” Turning back the clock even further will be Antonio Vivaldi’s RV 580 concerto in B minor for four solo violins. Things will then turn back to the present with performance of “Northern Lights” by Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo. The other secular offerings will be David Conte’s Two Winter Scenes and “Whispered and Revealed” by Nico Muhly.

The San Francisco performance of this program will take place on Saturday, December 13, beginning at 2 p.m. The venue will be St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, which is located on Cathedral Hill at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of the intersection with Franklin. Tickets may be purchased through a City Box Office Web page with prices between $35 and $80.

Sainte-Agathe to Conduct PBO in December

Valérie Sainte-Agathe has been Artistic Director of the San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) since 2013. According to my archives, my first encounter with her came at the end of February of 2014, when SFGC contributed to a performance by the San Francisco Symphony of Gustav Mahler’s third symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. She has served as Chorale Director of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale (PBO) since 2022; and she will make her debut conducting both the ensemble and the chorale at the beginning of December.

Banner design for the Gloria Web page on the PBO Web site

That debut will be a “seasonal” program, best typified by the performance of the eighth of the twelve concerti grossi in Arcangelo Corelli’s Opus 6 collection, composed in the key of G minor and given the title “Christmas Concerto.” This will be balanced by the second half of the program, which will be a performance of Antonio Vivaldi’s best known choral composition, his RV 589 setting of the “Gloria” portion of the Mass. The remainder of the program will consist of two premiere performances. The opening selection will be the world premiere of “Quem Pastores Laudavere,” composed by Roderick Williams. The remaining selection on the program will be the United States premiere of “The Holdfast,” composed by Caroline Shaw. She prepared her own libretto, weaving original texts with excerpts from Thomas Hardy’s poem, “The Darkling Thrush.”

As usual, this performance will take place in Herbst Theater, located at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, December 5. (At 6:45 p.m. Sainte-Agathe will lead a performance by SFGC in the lobby.) Ticket prices range from $40 to $125, with a $20 rate for those under the age of thirty. They may be purchased through a City Box Office Web page, which includes a diagram showing where seats are still available.

American Bach: A Tale of Four Cities

Late yesterday afternoon American Bach presented the first concert in its 2025–2026 season in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church. The title of the program was A Grand Tour, with each of the four works on the program associated with a different European city: London, Leipzig, Venice, and Rome. Jeffrey Thomas led the American Bach Soloists & Cantorei, the latter providing six solo vocalists: sopranos Julie Bosworth and Morgan Balfour, contralto Ágnes Vojtkó, countertenor Kyle Tingzon, tenor Jon Lee Keenan, and baritone Jesse Blumberg.

Queen Anne of Great Britain, for whom HWV 74 was composed (artist unknown, public domain, from Wikimedia Commons)

The entire program was framed by choral compositions by George Frideric Handel. It began with the secular cantata Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne (HWV 74), which takes the first line, “Eternal source of light divine” as an alternative title. This was probably performed for the first time on February 6, 1713. The “Roman” composition was HWV 232, the Dixit Dominus setting of Psalm 110, completed in April of 1707. In the first half of the program, Handel was coupled with Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1066, the first of his four orchestral suites, this one composed in the key of C major. The intermission was then followed by Antonio Vivaldi’s best known choral composition, his RV 589 setting of the “Gloria” portion of the Mass.

From my vantage point I could not see an empty seat in the church. American Bach has clearly built up an audience that was just as attentive as it was loyal. For my part, I was familiar with both the Bach and Vivaldi selections, while the two Handel offerings were new to me. Thomas definitely knew how to get things off to a good start, since the first entrance of the chorus in HWV 74 had me scribbling “burst of polyphony!” in my program book! Indeed, the entire program proceeded at a fair clip; and for any attentive listener there was never a dull moment.

This is American Bach’s 37th season. It is definitely off to a good start. My wife and I have always begun New Year’s Eve with the annual Baroque New Year’s Eve at the Opera program in Herbst Theatre. I am already looking forward to it!

TwoSet Violin Finally Comes to Davies

Brett Yang and Eddy Chen taking a bow with their pianist Sophie Druml (photograph by Cecilia Tan, from The Strad)

Some readers may recall that the TwoSet Violin duo of violinists Brett Yang and Eddy Chen was scheduled to perform in Davies Symphony Hall during last July’s Summer with the Symphony season. That debut recital had to be postponed, but last night they finally made it to Davies to perform their Sacrilegious Games program. The “sacrilege” was, of course, their approach to the violin repertoire. The result was an engaging evening of physical comedy recalling the past antics of Peter Schickele and Victor Borge. Indeed, their (intentionally) delayed appearance almost served as an homage to Schickele’s frantic opening shtik.

In this case, however, the waiting was ameliorated by the appearance of their piano accompanist, Sophie Druml, who took the stage right on time. She warmed-up the audience with an arrangement (her own?) of the last of the “24 Caprices for Solo Violin” by Niccolò Paganini. This was followed by music from the “Winter” concerto from Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons involving a charade of violin-playing.

Of course both of the violinists had a solid command of technique. When they were not poking fun at the classics in all directions, Chen delivered a thoroughly engaging solo account of the opening passage in Jean Sibelius’ Opus 47 violin concerto, and Yang was just as rock-solid in his delivery of Camille Saint-Saëns Opus 20 “Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso.” However, the heart of the program was the diversity of their takes on comedy. Most memorable, probably, was when both of them played the last of the Paganini Caprices while spinning hula hoops. The most ambitious undertaking, however, was probably taking “La campanella” (the theme of the final movement of Paganini’s second violin concerto) and performing it in a series of styles as a journey through music history: baroque, classical, romantic, twentieth-century, jazz, and K-pop.

It’s nice to know that Davies can be just as welcoming to physical comedy as it is to “serious music!”

VoM Prepares for New Academic Year

Once again, today provided me with the opportunity to catch up on the Sunday Mornings at Ten video series, compiled by Voices of Music (VoM) and now available for viewing through YouTube. The title of today’s release was Back to School, Episode 29, Number 10 in the VoM collection of Sundays at Ten videos. The program title suggested that the works on the program were selected “to help reduce distractions, to relax and improve focus and concentration” during the course of study.

Screenshot of Kati Kyme, Elizabeth Blumenstock, Tanya Tomkins, Elizabeth Reed, William Skeen, and Farley Pearce (behind Skeen) playing the last of the six Brandenburg Concertos

My “years of study” have long passed, but that did not detract from my appreciation of the program. It was framed by two different approaches to the concerto genre by the two most familiar composers of the Baroque period. It began with Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1051, the sixth (and last) of the Brandenburg Concertos, which, as one of my fellow students once proclaimed, was scored for six parts: two viole da braccio, two viole da gamba, cello, and violone. At the other end, the program concluded with the sixth of the twelve Opus 3 concertos by Antonio Vivaldi, given the overall title L’estro armonico (the harmonic inspiration). The violin soloist was Augusta McKay Lodge.

Both of these concertos are “old friends” among my listening experiences. They framed three pieces all encountered for the first time. Lutenist David Taylor began with a performance of the “Ricercar alla Spagnola” by Vincenzo Capirola. This was followed by two recorder trios (soprano, alto, and bass) composed, respectively, by Josquin des Prez (“De tous biens plaine”) and Jacob Obrecht (“Tandernaken”). Overall, there was much to both appreciate and learn over the course of this morning’s program.

Carpenter to Bring Zephyr Symphony to St. Mark’s

A full view of the sanctuary of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church as seen from the pulpit

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church will serve as the home of a new ensemble led by conductor Don Scott Carpenter. The group is called the Zephyr Symphony; and Carpenter has prepared a season of four programs, three of which will involve a chorus with vocal soloists. In addition, the opening program will feature two solo vocalists, soprano Chelsea Hollow and baritone Julio Ferrari, while the final program will present a pair of instrumental soloists, violinist Gail Hernández Rosa and pianist Franz Zhao. Most readers probably know by now that St. Mark’s Lutheran Church is located at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of the corner of Franklin Street. Dates and times for the four events are as follows:

Saturday, September, 20, 7:30 p.m., Mozart: Carpenter will begin the season with a program of four compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The second half of the program is likely to be more familiar to most listeners than the first is. The opening selection will be the K. 623 cantata Laut verkünde unsre Freude (let our joy resound). This was composed for a Masonic celebration in 1791; and it is sometimes known as the “Little Masonic Cantata.” Mozart would die, shortly after completing this work, on December 5, 1791. It will be followed by the concert aria “Per questa bella mano,” K. 612. Ferrari will be the soloist, joined by a virtuoso obbligato for bass performed by Daniel Turkos. Hollow will then serve as soloist for the K. 165 motet “Exsultate, jubilate.” The program will conclude with one of the most familiar symphonies, K. 551 in C major, Mozart’s final symphony often known as “Jupiter.”

Sunday, December 21, 4 p.m., Messiah: The title says it all, but this will be an abridged version of George Frideric Handel’s HWV 56 oratorio. As usual, there will be four vocal soloists: soprano Shawnette Sulker, countertenor Kyle Tingzon, tenor Alexander John Perkins, and baritone Cory York. This program will also feature the first performance of the Zephyr Chorus.

Saturday, March 7, 7:30 p.m., Elijah: Readers know that the texts for Messiah were drawn from both the Old and New Testaments. Felix Mendelssohn’s oratorio, on the other hand, draws only upon the Old Testament with particular attention to the first Book of Kings. The title role will be sung by bass-baritone Andrew Thomas Pardini. The other vocalists will be soprano Mary-Hollis Hundley, contralto Leandra Ramm, and tenor Elliott James-Ginn Encarnácion. They will be joined by the Zephyr Chorus. [added 11/29. 8:25 a.m.:

Saturday, March 21, 7:30 p.m., In Praise & Protest: There seems to be one more program in the Zephyr season that I may have overlooked when this article was first written. According to its Web page, this program “explores sacred beauty, social conscience, and the enduring power of the human voice across five centuries.” Each of those centuries will be represented by a different composer. In chronological order (which will not be the order of the performance) the composers are Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Charles Wood, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Saunder Choi, and Luna Pearl Woolf. The last of these selecdtions is a concerto for violoncello and a cappella chorus.]

Saturday, April 18, 7:30 p.m., Spring: True to its title, this program will begin with the first of the twelve concertos in Antonio Vivaldi’s Opus 8, Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (the contest between harmony and invention). The first four of the concertos are best known collectively as The Four Seasons. The program will begin with the first of them, which depicts the spring season. This will be followed by Mozart’s K. 467 piano concerto in C major. The soloist will be pianist Franz Zhao. The “leap” from Baroque to Classical will continue into the Romantic period. The program will conclude with Johannes Brahms’ Opus 90, his third symphony in F major.

The Zephyr Symphony now has its own Web page, which includes hyperlinks for purchasing tickets. Prices for single performances will range from $25 to $65. Subscription rates will reduce the price by 15%.

Another Round of Sunday Discoveries from VoM

I can only blame my busy schedule for the fact that I do not follow the Sunday Mornings at Ten videos released by Voices of Music (VoM) on a regular basis. My last encounter was a little less than two months ago at the end of this past May. While that program focused on eighteenth-century Amsterdam, today’s offering consisted of six relatively different works each by a different composer.

The program was framed by two of the most familiar composers of the Baroque period: Georg Philipp Telemann and Antonio Vivaldi. The performance began with the two-minuet (ABA form) movement from Telemann’s TWV 51:F1 recorder concerto in F major. The recorder also contributed to the Vivaldi concerto, joined by two solo violins, two oboes, mandolin, and harpsichord. Both of these were spirited performances, and the Vivaldi instrumentation made for a delightful journey of discovery.

As might be guessed, the program also included a take on a set of variations based on the “Folia” theme. To the best of my knowledge, this was my first contact with Andrea Falconieri. The performance was a little less than four minutes in duration, which made the full title a bit overly generous in expectations: “Folias echa para mi Senora Dona Tarolilla de Carallenos.” Hopefully, the dedicatee of this composition was pleased enough to make sure that the composer was well rewarded!

Another “first contact” was with Maddalena Sirmen. In the scope of music history, it is worth nothing that one of her violin concertos (perhaps the one performed on this video) made a deep positive impression on Leopold Mozart. Violinist Shelby Yamin definitely made this a memorable listening experience for me!

Screen shot of Amanda Forsythe’s performance of a song by John Dowland with Cristiano Contadin (one of the accompanists) in the background (from the YouTube video of this specific selection)

Finally, soprano Amanda Forsythe gave a ravishing account of John Dowland’s “Go crystal tears.” Accompaniment was provided by four Elizabethan viols performed by Elisabeth Reed, Farley Pearce, Cristiano Contadin, and WIlliam Skeen, joined by David Tayler on lute. This was followed by the first of the fifteen short sonatas by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, usually known collectively as the Rosary Sonatas. This is a cycle of sixteen pieces. The first fifteen are reflections on the New Testament, concluding with a secular passacaglia.

The entire journey lasted a little more than half an hour; but, as consistently seems to be the case with these VoM video offerings, there was never a dull moment.

Voices of Music: Eighteenth-Century Amsterdam

Unless I am mistaken, my busy schedule has not allowed me to set aside time for a Sunday Mornings at Ten video compiled by Voices of Music since August of last year. The title of today’s offering, Episode 18 in the current (fifth) season of the series, was Amsterdam music printing in the 18th century. More specifically, the selections were from publications by Estienne Roger, a French Huguenot who escaped to Amsterdam to avoid the implications of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.

Trumpeter Dominic Favia playing Torelli’s concerto with the Voices of Music ensemble (screenshot from the video of his performance)

As might be guessed, most (if not all) of those publications involved Italian sources. Today’s program presented published works by three of the best known Italian composers: Antonio Vivaldi, Arcangelo Corelli, and Giuseppe Torelli. The selections from the first two of those composers involved only the VoM strings (with harpsichord continuo provided by Hanneke van Proosdij). However, the Torelli selection was a concerto in D major for trumpet and strings, entry 188 in the catalog compiled by Estienne Roger. The soloist was Dominic Favia, who delivered all the intricacies of his part with engaging confidence.

Each of the videos was recorded during a different performance. The “program,” as it was presented this morning, was a compilation of those sources. The “unity” involved Roger’s publications, which included the Vivaldi and Corelli selections and may also have included the Torelli concerto.

SFS 2025–26: Great Performers Series

The reason for the above scare quotes is that, traditionally, performances in the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) Great Performers Series are limited to a single evening, usually on a weekend so as not to conflict with SFS performances in the Orchestral Series. However, in the coming season there will be one “outlier” that will be given three performances on the weekend before Thanksgiving. As was reported a little over a month ago, the program will begin with the second nonet scored for string orchestra by Olli Mustonen, led by violinist Alexi Kenney. After that, the repertoire will take “a great leap backward.”

Kenney will continue to lead, but he will also be one of the three soloists in Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1050 “Brandenburg” concerto in D major, joined by flutist Yubeen Kim with Jonathan Dimmock at the harpsichord. This will be given three performances at 2 p.m. on Thursday, November 20, and 7:30 p.m. on Friday, November 21, and Saturday, November 22. This will be preceded by Kenney’s instrumental arrangement of one of Barbara Strozzi’s earliest madrigals and followed by the much more familiar Four Seasons cycle of concertos by Antonio Vivaldi.

George Balanchine’s choreography for “The Four Temperaments” performed by the Kansas City Ballet (photograph by Steve Wilson, courtesy of KCBalletMedia, from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license)

There will be one other orchestral performance in the Series, taking place on Sunday, April 26. The Mahler Chamber Orchestra will present a program of music by Paul Hindemith flanked on either side by Sergei Prokofiev, beginning with his first (“Classical”) symphony and concluding with his second piano concerto. Yuja Wang will be both soloist and director, with Matthew Truscott leading from the concertmaster’s chair when necessary. The Hindemith selection will be “The Four Temperaments,” originally conceived for choreographer Léonide Massine but ultimately completed on a commission for George Balanchine, who created the dance for the Ballet Society, which premiered it in 1946.

February 8 will see a rather unique duo recital. Violinist Nicola Benedetti will be accompanied on guitar by Plínio Fernandes. There will also be a violin recital by Itzhak Perlman on November 4, followed on November 16 by cello recitalist Gautier Capuçon. The two solo piano recitalists will be Marc-André Hamelin on October 19 and Yefim Bronfman on February 8.

David Oistrakh on Warner: Mostly Eastern Europe

As I gradually work my way to the conclusion in writing about the Warner Remastered Edition box set collection of recordings of performances by Russian violinist David Oistrakh, I shall now focus on the “national” CDs, most of which involve music from Eastern Europe with a single Italy & Spain CD serving as an “outlier.” I find this latter CD to be particularly interesting, since the “Italy” portion covers the transition from the seventeenth century to the eighteenth, with composers Giovanni Battista Vitali, Antonio Vivaldi, Giuseppe Tartini, and Pietro Antonio Locatelli, while “Spain” runs from the end to the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth. The contrast between these two countries could not be stronger, but curator Bruno Monsaingeon seems to have decided that they would make good “bedfellows.” (Those that have been following my articles for this collection will probably already know about my “issues” with Monsaingeon.)

Three of the CDs in this collection involve Russian composers, with Sergei Prokofiev receiving the most attention. Nevertheless, I was a bit disappointed that he was represented by only the first (opus 19 in D major) of his two violin concertos. All the other Prokofiev selections were arrangements by Grigoriy Mikhailovich Fichtenholz (five episodes from the Cinderella ballet), Vadim Borisovsky (pieces from the Romeo and Juliet ballet), and Jascha Heifetz (the march from the opera The Love for Three Oranges). The only other familiar concerto represented is Alexander Glazunov’s Opus 82 in A minor, and the only other major composition is Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Opus 35 symphonic suite Scheherazade, in which the violin serves as the “voice” of Scheherazade telling her stories. However, there are two decidedly less familiar concertante offerings from the twentieth century by Otar Taktakishvili and Nikolai Rakov, neither of which make for much of a lasting impression.

Composer Bohuslav Martinů working on his second symphony (probably) in 1942 (photographer unknown, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Czech Republic license)

There is also a “Czechoslovakia” CD, which is, for the most part, a grab-bag of excerpts. Nevertheless, I was glad to see that an entire sonata by Bohuslav Martinů (his third, H. 303)  was included. His catalog of chamber music is particularly generous, and I find it more than a little unfortunately that Oistrakh did not give him more attention. The remaining CD is an “Eastern Europe” grab-bag. It includes arrangements of selections from Johannes Brahms’ WoO 1 Hungarian Dances collection by both Joseph Joachim and Fritz Kreisler. Unless I am mistaken, the most recent composition on this CD that is the “Moldavian Rhapsody” by Mieczysław Weinberg, the third of the four orchestral works collected in his Opus 47. However, Oistrakh’s performance is given piano accompaniment by Frida Bauer.

When I wrote my last article about this collection a little less than a week ago, I accused one of the CDs as having a “hodgepodge of encore pieces.” This Eastern European collection struck me as even more than a hodgepodge, even if it included five full-length concertos, one of which (the first concerto in E minor by Nikolai Rakov) definitely provided a journey of discovery. Fortunately, only one CD remains to complete the entire journey; and it should not be long before I provide my account of it!

More Virtuoso Concertos from Voices of Music

Henry Purcell (portrait from the studio of John Closterman, probably around the end of the seventeenth century, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Some readers may recall that Voices of Music (VoM) concluded its 2023–2024 concert season with a program whose full title was Virtuoso Concertos: Music of Vivaldi, Bach & Telemann. Last night in the Taube Atrium Theatre, VoM continued that theme with the same title and a new subtitle: Music of Purcell, Telemann, Vivaldi & Uccellini. Ironically, some of these selections subsequently found their way into new settings in the twentieth century; and, for that matter the opening “Bergamasca” by Marco Uccellini was arranged by Director David Tayler for four violins. (This was decidedly more intimate than the full-orchestra arrangement composed by Ottorino Respighi for the second of this three Ancient Airs and Dances suites.) The other source that found its way to the twentieth century was Henry Purcell’s “Rondeau” movement from his incidental music for Aphra Behn’s play Abdelazer, which became the theme for Benjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.

Most listeners probably felt themselves on more familiar ground with the selections by Georg Philipp Telemann and Antonio Vivaldi, even if the specific selections were “first encounters.” The former was represented by the TWV 51:G9 viola concerto in G major with soloist Manami Mizumoto. This followed the “common practice” four-movement structure: Large, Allegro, Andante, Presto. The viola is all too often dismissed as a “secondary” instrument, but Mizumoto’s delivery was consistently engaging. The full ensemble then concluded the program with the La Bizarre, the TWV 55:G2 orchestral suite in five movements.

The Vivaldi selections were, of course, concertos. Violinist Isabelle Seula Lee concluded the first half of the program with the RV 211 concerto in D major. During the second half of the program, Director Hanneke van Proosdij was the recorder soloist for the RV 433 concerto given the programmatic title “”La Tempesta di Mare.” Yes, Vivaldi composed more concertos than most listeners would care to enumerate; so both of these offerings were probably “first contact” experiences for much of the audience. Nevertheless, they were both given freshly energetic accounts, dismissing any concerns that too much Vivaldi was “more of the same!”