Listening Ahead
Our Critics’ Choices of Upcoming Events in the Bay Area
for June 24 – July 7, 2008
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. (See review.) 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 24, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Chapel of the Chimes, Oakland, $5-$12, (415) 864-3330, www.gardenofmemory.com. (C.G.)
Symphony
Dvořák’s Cello Concerto
Just because other organizations have wrapped up their seasons doesn’t mean the fare at San Francisco 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
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.
Through August 15, Santa Barbara, (805) 969-4726, www.musicacademy.org. (M.Z.)
Takács Quartet
Photo by Peter Smith
Four-Play
Among the little-known minifestivals that pepper the July calendar, the 2nd Peggy and Milton International Piano Duo Festival is one of the more intriguing. Presented under the aegis of the San Francisco International Music Festival in the concert hall of the new San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the two-day, four-hand extravaganza will bring together duetists from around the globe and will feature some fascinating programs. The opening concert/ seminar at 4 p.m. on June 5, focuses on Carl Czerny, the 19th-century virtuoso and pedagogue, who was one of Liszt’s teachers. Later that evening, all five invited piano duos play items by Czerny and everyone from Mozart (Andante and Variation K.501) to Brahms (the Liebeslieder Walzer Op. 65). Liszt is represented by his Grand Galop chromatique played here by four pianists on two pianos. The 20th century is represented in two programs on July 6, which between them include Bartók’s Sonata for 2 Pianos and Percussion, Ravel’s La Valse, Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, and a couple of rare and unusual pieces. The festival rounds off on the 7th, with performances by the junior brigade — young talent from the Salkind Junior Festival.
July 5, 6, 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.; July 7, 1 p.m., San Francisco Conservatory of Music, $15-$30, (415) 705-0846, www.sfmf.org. (M.Z.)
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
Merry Merolini
The new enrollees in the Merola Opera Program show their wares in a concert of significant operatic excerpts, which you can catch for free at the Yerba Buena Gardens, or you can pay for a seat at Herbst Theatre. Be the first to hear and appreciate the fresh Merolini.
July 6, 2 p.m., Yerba Buena Gardens, free; July 8, 7:30 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $40-$60 (some student tickets at $25), (415) 864-3330, www.sfopera.com. (M.Z.)
Russian Fantasy, Lisztian Magic
Daniel Glover celebrates his birthday by playing a piano recital mixing Rachmaninov’s great Sonata in B-flat Minor with music by Rachmaninov’s contemporary Nikolai Medtner, and Liszt’s impressively fingerbusting Fantasy on Wagner’s “Rienzi,” as well as two of Liszt’s religious piano works, Two Franciscan Legends and Benediction of God in Solitude.
July 11, 8 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.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 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
The Bond of Love
The Golden Gate Men’s Chorus, under director Joseph Jennings, premieres David del Tredici’s Queer Hosannas in its current concert set. (See review. That would usually be enough of a draw for one concert. But the chorus also 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 24, 8 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 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
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 Filianoti, as Edgardo, and the U.S. debut of Gabriele Viviani, as Enrico.
Through July 5, times vary, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, $25-$200, (415) 864-3330, www.sfopera.com. (M.Z.)
Chamber Music
The Eusebius Duo
Even if they hadn’t confessed it on their Web site, you would have to assume that the Eusebius Duo had a thing for Schumann from their adopted name alone. Consisting of violinist Monika Gruber and pianist Hilary Nordwell, both graduates of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s masters program, the duo has already garnered some awards and attention. They are sponsored by the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music. In their appearance at Old First Concerts, they indulge their Schu-mania by playing the composer’s two violin sonatas, the A-Minor Op. 101, and D-Minor Op. 121, along with Brahms’ gorgeous sonata in G Major, Op. 78.
July 13, 4 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (M.Z.)
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.