Listening Ahead
Our Critics’ Choices of Upcoming Events in the Bay Area
for April 22 – May 5, 2008
Symphony
Prayer for the Living
The San Francisco Symphony and conductor Bernard Labadie are planning a Haydn-fest, and that’s always reason to sit up and take notice. With the marvelous soprano Christine Brandes leading the solo quartet and the Symphony Chorus lending its considerable punch, the orchestra will perform Haydn’s war-themed Mass in the Time of War and the traditional funeral prayer, the Te Deum. Rounding out the program’s theme is the Symphony No. 100 (the “Military”), with its trumpet-and-drums second movement.
April 23, 25, 26, 8 p.m.; April 27, 2 p.m.; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, $35-$120, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (M.Z.)
Marin Symphony
Alasdair Neale conducts the Symphony’s season-ending concerts, featuring two works that are striking in their originality. There’s Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, the choral romp based on the secular poems from a 13th-century Latin and Middle German codex, to be performed by the Marin Symphony Chorus, Schola Cantorum, the Marin Symphony Youth Chorus, and soloists Ronit Widmann-Levy (soprano), Corey Head (tenor), and Igor Vieira (baritone). The introductory and concluding “O Fortuna” movement (see here) will be instantly recognizable to audiences from numerous film scores and television commercials. Matching in its originality is Colin McPhee’s Tabuh-Tabuhan, which emulates the sounds of the Balinese gamelan. Pianists Peter Grunberg and Keisuke Nakagoshi will solo. After the season finale on April 29, head to the Tuesday Night Wrap Party — mingle with the musicians, and enjoy free hors d’oeuvres and a no-host bar at the Four Points by Sheraton San Rafael.
April 27, 29, 7:30 p.m., Marin Center, San Rafael, $27-$65, (415) 499-6800, www.marinsymphony.org. (C.G.)
Symphonic Dances
Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances is one of those pieces more honored than played, and the San Francisco Symphony under Associate Conductor James Gaffigan rights that wrong in their first May concert. The superb violinist Vadim Gluzman turns up the heat with Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1. As an opener for a concert that ends with dances, Gaffigan has whimsically chosen the “Bluebird Pas de deux” from Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty.
May 1, 2 p.m.; May 2-3, 8 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall, $25-$125, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (M.Z.)
Vadim Gluzman
Photo by Mark Berghash
Intrepid Academicians
The new Berkeley Akademie again conjoins members of the Berkeley Symphony with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, in a program led by Kent Nagano and Stuart Canin. Stravinsky’s Apollon musagète is bookended by a C.P.E. Bach symphony and Mozart’s “Posthorn” Serenade.
May 1, 8 p.m., First Congregational Church of Berkeley, $40-$60, (510) 841-2800, www.berkeleysymphony.org/. (M.Z.)
To 25 and More in Vallejo
The Vallejo Symphony is celebrating 25 years with conductor David Ramadanoff, and its last concert of the season features a work with a fantastic finale of its own: Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in C-Sharp Minor, arguably the composer’s most well-known symphony.
May 3, 8 p.m., Hogan Auditorium, Vallejo, $10-$35, (707) 643-4441, www.vallejosymphony.org. (C.G.)
Philharmonia Live
Bay Area music lovers have a chance to hear the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, which bills itself as “the world’s most recorded orchestra,” in two live concerts during their U.S. tour under Christoph von Dohnányi. Dohnányi, who relinquishes the post of Principal Conductor to Esa Pekka Salonen next season, will lead this tremendous group in the first symphonies of Schumann and Mahler, and the following day in Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony and Beethoven’s Fifth. If these warhorses don’t pack in the crowds, nothing will.
May 4, 7 p.m.; May 5, 8 p.m.; Davies Symphony Hall, $25-$95, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (M.Z.)
Christoph von Dohnányi
Pleasures and Perils
The California Symphony wraps up its season with a program titled “Pleasures and Perils.” Staying true to the “orchestra as laboratory” approach, it will feature Composer in Residence Mason Bates. More than 200 musicians will take the stage for a work that seems to be everywhere these days, Camina Burana.
May 4, 4 p.m.; May 6, 7:30 p.m., Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, $27-$65, (925) 943-7469, www.californiasymphony.org. (C.G.)
Dance
S.F. Ballet’s New Works Festival
Come April, San Francisco Ballet, led by artistic director Helgi Tomasson, celebrates its 75th anniversary with an array of premieres by 10 certifiably wonderful choreographers on three consecutive nights. (See last week’s feature.) Some are young (Julia Adam), some old masters (Paul Taylor, James Kudelka, Mark Morris), some modern (Margaret Jenkins), some not. Music falls into the same categories, with composers ranging from Bach (for Adam) to John Adams (for Morris), while Paul Dresher provides the music for Bay Area treasure Jenkins, and James Kudelka’s dance has music by Rodney Sharman. Other pairings: Val Caniparoli and Antonin Dvořák, Jorma Elo with Philip Glass and Vladimir Martinov, Yuri Possokhov with Graham Fitkin and Rahul Dev Burman, Stanton Welch and Francis Poulenc, Christopher Wheeldon and Ezio Bosso. As for Taylor, stay tuned. Each evening will then enter the repertory for the season, which continues through May 10.
April 22, 8 p.m., April 23, 7:30 p.m., April 24, 8 p.m., War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, $20-$265, (415) 865-2000, www.sfballet.org. (J.B.)
Opera
So Do All Opera Companies
If Mozart’s Così fan tutte was once the shy sister in his trilogy of comic operas written with Lorenzo Da Ponte, it is now nearly as commonly seen and heard as the other two. The Bay Area has already witnessed two productions of this gem in the last two months, and Pocket Opera is ready to offer another. (See review.) Mozart lovers who haven’t followed the work around the local scene may be interested in this last chance, with Marcelle Dronkers and Kindra Scharich as the besieged ladies, and Nathaniel Hackman, who made an impression in Lyric Opera’s La Bohème, as Guglielmo.
April 26, 27, 2 p.m., Florence Gould Theatre, Legion of Honor, San Francisco, $20-$34, (415) 972-8930, www.pocketopera.org. (M.Z.)
The Magic Flute
Mozart’s charming opera Die Zauberflöte comes to Opera San José for a run of performances featuring two stellar casts. (See review.) Fans of this fairy tale will flock for the staple of romance, war, and comedy; but the standouts behind the handsome prince, gentle heroine, wicked queen, and wise sorcerer will be the real draw. How do you choose between these Queens of the Night (Svetlana Nikitenko and Maria Alu), Paminas (Rochelle Bard and Khori Dastoor — who recently made an impressive OSJ debut in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor) and Taminos (Isaac Hurtado and Christopher Bengochea), Papagenos (Kenneth Mattice and Daniel Cilli), and Papagenas (Jilian Boye and Giovanna Hutchison)?
Through May 4, times vary, $68-$90, California Theatre, San Jose, (408) 437-4450, www.operasj.org. (C.G.)
Kenneth Mattice (Papageno) and Jillian Boye (Papagena)
Photo by Chris Ayers
Bluebeard’s Castle and L’enfant et les sortilegès
Berkeley Opera’s May offering is an inspired pairing of Ravel’s charming L’enfant et les sortilegès, starring, among other characters, a child, a teapot, and a pair of cats, with Bartók’s spooky and searing Bluebeard’s Castle. The two operas will be presented with projections rather than sets, and with a larger orchestra than Berkeley Opera’s usual, on the Julia Morgan stage, rather than in the pit. For a preview of the productions, catch the discussion at the Berkeley Public Library on April 24 at 12:15 p.m.
May 3, 9, 8 p.m., May 7, 7:30 p.m., May 11, 2 p.m., Julia Morgan Theater, Berkeley, $15-$44, (510) 841-1903, www.berkeleyopera.org (L.H.).
Early Music
Bach and Buxtehude
The California Bach Society winds up its season with cantatas by J.S. Bach and his forerunner and inspiration, Dietrich Buxtehude. It’s an evening of Lutheran fun and hijinks, with CBS’s usual high-quality singing and performance standards.
April 25, 8 p.m., St. Gregory of Nyssa Church, San Francisco; April 26, 8 p.m., All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Palo Alto; April 27, 4 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley; $10-$25, (415) 262-0272, www.calbach.org. (M.Z.)
Viols to the Fore
The San Francisco Early Music Society series of concerts finishes with a Baroque flourish from the viols of Hallifax & Jeffrey, in a program titled “Forqueray Rules,” which touches on everyone’s favorite French Baroque movie subject, Marin Marais, as well as a number of others.
April 25, 8 p.m., First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto; April 26, 8 p.m., St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Berkeley; April 27, 3 p.m., St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church, San Francisco; $22-$25, (510) 528-1725, www.sfems.org. (M.Z.)
Contemporary Music
Traveling Polyhymnia
In its concert titled “Traveling Polyhymnia,” Adorno gets spiritual with sounds from Buddhism to Azerbaijani culture. On the program is a new work by Osvaldo Golijov, a contemporary meditation on Jewish mysticism; another new composition, Faith, by Kurt Erickson, inspired by Saint Francis of Assisi; Chinese composer Zhou Long’s work, Ding (Samadhi in Sanskrit); and Aspheron Quintet, a work by Azerbaijani composer Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, whose music is rarely heard in the United States.
April 25, 8 p.m., St. Joseph’s Cathedral, San Francisco; April 26, 8 p.m., Old Mission San Jose; April 27, 4 p.m., Noe Valley Ministry, San Francisco; $15-$25, (415) 662-9946, www.adornoensemble.org. (C.G.)
Adorno Ensemble
Photo by Bob Adler
Nightlife
Appropriately enough, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players end their season with a set devoted entirely to San Francisco-based composers. The program begins with the premiere of Reynaldo Tharp’s San Francisco Night (2007), and ends with the U.S. premiere of Bruno Mantovani’s Les Danses interrompues (2000).
May 5, 8 p.m., Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum, San Francisco, $10-$27, (415) 278-9566, www.sfcmp.org. (M.Z.)
Recital
Evelyn Glennie/Fred Frith
Like most solo percussionists, Evelyn Glennie either creates her own repertory or performs new works written with her in mind. If you’ve seen the documentary about her, Touch the Sound (2004), you’ll remember her improvisational collaborations with innovative guitarist and composer Fred Frith as a highlight, and you’ll want to mark your calendars for their engagement at Stanford Lively Arts.
April 23, 8 p.m., Memorial Auditorium, Stanford University, $13-$50, (650) 723-2551, www.livelyarts.stanford.edu. (M.Z)
Chloe Pang
Musical genius clearly runs in the Pang family, early and often. Chloe Pang’s first public performance was at the age of 4, her first full solo recital at age 8, and concert debut at age 10. And, Chloe (whose brother Clark, half her age, is on the same career track) has appeared more than two dozen times with orchestras. The 16-year-old pianist, a scholarship student of Mack McCray at San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Prep Division, will give a solo recital of Beethoven’s Op. 10, No. 3; Barber’s Excursions; Scriabin’s Etude in C-sharp Minor, Op. 2, No. 1; Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso; and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3.
April 26, 2 p.m., Concert Hall, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, San Francisco, free (reservations required), (925) 212-2035, www.chloepang.com. (C.G.)
Chloe Pang
Dubravka Tomsic
The fine piano virtuoso’s long career has been proof against fashion. She is well-known to Bay Area audiences, and her full program for S.F. Performances is a testament to their connection with her. She showcases a bewildering variety of styles, from Mozart and Scarlatti to Prokofiev, as well as Alojz Srebotnjak’s Macedonian Dances, and ends with selections from the Brahms Intermezzos, and Beethoven’s “Appassionata” Sonata. Whew!
April 26, 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $30-$49, (415) 398-6449, www.performances.org. (M.Z.)
Felicitous Recital
Felicity Lott is one of the few singers who could put together a recital ranging from Mahler to Noel Coward, and make it into a compelling journey, as well. In her upcoming appearance at San Francisco Performances, she begins with two German poets, Friedrich Rückert (as seen through Mahler’s Rückert Lieder and Schumann’s Myrthen) and Goethe (in Schumann and Hugo Wolf settings). Then she pivots, via Charles Baudelaire, into the French chanson, ending with French and English operetta to texts by Sacha Guitry and Coward. Along the way there are all kinds of cool connections: Mignon’s paean to her lost home, Kennst du das Land, leads to Baudelaire’s L’invitation au voyage, also about a distant, southern country. Likewise, the final line of Baudelaire’s La vie antérieure (Former Life), “The dolorous secret that made me languish,” leads to Coward’s “I’ll Follow My Secret Heart.” Isn’t that neat?
May 1, 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $30-$40, (415) 398-6449, www.performances.org. (M.Z)
Soulful Schubert
Having been mentored by his idol, Alfred Brendel, you would expect pianist Paul Lewis to have a way with Schubert, Mozart, and Beethoven. But Lewis’ cycle of Schubert sonatas in 2002-2003 was more rapturously received than Brendel’s own, years earlier, and his two recordings of the sonatas won major European awards. (Listen here.) In his Cal Performances recital, he brings the Schubert G Major Sonata, D. 894 to Hertz Hall, along with Mozart’s C Minor Fantasia, K. 475, and Gyorgy Ligeti’s wonderful Musica Ricercata.
May 4, 3 p.m., Hertz Hall, $42, (510) 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu. (M.Z.)
Paul Lewis
Jillian and Johnathan Khuner
Soprano Jillian Khuner and conductor Jonathan Khuner, the musical couple beloved by Berkeley Opera audiences, shifts gears to a more intimate venue for a rare recital appearance at St. John’s Presbyterian. This should be a real treat: As if Berlioz’ ravishing song cycle Les Nuits d’été and Schumann‘s Frauenliebe und-leben weren’t enough, the couple will also perform songs by Schubert, arias from Puccini’s Tosca and Manon Lescaut, as well as Douglas Moore’s Ballad of Baby Doe.
May 4, 4 p.m., St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Berkeley, $10-$20, www.stjohns.presbychrurch.net. (C.G.)
Chamber Orchestra
Conservatory Orchestra
Audiences may now be accustomed to the Conservatory Orchestra’s grand new venue, but the quality of performances, and the variety of repertoire, always promise to keep things vibrant and fresh. Andrew Mogrelia conducts the Orchestra in a program of Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op.19 (with Li Pan, violin); Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64; and the winning piece of the Jim Highsmith Composition Competition.
May 3, 8 p.m., S.F. Conservatory of Music Concert Hall, San Francisco, $15-$25, (415) 503-6275, www.sfcm.edu. (C.G.)
Choral
Reich’s Desert Music
The UC Berkeley University Chorus and Chamber Chorus perform a fascinating program, beginning with Steve Reich’s The Desert Music, followed by James MacMillan’s Cantos sagrados, to texts by Ariel Dorfman about political repression in South America. The concert winds up with a favorite Bernstein work, the Chichester Psalms.
April 26, 8 p.m., Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley, $4-$12, (510) 642-4864, www.music.berkeley.edu. (M.Z.)
Janice Berman was an editor and senior writer at New York Newsday. She is a former editor in chief of Dance Magazine.
Catherine Getches is managing editor of San Francisco Classical Voice. Her writing has appeared in publications such asThe 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, Catherine Getches, Lisa Hirsch, Michael Zwiebach, all rights reserved.