Listening Ahead
Our Critics’ Choices of Upcoming Events in the Bay Area
for February 19 – March 3, 2008
Symphony
Blomstedt Conducts Mozart
Herbert Blomstedt is back for this run of four concerts, which feature three great works by Mozart — his Divertimento in D Major, the Piano Concerto No. 22 with Jonathan Biss on piano, and the Symphony No. 38 “Prague,” always a favorite.
Feb. 20, 22, 23, 8 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; Feb. 21, 8 p.m., Flint Center, Cupertino; $25-$125, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (C.G.)
Golijov Lullaby
The first West Coast performance of a work from one of the hottest composers around today, Osvaldo Golijov, will be introduced by candidate conductor Hugh Wolff, soprano Heidi Melton, and the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. Night of the Flying Horses is based on a lullaby written for a Sally Potter film, but after a New Jersey critic heard it, he wrote he’d never sleep because he’d keep begging to hear it again. Also on the program are works by Aaron Jay Kernis, Shostakovich, and Beethoven
Feb. 21, 8 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, $40-$60, (510) 841-2800, www.berkeleysymphony.org. (J.D.)
Hugh Wolff
Czech Philharmonic
The excellent orchestra brings a program of Dvořák’s greatest hits to Davis’ Mondavi Center. The “New World” Symphony, the Carnival Overture, and the Czech Suite share the bill. If you want to find out how the locals stack up in the Czech repertory, here’s an excellent standard against which to judge.
Feb. 22, 8 p.m., Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center for the Arts, UC Davis, $27.50-$75, (866) 754-2787, www.mondaviarts.org. (M.Z.)
Screen Gems
The next Marin Symphony program is comprised entirely of well-known film score themes: excerpts from 2001: A Space Odyssey (Richard Strauss), Platoon (Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings), The Right Stuff (music from Holst’s The Planets), Chocolat (Satie’s Deux Preludes posthumes et une Gnossienne), Fantasia (Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice), (Mozart’s Overture to The Marriage of Figaro), Immortal Beloved (the first movement to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5), and Schindler’s List (the theme by contemporary composer John Williams).
Feb. 24, 26, 7:30 p.m., Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium, San Rafael, $27-$65, (415) 499-6800, www.marinsymphony.org. (C.G.)
Shostakovich’s Ninth
MTT conducts a concert of two of his own compositions — Agnegram and Notturno, which he wrote for flutist Paula Robison (who is featured in the performances) — as well as a moving work by Sibelius and one of Shostakovich’s greats: his Ninth Symphony. It’s one of Shostakovich’s two “surprise” symphonies, which often drive audiences unexpectedly to their feet. But the real surprise the work refers to was Stalin, for whom Shostakovich composed the piece. He expected a symphony in his honor to deify him at the end of the war in 1945, but was offended because there was no chorus, no soloists … not even a dedication. Chances are, the audience won’t side with Stalin on this one.
Paula Robison
Feb. 28, 2 p.m.; Feb. 29, 30, 8 p.m.; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, $25-$125, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (C.G.)
The Spirit of Rio
Santa Rosa Symphony’s “Latin Waves Festival” sounds like a catchy way to package pop standards, and it does that. But the concerts pair the popular with some classical fare, as well. The next one, a Brazilian affair, features the music of Heitor Villa-Lobos — a string quartet alongside the required Bachianas brasileiras No. 5, and the slightly melancholic Choros No. 5 — alongside the bossa nova beats and seductive melodies of Antonio Carlos Jobim.
Mar. 1, 5:30 p.m., Jackson Theater, Sonoma Country Day School, Santa Rosa, (707) 546-8742, www.santarosasymphony.com. (M.Z.)
Early Music
Artists’ Vocal Ensemble
The professional chorus known as AVE, along with the Whole Noyse ensemble, present “1508,” which features a rare treat — parts of the extraordinary Missa virgo prudentissima and Choralis Constantinus by Heinrich Isaac exactly 500 years after they were commissioned. The program also includes works by Isaac’s contemporary Josquin des Prez, also Flemish-born. (Listen to AVE online.)
Feb. 22, 8 p.m., St. Ignatius Church, San Francisco; Feb. 23, 8 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley; Feb. 24, 5:30 p.m., Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church, Lafayette; $10-$25, askave@yahoo.com, www.ave-music.org. (L.H.)
S.F. Renaissance Voices
Love is in the air at the chorus’ February concert, “A Feast for St. Valentine” (see review). The group focuses on the Franco-Flemish Renaissance with music for lute, with lutist Sean Smith performing Airs de Coeur and chansons including Clement Janequin’s La Guerre. Also on the program is Orlando di Lasso’s Missa super Mon cœur se recommande à vous (My heart is offered still to you), a parody Mass based on his motet of the same name.
Feb. 23, 7:30 p.m., Seventh Avenue Presbyterian Church, San Francisco; $12-$18, (415) 664-2543, www.sfrv.org. (C.G.)
American Bach Soloists
Jeffrey Thomas has designed such a varied and fascinating season for the American Bach Soloists that choosing one concert to highlight is a vexing problem. Those who would like to have their jaws drop right out of their heads will do well to mark ABS’ last concert of the season, with trumpeter John Thiessen displaying his usual incredible control of a treacherous instrument. For me, the can’t-miss event is the choral concert, “Vocal Visionaries,” which offers an unusually varied program for ABS, ranging from the “perfected art” of Tomas Luis de Victoria’s Requiem to Richard Strauss and contemporary composers Eric Whitacre and Sven-David Sandström. The chorus has always been at the heart of ABS’ work, and they are pretty close to perfection when they’re on.
Feb. 29, 8 p.m. St. Stephen’s Church, Belvedere; March 1, 8 p.m., First Congregational Church, Berkeley; March 2, 7 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco; March 3, 8 p.m., Davis Community Church, Davis; $10-$42, (415) 621-7900, www.americanbach.org. (M.Z.)
Jeffrey Thomas
California Bach Society
The chorus’ next concert, titled “Scarlatti and Stradella: A Mother’s Sorrow,” draws on the power of motherly love from two great composers. Scarlatti, who is more well-known for his keyboard sonatas, composed some pieces for voice. Here his achingly beautiful Stabat Mater, which expresses Mary’s sorrow as she witnesses the crucifixion, is contrasted with a cantata from Alessandro Stradella, the more lively L’anime del Purgatorio, which features florid, graceful solo writing.
Feb. 29, 8 p.m., St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, San Francisco; March 1, 8 p.m., All Saint’s Episcopal Church, Palo Alto; March 2, 4 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley; $10-$25, (415) 262-0272, www.calbach.org. (C.G.)
Recital
Return of the Guzik Award Winners
The arrival of these Guzik Foundation award winners means that spring is around the corner. The foundation brings sterling young musicians from the former Soviet Union to San Francisco every February. This year’s posse, who receive recording contracts, cash, and performance opportunities, include 16-year-old Armenian saxophonist Airapet Arakelian, pianists Daniil Trifonov and Konstantin Alexeev, and violinist Sergey Dogadin. In addition to solo concerts for Chamber Music San Francisco, all four will appear at San Jose’s Le Petit Trianon in a single, free concert.
Feb. 23, 8 p.m., Feb. 24, 2 p.m., Florence Gould Theater, Legion of Honor, San Francisco; Feb. 29, 8 p.m., Le Petit Trianon, San Jose; $22 (San Jose concert is free), (415) 759-1756, www.chambermusicsf.org. (M.Z.)
Joshua Bell
Joshua Bell doesn’t have a hard time getting noticed — well, except for that well-publicized experiment outside the subway in Washington, D.C., when passersby failed to stop for his street performance. All the tickets to his upcoming Cal Performances appearance have been snatched up. You can sign up to be added to the notification list for tickets that become available — your only hope to see Bell perform on his 300-year-old Stradivarius, alongside Jeremy Denk at the piano, before he heads back to the East Coast and on to the Kennedy Center … also already sold out.
Feb. 24, 3 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, $34-$62, (510) 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu. (C.G.)
Joshua Bell
Much More Meacham
Adler Fellow alum Lucas Meacham has done pretty well for himself. At 29, the big-voiced baritone is singing at the major companies, and has a profile in Opera News. You could see this coming even five years ago, when he was a bit more raw, but now he’s a polished performer.
Feb. 24, 5:30 pm, Temple Emanu-El, San Francisco, $20, (415) 864-3330, www.sfopera.com. (M.Z.)
Xuefei Yang
As a child virtuoso, the Chinese guitarist made established players like Masaru Kohno and John Williams swoon, while picking off top competition prizes almost at will (including at the San Francisco International Guitar Competition). Now a mature artist, she’s the Tiger Woods of the guitar world — unbeatable when she’s on. Her recital for San Francisco Performances is this month’s pick for guitar fans.
Feb. 24, 7 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $22-$35, (415) 398-6449, www.performances.org. (M.Z.)
Upshaw in Ayre
Soprano Dawn Upshaw, the great champion of contemporary music, comes to Berkeley for a performance of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ayre, an eclectic setting of 15th-century Spanish texts from the Christian, Jewish, and Arab cultures then found in Iberia.
March 1, 8 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, $36-$68, (510) 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu. (L.H.)
Dawn Upshaw
Chamber Music
Left Coast and Eastern Europe
Two concerts by the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble make a foray into Eastern Europe: On the program is Sofia Gubaidulina’s Rejoice, Dusan Bogdanovic’s Quatre Pieces Intimes, Dvořák’s Terzetto, a sonata by Prokofiev, and the West Coast premiere of a trio for violin, viola, and guitar by Sandor Jemnitz.
Feb. 21, 8 p.m., Throckmorton Theatre, Mill Valley, $15-$20, (415) 383-9600, www.142throckmortontheatre.com; Feb. 25, 8 p.m., Green Room, San Francisco, $15-$20, (415) 642-8054, www.chambermusicpartn.org. (C.G.)
Left Coast Chamber Ensemble
All-Bach From All the Bachs
Avedis’ season opener is its sixth all-Bach program, this time highlighting the monumental Trio Sonata in G Major, as well as two trio sonatas by his sons. This Avedis concert begins its 23rd year with some Bay Area greats: Alexandra Hawley, flute; Susan Freier, violin; Stephen Harrison, cello; and Paul Hersh, piano.
Feb. 23, 2 p.m., Legion of Honor, San Francisco, $15-$20, (415) 392-4400, www.avedis.org. (C.G.)
Chopin Gala
Bay Area musicians come together in an all-Chopin concert put on by, you guessed it, the San Francisco Chopin Foundation. On the program are familiar and lesser-known masterpieces by the composer, performed by an array of piano notables, such as John Boyajy, Michael Boyd, Robyn Carmichael, Daniel Glover, Sujeeva Hapugalle, Hilda Huang, Hugo Kitano, Jaejin Lee, Mack McCray, Reah Sadowsky, Thomas Schultz, Robert Schwartz, Jean Alexis Smith, and William Wellborn, as well as mezzo-soprano Donna Bruno.
Feb. 24, 2 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (C.G.)
Miró Quartet
The Miró Quartet — Joshua Gindele, cello; John Largess,viola; and Daniel Ching and Sandy Yamamoto, violins — is in the Bay Area for two concerts and one enticing program: Mozart’s String Quartet in D Major (”Hoffmeister”), Tōru Takemitsu’s A Way a Lone, and Beethoven’s String Quartet in E Minor, Op. 59. The group has been the faculty string-quartet-in-residence at the University of Texas at Austin for the last three years and has an extremely active international touring schedule. Catch them here before they’re off to South Carolina, the Czech Republic, Germany, and onward.
March 1, 2 p.m., Florence Gould Theater, San Francisco, (415) 392-4400; March 2, 2:30 p.m., Dean Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek; $42, (925) 383-9600, www.miroquartet.com. (C.G.)
Miró Quartet
Jupiter String Quartet
Music at Kohl Mansion hosts this excellent, young quartet, which will play the Mozart Clarinet Quintet, with Jose Franch-Ballester, before tackling Beethoven’s last quartet, in F Major, Op. 135. Read Terry McNeill’s report on its December concert in Napa before you decide whether to travel to Burlingame.
Mar. 2, 7 p.m., Kohl Mansion, Burlingame, $20-$42, (650) 762-1130, www.musicatkohl.org (M.Z.)
Mandelring Quartet
Mill Valley Chamber Music has a knack for unobtrusively wangling Bay Area appearances by first-rate touring musicians who aren’t otherwise playing here. The Mandelring Quartet’s early-March visit, the only local stop-off in a West Coast tour that otherwise skips from Oregon right to Southern California, is a case in point. The youngish German ensemble has a taste for out-of-the-way music — among recent recording projects are a series of quartets by such Brahms contemporaries as Herzogenberg, Dessoff, and Gernsheim — and a most attractive, lithe, and lively collective character. The Mill Valley program includes Shostakovich’s Seventh Quartet and Beethoven’s Op. 59/3, but the real treat is a rareish chance to hear Tchaikovsky’s E-flat-Minor Third Quartet.
March 2, 5 p.m., Mount Tamalpais United Methodist Church, Mill Valley, $20, (415) 381-4453, www.chambermusicmillvalley.org. (M.D.T.)
Opera
Youth Rigoletto
Opera San José offers Verdi’s Rigoletto, as always with young artists. Scott Bearden and Andrew Fernando split performances in the title role, Christopher Bengochea and Isaac Hurtado appear as the Duke of Mantua, and Khori Dastoor and Rochelle Bard, as Gilda. Fans of Opera San Josè will certainly recognize the Duke and Gilda. The four singers share the lead roles in all of the company’s productions this year.
Through Feb. 24, 8 p.m. (Sunday matinees, 3 p.m.), California Theatre, San José, $66-$88, (408) 437-4450, www.operasj.org. (M.Z.)
Così fan tutti
If you’ve had enough of carnations, chocolate, cheesy cards, and cupid then Mozart’s Così fan tutti — filled with tests of faithfulness, swapping of mates, bribes, flirtation, and sweethearts in disguises — may be the perfect foil for all that recently passed love-is-in-the-air feeling. The tale comes to the West Bay Opera for a run of six performances (see review). Douglas Nagel directs, Barbara Day Turner conducts, and the costumes by Beth Gilroy are available for advance viewing at the WBO’s Web site.
Feb. 22, 23, 8 p.m.; Feb. 24, 2 p.m.; Lucie Stern Theatre, Palo Alto, $15-$50, (408) 437-4450, www.wbopera.org. (C.G.)
Forbidden Games
Sacramento Opera’s production of The Turn of the Screw is anchored by two well-regarded singers, with acting skills and voices to go with their looks. Emily Pulley, a regular leading lady at the Metropolitan Opera, plays the Governess. Thomas Glenn, a Merola program grad and recent Schwabacher recitalist, plays Peter Quint. The rest of the cast are hardly punters, either. Seasoned pro Maria Jette, a frequent guest at the Oregon Bach Festival, and a featured singer on Virgin Classics’ recording of Britten’s Paul Bunyan, sings Miss Jessel, while Fenlon Lamb, who sings Mrs. Grose, has sung major roles at Caramoor Music Festival and Seattle Opera. Too bad there are only three performances.
Feb. 22, 8 p.m., Feb. 24, 2 p.m., Feb. 26, 7:30 p.m., Sacramento Community Center Theater, $36-$265, (916) 737-1000, www.sacopera.org. (M.Z.)
Heavenly Musical Trip to Hell
Donald Pippin’s Pocket Opera opens its 29th season in 2008 with Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, on Feb. 24, at the Napa Valley Opera House (it continues in San Francisco at the Legion of Honor, March 8-15). In the Underworld — with “A change of scene, a change of air — the giddy gods let down their hair” — Orpheus and others, Pippin rhymes handsomely, “… meet your own departed kin that feast upon the fruits of sin.” With a stern Public Opinion egging Orpheus on, the quest for Eurydice becomes both hilarious and tense, a typical Pippin operatic mix. The production is directed by Debra Lambert, the cast features Nick Patton as Orpheus, Jennie Litster as Eurydice, Michael Mendelsohn as Pluto, and Michael Reed as Jupiter.
Feb. 24, 2 p.m., Napa Valley Opera House, Napa, $20-$37; (707) 226-7372, www.pocketopera.org. (J.G.)
Jennie Litster
Contemporary Music
Meridian Arts Ensemble
The hip brass quintet (plus one percussionist) plays the music of Milton Babbitt, Silvestre Revueltas, Stanford composer Mark Applebaum, and Frank Zappa. Even the most jaded concertgoer will have to admit that this isn’t “the usual,” which is why the Meridian Arts Ensemble has been able to bridge the gap between the concert hall and the club. It plays Alice Tully Hall and CBGBs, the Knitting Factory, and Los Angeles’ House of Blues. The Stanford Lively Arts program is as buttoned-down as it gets.
Feb. 24, 2:30 p.m., Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Stanford University, $18-$36, (650) 723-2551, livelyarts.stanford.edu. (M.Z.)
Choral
San Francisco State Chamber Singers
Conducted by San Francisco State faculty member (and San Francisco Symphony Chorus assistant conductor) Joshua Habermann, the SFSU Chamber Singers are giving a free concert in Grace Cathedral, with the participation of the Australian Voices, San Ramon Valley High School Chamber Singers, and San Jose State University Concert Choir. On the program: works by Australian composers and traditional folk-song arrangements from Cuba and the Philippines.
Feb. 19, 7:30 p.m., Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, free, (415) 338-1341, www.creativearts.sfsu.edu. (J.G.)
Not That Earth, Wind, and Fire
Volti’s March program, “Adventures in Earth, Wind, and Fire,” features an impressive lineup of premieres and commissions. The singers face the elements in a series of works inspired by the forces of nature. There’s Rob Paterson’s The Essence of Gravity, Kurt Rhode’s gentle suite Endless, Ccollanan Maria by Gabriela Lena Frank, and Fire in the Heavens by Elliott Gyger. The Piedmont Children’s Choirs join the group for the premiere of Gyger’s Dancing in the Wind.
March 1, 8 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley; March 2, 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, Berkeley; March 3, 8 p.m., St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, San Francisco; $8-$20, (415) 771-3352, www.voltisf.org. (C.G.)
The Dream of Gerontius
Edward Elgar’s 1900 oratorio is based the Bible’s John, Cardinal Newman’s “spiritualized Faust.” The work may be unfamiliar, but it is actually the only English oratorio of the period that gets regular performances. It was recognized as a masterpiece soon after its premiere, despite a Catholic theology that found little favor in a militantly Protestant country. It’s a richly woven score, with many emotional high points, and a live performance by the 180-voice Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra will likely be a rewarding experience.
March 1, 8 p.m., Sacramento Community Center Theater, $15-$50, (916) 808-5181, www.sacramentochoral.com. (M.Z.)
Song of Peace
On the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, choruses around the world are joining together to sing a song of peace. Singers pledge to perform a setting of “Dona nobis pacem,” or words that call for peace in another language, during the month of March. Check the Web site for updates, but so far participating choruses in the Bay Area, where the initiative began, include Schola Cantorum San Francisco, San Francisco Renaissance Voices, and the Sonoma Valley Chorale.
March 2008, dates, times, and locations vary, info@songofpeace.org, www.songofpeace.org. (M.B.)
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.
Janos Gereben (janosg@gmail.com) is a regular contributor to San Francisco Classical Voice.
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.
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.
©2008 By Mickey Butts, Jeff Dunn, Janos Gereben, Catherine Getches, Lisa Hirsch, Michelle Dulak Thomson, Michael Zwiebach, all rights reserved.