Listening Ahead
Our Critics’ Choices of Upcoming Events in the Bay Area
for May 6 – 19, 2008
Choral
Rilling Approaches in the Bach Mobile
Helmuth Rilling will never claim infallibility, but otherwise, there is a similarity to the Pope in the matter of being a kind of global representative for J.S. Bach. In charge of great temples to the composer on three continents (will Antarctica be next?), Rilling has been an exceptional force on behalf of Bach for almost a half century. The founder-director of Bach festivals in Stuttgart, Oregon, and Venezuela is about to make one of his rare visits to the Bay Area. He will work with the San Francisco Concert Chorale, which is preparing Bach’s Mass in B Minor to conclude the group’s 35th season (on May 31 in Mission Dolores Basilica, conducted by John Emory Bush). Rilling’s public appearance is scheduled for May 10, at a lecture-demonstration focusing on the Mass.
May 10, 1 p.m., Trinity Episcopal Church, San Francisco, $60, (415) 840-0675, www.sfconcertchorale.org (J.G.)
Helmuth Rilling
A Cut Above
The women’s chorus Voci presents a concert of sacred music for treble voices. Included on the program are works by 17th-century female composers. Adolf Hasse, the 18th-century opera composer most favored by the castrato Farinelli and the poet Metastasio, is represented with a setting of the “Miserere.” And the concert features a mass for the Salzburg Cathedral by Michael Haydn, a composer who, unlike Mozart, seems to have been perfectly happy in the employment of the Archbishop Colloredo.
May 10, 4 p.m., Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, Oakland; May 18, 4 p.m., Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, $17-$20, (510) 531-8714, www.vocisings.com. (M.Z.)
Chanticleer
What better way to celebrate its debut 30 years ago in the Mission Dolores than with nine concerts of Mission-era music in missions up and down the Camino Real between San Francisco and San Luis Obispo? Knowing this all-male chorus, these performances will be well worth their price in gas getting there.
May 15-29, times and locations vary, $22-$44, (415) 392-4400, www.chanticleer.org. (C.G.)
Songs of Hope and Wonder
Musae, the 12-voice women’s vocal ensemble, closes its fourth season with three concerts that explore Anglo- and African-American folk traditions, featuring shape-note and Shaker hymns, African-American spirituals, and songs from Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. This is the first foray for the “ladies of song” into the history and practices of sacred harp and shape-note singing —the uniquely American genres featuring four-part, a cappella hymns, odes, and anthems. Among the works on the program are Wondrous Love, Sweet By and By, and Joan Szymko’s arrangement of Amazing Grace. The journey into American history continues with spirituals such as Nobody Knows the Trouble I See and Wade in the Water. Celtic melodies, Stephen Hatfield’s arrangement of the Scottish Ballad Geordie (or How the Lady Ann Saved Her Man), and Ryan James Brandau’s setting of An Irish Blessing round out the lineup.
May 17, 8 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley; May 18, 4 p.m., St. Luke’s Episcopal, San Francisco; May 21, 8 p.m., Old St. Hilary’s Landmark, Tiburon; $15-$25, (415) 637-1334, www.musae.org. (C.G.)
Musae
New Music from Volti
Volti, Robert Geary’s constantly surprising, not-the-usual choral group ends its season with more premieres and pieces composed within the last 20 years. Among those are a premiere by George Lam, Eric Moe’s O, the Flesh is Hot, Steven Stucky’s Cradle Songs, Ronald Caltabiano’s Metaphor, Two Motets, by William Hawley, and part of Aaron Jay Kernis’ Ecstatic Meditations. If you’re interested in contemporary classical, you have to check out Volti.
May 17, 8 p.m., St. Gregory of Nyssa Church, San Francisco; May 18, 4 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley; $8-$20, (415) 771-3352, www.voltisf.org. (M.Z.)
Recital
Messiaen’s 100th
The organ mass, like most of the older genres of Catholic church music, has pretty much gone the way of the dodo, and there are not many great 20th-century examples. Not surprisingly, Olivier Messiaen composed one, and it’s long. Excerpts may be the best way to enjoy his Pentecost Mass, and that’s what Benjamin Bachmann, assistant music director at Grace Cathedral, will present in his concert on the organ in the great quire, on the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
May 11, 4 p.m., Grace Cathedral, free (donation requested), (415) 749-6355, www.gracecathedral.org/. (M.Z.)
Jesse Blumberg, baritone
Fans of the American Bach Soloists will recognize baritone Jesse Blumberg’s name, as he has graced several of their concerts with his resonant voice. On his own he has won several vocal competitions and is rising in the opera world. Now San Franciscans have a chance to hear him in a recital originally presented by the Marilyn Horne Foundation.
May 12, 7:30 p.m., Temple Emanu-El, San Francisco, $17-$20, (415) 751-2535, www.emanuelsf.org. (M.Z.)
Jesse Blumberg
Photo by Nick Granito
Chamber Music
Fairy Tales and Love Songs
The Gold Coast Chamber Players, masters of the art of intimate, welcoming entertainment, get in a dancelike mood with a program united by endlessly approachable, but not always commonly heard works — all of which might tempt concertgoers to waltz, march, or cavort their way out of the concert hall … in a good way, of course. First there’s Ravel’s Mother Goose suite, which sometimes begs to be in its rightful place, accompanying a ballet, and always sounds better in its original piano-duet scoring (as it will be performed here). Rounding things out are Bolcom’s Fairy Tales, sure to be an audience pleaser (even to new ears), Whitacre’s Five Hebrew Love Songs — set to poems by his wife and featuring Acalanes High Chamber Singers — and Schumann’s Quintet in E-flat, with its joyful marchlike bravura, one of the composer’s finest achievements.
May 10, 8 p.m., Acalanes Performing Arts Center, Lafayette, $10-$30, (925) 798-1300, www.gcplayers.edu. (C.G.)
Mother’s Day Celebration
Avedis — the country’s foremost chamber music series devoted to the flute — highlights strings in an endlessly enjoyable program in celebration of Mom. Alexandra Hawley, Roy Malan, Susan Freier, Stephen Harrison, and Paul Hersh team up with the San Francisco Conservatory String Ensemble for Beethoven’s Serenade in D Major, Op. 25; Kirke Mechem’s Divertimento, Op. 12; the Quintette, by Jean Françaix, a composer whose stated goal was to “give pleasure;” and if that doesn’t fit the bill then John Rutter’s Suite Antique will, with its Bach-like aria and Richard Rodgers-style waltz.
May 11, 2 p.m., Florence Gould Theatre, San Francisco, $10-$20, (415) 392-4400, www.avedisconcerts.org. (C.G.)
Alexandra Hawley
Existential Questions
The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble celebrates the Messiaen centenary with one of his most beloved pieces, the Quartet For the End of Time. The dramatic story of its first performance (in a Nazi prison camp in 1941) aside, this approachable work contains all of the markers of the style Messiaen became known for after the war. Songs of the blackbird and nightingale (transcribed literally) open the work. And the wash of chords, the complex rhythms, and the religious sensibility that invites contemplation of the infinite expanse of time and the divine, all connect to suspend the usual frame of your life. Even for the nonreligious, the piece is transcendent. Another centenarian, Elliot Carter, shares the program with his Con legezza pensosa, along with a new work by Laurie San Martin.
May 12, 8 p.m., Throckmorton Theatre, Mill Valley; May 19, 8 p.m., War Memorial Performing Arts Center, San Francisco, $15-$20, (415) 642-8054, www.chambermusicpartn.org. (M.Z.)
Contemporary
Stefano Scodanibbio and sfSound
Composers such as Ferneyhough, Frith, Sciarrino, and Xenakis have written works for composer and contrabassist Stefano Scodanibbio. Now, in collaboration with sfSound, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura (Luciano Chessa’s festival dedicated to Italian music) celebrates spring with a program of Scondanibbio’s compositions for solos, duos, and ensembles. In addition to a group improvisation led by Scodanibbio, the concert includes My New Address for solo violin performed by Graeme Jennings; Mas lugares, based on Monteverdi’s madrigals and performed by a string quartet (Jennings, Erik Ulman, Ellen Ruth Rose and Monica Scot); and the American premiere of Labore Navigacionis for two pianos, performed by Christopher Jones and Ann Yi. The program concludes with the American premiere of And Roll for solo double bass, performed by the composer.
May 18, 4 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (C.G.)
Stefano Scodanibbio
Photo by Alfredo Tabocchini
Opera
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. (See review review.) 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.
May 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.).
Madama Butterfly
A year and a half ago, Martinez Opera gave its first, full opera production, La traviata, and they did all right. They’re back with another crowd-pleaser, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Olga Chernisheva, who holds down the title role, received a good notice from SFCV for her Manon Lescaut at West Bay Opera (February 2006), and she is partnered by Daniel Holmes, who has a busy schedule with regional American companies. The reliable John Minagro sings Sharpless. Will this fledgling company show improvement? Stay tuned.
May 10, 17, 7:30 p.m.; May 11, 18, 2:30 p.m.; Alhambra Performing Arts Center, Martinez, $25-$50, (925) 372-6617, www.mtzo.com. (M.Z.)
Aimez-vous Brahms?
Surely that was a rhetorical question in Françoise Sagan’s book title. To quote another, slightly modified, classic: “Nobody doesn’t like Brahms.” And yet, the San Francisco Symphony, after many Beethoven festivals (a pretty good composer, that), has just reached the point of honoring the Great Man of Hamburg with a festival of his own, albeit a short one. There are three programs scheduled between May 8 and 24, as follows: Program I: Piano Concerto No. 2 (with Leif Ove Andsnes) and Symphony No. 4. Program II: Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Serenade No. 2 in A Major, and Piano Concerto No. 1 with Yefim Bronfman. Program III: Geistliches Lied, Four Songs for Women’s Chorus, Two Horns, and Harp, and Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) with soprano Laura Claycomb and baritone Matthias Goerne.
Program I: May 8, 7 p.m., May 9-10, 8 p.m., May 11, 2 p.m.; Program II: May 15, 8 p.m., May 16, 8 p.m., May 17, 8 p.m.; Program III: May 21-24, 8 p.m.; All concerts at Davies Symphony Hall, except May 16, at the Flint Center in Cupertino. $25-$125, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (J.G.)
Symphony
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 a new work by 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 6, 7:30 p.m., Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, $27-$65, (925) 943-7469, www.californiasymphony.org. (C.G.)
Gershwin Favorites
Symphony Silicon Valley has added a performance to its season-ending Gershwin fest. Hosted by KDFC’s Hoyt Smith, and featuring Sarah Uriarte Berry (seen most recently on Broadway in Beauty and the Beast and The Light in the Piazza) singing some of the brothers’ G. standards, the concert is a Pops-audience’s dream. Gwendolyn Mok performs in the inevitable run-through of Rhapsody in Blue, and the bouncy, optimistic Concerto in F. Paul Polivnick conducts.
May 8, 7:30 p.m.; May 10, 8 p.m.; May 11, 2:30 p.m., California Theatre, San Jose, $37-$73, (408) 286-2600, www.symphonysiliconvalley.org. (M.Z.)
Sarah Uriarte Berry
The Russians are Coming
The Santa Rosa Symphony features three Russian composers in a high-energy, yet diverse and colorful program: Cliburn silver medalist Philippe Bianconi debuts with the SRS for Rachmaninov’s deviliishly difficult Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, also his final work for piano and orchestra. The music of Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera The Golden Cockerel shares the spotlight with Stravinsky’s dramatic and exotic The Firebird, in its complete 1910 version.
May 10, 8 p.m.; May 11, 3 p.m.; May 12, 8 p.m.; Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, Santa Rosa, $27-$50, (707) 564-8742, www.santarosasymphony.org. (C.G.)
American Masterworks Series
The Oakland East Bay Symphony presents Follies, the drama about a theatre scheduled for demolition during a reunion of the musical revue, The Weismann Follies, where the reunion isn’t only between cast members, but also between characters old and young selves. The featured dancers are Joy Gim and Joral Schmalle of the Oakland Ballet, as well as The Golden Follies. Guest stars include Academy Award winner Rita Moreno, Val Diamond, Sharon McNight, Sheri Greenawald, Melody Moore, and Trente Morant. And the singers are Tami Dahbura, Ben Jones, Mindy Lym, Christian Nova, Katy Stephan, Clark Sterling, Darla Wigginton, Greg Zema, as well as members of Berkeley Broadway Singers. Michael Morgan will conduct the fast-paced, high-energy Las Vegas-style revue that taps its way through Sondheim’s score of patriotic songs made for high heels, sequins, and sass.
May 16, 8 p.m.; May 18 2 p.m.; Paramount Theatre, Oakland, $25-$70, (510) 444-0801, www.oebs.org. (C.G.)
Janos Gereben (janosg@gmail.com) is a regular contributor to San Francisco Classical Voice.
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 Janos Gereben, Catherine Getches, Lisa Hirsch, Michael Zwiebach, all rights reserved.