Listening Ahead
Our Critics’ Choices of Upcoming Events in the Bay Area
for June 17 – 30, 2008
Recital
Sandro Russo
The Italian pianist, who recently performed here at the American Liszt Society Festival in San Francisco, is back for a piano recital that includes not one but two versions of Rachmaninov’s Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 36, as well as repertoire from other composers he is known for performing — Bach, Liszt, Chopin, and Taneyev.
June 27, 8 p.m., Old First Church, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (C.G.)
Sandro Russo
Symphony
S.F. Symphony Premiere
Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg is one of the big names on the contemporary music scene. Like many composers of this era, he is an avowed eclectic whose style seems to continuously evolve. His latest orchestral work, Seht, die Sonne (Behold, the sun), a San Francisco Symphony co-commission, combines the composer’s interest in color and textural density with more conventional thematic development and structural principles, as well as his longtime interest in instrumental virtuosity. The Symphony, under conductor Sakari Oramo, counterweights this large-scale new work with Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.
June 19, 2 p.m.; June 20, 21, 8 p.m., $25-$125, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (M.Z.)
Youth Symphony
The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra gives a farewell concert prior to its European tour, with Jennifer Koh as soloist in the Sibelius Violin Concerto. Also on the program, conducted by Benjamin Shwartz, is Bartók’s Dance Suite and a suite of scenes from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet.
June 22, 2 p.m., $12-$30, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (M.Z.)
Dvořák’s Cello Concerto
Just because other organizations have wrapped up their seasons doesn’t mean the fare at S.F. Symphony has petered out. A run of performances features Conductor David Robertson and violinist Alisa Weilerstein teaming up for Dvořák’s much-celebrated Cello Concerto, as well as Lutosławski’s Mi-Parti and Janáček’s Taras Bulba
June 26, 27, 28, 8 p.m., $25-$120, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (C.G.)
Alisa Weilerstein
Festival
Stern Grove Festival
Once again we can enjoy the S.F. Symphony and Opera outdoors. On June 29, Orli Shaham plays Rachmaninov’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini, with James Gaffigan on the podium, while the orchestra gives Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36. The San Francisco Opera closes the festival with a celebration of American opera and musical theater, on August 17.
Orli Shaham
Photo by Christian Steiner
Through Aug. 17, Sundays at 2 p.m., Stern Grove, San Francisco, $10-$30, (415) 252-6252, www.sterngrove.org. (M.Z.)
Music Academy of the West Summer Festival
June 23 – August 16, Santa Barbara
This festival is centered on an eight-week summer program for pre-professional musicians. Concerts involve students and faculty, along with a few guest artists. This year’s big deal is a performance of William Bolcom’s 2004 opera, A Wedding, based on the Robert Altman film. The Takács Quartet also drops in for a visit, performing with faculty on July 15, and on their own on July 17. Christopher Taylor does Messiaen’s complete Vingt regards again (July 9), and the Academy Orchestra, under the Philharmonia Baroque’s own Nicholas McGegan, performs Messiaen’s Un sourire, along with Mozart, Ibert, and Schumann.
Takács Quartet
Photo by Peter Smith
Contemporary
Haydn in Hungary
The New Esterházy Quartet reaches the midpoint in its cycle of Haydn quartets with a fascinating program of works with Hungarian musical elements in them. The featured pieces stretch through a wide range of Haydn’s publications, from Op. 20/4 to Op. 76/2.
June 21, 4 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco, $10-$25, www.newesterhazy.org. (M.Z.)
Dance
Ethnic Dance Festival Turns 30
The 30th annual San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival offers a cornucopia of folk dance, folk music, world music, and “exotic art” in the Bay Area, already one of the world’s most cosmopolitan places. On four weekends starting June 7, the culture of many lands will be presented by more than 500 local artists and some 50 masters of the genre from all over the world.
The variety the festival offers is tremendous — random examples include Sindhu Ravuri of San Jose, a kuchipudi artist performing to the accompaniment of her gurus Raja and Radha Reddy, two of India’s masters, who were favorites of Indira Gandhi, to Allassane Kane; a master drummer and dancer from Senegal who will join Oakland’s West African dance collective, Ballet Lisanga; and famed Hungarian dancers László Diószegi (a recognized national treasure) and Gergö Csiszár performing with Foster City’s Eszterlánc Hungarian Folk Ensemble. At each concert, you get eight or nine shows (and cultures) for the price of one (and it isn’t terribly expensive, at that).
Program III: June 21, 2 and 8 p.m., June 22, 2 p.m.; Program IV: June 28, 2 and 8 p.m., June 29, 2 p.m.; Palace of Fine Arts, $22-$44, (415) 392-4400, www.worldartswest.org. (J.G.)
Charya Burt Cambodian Dance Company
Choral
Songs of Survival
Transcendence is the theme as San Francisco Choral Artists, directed by Magen Solomon, present songs written in Nazi concentration camps. The concert features the participation of Holocaust music expert Dr. Nick Strimple. As this becomes a more frequent theme in concerts, the works of Viktor Ullmann, Gideon Klein, and others are becoming better known. Although you can’t escape the circumstances in which it was written, the music seems to embrace the universal significance that Germanic composers had always strived for. Therein lies the irony.
June 21, 8 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Palo Alto; June 22, 4 p.m., St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Oakland, $12-$28, (415) 979-5779, www.sfca.org. (M.Z.)
The Bond of Love
The Golden Gate Men’s Chorus, under director Joseph Jennings, will premiere David del Tredici’s Queer Hosannas at its next concert. That would usually be enough of a draw for one concert. But the chorus has scheduled another premiere, We Two by Steven Sametz, whom you may know as a favorite composer of Chanticleer, which is Jennings’ other choral affiliation. In another interesting programming choice, the GGMC will also perform a vocal adaptation of Barber’s Adagio for Strings. And that’s just in the concert’s first half.
June 21, 24, 8 p.m.; June 22, 5 p.m., San Francisco Conservatory of Music, $20, (415) 668-4462, www.ggmc.org. (M.Z.)
Opera
Watch on the Rhine
The San Francisco Opera’s Rheingold run takes place through June 28 (see review), and Wagner expert Evan Baker will present an introductory lecture an hour before curtain at each performance in the War Memorial Opera House. Other than that, to prepare, you may want to read stories about director Francesca Zambello’s thoughts on creating the production, reviews of Rheingold at the coproducing Washington Opera, and of course information about the opera itself.
Rheingold performances: June 19, 7:30 p.m.; June 22, 2 p.m.; June 28, 8 p.m.; (video projection screens will be used on the balcony at the last three performances); $25-$200, (415) 864-3330, www.sfopera.com. (J.G.)
Jennifer Larmore (Fricka) and Mark Delavan (Wotan)
Photo by Terrence McCarthy
The Price of a Throne
Roberto Devereaux was Donizetti’s entry into the popular Elizabeth and Essex sweepstakes of the 1830s opera world. And although it disappeared from the repertory for a century, this 1837 score is a clear winner, featuring one of the composer’s most powerful and tragic portraits. You need a quartet of really good singers to handle it, though, plus strong support. Pocket Opera offers Marcelle Dronkers as the Queen; Brian Thorsett as Devereaux; Rachel Michelberg as Sara, Duchess of Nottingham; and John Burton as the Duke of Nottingham. This is a chance to hear some excellent singers in a bel canto rarity.
June 21, 2 p.m., Florence Gould Theater, San Francisco Legion of Honor, $20-$34, (415) 972-8930, www.pocketopera.org. (M.Z.)
Beleaguered Princess
Ariodante is not your typical Handel opera. It has choruses and ballet episodes; it has an important bass role and an important tenor role. A brief, but gorgeous, sinfonia depicts moonrise over the royal gardens. All of these changes can be traced back to the fact that Handel’s company had been supplanted at the King’s Theatre in 1734 by the Opera of the Nobility, which had also wooed away Handel’s star singers. Ariodante, first performed on January 8, 1735, was successful anyway, and it continues to be one of the more approachable Handel operas, a great introduction if you’ve never seen one. And San Francisco Opera’s production is hardly hurting for stars: Susan Graham takes the title role and Ruth Ann Swenson is the princess, Ginevra. Accomplished Handelian Sonia Prina makes her U.S. debut as the villain, Polinesso, while Veronica Cangemi makes a company debut as Dalinda, who pines for Polinesso. Longtime Metropolitan Opera tenor Richard Croft is Lurcanio. Eric Owens, the bass who participated in the premiere of John Adams’ A Flowering Tree, and sang it with the San Francisco Symphony last year, plays the King. Highly recommended.
Through July 6, various times, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, $25-$200, (415) 864-3330, www.sfopera.com. (M.Z.)
Dessay’s Lucia
Lucia di Lammermoor, the blood-soaked Donizetti melodrama most beloved by opera fans, follows Ariodante onto the San Francisco Opera stage two days later — not a coincidence, since both are set in Scotland, and both feature madwomen. (And the Opera did Macbeth in November, so they’ve covered the bases in this sub-subgenre.) Natalie Dessay has emerged as one of the leading exponents of Lucia and she’s the main attraction in this Graham Vick-directed production, imported from Florence’s Maggio Musicale. Singer devotees will also be intrigued by the company debut of tenor Giuseppe Filanoti, as Edgardo, and the U.S. debut of Gabriele Viviani, as Enrico.
June 17 - July 5, various times, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, $25-$200, (415) 864-3330, www.sfopera.com. (M.Z.)
Contemporary
Garden of Memory
The annual summer solstice extravaganza, “Garden of Memory,” at Oakland’s Chapel of the Chimes columbarium — the intimate neogothic labyrinth that is perfect for an evening of musical contemplation — has become one of the most successful avant-garde musical events in the area. Multiple instruments, ensembles, choirs, and installations will be on display; artists include Charles Amirkhanian, Paul Dresher, Brenda Hutchinson, Walter Kitundu, Pamela Z, and about 30 others.
June 29, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Chapel of the Chimes, Oakland, $5-$12, (415) 864-3330, www.gardenofmemory.com. (C.G.)
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.
Michael Zwiebach holds a Ph.D. in music history from UC Berkeley.
©2008 By Janos Gereben, Catherine Getches, Michael Zwiebach, all rights reserved.