Listening Ahead
Our Critics’ Choices of Upcoming Events in the Bay Area
for October 16 – 29, 2007
Chamber Music
Talich Quartet
For many chamber-music listeners, the name is likely still associated with the much-lauded 1970s recordings of the Beethoven quartets, but the membership of the Talich Quartet turned over completely in the mid-to-late 1990s, and the current quartet is a much younger ensemble. A brasher and more impetuous one, too, to judge by recent recordings, but one in which the old Talich’s intelligence and subtlety persist in a sort of family likeness. (The current first violinist, Jan Talich Jr., is the son of the older quartet’s founder and violist.) The Music at Kohl program — of Mozart, Janáček, and Mendelssohn — ought to provide a good overview of what the ensemble can do.
Oct. 21, 7 p.m., Kohl Mansion, Burlingame, $20-$42, (650) 762-1130, www.musicatkohl.org. (M.D.T.)
Talich Quartet
Well-Matched Piano Quartets
Two beloved piano quartets are on the schedule for Trio Concertante’s appearance with pianist David Gross at Old First Concerts. Composed at the same time as Le nozze di Figaro, Mozart’s Piano Quartet in E-flat, K. 493, has the same sunny-yet-deeply-felt quality. Faurè’s Piano Quartet in C Minor, Op. 15, is a marvelous work, full of subtle harmonic changes and lovely melody. Faurè’s comeback from near-anonymity is a blessing for chamber music fans. Also on Trio Concertante’s program is a rarity from Ernö Dohnányi, The Serenade, Op. 10. Dohnányi’s Brahmsian music is often an unexpected highlight when it surfaces in concerts.
Oct. 28, 4 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $15-$12, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (M.Z.)
Viva Italia!
The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble presents a tribute to the nonoperatic side of Italian music. Pieces by Berio, Scelsi, and Sciarrino share the bill with a new work by young composer Luca Antignani (winner of the 2005 Barlow Award), and the winner of LCCE’s Composition Contest, Bruno Ruviaro. Oh, and there’s a Vivaldi string trio, too.
Oct. 25, 8 p.m., Throckmorton Theater, Mill Valley; Oct. 29, 8 p.m., Green Room, San Francisco, $15-$20, (415) 642-8054, www.chambermusicpartn.org. (M.Z.)
Emerson Quartet
Even committed fans of the Brahms quartets (as I am) might find the upcoming San Francisco Performances program, consisting of all three, a tad strenuous. But if anyone can make it work, the Emerson Quartet likely can. The Emersons have the intellectual and physical stamina for the project, as well as a sound whose combination of heft and transparency suits Brahms well.
Oct. 28, 7 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $30-$45, (415) 398-6449, www.performances.org. (M.D.T.)
Emerson Quartet
Photo by Mitch Jenkins
Contemporary
Empyrean Ensemble
Now celebrating its 20th season, the Empyrean Ensemble starts things off with an earth-shaking concert of sorts. With the same solid artistry, these veteran players of new music will perform “Fault Lines: New Works by California Composers.” As usual, there will be several never-heard-before pieces, as well as one by a composer who seems to be popping up on programs all over the Bay Area: You’ll see Edgard Varèse’s name twice, with his Octandre, and in Jonathan Russell’s tribute, Fanfare for Varèse.
Oct. 14, 8 p.m., Mondavi Center, UC Davis; Oct. 23, 7:30 p.m., Wahlberg Recital Hall, California State University, Fresno; $15-$20, (530) 752-0948, http://music.ucdavis.edu. (C.G.)
Composers Inc.
By nature, this presenter’s concerts are full of surprises. The compositions are not only fresh, but played by some of the finest musicians around. The season opener for Composers Inc. (now in its 24th season) features Dante De Silva’s Burlesca, Michael Djupstrom’s Walimai (winner of the 2007 Lee Ettelson Composer’s Award), Fred Lerdahl’s Marches, Martin Rokeach’s Fast Lane, as well as two works for solo piano: Jeffrey Miller’s Piano Preludes and John Thow’s Remebering Opus 109.
Oct. 16, 8 p.m., Green Room, War Memorial Veteran’s Building, (415) 512-0641, $30-$45 www.composersinc.org. (C.G.)
New-Music Mashup at Mills
The Mills College Music Department and the Center for Contemporary Music bring together a talented lineup of artists — Joan Jeanrenaud, Richard Worn, William Winant, Chris Brown, and Daniel Rosenboom — for a performance of works by CCM and CalArts composers. Get ready for some experimental, exploratory, (and sometimes electronic) works, such as Chris Brown’s Stupas for piano, vibraphone, and live computer processing and John Bischoff’s Edge Transit for cello, bass, piano, percussion, and electronics. Mark Trayle’s Placeholder is a bumpy ride over a binary surface — words are gathered, encoded, and displayed for playback, and in the words of the composer, “the joys of edge detection and state change are expressed through synthetic song.” There’s a new work by James Fei for, of all things, the Buchla Box; and among other works there’s David Rosenboom’s Zones of Coherence, which uses the trumpet (and interactive electronics) to articulate nature and the breath of life.
Oct. 21, 4 p.m., Lisser Music Hall, Mills College, (510) 430-2334, $30-$45 www.mills.edu. (C.G.)
Recital
Not-Standard-Issue Haydn
Marc-André Hamelin is renowned for his supreme technical virtuosity and his authoritatively accurate performances of difficult works of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Ives’ “Concord” Sonata. This concert, presented by San Francisco Performances, includes a Haydn sonata (in B minor, also included on his most recent recording) and Chopin’s B-Minor Sonata (No. 3). Although his playing of standard repertory classics inspires some divided critical opinion, there is no doubting his dedication to these works, or his musicality. The pianist’s success with densely written works comes from his ability to delicately reveal contrapuntal layers, his sharp eye for detail, and his thorough understanding of how each composer builds large-scale structures. It’s his interpretive skill, not his virtuosity, that places him among the great living pianists.
Oct. 23, 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $30-$49, (415) 398-6449, www.performances.org. (M.Z.)
Marc-André Hamelin
Photo by Tina Foster
Choral Music
Clerestory
The professional men’s chorus follows up on its stellar debut season last year with promises of riches to come. The program in October will loosely tie into the Appomattox premiere over at San Francisco Opera, with a concert of music from 19th- and 20th-century American composers, including Copland, Ives, and Rorem, as well as new arrangements Clerestory has done of Barber’s solo songs. Also included will be Civil War-era songs, Appalachian melodies, and Shaker and shape-note part-songs by William Billings and others.
Oct. 19, 8 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley; Oct. 21, 7 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco; $8-$15, www.clerestory.org. (M.B.)
Handel: For the Duke of Chandos
The California Bach Society takes to the other side of the street, presenting three of the magnificent anthems that Handel wrote in 1717-1718 for the Duke’s private chapel.
Oct. 19, 8 p.m., St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, San Francisco; Oct. 20, 8 p.m., All Saints Episcopal Church, Palo Alto; Oct. 21, 4 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley; $10-$25, (415) 262-0272, www.calbach.org. (M.Z.)
Recalled to Life
Calling all lovers of Russian church music: If you missed the Sretensky Monastery Choir’s recent Bay Area visit (see review) you may redeem yourselves when the Russian Patriarchate Choir visits Berkeley under Cal Performances’ auspices. The male choir, founded by bass Anatoly Gridenko in 1983, led the way in rediscovering the music of Russian Orthodoxy in the waning years of the Soviet Union. Its story is fascinating and its sound, as evidenced by a number of recordings, is thrilling. But go hear them live.
Oct. 26, 8 p.m., First Congregational Church, Berkeley, $42, (510) 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu. (M.Z.)
Evensong for All Hallows
Todd Jolly, music director of San Francisco Renaissance Voices, has a knack for entertaining and imaginative programming, and the group’s upcoming “All Hallows” concert is no exception. The Harp Trio Trillium joins SFRV for a concert of songs of death and sorrow, featuring Morley’s Dirge Anthems, Purcell’s Funeral Music for Queen Mary, and harp music from the British Isles. It’s likely there will a surprise or two in store, as well, and maybe costumes.
Oct. 27, 7:30 p.m., Seventh Avenue Presbyterian Church, San Francisco; Oct. 28, 7:30 p.m., All Saints Episcopal Church, Palo Alto; $12-$15, (415) 664-2543/(650) 322-4528, www.sfrv.org. (C.G.)
Symphony
San Francisco Symphony
Kurt Masur guest conducts a concert that starts out white hot with Liszt’s Totentanz (The dance of death), based on the Gregorian plainchant melody Dies Irae, and one of the best demonstrations of the composer’s daring stylistic innovations as well as his obsession with death. Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy will seem lighthearted respite in comparison, before Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, which was the score for Sergei Eisenstein’s 1938 propaganda film that was intended to raise the morale of the Russian populace in the likely event of a war with Germany. Nancy Maultsby (mezzo-soprano) and Louis Lortie (piano) are the guest artists.
Oct. 18, 19, 20, 8 p.m.; Oct. 21, 2 p.m.; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, $35-$125, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (C.G.)
Peninsula Symphony and the Eroica Trio
Mendelssohn’s brooding The Hebrides, Op. 26 (”Fingal’s Cave”) was inspired by the landscape of Scotland, and demonstrates the composers preference for the “darker” instruments, such as cellos, violas, bassoons, and clarinets. Here the Peninsula Symphony gives the music its “Scottish summer” feel as overcast skies, gray seas, and barren surroundings are clearly orchestrated into the music. Also on the program is Beethoven’s Concerto in C Major, Op. 56, as well as top-shelf guest artists the Eroica Trio. In keeping with their reputation for consistently having a ball while performing, the former Montalvo artists-in-residence are sure to have fun with Franck’s Symphony in D Minor.
Oct. 19, 8 p.m., San Mateo Performing Arts Center; Oct. 20, 8 p.m., Flint Center, Cupertino; $29-$34, (650) 941-5291, www.peninsulasymphony.org. (C.G.)
The Eroica Trio
Second-Generation Maestro
Conductor Philippe Jordan’s star is rising rapidly in the classical firmament. Already principal guest conductor at the Berlin Staatsoper, he was named last week to fill the post of music director at the Opera National de Paris, which has been empty since James Conlon left in 2004. The 33-year-old Jordan, son of the late Swiss conductor Armin Jordan, also bows at the Metropolitan Opera this year, with Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. Bay Area audiences will have a chance to judge the young conductor’s talent for themselves when he takes the podium at the San Francisco Symphony for Strauss’ Alpine Symphony and Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, with Pierre-Laurent Aimard as soloist.
Oct. 26-27, 8 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; Oct. 25, 8 p.m., Flint Center, Cupertino; $25-$125, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (M.Z.)
University Symphony
In an interesting juxtaposition of old and new, Music Director David Milnes and University Symphony Orchestra Assistant Conductors Henry Shin and Alexander Kahn lead a program of works by Stravinsky, Bartók, Varèse, and Beethoven. Shin conducts Béla Bartók’s dancelike Divertimento for Strings, the last work of his premiered in Europe before he fled for America. Two works are directed by Kahn: Igor Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments, dedicated to the memory of composer Claude Debussy, and Octandre, a brief work by avant-garde composer Edgard Varèse. The second half of the program, under Milnes’ baton, is devoted to Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.
Oct. 26, 27, 8 p.m., Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley, $4-$12, (510) 642-9988, www.music.berkeley.edu. (C.G.)
Early Music
Music From Hamburg, 1607
Magnificat re-creates the musical celebration surrounding the rededication of St. Gertrude’s Chapel in Hamburg in the year 1607. With the aid of the Sex Chordae Consort of Viols, the Whole Noyse wind band, vocal soloists, two organists, and a theorbist, the group will perform a program that weaves together the full range of Lutheran music of the time, including a set of splendid polychoral motets.
Oct. 26, 8 p.m., All Saints Episcopal Church, Palo Alto; Oct. 27, 8 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley; Oct. 28, 4 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco; $12-$28, (415) 979-4500, www.magnificatbaroque.org. (M.Z.)
Dance
Oakland Ballet Company
Ronn Guidi, or rather the Ronn Guidi Foundation for the Performing Arts, has resurrected the Oakland Ballet Company, which presented his Nutcracker last year. In its inaugural performance, with members of the Oakland East Bay Symphony conducted by Music Director Michael Morgan, the new company offers Bolero (Marc Wilde), Afternoon of a Faun (Vaslav Nijinsky), Trois Gymnopedies (Ronn Guidi), and Carnaval d’Aix (Guidi).
Oct. 20, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Paramount Theater, Oakland, $15-$50, (415) 370-9638, www.rgfpa.prg. (M.Z.)
Opera
Appomattox
Although he has left the resolutely avant-garde phase of his career behind, Philip Glass remains a vital and fascinating opera composer. San Francisco Opera premieres his 22nd opera, Appomattox, in October (see review). This is Glass’ second work with a libretto by English playwright Christopher Hampton and, like their first collaboration in 2005, Waiting for the Barbarians, Appomattox is overtly political in its themes. Starting from the events leading up to the dramatic meeting of Generals Lee and Grant, the opera traces the impact of racism and the end of the Civil War on the next 100 years of American history.
Oct. 18, 24, 7:30 p.m.; Oct. 20, 8 p.m.; War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, $15-$225, (415) 864-3330, www.sfopera.com. (M.Z.)
West Bay Opera Stages Perennial Pair
Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci have been performed together for over a century now, so that they have become a single word in the operatic lexicon: Cav/Pag. (See review.) These tales of hardscrabble life in southern Italy and Sicily lost their power to shock long ago, but in the right hands, the direct emotion of the music and the drama still grab you by the throat. José María Condemi’s production for West Bay Opera, conducted by José Luis Moscovich, seeks to continue that company’s record of strong, professional productions of the core repertory.
Oct. 19-21, 8 p.m. (Sunday at 2 p.m.), Lucie Stern Theatre, Palo Alto, $20-$50, (650) 424-9999, www.wbopera.org. (M.Z.)
Scott Six as Pagliaccio and Sharon Maxwell as Colombina
Photo by Otak Jump
The Magic Flute
San Francisco Opera has cast its new production of Mozart’s last opera with young stars (see review). Audiences will get to see Paul Beczala, fresh from last year’s Lensky, as Tamino. Pamina is sung by up-and-coming soprano Dina Kuznetsova. Erika Miklósa is the real veteran of the cast with 200 performances of the Queen of the Night under her belt. Christopher Maltman, baritone extraordinaire, takes on Papageno. If recent history is any guide, the production, borrowed from Los Angeles Opera, will dwell on the lighter side of things and leave the opera’s weightier issues to Mozart’s music, performed under the steadying hand of Music Director Donald Runnicles.
Through Nov. 3, times vary, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, $25-$200, (415) 864-3330, www.sfopera.com. (M.Z.)
Chamber Orchestra
Russian Chamber Orchestra
The October Russian music festival continues at Noontime Concerts with the Russian Chamber Orchestra. Alexander Vereshagin conducts a musical lineup that will be new to most listeners, with the exception of Sibelius’ sad little Valse Triste, with Vereshagin on piano. It will be interesting to see what the group makes of Mikhail Glinka’s Valse Fantasy, Alexander Borodin’s Notturno, and the first movement of Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Concerto, Op. 20.
Oct. 24, noon, Old St. Mary’s Cathedral, San Francisco, $5, (415) 777-3211, www.noontimeconcerts.org. (C.G.)
Mickey Butts (www.mickeybutts.com) is executive director and editor of San Francisco Classical Voice. His writing has appeared in Salon, Food & Wine, Portfolio.com, The Industry Standard, Wired, Parenting, Sunset, The Nation, and The San Francisco Chronicle. As a professional singer, he has performed with such groups as Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Mark Morris Dance Group, Artists' Vocal Ensemble (AVE), and Pacific Collegium.
Catherine Getches is managing editor of San Francisco Classical Voice. Her writing has appeared in publications such as The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Salon.
Michelle Dulak Thomson is a violinist and violist who has written about music for Strings, Stagebill, Early Music America, and The New York Times.
Michael Zwiebach holds a Ph.D. in music history from UC Berkeley.
©2007 By Mickey Butts, Catherine Getches, Michelle Dulak Thomson, Michael Zwiebach, all rights reserved.