Listening Ahead
Our Critics’ Choices of Upcoming Events in the Bay Area
for February 26 – March 10, 2008
Choral
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 on 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.)
Clerestory
The professional men’s choir, which put on one of the best concerts of 2007, goes green with “O Sweet Spontaneous Earth,” the first line of an e.e. cummings poem and a tribute to the natural world. Works scheduled on the program include madrigals and folk songs by Byrd, Weelkes, Morley, Vaughan Williams, and Britten.
March 7, 8 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco; March 9, 7:30 p.m., First Congregational Church, Berkeley; $8-$15, info@clerestory.org, www.clerestory.org. (M.B.)
Sacred Service
Ernest Bloch’s Sacred Service is one of the few, well-known settings of the Jewish Sabbath service in classical music. It isn’t performed a great deal, but compared to Alexander von Zemlinsky’s Psalm 13, composed in 1935, but first performed only after being discovered in a Library of Congress collection in 1971, it’s a repertory warhorse. Cantare Con Vivo, 110 voices strong, has taken the bold step of putting both these works on the same program, a month ahead of the Passover holiday. And they’ve chosen to sing the Bloch in Hebrew, instead of the English translation. Bloch’s work is a singularly fine, lyrical piece, a transcendental hymn that reaches its inevitable climax at the “Torah tzivoh,” the moment in the service when the Torah is displayed to the congregation. Choral aficionados have a lot to chew on in March, but don’t pass over this one.
March 8, 7:30 p.m., Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church; March 9, 3 p.m., First Presbyterian Church, Oakland; $10-$35, (510) 836-0789, www.cantareconvivo.org. (M.Z.)
Aphrodite’s Muse
Full disclosure: even if SFCV writer Lisa Hirsch were not part of this chorus, we’d blow a well-tempered horn for it, especially when it’s preparing such an intriguing concert. Chora Nova will celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8, with the music of — surprise! — women composers, such as Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Lili Boulanger, Grace Williams, Dilys Elwyn-Edwards, and Emma Lou Diemer. Countertenor and conductor Paul Flight is artistic director, and the concert is titled “Aphrodite’s Muse.”
March 8, 8 p.m., First Congregational Church, Berkeley, (preconcert lecture at 7:15 p.m.), $10-$18, www.choranova.org (J.G.)
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.)
Contemporary Music
Other Minds
The 13th-annual Other Minds music festival brings nine innovative artists from around the world to the Bay Area for a four-day residency at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in Woodside. The result is a wealth of opportunities for audiences: three days of concerts, panel discussions, and symposia up the road in San Francisco. Guest performers — Anthony Brown (percussion), the Del Sol String Quartet, Lisa Moore (piano), David Shively (percussion), Kathy Supové (piano), and the Adorno Ensemble — will perform premieres by cutting-edge composers from across the musical spectrum, many of whom incorporate new technologies and multidisciplinary collaborations. On the roster are both familiar and new faces: Michael Bach, Dan Becker, Elena Kats-Chernin, Keeril Makan, Åke Parmerud, Dieter Schnebel, Wadada Leo Smith, Morton Subotnick, and Frances-Marie Uitti.
March 6-8, 8 p.m., Kanbar Hall, Jewish Community Center, San Francisco, $25-$35, (415) 934-8134, www.otherminds.org. (C.G.)
BluePrint Bridging Cultures
First the senses were bridged, and then time, so it only makes sense that Nicole Paiement and BluePrint are “Bridging Cultures” in their season-ending concert. The program of modern oratorios includes The Soup, by S.F. Conservatory of Music faculty composer Alden Jenks, a work of dark humor that meditates on human history. Soprano Patrice Maginnis, mezzo-soprano Wendy Hillhouse, and baritone Leroy Kromm come together for Henry Cowell’s Atlantis, full of moans, wails, sighs, grunts, and squeals of ecstasy. Also on the program is a scene from Luciano Chessa’s Urlo di Pietra, featuring the UC Davis Gospel Choir; Kui Dong’s Blue Melody; and the UC Davis Gospel Choir in a premiere of Psalms 1, by choir director Calvin Lymos, featuring alto soloist Melinda Watts.
March 8, 8 p.m., S.F. Conservatory of Music, San Francisco, (415) 503-6231, www.sfcm.edu. (C.G.)
Nicole Paiement
Name That Tune, Doc!
Quartet San Francisco has had two consecutive nominations at the Grammy Awards in the quaint category of “classical crossover album.” The quartet offers music from the latest nominated album, Whirled Chamber Music, at the Crowden School’s “Sundays@4” series. Raymond Scott, the musician whose music is celebrated on the album, was a favorite of the Looney Tunes musical department, and a number of his tunes are instantly recognizable because of that exposure. That programming thread probably explains the presence of Alan Mencken’s “Under the Sea” (from Disney’s The Little Mermaid) on the album, as well. All of which should make for an animated concert.
March 9, 4 p.m., Crowden Music Center, Berkeley, $12 (children under 18 free), (510) 559-6910, www.crowden.org. (M.Z.)
Symphony
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. 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, too. 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 — not to mention the bossa nova beats and seductive melodies of Antonio Carlos Jobim.
March 1, 5:30 p.m., Jackson Theater, Sonoma Country Day School, Santa Rosa, (707) 546-8742, www.santarosasymphony.com. (M.Z.)
Heroics at the Symphony
Gil Shaham is just the virtuoso to take on Schuman’s fiery violin concerto, which matches nicely with Beethoven’s Eroica. Michael Tilson Thomas conducts.
March 5-7, 8 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, $25-$125, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (C.G.)
Napa Valley Symphony
At 26, Soyeon Lee has been at the piano for more than two decades, and the gifted Korean promises to intrigue in more ways than one. In addition to honest full-bodied sound, she puts on eco-friendly concerts: For her performance at Zankel Hall in New York, she wore a stunning strapless gown made of 6,000 recycled grape juice containers. She was introduced by activist Daryl Hannah and the idea behind it all was to promote recycling — a pet cause of hers, in addition to great music-making. Looks like the works on the program won’t be recycled, but given a fresh interpretation: Bolcom’s Commedia for (almost) 18th-century orchestra, Mozart’s Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, and Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 in D Major.
March 8, 8 p.m., March 9, 3 p.m., Lincoln Theater, Napa, $25-$60, (707) 226-8742, www.napavalleysymphony.org. (C.G.)
Soyeon Lee
California Symphony
In a wide-ranging program, the California Symphony introduces 15-year-old guitarist Travis Johnson in the Giuliani (Mauro, not Rudy) Guitar Concerto No. 1 in A Major, Op. 30. This is followed by Lou Harrison’s occasional piece, Elegy, to the Memory of Calvin Simmons, and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. Throw in tango dancer Yaelisa, and you have a recipe for a variety show, classical style. Bring scorecards.
March 11, 4 p.m.; March 13, 7:30 p.m.; Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, $20-$59, (925) 280-2490, www.californiasymphony.org. (M.Z.)
Early Music
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.)
Voices of Music
Voices of Music, an affiliate of the San Francisco Early Music Society, presents its annual young artists concert, which promotes the next generation of musicians and is also a benefit for food charities. Directors Hanneke van Proosdij and David Tayler will lead the the rising stars in a performance of early music.
March 8, 8 p.m., St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, Albany, $25, (415) 771-3352, www.voicesofmusic.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. 29, 8 p.m., Le Petit Trianon, San Jose, $22 (San Jose concert is free), (415) 759-1756, www.chambermusicsf.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
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
Musicians From Marlboro
San Francisco Performances is offering its usual free-to-subscribers concert on March 1, but everyone else is invited, too. The extra concert highlights young talent, and this year features the Musicians From Marlboro tour, which features players and works from the Marlboro Festival in Vermont. The concert will include folk-song arrangements by Beethoven, Brahms’ Zwei Gesänge, Mozart’s D Major String Quintet, K. 493, and Bartók’s String Quartet No. 4.
March 1, 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $25 (free to season subscribers), (415) 398-6449, www.performances.org. (M.Z.)
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.
March 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.)
Handel and Telemann
Not surprisingly, SFCV counts a number of fine musicians within its ranks. Coming up is a chance to see two reviewers onstage rather than in the audience: harpsichordist Jonathan Rhodes Lee and gambist Rebekah Ahrendt, along with Annette Bauer (recorder) and Jennifer Paulino (soprano), in a program of cantatas and sonatas by Handel and Telemann. The music department’s Noon Concert series at UC Berkeley’s Hertz Hall is just the length of a lunch hour, and frequently turns up musical treasures in fine performances. Don’t be late; the hall fills up quickly.
March 5, 12:15 p.m., Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley, free, (510) 642-4864, http://music.berkeley.edu. (M.Z.)
Brentano Quartet
Any visit by the Brentano Quartet demands attention. The ensemble practices a kind of textural introspection — a concentration on the intricate interrelationships of the four voices — that sets it somewhat apart in today’s quartet field, where unanimity and blend remain the cardinal virtues. March’s San Francisco Performances program runs to temperamental extremes, setting Mendelssohn’s bristly, tormented F-Minor Quartet, Op. 80, alongside Beethoven’s ineffably lyrical Op. 127. Also sharing the program: a new work written for the Brentanos by Bay Area native Gabriela Lena Frank.
March 5, 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $30-$45, (415) 398-6449, www.performances.org. (M.D.T.)
Brentano Quartet
Photo by Christian Steiner
Friends of Wolfgang Amadeus
The title of the Gold Coast Chamber Players first concert, “Mozart and Those Who Loved Him,” would allow the group to program pretty much anything it wanted to. Sharing the bill with the G Minor Piano Quartet, K. 478, are FOWAs Ludwig van Beethoven, (Violin Sonata No. 4 in A Minor, Op. 23) and Richard Strauss (Piano Quartet in C Minor, Op. 13). The Strauss is a fine piece that doesn’t turn up too often, and the audience-friendly GCCP has found a pleasant new venue at St. Mary’s College.
March 9, 2 p.m., Claey’s Lounge, Soda Center, St. Mary’s College, Moraga, $10-$30, (925) 283-3728, www.gcplayers.org. (M.Z.)
Janaki String Trio
Dedicated string trios are uncommon: The body of music for violin, viola, and cello may be of unusually high quality, but it’s still awfully small to support a specialized ensemble. The Janaki Trio, formed at Los Angeles’ Colburn School of Music in 2005 and already winner of two high-profile competitions, is one of the few ensembles making a go of it in this corner of the repertoire. The trio’s Temple Emanu-El recital (program not yet announced) should give us an idea of what the considerable buzz is all about — and incidentally affords a chance to hear Katie Kadarauch, a Janaki member and the San Francisco Symphony’s newly hired acting associate principal violist, up close.
March 10, 7:30 p.m., Temple Emanu-El, San Francisco, $20, (415) 355-9988, www.musicatmeyer.com. (M.D.T.)
Janaki String Trio
Events
Stanford’s Stravinsky Project
A two-concert festival at Stanford commemorates the master’s 125th birthday. On Friday, Alexander Toradze and pianists from his studio will play a selection of his keyboard works, including the four-hand version of Le Sacre du Printemps. On Saturday and Sunday, Toradze will join the Stanford Symphony, conducted by Jindong Cai, in the piano concerto Capriccio. And the Symphony will play The Firebird accompanied by a puppetry troupe. (Shouldn’t that have been Petrushka?) Author Joseph Horowitz gives the preconcert lecture on March 7 at 5:30 p.m. and March 8 at 7 p.m. (see this week’s feature article).
March 7-8, 8 p.m.; March 9, 2:30 p.m.; Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Stanford, $15-$40, (650) 725-2787, www.livelyarts.stanford.edu. (D.B.)
Opera
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. 26, 7:30 p.m., Sacramento Community Center Theater, $36-$265, (916) 737-1000, www.sacopera.org. (M.Z.)
Orpheus by the Golden Gate
If ever there were a perfect match for Donald Pippin’s witty libretto-translating talents, it would have to be Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld. The famous musical tidbits, like the cancan, have put the operetta on the perennial hit list, but you rarely get a production that is true to the scathingly funny satire and oh-so-French witticisms of the Hector Crémieux-Ludovic Halévy libretto. (For a how-to primer, listen to Marc Minkowski’s EMI recording.)
March 8, 9, 15, 2 p.m., Florence Gould Theatre, San Francisco, $20-$37, (415) 972-8930, www.pocketopera.org. (M.Z.)
Chamber Orchestra
Conservatory Orchestra
Conducted by Alasdair Neale, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra will perform Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, with guitarist Brendan Evans as soloist, and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88. Also on the program: Rimsky Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol, led by student conductor Dana Sadava.
March 1, 8 p.m., Concert Hall, S.F. Conservatory of Music, San Francisco, $15-$20, (415) 503-6275, www.sfcm.edu. (J.G.)
Alasdair Neale
David Bratman is a librarian who lives with his lawfully wedded soprano and a wall full of symphony recordings.
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.
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 David Bratman, Mickey Butts, Janos Gereben, Catherine Getches, Lisa Hirsch, Michelle Dulak Thomson, Michael Zwiebach, all rights reserved.