Listening Ahead
Our Critics’ Choices of Upcoming Events in the Bay Area
for March 18 – 31, 2008
Chamber Music
Schnittke Cello Concerto
Alfred Schnittke’s urgent, powerful Cello Concerto No. 1 (1985) makes extraordinary demands on its soloist over the work’s 40 minutes. Having won the University Orchestra’s concerto competition, Gabriel Trop will play this astounding work with the orchestra as part of the UC Berkeley Music Department’s Noon Concert series. Although the soloist is a youthful, unknown quantity, it’s worth dropping a lunch engagement to hear this wild, passionate music live.
March 19, Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley, 12:15 p.m., free, (510) 642-2678, www.music.berkeley.edu. (M.Z.)
Words, Stories, and Music
The power of words in music is the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble’s charge for its March concert, and the works chosen range from old to new: There’s Leoš Janáček’s String Quartet No. 2, Intimate Letters; Carl Schimmel’s The Pismirist’s Congeries for violin, cello, flute, and piano; the U.S. premiere of Sean Varah’s Borderline for cello and tape; and the West Coast premiere of Harold Meltzer’s Sindbad for narrator and piano trio.
March 27, 8 p.m., Throckmorton Theater, Mill Valley; March 31, 8 p.m., Green Room, San Francisco; $25-$40, (415) 642-8054, www.chambermusicpartn.org. (C.G.)
Left Coast Chamber Ensemble
TinAlley String Quartet
The San Jose Chamber Music Society promised to bring us the winner of last fall’s Banff International String Quartet Competition, and here it is: The TinAlley String Quartet from Australia. Past winners of this competition include the St. Lawrence, Miró, and Jupiter Quartets, so with those forerunners we should be in for some excellent and distinctive music-making. It will be a challenging program: Haydn’s delicate Op. 76, No. 5; Mendelssohn’s somber Op. 13; and Bartók’s fearsome Fourth. The quartet is also giving a free performance in San Francisco earlier in March, with the same program except for Alban Berg’s early and rarely heard Op. 3 in place of the Bartók.
March 30, 7 p.m., Le Petit Trianon, San Jose, $25-$40, (408) 286-5111, www.sjchambermusic.org. (D.B.)
Early Music
The Queen of Egypt
With the Ides of March approaching, Philharmonia Baroque has engaged fabulous soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian to impersonate the equally fabulous femme fatale, Cleopatra, in its upcoming concerts. (See review.) The Egyptian queen inspired 18th-century composers no less than Roman conquerors. Bayrakdarian displays the charms of several of these operas — Handel’s Giulio Cesare, obviously, and Carl Heinrich Graun’s Cleopatra e Cesare, which opened the new opera house in Berlin in 1742. Rounding out the portrait is the other highly regarded German opera composer of the time, Johann Adolph Hasse, whose Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra was written for Naples in 1725, with the hero being sung by the great castrato Farinelli. If you want a recording of this music, Bayrakdarian has already done the honors, backed by Tafelmusik (Cbc, 2004).
March 18, 8 p.m., Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church, $30-$72, (415) 252-1288, www.philharmonia.org. (M.Z.)
Dawn of the German Baroque
The upcoming San Francisco Early Music Society concert promises to take care of all your 17th-century German Baroque needs with music by Johann Rosenmüller, Samuel Scheidt, and Johann Pachelbel. Harmonie Universelle, named after a famed 17th-century music theory treatise by Marin Mersenne, is a relative newcomer to the early music scene (its first recording was in 2005), and this is the Bay Area’s first chance to hear this group’s powerfully poetic and deft way with early chamber music.
March 28, 8 p.m., First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto; March 29, 8 p.m., St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Berkeley; Mar. 30, St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church, San Francisco; $22-$25, (510) 528-1725, www.sfems.org. (M.Z.)
Recital
Lortie on Wagner and Liszt
Louis Lortie has plenty of flashy technique at the piano, especially when he’s traversing Liszt. But for all that, his is an intellectual art that has quite a lot in common with Romantic interiority. In his concert for San Francisco Performances, he discusses the musical relationship of Wagner and Liszt and plays a program of Wagner transcriptions and some large Liszt pieces, like the Vallée d’Obermann.
March 18, Herbst Theatre, 8 p.m., $30-$49, (415) 398-6449, www.performances.org. (M.Z.)
Louis Lortie
Mahler Gets a Caine-ing
Jazz/classical pianist Uri Caine caused something of a stir when he came out with his album of reinterpretations of Mahler, Urlicht, even though the year was 1997. As surely everyone who reviewed the initial release commented, Caine’s eclectic way with the pieces he chose is worthy of Mahler’s own variety of inspiration and sources. His concert at Stanford Lively Arts offers an opportunity to revisit this imaginative and wild symbiosis.
March 19, 8 p.m., Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Stanford, $15-$34, (650) 723-2551, www.livelyarts.stanford.edu. (M.Z.)
Pauline Viardot and Friends
Frederica von Stade has been touring her show about the life of the 19th-century diva Pauline Viardot-Garcia for more than a year. There’s even a recording of the recital in London’s Wigmore Hall on the Opera Rara label. And now it comes here, thanks to San Francisco Performances. Regardless of the state of von Stade’s voice, this is a chance to hear some wonderful and rare songs composed by Viardot herself or for her by a variety of composers, from Rossini to Chopin to Berlioz. Marilyn Horne narrates the singer’s life, which included travels through Europe, the U.S., and Mexico, and an affair with the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev. Joining von Stade in performing the songs are soprano Melody Moore and baritone Vladimir Chernov.
March 20, 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $60-$80, (415) 398-6449, www.performances.org. (M.Z.)
Elza van den Heever
This soprano and native of South Africa has one of the more astute sensibilities to the fine points of vocal coloration. Her San Francisco Performances recital — van den Heever is no foreigner to Bay Area audiences, she graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory and recently made her debut with the San Francisco Opera as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni — promises to showcase another side of her repertoire with songs by Brahms, Strauss, and Debussy. Her temperament, musical sensitivity, and intelligence will be a nice match for the rich ruby-red carpets and intimate setting of the Hotel Rex.
March 26, 6:30 p.m., Hotel Rex, San Francisco, $20, (415) 398-6449, www.sfperformances.org. (C.G.)
Elza van den Heever
Nikolaj Znaider
He’s got a Guarneri “del Gesu” and he’s not afraid to use it: Nikolaj Znaider is the latest star violinist to grace the Bay Area with an appearance. He’s not toting any of the Brahms’ works he just released on CD, but the San Francisco Performances concert does include a couple of Beethoven sonatas: the D Minor Bach Partita (No. 2), and, by way of variety, Schoenberg’s Phantasy for Violin With Piano, Op. 47. Pianist Robert Kulek accompanies.
March 26, 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $27-$39, (415) 398-6449, www.performances.org. (M.Z.)
Tambourine (and Everything Else) Man
Chen Zimbalista, like many percussionists, has personality to spare. He’s a virtuoso with a little bit of old-school showman in him. Wired with the intense energy of a rock star, he devours the technical challenges of 20th-century and contemporary repertory, plays classic concertos, arranged for percussion, with style, and regularly gives “world music” concerts in which he plays more than 40 instruments. In his appearance at the 2008 Jewish Music Festival, Zimbalista focuses on the music of contemporary Israeli composers, including a few of his own pieces. Percussionist Katja Cooper and Argentine pianist Josè Gallardo, lend their assistance.
March 27, 7:30 p.m., St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Berkeley, $20-$24, (510) 848-0237, www.jewishmusicfestival.org. (M.Z.)
Ian Tracey, Organist
Ian Tracey is an organist in such demand, he’s had to give up his day job. After a quarter century as organist and then music director at Liverpool Cathedral, in January, he turned over his duties to David Poulter, and became the cathedral’s “Organist Titulaire” — in other words, its musical star performer. He’s made several recordings on the cathedral’s grand organ, among his dozen or so CDs. His recital in Grace Cathedral, part of his 22nd U.S. tour, will be quite an event, and, like all organ recitals at Grace, it’s free.
March 30, 4 p.m., Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, free, (415) 749-6355, www.gracecathedral.org. (M.Z.)
Ian Tracey
Mozart by One Heck of a Last-Minute Replacement
Pianist Murray Perahia was originally slated to lead the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in performances of Mozart piano concertos (No. 21 in C Major, K. 467, and the equally marvelous No. 24 in C Minor, K. 491) and his “Paris” Symphony, No. 31 in D Major, K. 297, as well as Haydn’s crowning symphonic masterpiece, the “London” Symphony, No. 104, and a pair of Mendelssohn perennials, the Hebrides Overture and the “Italian” Symphony, No. 4. Because of illness, he has been replaced by pianist Yuja Wang and conductor Sir Neville Mariner. With backup talent like this, Bay Area audiences would be right to wonder if we’re a bit spoiled.
March 30, 7 p.m., March 31, 8 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, $25-$95, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (M.Z.)
Contemporary Music
Lighting Up the Switchboard
The Switchboard Music Festival promises to bend genres, challenge preconceptions, and entertain for eight hours straight. The interactive event offers a who’s who list of contemporary musicians — “an eclectic, genre-crossing, convention-breaking, bastardizing group of experimentalists, innovators, and musical omnivores” — including the Del Sol String Quartet, Amy X Neuburg, Edmund Welles, Christopher Adler with Wong KrajaukThet (The Ostrich Ensemble), Gamelan X, Inner Ear Brigade, and Slydini. The composers represented are just as boundary-pushing: Osvaldo Golijov, Dan Becker, Ryan Brown, Ian Dicke, Robin Estrada, Erik Jekabson, Aaron Novik, Jonathan Russell, and Ian Dickenson.
March 30, 2 to 10 p.m., Dance Mission Theater, San Francisco, $5-$25, (800) 838-3006, www.switchboardmusic.com. (C.G.)
Opera
Young Loves
La Bohème is the opera of eternal youth and hopefulness. Mimi’s sentimental death, you imagine, will be the subject of many tearful reminiscences from the friends, as it is for the audience. (“I never thought she would die!” exclaims Cher in the 1987 comedy Moonstruck.) And perhaps the death inaugurates adulthood for the others. (“You’re a good woman, Mimi,” says Marcello in the last act, in a moment of true understanding.) No more playacting at life. That’s why local opera companies working with young singers are wise not to shelve La Bohème for too long, and also why you can always return to it. San Francisco Lyric Opera’s production (see review) features two singers’ debuts with the company (Darynn Zimmer, as Mimi, and Nathaniel Hackmann, as Masetto) and plenty of youthful high spirits.
March 21, 22, 7:30 p.m., Cowell Theater, Fort Mason, San Francisco, $18-$32, (415) 345-7575, www.sflyricopera.org. (M.Z.)
A scene from La Bohème
Events
Master Class With Joel Krosnick
For many years Joel Krosnick has held down the cello end of the Juilliard Quartet, and has been a champion of 20th- and 21st-century music. But his personal accomplishments aside, he is renowned as a teacher, and his master class in chamber music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music will be a distillation of more than 35 years of guiding young professionals. Two days later he teams up with students to perform Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht.
March 18, 7:30 p.m., Conservatory of Music Recital Hall, San Francisco, free; March 20, 8 p.m., SFCM Concert Hall; $15-$20, (415) 864-7326, www.sfcm.edu. (M.Z.)
Choral
S.F. Choral Artists Hit Home
Local choral composers are featured in San Francisco Choral Artists’ April concerts. The 23-year-old chorus presents a grab bag of musical styles and premieres from Kirke Mechem, Henry Mollicone, Herb Bielawa, and others.
March 30, 4 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Palo Alto; April 5, 8 p.m, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, San Francisco; April 6, 4 p.m., St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Oakland; $9-$22, (415) 979-5779, www.sfca.org. (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 American Bach Soloists, Clerestory, Schola Cantorum San Francisco, San Francisco Renaissance Voices, Threshold Choir, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, Sonoma Valley Chorale, and numerous church choirs.
March 2008, dates, times, and locations vary, info@songofpeace.org, www.songofpeace.org. (M.B.)
Dance
Swan Lake Double Take
Tchaikovsky Perm Ballet brings Natalia Makarova’s Swan Lake to Cal Performances, with full orchestra. Makarova was one of the great Odette/Odiles, pre- and postdefection from the Kirov, and her choreographies of the Russian classics — my favorite is her La Bayadere — are legion. Among the ballerinas taking on Swan Lake’s legendary dual role: Paulina Semionova, a principal dancer at the Berlin State Opera Ballet.
March 28, 8 p.m.; March 29, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; March 30, 3 p.m.; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, $34-$90, (510) 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu. (J.B.)
Swan Lake Pas de Deux
Symphony
Alan Gilbert at the San Francisco Symphony
The music director-designate of the New York Philharmonic returns to the San Francisco Symphony, and this time he’s mostly given free rein to do what he does best, which is to conduct music of the last hundred years. The program is billed as “Richard Goode Plays Mozart,” and that great pianist is sure to satisfy in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 18 — but for my money, the real draws are Steven Stucky’s Son et lumière and Nielsen’s Symphony No. 2, The Four Temperaments.
March 26, 28, 29, 8 p.m.; March 27, 2 p.m.; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, $25-$125, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (L.H.)
The Ode That Never Grows Old
Fabio Mechetti conducts the Symphony Silicon Valley in Brahms’ Schicksalslied before launching into Beethoven’s Ninth with the 100-voice Symphony Silicon Valley Chorale (Elena Sharkova, director). This symphonic celebration of the human voice, combining both chorus and soloists, apparently warrants the addition of an extra performance (on Friday). Soloists include: Jane Jennings, soprano; Gigi Mitchell Velasco, mezzo; Noel Espíritu Velasco, tenor; and Scott Bearden, baritone.
March 27, 7:30 p.m., March 28-29, 8 p.m., March 30, 2 p.m. California Theatre, San Jose, $37-$73, (408) 286-2600, www.symphonyciliconvalley.org. (C.G.)
Janice Berman was an editor and senior writer at New York Newsday. She is a former editor in chief of Dance Magazine.
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.
Catherine Getches is associate editor of San Francisco Classical Voice and her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, and 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, David Bratman, Mickey Butts, Catherine Getches, Lisa Hirsch, Michael Zwiebach, all rights reserved.