Scarfe-Tolling Duo Returning to Century Club

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

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

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

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

Familiar Faces Return to Davies as Trio

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

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

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

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

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

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

Owen Dalby to Bring String 4tet to Noe Music

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

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

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

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

Change in First Dynamite Guitars Recital

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

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

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

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

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

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

Old First Concerts: November, 2026

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

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

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

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

Brooklyn Rider Launches New SFP Season

Yesterday evening saw the launch of the new San Francisco Performances season with the first performance in the Chamber Series. The program was presented by the Brooklyn Rider string quartet, whose performers remain violinists Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen, violist Nicholas Cords, and cellist Michael Nicolas. This was their fourth appearance, the most recent having taking place in March of 2022.

Count Andreas Razumovsky, who commissioned Beethoven’s Opus 59 string quartets (painting by Johann Baptist von Lampi the Younger, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

The program was framed by two of the composers in the First Viennese School, beginning with Joseph Haydn and concluding with Ludwig van Beethoven. The opening selection was Haydn’s Hoboken III:35, the fifth of the six Opus 20 compositions known as the Sun Quartets. The program concluded in Beethoven’s middle period with the last of the three Opus 59 quartets dedicated to Count Andreas Razumovsky.

The Haydn quartet was in the key of F minor, always an adventurous mode for the composer. The structures of the middle movements, Menuet and Adagio, were particularly elaborate. That said, there is also much to engage the attentive listener in all of the Razumovsky quartets, and this particular selection served up a more than generous supply of engaging twists and turns.

All of the other composers between these “bookends” were American. They were, in order of appearance, Don Byron (third string quartet), Angélica Negrón (“Our Children Speak Spanish and English”), Ted Hearne (“We are Working Tirelessly for a Ceasefire”), and Bob Dylan, whose “The Times They Are A-Changin’” was arranged for the quartet by Jacobsen. Sadly, the last of those offerings was also the most disappointing, even with Jacobsen and Nicolas singing the words, leading me to wonder if the new generation finds Dylan passé (if they listen to him at all).

Negrón’s composition was augmented with pre-recorded electronics. I could appreciate her good intentions. Nevertheless, I was never really drawn into the performance, reminding me of the down-side of a road “paved with good intentions!” Hearne’s “political” approach was, for me at least, more convincing. His driving rhythms clearly accounted for the “tirelessly” in his title, and the overall diversity of his sonorities was prodigious. However, what really “sealed the deal” was the way in which he deployed driving rhythms leading up to what was clearly a coda for the dead.

In that context, Byron’s quartet was a lighter introduction for what would follow. The first of the three movements may well have been inspired by Loony Toons cartoons. The second movement was the only one with a title: “Russian March.” This was clearly playful, since the music was all pizzicato and the rhythms were ankle-twisting! The final movement reminded me of Lalo Schifrin, who had released two albums leading his “Demented Ensemble.”

Taken as a whole, the evening was sometimes uneven; but the performers had a consistently solid command of the wide diversity of the offerings.

Cellist Queyras to Perform for SFP Gala

Jean-Guihen Queyras with his cello (photograph by Marco Borggreve, courtesy of SFP)

Once again, this will be the month when San Francisco Performances (SFP) presents its annual Gala, which will celebrate the beginning of its 47th season. For those interested only in the music, concert-only tickets are now available. The program will be a duo performance with cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras accompanied at the piano by Alexandre Tharaud. As was previously observed, the earliest composer on the program will be Marin Marais with selections from the second of the five books of Pièces de viole; and the most recent work on the program will be the Dialogo and Presto movements from Benjamin Britten’s duo sonata in C major. The cello will substitute for the arpeggione (which was basically a bowed guitar) in the Adagio movement from Franz Schubert’s D. 821 duo sonata. The program will conclude with an arrangement by both performers of three of the 21 Hungarian Dances, the WoO 1 collection composed by Johannes Brahms, originally composed for piano four hands. Another interesting substitution will be the performance of Alban Berg’s Opus 5, four pieces originally composed for clarinet and piano.

This performance will begin earlier than usual at 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 29. As usual, the venue will be Herbst Theatre  at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. The prices for concert-only tickets will be $85, $75, and $65. Tickets may purchased through a secure Web page managed by SFP or by calling 415-392-2545.

San Francisco Performances: November, 2026

As was observed this past Sunday, the first Saturday of next month will be shared by the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) and San Francisco Performances (SFP) with the first performance in the afternoon and the second in the evening. That latter of those events will be a solo recital by Djiboutian-French artist Raphaël Feuillâtre, the second performer in the SFP Guitar Series. There will be only two more SFP events during the month, both of which will be performed in Herbst Theatre (401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street) beginning at 7:30 p.m. Program details are as follows:

Jan Lisiecki at the piano (photograph by Christoph Köstlin, courtesy of SFP)

Thursday, November 12: Jan Lisiecki will return as soloist in the Shenson Piano Series. The title of his program will be World of Dance. That program has not yet been finalized; but the contributing composers will be Bohuslav Martinů, Manuel de Falla, Karol Szymanowski, Franz Schubert, and Béla Bartók.

Saturday, November 14: Guitarist Antigoni Gori was previously an SFP Artist-in-Residence. She will return to Herbst as a member of the Volterra Project Trio, a guitar trio whose other members are Luca Isolani and Maarten Vandenbemden. The most intriguing work on the program will probably be “Pornografia,” composed by Manos Hatzidakis. This composer is probably best known for having won an Academy Award for Best Original Song, which he wrote for the film Never on Sunday. In a similar vein, the trio will perform selections composed by Leonard Bernstein for West Side Story. The more “classical” offerings will include the eight Valses poéticos, composed by Enrique Granados, incidental music by Edvard Grieg for the play Peer Gynt, and Maurice Ravel’s Ma mère l'Oye (Mother Goose) suite.

SFP Guitar Series to Begin with Imaginative Duo

Berta Rojas with her guitar and clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera (from the SFP Web page for their coming performance)

The first performance in the San Francisco Performances (SFP) Guitar Series will feature a debut. The guitarist will be Berta Rojas, who has performed extensively in the United States, as well as Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. She has prepared an all-Latin duo program, joined by clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera.

This will begin with an original composition by Agustín Barrios Mangoré entitled “Un Sueño en la Floresta.” The other original work will be “Pajaro Chogui–Galopera,” composed jointly by Néstor Zavarce and Maricio Cardozo Ocampo. Ocampo has also provided arrangements of music by José Asunción Flores and Paquito D’Rivera, as well as Mangoré, whose final selection will be “Tribute to Dizz,” a set of improvisations on compositions by Dizzy Gillespie.

This performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 24. The venue will be Herbst Theatre, which is located in the heart of the Civic Center at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. Ticket prices are $95, $85, and $75; and a Web page has been created for online purchases. Because this is the first program, there is also a Web page for purchasing tickets for all four of the recitals in the series.

Old First Concerts: Only One Recital This Month

Cellist Jennifer Kloetzel and pianist Allegra Chapman (from the O1C Web page for their coming performance)

The only performance to be presented this month by Old First Concerts (O1C) will take place two weeks from today (which is basically the middle of the month). This will mark the beginning of the Women of Note multi-season project conceived by cellist Jennifer Kloetzel and pianist Allegra Chapman. Their objective is to celebrate music composed for cello and piano by women. As of this writing, specific selections have not yet been announced, but the contributing composers will be Hélène Liebmann, Luise Le Beau, Mel Bonis, and Leokadiya Kashperova.

Most readers probably know by now that O1C events take place at Old First Presbyterian Church. This is located at 1751 Sacramento Street on the southeast corner of Van Ness Avenue. The performance will begin at 8 p.m. on Friday, October 16. Tickets are available for purchase through the hyperlink attached to that date, and the performance will also be available for live-stream viewing. General admission will be $30 with reduced rates for seniors, students, and children age twelve and under. The O1C Web page includes the hyperlink for live-stream viewing, leading to a YouTube Web page, which, in turn, includes a hyperlink to encourage viewers to support O1C with a donation.

Beethoven Haunts Verdi?

The first act of Giuseppe Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra concludes with an intense crowd scene. As usual, Verdi knows how to covey that intensity through his music. However, there is one particular motif in that turbulent music that always seized my attention. This is because it never fails to remind me of Ludwig van Beethoven.

More specifically, there is a very brief motif that may well have been inspired by the Presto movement in Beethoven’s Opus 130 string quartet in B-flat major. That is the shortest movement in the quartet, and it comes and goes like a flash of lightning. However, it is so distinctive that I have to wonder whether or not Verdi was as intrigued by it as I am and decided that, because it was so brief, he could “refresh” it in his score of Boccanegra. As the old joke goes, if you are going to steal a theme from another composer, then at least steal from the best!

Noe Music to Host Unconventional Trio

Cellist Mike Block in a duo performance with Yacouba Sissoko playing his kora

At the beginning of next month, Noe Music will host two performances performed by an “international” trio. The one familiar instrument in this group will be the cello played by Mike Block. However, since he has been a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad Ensemble since 2005, he is used to instrumentalists unlikely to be found in the concert hall. One of them will be percussionist Idrissa Koné, who probably commands more members of the percussion familiar than are likely to be found in Davies Symphony Hall! The “front line” will be taken by Yacouba Sissoko. He plays the kora; and, according to the Britannica Web page, this is a “traditional West African stringed instrument.”

The trio will give two performances in Noe Valley, the first of which will be free. As was reported at the end of last month, this event will place at 5 p.m. on Friday evening, October 2, in the Noe Valley Town Square, which is located at 3861 24th Street. That block is situated between Vicksburg Street and Sanchez Street.

The second performance will take place at the Noe Valley Ministry. It will begin at 4 p.m. on Sunday, October 4, like other events in the Noe Music series. Those familiar with the series probably already know that the venue is located at 1021 Sanchez Street, between 23rd Street and Elizabeth Street.

American Bach Announces 38th Season

Poster design for the coming American Bach season

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Old First Concerts: 3 New Events in 2 Months

This morning I learned of the three latest additions to the Calendar for Old First Concerts (O1C). The first two of these will conclude the current month, but the third will have to wait for the middle of next month. Most readers probably know by now that O1C events take place at Old First Presbyterian Church. This is located at 1751 Sacramento Street on the southeast corner of Van Ness Avenue. Tickets are available for purchase through the hyperlinks attached to the dates, which are also available for live stream viewing. General admission is between $30 and $35 with reduced rates for seniors, students, and children age twelve and under.

Sunday, September 20, 4 p.m.: The penultimate event for the current month has just been added. Harpist Noël Wan has prepared a new solo program entitled Les fleurs du mal. The program will feature works by three contemporary composers. The earliest of these was written in 2002 by Per Nørgård, “Consolazione: Flos ut rosa.” The most recent composition, “Arches and Strings,” was completed by Clifton Callender in 2026. Between these is a work by Gabriel Jenks entitled “Stalk.” Each of these selections will be presented as the “response” to the “call” of an early composition. The only “call” composed for solo harp is Gabriel Fauré’s “Une châtelaine en sa tour.” Wan provided her own transcriptions for the other two “calls:” Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Lilacs,” the fifth of the twelve songs collected in his Opus 5, and Giacomo Puccini’s “Crisantemi” string quartet. The program will end with a transcription by Sylvain Blassel of “Isoldes Liebestod,” the conclusion of Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde.

The Atom String Quartet, whose members are Dawid Lubowicz, Mateusz Smoczyński, Michał Zaborski and Krzysztof Lenczowski

Sunday, September 27, 4 p.m.: The Atom String Quartet is based in Poland, but they are no stranger to the United States, having performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival. However, jazz is only a portion of their repertoire, which also includes Polish folklore and world music, as well as contemporary and classical music. The violinists are Dawid Lubowicz and Mateusz Smoczyński, performing with Michał Zaborski on viola and cellist Krzysztof Lenczowski. As of this writing, the program for their performance has not yet been finalized.

Friday, October 16, 8 p.m.: The Women of Note project is the result of the celebration of the cello and piano repertoire by the women of the Kloetzel Chapman Duo: cellist Jennifer Kloetzel and pianist Allegra Chapman. The duo was formed in 2023 to record a cello sonata composed for Kloetzel by Richard Aldag. This led to a shared mission to discover and perform works for cello and piano by women composers. The recital will present the first round of results from this project. Specific compositions have not yet been named; but the composers on the program will be Hélène Liebmann, Luise Le Beau, Mel Bonis, and Leokadiya Kashperova.

Friction Quartet to Begin New Season at CMC

At the end of next week, Friction Quartet will begin its concert season with a performance at the Community Music Center (CMC). As many readers probably know by now, the violinists in this ensemble are Otis Harriel and Kevin Rogers, performing with Mitso Floor on viola and cellist Doug Machiz. The title of their opening recital will be Transformation, which is explained on their Web page as follows: “Works that bend, morph, and reinvent - where folk tunes become avant-garde anthems, classical forms twist into surreal dreams, and every note holds the thrill of change.”

György Ligeti during his visit to the Jyväskylän Kesä festival in Finland in the 1960s (photograph by Kari Rydman. public domain)

As might be expected, the program itself unfolds a “transformation” of extremes. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to the last of the six quartets in Joseph Haydn’s Opus 76 (Hoboken III:80), composed in the key of E-flat major. The first half will conclude with the first of György Ligeti’s three quartets, given the title “Métamorphoses nocturnes.” By way of contrast, the program will begin with a reflection on Appalachian fiddle music, “Blue Dress,” composed by Julia Wolfe.

For those that do not already know, CMC is located in the Mission at 544 Capp Street. The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, September 18. General Admission will be “Pay what you can” with a suggested donation of $40. CMC has created a Web page for advance purchases. There is also a Web page for livestream viewing, where the suggested donation is $10.

San Francisco Performances: October, 2026

Having written about plans for the different San Francisco Performances (SFP) program series, it is now time to shift attention to monthly accounts of the events. Last year October was a busy month, alternating between Herbst Theatre and St. Mark’s Lutheran Church. This year there will be only four events, all of which will take place in Herbst (which, as most readers probably know by now, is located in the heart of the Civic Center at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street). Hyperlinks will lead to further details, including information about purchasing tickets. The specific events are as follows:

Thursday, October 8, 7:30 p.m.: The month will begin with the first Chamber Music Series recital. This will be the return of the Brooklyn Rider string quartet, which last performed for SFP in March of 2022. The musicians are violinists Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobson, Nicholas Cords on viola, and cellist Michael Nicolas. Their repertoire favors the contemporary; but they will begin with the fifth of Joseph Haydn’s six Sun Quartets, his Opus 20, this one in the key of F minor. The other “numbered” string quartet on the program will be Don Byron’s third. These will be separated by Angélica Negrón’s “Our Children Speak English and Spanish.” Byron’s quartet will be followed by “We Are Working Tirelessly For A Ceasefire” by Ted Hearne. The program will conclude with Jacobsen’s arrangements of one of the best-known songs by Bob Dylan, “The Times They Are  A-Changin’.”

Thursday, October 22, 7:30 p.m.: The next recital will begin the Art of Song Series. Tenor Nicholas Phan will present a program entitled Fellow Citizens. His intention is to reflect on two enduring narratives in American history: one that asserts America is for Americans, and another that celebrates the country as a “Nation of Immigrants.” In the last century, Irving Berlin was about as American as a composer could get; and in Phan’s program he will rub shoulders with Franz Schubert to reflect on European influences. The program will also include a new work by Shawn Okpebholo. Phan will be accompanied at the piano by Myra Huang.

Saturday, October 24, 7:30 p.m.: The SFP Guitar Series will begin with the SFP debut of guitarist Berta Rojas. This will be a somewhat unconventional duo performance, since her accompanist will be clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera. As might be guessed, much of the program will involve arrangements, most of which will be by Mauricio Cardozo Ocampo, who also partnered with Néstor Zavarce for the penultimate selection, “Chogui—Galopera.” The program will conclude with Ocampo’s arrangement of one of D’Rivera’s compositions, “Contradanza.”

Jean-Guihen Queyras and Alexandre Tharaud (from the SFP Web page for this season’s Gala)

Thursday, October 29, 7 p.m.: The month will conclude with the annual Gala Performance for the 47th season. Cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras will be accompanied at the piano by Alexandre Tharaud. The program will be as diverse as it is imaginative. The earliest composer on the program will be Marin Marais with selections from the second of the five books of Pièces de viole. The most recent selection will be the first and fifth movements from the sonata for cello and piano, composed in the key of C major by Benjamin Britten.

Free Concerts at Noe Valley Town Square

Some readers may recall that Noe Music had finalized its Mainstage series of ten concerts this past May. However, I only recently learned that there will also be four free concerts taking place at 5 p.m. on Friday evenings in the Noe Valley Town Square, which is located at 3861 24th Street. As might be guessed, the title of this series will be Noe Music in the Square! I suspect that these will all be shorter in duration, so as not to interfere with plans for dinner! Also, the programs have probably not yet been entirely finalized. Nevertheless, I feel it is important to let readers know what the dates will be and what little further information is currently available.

Sunday, September 11: The title of the program will be Mozart Divertimento. More specifically, this will be Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 563 divertimento for string trio in E-flat major. Both co-artistic directors will perform: Owen Dalby on violin and Meena Bhasin on viola. As of this writing, the cellist has not yet been announced.

Sunday, September 18: The second performance will be by a cello quartet with performances that will traverse musical traditions involving Sudan, India, Southern Africa, and Eastern Europe.

Friday, October 2: Yacouba Sissoko will lead a trio playing the kora, a plucked string instrument, usually with 21 strings. He will share music from Mali, along with American folk and jazz sources, with cellist Mike Block. Percussion will be provided by Idrissa Koné. The trio will return the next morning for a Noe Music Kids performance. Sissoko and Block will then give a Mainstage recital on Sunday afternoon.

Le Jazz Hot performing at the Freight & Salvage coffeehouse (from the Noe Music Web page for their coming performance)

Friday, October 23: The title of the final program will be Le Jazz Hot. The performers will be the Hot Club of San Francisco, which specializes in Manouche jazz. In contrast to any of the American genres of jazz, the Manouche style was created in the café and courtyards of Paris roughly a century ago.

SFS Great Performers: 2026–2027

Having used this past weekend to prepare readers for San Francisco Symphony (SFS) performances of both its Chamber Music Series and the “special solo piano recital” by pianist Lang Lang, this seems to be a good time to prepare listeners for other events in Davies Symphony Hall that do not involve SFS. The Great Performers Series will present ten programs, most of which will be solo recitals. However, the season will begin with a piano trio followed by an orchestral performance.

All performances will take place in Davies Symphony Hall. Tickets will be available for purchase through the hyperlinks for the dates; as usual, tickets may also be acquired at the Box Office, which is at the entrance to Davies on the south side of Grove Street, between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street. Specifics are as follows:

Thursday, October 15, 7:30 p.m.: The series will begin with a piano trio, each of whose members is also a major solo recitalist. Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet will share the program with Lisa Batiashvili on violin and cellist Gautier Capuçon. The program will begin with Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 8, his first piano trio, composed in the key of C minor and originally given the title “Poème.” This will be followed by Claude Debussy’s only piano trio. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 65, his third piano trio, in F minor.

Sunday, October 25, 2 p.m.: Rafael Payare will conduct the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal following his visit as a guest conductor for SFS in May of 2023. The first half of the program will be devoted entirely to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s only violin concerto, his Opus 35 composed in the key of D major. The second half of the program will shift to the key of E minor for Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 93, his tenth symphony.

Tuesday, November 10, 7:30 p.m.: The first solo piano recital in the Series will be performed by Hélène Grimaud. She has prepared a program of two “last” piano sonatas, each of which is a major undertaking unto itself. The first half will be devoted to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 111, composed in the key of C minor. The intermission will be followed by Franz Schubert’s D. 960, composed in the key of B-flat major. It is worth noting that Grimaud prepared a title for her program, which could not have been more informative: The Last Testament!

Monday, November 30, 7:30 p.m.: Violinist Hilary Hahn will be joined at the piano by Yekwon Sunwoo. They, in turn, will be joined by baritone Matthias Goerne for the world premiere of Wir, composed by Reena Esmail on a commission by SFS. The text weaves together German poems by Paul Celan with “interstitial verse by Rebecca Gayle Howell.” The program will begin with Sunwoo accompanying Hahn in a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 24 (fifth) sonata in F major, often known as the “Spring” sonata.

Sunday, January 10, 7:30 p.m.: Pianist Emanuel Ax will devote the second half of his program entirely to Frédéric Chopin. He will reflect on a diversity of genres, beginning with the Opus 61 Polonaise-Fantasy in A-flat major followed by the Opus 60 Barcarolle in F-sharp major. Ax will then “turn back the clock” for the two nocturnes in Opus 27 and the Opus 31 scherzo, the second piece in this genre, composed in the key of B-flat minor. The first half of the program will also have a “reverse chronology,” beginning with Robert Schumann’s very early (Opus 2) Papillons suite, followed by the four impromptus collected in Franz Schubert’s D. 899, composed towards the end of the year prior to his death.

Tuesday, January 19, 7:30 p.m.: The title of this event is An Evening with Itzhak Perlman. It was conceived by director Dan Sullivan as a multimedia program. Violinist Perlman will be accompanied at the piano by Rohan De Silva. However, under Sullivan’s direction, he will interweave storytelling with personal photographs, along with clips from the documentary film entitled Itzhak.

Monday, March 1, 7:30 p.m.: Each half of pianist Seong-Jin Cho’s solo recital will conclude with music by Sergei Prokofiev. The intermission will be preceded by a selection of ten of the movements in the score for the Romeo and Juliet ballet; and the program will conclude with Prokofiev’s Opus 84, his eighth piano sonata composed in the key of B-flat major. This will make for a more-than-generous abundance of notes, so the program will begin with Jörg Widmann’s “Sonatine facile.” The second half of the program will open with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 396, his second “Fantasia,” a fragment composed in the key of C minor and completed by Maximilian Stadler.

Sunday, April 18, 7:30 p.m.: This will be the first of two consecutive evenings of solo piano recitals. The soloist will be Yuja Wang, who has been visiting Davies almost as long as I have! As of this writing, she has not yet finalized her program.

Monday, April 19, 7:30 p.m.: The pianist for the second evening will be Evgeny Kissin. He has prepared an all-Beethoven program. The second half will be devoted entirely to one of the later compositions, the Opus 120 set of variations, usually known as the “Diabelli Variations.” The first half will begin “almost at the beginning” with the first of the three Opus 2 piano sonatas, composed in the key of F major. This will be followed by the first of the two Opus 27 sonatas, given the title “Quasi una fantasia” and composed in the key of E-flat major.

Alisa Weilerstein with her cello (from the Web page for this season’s Davies performance)

Sunday, May 16, 7:30 p.m.: Cellist Alisa Weilerstein will perform a duo recital with Inon Barnatan at the piano keyboard. Each half of the program will conclude with a sonata for cello, which is the only one written by its respective composer. The first of these will be Frédéric Chopin’s Opus 65 in G minor; and the evening (and series) will conclude with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Opus 19 (which also happens to be in G minor). The program will begin with Suite populaire Espagnole, an arrangement of six of the songs from Manuel de Falla’s Siete canciones populares españolas (seven Spanish folksongs), which Falla arranged with the assistance of Paul Kochanski. Maurice Maréchal subsequently adapted this arrangement as a duo for cello and piano. The second half of the program will begin with selections from Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 34, as set of short pieces given the title 24 Preludes. Those selections were arranged for cello and piano by Lera Auerbach.

Center for New Music: September, 2026

Next month is when the concert season “officially” gets under way. As of this writing, “first out of the gate” will be the Center for New Music (C4NM). As usual, the month will serve up the unusual and the familiar, the latter including the monthly G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|N|O|I|S|E|P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S event. As most readers probably know by now, the venue is located at 55 Taylor Street, half a block north of the Golden Gate Theater, which is where Golden Gate Avenue meets Market Street. Each of the below dates is hyperlinked to an event page through which tickets may be purchased as follows:

Saxophonist Nora Free, Alex Heigl with his guitar, and bassist Chris Trinidad (poster design for the performers that will open the new season)

Friday, September 11, 7:30 p.m.: The season will begin with a one-off night of improvised music performed by a quartet. The “front line” will be taken by saxophonist Nora Free, accompanied by three “rhythm” musicians: guitarist Alex Heigl, Chris Trinidad on bass guitar, and drummer Ian MacKenzie. Those familiar with the wild improvisations by saxophonist Pharoah Sanders may detect his influence on Free. It is also worth nothing that McKenzie tends to prefer a “minimalist” approach to drum work. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for students and C4NM members.

Saturday, September 12, 7:30 p.m.: The title of this program is 2x2, because two duos will contribute to the program. After each of them takes a set, the program will conclude with their joining forces for a quartet performance. The program will begin with percussionists Kevin Corcoran and Jacob Felix Heule. They will be followed by James Fei and Bill Hsu, both working with electronic gear. Once again, general admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for students and C4NM members.

Saturday, September 19, noon: The first G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|N|O|I|S|E|P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S event of the new season will be the usual two-hour performance. The entrance fee will be $10 general admission with a $6 rate for students and C4NM members. There will be no further charge for the gourmet pancakes being served. There will be five sets of performances, most of which will be identified by what I have previously called “bleeding edge eccentricities.” Those sets will be as follows:

1. Dimmer is a duo of performers that depart from “the usual instruments.” Thomas Dimuzio is a pioneer in live sampling technology. He will be joined by Joseph Hammer who creates and works with tape loops.
2. Medicine Cabinet is the name for a solo performance by Marc Schnieder, who is based in Tracy, California; he creates is own networks of electronic gear for his shows.
3. Connor Tomaka has performed at C4NM in the past. At the end of April of 2022, he released an album entitled Mathematical Structuralism, currently available through a Bandcamp Web page. This was a duo performance with Eric Schmid involving a prodigious diversity of genres: metal, rock, alternative, hip-hop/rap, experimental, punk, pop, and ambient.
4. No information is currently available for the set taken by Impact Design.
5. The final set will be taken by Mabbie Bug & Company, described as “an alias or creative moniker associated with live music and experimental performance events.”

Saturday, September 26, 6:15 p.m.: Pianist Patrick Anderson will give a solo performance of the five numbered compositions by Philip Glass given the title Metamorphosis. The piano will be accompanied by live electronic and ambient effects. Glass selected the title because it was named for a novella by Franz Kafka. He composed his music to capture the book’s themes of isolation, emptiness, and despair. General admission will again be $15 with a $10 rate for students and C4NM members.

The Bleeding Edge: 8/24/2026

Compared to last week, this week will be relatively quiet. As will be seen below, there will be another three performances by Hidden Currents. These will be complemented by three new events on the first two of the three Hidden Currents dates. Specifics are as follows:

Thursday, August 27, 6 p.m., Exploratorium: It has been over a year since I wrote about an After Dark event at this venue. Dr. Desiré Whitmore will introduce the audience to the LASER Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory. Lest readers wonder what this has to do with music, her lecture will be embellished with clarinet performances by Ben Goldberg. There will be no charge beyond the fee for entering the Exploratorium, which is located at Pier 15 on the Embarcadero, across from the intersection with Green Street.

Thursday, August 27, Friday, August 28, and Saturday, August 29, 7:30 p.m., Audium:  This will be the next installment of performances by Hidden Currents. As some readers may recall by now, the audience will sit in the center of the space in total darkness surrounded by 176 loudspeakers. For those that do not yet know, the venue is located at 1616 Bush Street. Pay-what-you-can tickets are available at the door for each show, on a first come, first served basis; but the preferred cost is between $20 and $30.

Friday, August 28, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares:  The next Other Dimensions in Sound offering, curated and hosted by Boohaabian reed player David Boyce, will be another two-set evening. The first set will be performed the Ark of Bones, the name given to the duo of cellist Chris Evans and Boyce playing a variety of saxophones. In the second set dummer Jordan Glenn will provide rhythm for two front-line players, Darren Johnston on trumpet and clarinetist Ben Goldberg. The venue is located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street. As always, there is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book.

A 29-stringed concert kanklės (photograph by Rimantas Lazdynas, from a Wikimedia Commons Web page, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)

Friday, August 28, 8:30 p.m., The Lab: Merope is the duo of Bert Cools alternating between guitar and electronics and vocalist Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė, accompanying herself with the kanklės, a Lithuanian plucked string instrument. They will perform with multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, whose primary instrument is bass guitar. In the second set pianist David Wesley Golightly will celebrate the release of his debut solo album, Seven Songs for Solo Piano. For those that do not yet know, the venue is located in the Mission at 2948 16th Street, a short walk from the transit stop at 16th Street and Mission Street.