Listening Ahead
Our Critics’ Choices of Upcoming Events in the Bay Area
for January 22 – February 4, 2008
Early Music
Cantatas for the Christmas Fortnight
It was just over a year ago that the Bay Area heard the work in Philharmonia Baroque’s full-blooded reading, and now it’s the turn of Jeffery Thomas’ American Bach Soloists. This version will be different, as all the choruses will be performed one-on-a-part by a team of young, but confident and accomplished singers. The instrumental ensemble will get a similar workout confronting Bach’s taxing parts. ABS’ yearly cantata program is never less than special, and these favorite works promise to raise the roof.
Jan. 25, 7:30 p.m., St. Stephen’s Church, Belvedere; Jan. 26, 7:30 p.m., First Congregational Church, Berkeley; Jan. 27, 7 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco; Jan. 28, 7:30 p.m., Mondavi Center, Davis; $10-$42, (415) 621-7900, www.americanbach.org. (M.Z.)
Jeffrey Thomas
Symphony
Marin Symphony
The orchestra dives into Stravinsky’s surging, intricate Symphony in Three Movements, along with the gentler The Fairy’s Kiss. Ukrainian violinist Vadim Gluzman tackles the challenges of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. Alasdair Neale conducts. (See review.)
Jan. 22, 7:30 p.m., Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium, San Rafael, $27-$65, (415) 479-8100, www.marinsymphony.org. (M.Z.)
Messiaen at the S.F. Symphony
In one of the last concert sets of January, all featuring guest conductors, the San Francisco Symphony highlights L’Ascension, led by Messiaen’s foremost living interpreter, Myung-Whun Chung, in his first appearance here in 25 years. L’Ascension: Quatre Méditations Symphoniques is primarily a color composition, and each of its four movements illuminate a sacred title. “Majesté du Christ” with its brilliant canzona for brass and horns, “Alleluias sereins” and the calm pastorale featuring the woodwinds, “Alléluias sur la trompette” is rhapsodic and harmonic, building up to the final “Prière du Christ montant vers son Père,” which, at last, delivers the promised climax and piles up of instrumental choirs that suggest spiritual elevation. Chung, now music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, will also conduct Mahler’s Symphony No. 1
Jan. 24, 27, 2 p.m.; Jan. 25, 26, 8 p.m.; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, $25-$125, (415) 864-4000, www.sfsymphony.com. (C.G.)
Myung-Whun Chung
Verdi Requiem
Oakland East Bay Symphony’s Michael Morgan will need all his powers as a super Verdi interpreter, and the soloists, orchestra, and chorus will be given quite a workout. The Requiem is a lot more than the sum of its loudest parts.
Jan. 25, 8 p.m., Paramount Theatre, Oakland, $20-$65, (510) 444-0801, www.oebs.org. (M.Z.)
Tsontakis in Santa Rosa
The Santa Rosa Symphony, known for its excellent programming and energetic new conductor, Bruno Ferrandis, will bring a special treat to the Bay Area, the orchestral music of George Tsontakis. Every Tsontakis work I’ve heard has been impressive. One of his symphonic works, The Dove Descending, wore out my CD player’s laser beam — honestly. Ferrandis will conduct the West Coast premiere of Tsontakis’ Clair de Lune (no, not an arrangement of the Debussy), along with Bach, Mendelssohn, and Wagner standards.
Jan. 26, 28, 8 p.m.; Jan. 27, 3 p.m.; Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, Santa Rosa, $27-$50, (707) 546-8742, www.santarosasymphony.com. (J.D.)
Bruno Ferrandis
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
The Dutch orchestra has a storied and much-recorded history, and remains one of the world’s great ensembles. It plays two programs here, the first featuring Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique and Debussy’s La mer. Having tackled the French, they cross the border with a program of Richard Strauss’ Don Juan and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp Minor. Music Director Mariss Janssons obviously intends to knock us out with orchestral showpieces.
Jan. 27, 7 p.m., Jan. 28, 8 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, $25-$95, (415) 552-8000, www.sfsymphony.org. (M.Z.)
S.F. Symphony Takes Manhattan
Composer Einojuhani Rautavaara keeps going from strength to strength, one of the more youthful of classical music’s grand old men. His Manhattan Trilogy, a “reminiscence of his student years,” is 18 minutes of orchestral magic evoking poetic images of interior feelings, rather than a musical portrait of the city. Conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy pairs it with Respighi’s overtly programmatic Fountains of Rome, and Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy, with violinist James Ehnes. The concert ends with Albert Roussel’s Bacchus et Ariane Suite No. 2.
Jan. 31, 2 p.m.; Feb. 1, 2, 8 p.m.; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, $25-$125, (415) 552-8000, www.sfsymphony.org. (M.Z.)
Berkeley Season Opener
Kent Nagano starts things off right with a program of Mozart’s Symphony No. 26 in E-flat Major, the U.S. premiere of Toshio Hosokawa’s Lotus under the moonlight with Momo Kodama on piano, and Schubert’s long, majestic Symphony No. 9, “The Great.”
Jan. 31, 8 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, $40-$60, (510) 841-2800, www.berkeleysymphony.com. (C.G.)
Recital
Ian Bostridge
The tenor is, of course, an international opera star. But Bostridge is clearly much more interested in using his well-controlled tenor voice in recitals. His recordings are mainly song recitals, including treasurable ones of Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin and Schumann songs. He’s had a song cycle written for him by Hans Werner Henze, and his own Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall. Bostridge is an intellectual artist, but he has fire and panache when required, and good looks, as well. His San Francisco Performances show should be a winner.
Jan. 22, 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $30-$49, (415) 398-6449, www.performances.org. (M.Z.)
Ian Bostridge
Radio Host Takes on Radiohead
Maybe you know and love Christopher O’Riley, host of radio’s From the Top. Or perhaps you’re a fan of his skill as a pianist, known for his wide-ranging tastes and his deftness in reimagining repertory, both classical and rock. In the aptly titled concert “Reimaginings,” O’Riley promises to demonstrate how well Shostakovich’s piano preludes saddle up next to his own original transcriptions of songs by the British rock group Radiohead, for solo piano.
Jan. 23, 8 p.m., Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Stanford, $20-$44, (650) 723-2551, www.livelyarts.stanford.edu. (C.G.)
Valentin Surif
As an Argentine, the pianist has often been the ambassador of the country’s musical heritage, recording works by composers like Carlos Guastavino and Alberto Williams (an ongoing project for Naxos Recordings). But for his recital at Old First Church, in addition to Guastavino and Ginastera, Surif has programmed the mighty B-Minor Sonata by Franz Liszt, another composer who has figured heavily in the pianist’s long career.
Jan. 25, 8 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (M.Z.)
Christopher Taylor
The pianist dazzled New York audiences with his command of Messiaen’s “vehemently intense and ferociously difficult” Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus (Twenty contemplations on the infant Jesus), and previously his interpretation of György Ligeti’s entire piano études (listen to a Vingt performance online and read SFCV’s 2005 review of the Ligeti performance). Now’s your chance to hear what the buzz is all about.
Jan. 27, 3 p.m., Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley, $34, (510) 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu. (M.B.)
Christopher Taylor
Trumpeter on a Mission
Few artists have pursued the goal of expanding the repertory of their instrument with the singlemindedness of trumpet virtuoso Hakan Hardenberger. The list of composers who have written works for him, often at his own instigation, is gettting to be as long as Leporello’s famous catalog. With him at his San Francisco Performances concert is percussionist Colin Currie, whose dedication to contemporary music makes him a perfect match for Hardenberger. The trumpet-and-drum duo will perform a number of works, none older than 1971.
Jan. 29, 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $30-$45, (415) 398-6449, www.performances.org. (M.Z.)
Philippe Castagner
The Schwabacher Recitals at the intimate Temple Emanu-El are always a treat. The first program gets things started off right with the expressive tenor Philippe Castagner, a 2002 Merola Opera Program alumnus, performing a program of Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin. The work is one of the earliest song cycles to be widely performed, but what’s unusual is how the piano part bears the brunt of its expressive burden. The accompanist, Ken Noda, should be up to the task.
Feb. 3, 5:30 p.m., Martin Meyer Sanctuary, Temple El-Emanuel, San Francisco, $20, (415) 864-3330, www.sfopera.com. (C.G.)
Richard Goode
The Bay Area is fortunate that pianist Richard Goode often swings through here, courtesy of Cal Performances. He is one of the great living masters of the traditional repertory, and any program can only explore part of that territory. This recital ranges from Bach to Debussy and Fauré, with a little Beethoven and Chopin thrown in.
Feb. 3, 3 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, $34-$62, (510) 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu. (M.Z.)
Dance
Cunningham at Stanford
Merce Cunningham, who turns 89 on April 16, goes back to school at Stanford armed with even more new stuff than usual to go with his ever-fresh choreography (see the feature article in this week’s SFCV). This time it’s iPods. Don’t worry. If you’re a dinosaur, he’ll lend you one of his, the better to watch the Mikel Rouse-scored version of Cunningham’s 2006 eyeSpace, which Stanford Lively Arts runs Friday night. The next night, Annea Lockwood’s score for eyeSpace will be performed live. Also on the bill: Crises, CRWDSPCR, and BIPED. If you’ve never seen the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, you’ve never seen dance, and likely, never heard fabulously weird music. Just go.
Jan. 25 and 26, 8 p.m., Memorial Auditorium, Stanford University, $10-$46, (650) 725-2787, www.livelyarts.stanford.edu. (J.B.)
A scene from eyeSpace
Contemporary Music
Kronos Quartet Family Matinee
Introduce the kids to Kronos at this lively and family-friendly San Francisco Performances event. For a feel of what it’s like, see a previous family matinee review from this critic.
Jan. 26, 11 a.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $10-$18, (415) 392-4400, www.performances.org. (M.B.)
Music by Helmut Lachenmann
Here’s a concert that is definitely not run-of-the-Mill(s). Helmut Lachenmann is a modernist composer (born in Stuttgart, in 1935) who has spent most of his noteworthy career exploring musical timbres and sounds, and developing extended playing techniques for instruments. The Mills program chooses several of his most highly regarded pieces, including Gran Torso, for string quartet, and Interieur I, for solo percussion.
Jan. 26, 8 p.m., Lisser Hall, Mills College, Oakland, $6-$12, (510) 430-2025, www.mills.edu. (M.Z.)
Del Sol Quartet
The Del Sol Quartet is one of the many Bay Area groups that have won ASCAP’s creative programming award. As if to make the point, its upcoming Berkeley concert includes Stephen Kent on the didgeridoo (an Australian aboriginal drone instrument), as well as clarinetist Jeff Anderle. With Kent, the group plays Peter Sculthorpe’s String Quartet No. 16, while Anderle joins the quartet for Golijov’s ubiquitous Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind. Derek Bermel’s jazz-classical fusion, Coming Together, is also on the program, which ends with Arturo Salinas’ Awiroma (2005), in which the musicians indulge their secret desires to be percussionists.
Jan. 29, 8 p.m., Berkeley City Club, $20, (510) 525-5211, www.berkeleychamberperform.org. (M.Z.)
Del Sol Quartet
Classical Meets Electronica
And now for something completely different. Classical music will never be accused of stuffiness at Mercury Soul, an “electro-acoustic evening” held at the Mezzanine dance club in San Francisco. Following up on the original event held in Berlin’s Volksbühne in 2005 with the Berlin Philharmonic is Mason Bates, DJ and composer of “symphonic electronica” (see SFCV’s review), Benjamin Shwartz, San Francisco Symphony resident conductor and director of the SFS Youth Symphony, and visual designer Anne Patterson. The trio will create an immersive environment in which trip-hop, techno, and house music are interspersed with short chamber-orchestra performances of classical music by composers like Ligeti, Nancarrow, and Bates, with the musicians scattered around the art-installation-bedecked club. Whether the concept works or not, or it attracts the young crowd for classical music it’s after, this should definitely be a scene.
Feb. 1, 9 p.m., The Mezzanine, San Francisco, $10, www.mercurysoul.org. (M.B.)
Opera
The Secret Garden
Lamplighters presents this classic of children’s literature turned Tony-award winning musical that appeals to adults and children alike. Based on the novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Frances Hodgson Burnett, the book and lyrics are by Marsha Norman, music is by Lucy Simon, Jane Erwin Hammett directs, and Brett Strader conducts.
Jan. 31 – Feb. 3, Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, $50-$200, (925) 943-7469, www.lamplighters.org. (C.G.)
Chamber Music
Belcea Quartet
The Belcea Quartet’s San Francisco Performances-sponsored Bay Area debut two years ago revealed one of the most intelligent and attractive ensembles going, a quartet whose out-of-the-ordinary attention to detail somehow coexisted with a thoroughgoing sense of spontaneity. This time around, the ensemble brings a program that ought to test those virtues in any number of ways: Schubert’s mammoth, late, G-Major Quartet, Webern’s Five Pieces, and Haydn’s Quartet in G Major, Op. 77, No.1.
Jan. 31, 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $30-$45, (415) 398-6449, www.performances.org. (M.D.T.)
Alexander String Quartet, “Inspirations”
For some years now the Alexander String Quartet has busied itself giving Bay Area quartet lovers good reasons not to sleep in on Saturday mornings. This season the ensemble’s 10 a.m. Herbst Theatre series features a not unprecedented but still irresistible design: two quartets per program, one “standard rep,” one more recent, less familiar, and in some way related. On the former side of the ledger are the likes of Haydn, Bartók (two of his six), and Schubert; on the latter, Carter (No. 2), Wayne Peterson, George Crumb (Black Angels), and the Alexanders’ longtime colleague Robert Greenberg. The series opener juxtaposes Maurice Ravel’s 1903 String Quartet with Lou Harrison’s Quartet Set.
Feb. 2 – May 17 (Saturdays, dates vary), 10 a.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $22-$34, (415) 398-6449, www.performances.org. (M.D.T.)
Alexander String Quartet
Blowin’ in the Wind
It’s not every day that a wind ensemble is prized above other chamber music groups. But just a year after its formation in 1995, the Zéphyros Winds won first and grand prizes at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, becoming the first wind quintet in the competition’s 22-year history to do so. It will perform classic wind repertoire: Milhaud’s Le Cheminée du Roi René, Britten’s Pan, Debussy’s Syrinx, Szervánszky’s Fúvósötös, Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles, and Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin.
Feb. 3, 5 p.m., Mt. Tamalpais Church, Palo Alto, $20, (415) 381-4453, www.chambermusicmillvalley.org. (C.G.)
San Francisco Contemporary Music Players
In a concert titled “Strongbox of American Music,” the ensemble features two works it commissioned, Steven Mackey’s Indigenous Instruments and David Sheinfeld’s Dear Theo, Morton Feldman’s Bass Clarinet and Percussion, and a premiere of a violin concerto by Jorge Liderman, Furthermore ….
Feb. 4, 8 p.m., Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum, San Francisco, $10-$27, (415) 978-2787, www.sfcmp.org. (L.H.)
Janice Berman was an editor and senior writer at New York Newsday. She is a former editor in chief of Dance Magazine.
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.
Jeff Dunn (jdunnpm@yahoo.com) is a freelance critic with a B.A. in music and a Ph.D. in geologic education. A composer of piano and vocal music, he is a member of NACUSA and president of Composers Inc.
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.
Lisa Hirsch is a technical writer. She studied music at Brandeis and SUNY/Stony Brook.
Michael Zwiebach holds a Ph.D. in music history from UC Berkeley.
©2008 By Janice Berman, Mickey Butts, Jeff Dunn, Catherine Getches, Lisa Hirsch, Michael Zwiebach, all rights reserved.