Listening Ahead
Our Critics’ Choices of Upcoming Events in the Bay Area
for September 30 – October 13, 2008
Symphony
Conservatory Orchestra
The S.F. Conservatory of Music Orchestra is back in action for two concerts featuring Steve Reich’s The Four Sections — the composer’s original, enjoyable take on the concerto for orchestra genre — and Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony, one of his greatest essays in the genre.
Oct. 4, 6, 8 p.m., Concert Hall, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, $15-$20, (415) 503-6275, www.sfcm.edu. (M.Z.)
Tango Time
The Marin Symphony kicks off its season with a pops concert event. The high-profile Quartet San Francisco drops by to help premiere some tango arrangements and new tango compositions by their lead violinist, Jeremy Cohen. A pair of dancers, Sandor and Parissa, will add flavor to the evening. And if you like your pops concerts sprinkled with orchestral warhorses, the Symphony has you covered there, too, with (wait for it … ) Ravel’s Bolero and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol.
Oct. 5, 7:30 p.m.; Oct. 7, 7:30 p.m.; Marin Center, San Rafael, $27-$65, (415) 479-8100, www.marinsymphony.org. (M.Z.)
Three-Legged Monster Symphony Concert
Those of you who love that black monster, the concert-grand piano, will get 45 minutes of it as Emmanuel Ax tackles not one but two of the greatest pieces ever written that are not called piano concertos. Peter Oundjian conducts the San Francisco Symphony in the “Concertante” Symphony No. 4 by Karol Szymanowski, a hit at the 2007 Festival del Sole, and Richard Strauss’ Burlesque, an inspiration for Bernstein’s tune There’s a place for us somewhere. Another great tune appears in Tchaikovsky’s Francesca da Rimini, also on the program. If you attend Oct. 10, you miss a Mozart overture but in its place you get an illustrated lecture on the rest of the music.
Oct. 9, 8 p.m., Oct. 10, 6:30 p.m., Oct. 11, 8 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, $30-$130, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (J.D.)
Emmanuel Ax
String Fling
The Santa Cruz Chamber Orchestra offers up something novel in their next program. Alongside the beloved Dvořák Serenade for Strings and the string orchestra version (1911) of an early Sibelius part-song, Rakastava (The lover), SCCO is giving the U.S. premiere of Viatore, by the easily approachable composer Peteris Vasks. Vasks’ works are often beautiful, and recommendable even to people who normally don’t venture out to contemporary classical concerts.
Oct. 11, 8 p.m., Holy Cross Church, Santa Cruz, $10-$20, www.scmusic.org. (M.Z.)
Contemporary
Bluegrass and Bach
Winner of a MacArthur Foundation grant, bassist and composer Edgar Meyer pursues his passion for contemporary bluegrass music and J.S. Bach from the stage of Herbst Theatre, courtesy of San Francisco Performances. One of the trio that recorded the best-selling album Appalachia Waltz, he collaborates with a variety of musicians across traditional boundaries. In this concert he teams with brilliant bluegrass mandolinist Chris Thile. Thile is also a composer, and an extended suite of his was recently premiered in Zankel Auditorium at Carnegie Hall. So an evening of their compositions with some Bach thrown in promises to be ear-opening, as well as a lot of fun.
Oct. 2, 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $32-$49, (415) 398-6449, www.performances.org. (M.Z.)
Struck, Plucked, Scraped, and Shaken
Composer Maki Ishii, who died five years ago, spent the latter part of his creative life in a search for a kind of Japanese “third stream,” treading a path between Japanese traditional and European contemporary musics. Although hardly a retrospective, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players’ first concert of the season is anchored by two of his later works, one for percussion and the other for harp. One of the later works of the protean György Ligeti, for four percussionists and mezzo-soprano, opens the program, followed by the world premiere of Yiorgos Vassilandonakis’ Cochleas and the U.S. premiere of Franck Bedrossian’s Digital.
Oct. 6, 8 p.m., Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum, San Francisco, $10-$28, (415) 278-9566, www.sfcmp.org. (M.Z.)
Celebrating California With Composers, Inc.
The season opener of Composer, Inc.’s 25th season sets the bar high with premieres of specially commissioned works by seven very different California composers. Here’s a sampling of composers — Ann Callaway Ballade, Matthew Cmiel, Richard Felciano, and Derek Jacoby — and the top-flight Bay Area musicians who are performing — Robert Ward, David Abel, Julie Steinberg, Jack Van Geem, Marilyn Thompson, and the New Pacific Trio.
Oct. 12, 2:30 p.m., Green Room, (650) 723-2551, $20-$46, www.composersinc.org. (C.G.)
Potluck Percussion
sfSoundSeries presents one of their most entertaining concerts of the season when percussionist extraordinaire Gino Robair takes on the “found percussion” challenge. You bring him an object, he’ll play it. Seriously. (He plays a mean styrofoam, I’m told.) Also on the program is Robair’s improv-opera, I, Norton; Gerard Grisey’s Talea(1986); and two premieres.
Oct. 12, 8 p.m., ODC Dance Commons, San Francisco, $5, series@sfsound.org, www.sfsoundseries.org. (M.Z.)
Chamber Music
Völs Quartet
The young Völs Quartet makes their Berkeley Chamber Performances appearance a memorable one, with four, extremely contrasted pieces: the Elegie and Polka by Shostakovich, Four for Tango by Astor Piazzolla, Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums) by Puccini (yes, the opera composer), and Edvard Grieg’s Quartet in G Minor, Op. 27.
Sept. 30, 8 p.m., Berkeley City Club, $10-$20 (high school students and younger, free), (510) 525-5211, www.berkeleychamberperform.org (M.Z.)
Alexander Back With More Beethoven
This October, following on the heels of two September San Francisco Performances concerts by the Alexander String Quartet, you will have the opportunity to see the group tackle even more Beethoven. Once again, the illuminating series features a lecture demonstration by the veteran elucidator Robert Greenberg, and once again it is all about the composers’ string quartets. The Berkeley performance — the third and final installment in this multiyear survey of his works — is devoted to the Quartet in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131. And the two bonus Mondavi center performances will feature the Quartet in D Major, Op. 18, No. 3; and the Quartet in F Major, Op. 18, No. 1 before the group returns to S.F. Performances in December.
Oct. 4, 10 a.m., St. John’s Presbyterian, Berkeley, (415) 398-6449; Oct. 5, 2 p.m., 7 p.m., Mondavi Center for the Performin Arts, Davis, (866) 823-2776, $20-$40, www.asq4.com. (C.G.)
Alexander String Quartet
Afiara Quartet
The Afiara String Quartet is in residence at San Francisco State University, but they take time to cross the bay and open the season of “Sunday@4” concerts at the Crowden Music Center in Berkeley. Fresh from a trip to Munich, where they received second prize in the prestigious AMD International Music Competition (Germany’s largest competition for classical musicians), they bring their powerful, unified sound to a program ranging from Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite to Beethoven’s second “Razumovsky” quartet.
Oct. 5, 4 p.m., Crowden Music Center, $12 (free for children 18 and under), (510) 559-6910, www.crowden.org. (M.Z.)
New Esterházy Quartet
A year after its launch, the New Esterházy Quartet’s Haydn cycle continues with five more programs this season. The first year’s happy mingling of the familiar and the almost unknown holds for the remaining programs, as well. The season-opening program, titled “Haydn at the Opera,” is typically enticing: four quartets, four magnificent slow movements with a decidedly operatic cast. Op. 20, No. 2, which has a honey of a cello part and an entire (wordless) operatic scena at its heart, is deservedly often played. But how many know that movement’s little sister in Op. 17/5, or the very different, but equally beguiling, violin arias in Opp. 1/2 and 33/6?
Oct. 11, 4 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco, $10-$25, mail@newesterhazy.org, www.newesterhazy.org. (M.D.T.)
New Esterházy Quartet
Sundays With the St. Lawrence
The St. Lawrence String Quartet launches its 20th-anniversary season at its home base with a program featuring Robert Schumann’s great Piano Quintet, which the composer wrote to be performed by his wife, pianist Clara Schumann. The group is joined by the pianist Claude Frank and the other featured works on the program are Haydn’s String Quartet in F Major, Op. 77, and Hindemith’s Quartet No. 4, Op. 22.
Oct. 12, 2:30 p.m., Stanford’s Dinkelspiel Auditorium, (650) 723-2551, $20-$46, www.livelyarts.stanford.edu. (C.G.)
St. Lawrence String Quartet
Opera
World Premiere in San Francisco
Over a decade after San Francisco Opera co-commissioned Stewart Wallace to compose his opera, Harvey Milk, Wallace returns with the premiere of another San Francisco-specific opera, The Bonesetter’s Daughter. (See review.) Adopted from the novel by Amy Tan, the opera follows the women in a Chinese family over the course of three generations, from China to San Francisco. With gifted mezzo-soprano Zheng Cao singing the title role, we have much to look forward to.
Through Oct. 3, times vary, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, $20-$290, (415) 864-3330, www.sfopera.com. (J.V.S.)
Amy Tan
Die tote Stadt
The Dead City is one of Erich Korngold’s most gripping and richly melodic operas, written at age 23. The music is reminiscent of both Puccini and Richard Strauss. Strangely, its premiere here only comes now, 88 long years after its great success in Europe. (see review.) From the man who became one of Hollywood’s most successful film composers, this is a work reminiscent of Hitchcock’s Vertigo. The story is about a man (sung by Torsten Kerl) whose obsession with his dead wife (Emily Magee) places him in a world torn between painful reality and yearning fantasy. Willy Decker’s intriguing production arrived in San Francisco from the Vienna State Opera and the 2004 Salzburg Festival. Donald Runnicles conducts.
Oct. 1, 7:30 p.m.; Oct. 4, 8 p.m.; Oct. 9, 7:30 p.m.; Oct. 12, 2 p.m., War Memorial Opera House, $15-$260, (415) 864-3330, www.sfopera.com. (J.G.)
Thorston Kerl (center), who will sing the role here
Chamber Orchestra
Eisenhower With an Eye on Today
The Castro Valley Chamber Orchestra will premiere a new work by Jack Curtis Dubowsky, conducted by Josh Cohen, and featuring NBC11 reporter Scott Budman as orator. The Eisenhower Farewell Address, like Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, uses a speaker in conjunction with live orchestra. The text is excerpted from one of the most renown Presidential speeches in U.S. history, Eisenhower’s 1961 address, his televised warning from the Oval Office of a growing danger he called the “military-industrial complex,” the first use of the term to describe the iron triangle of the military, the government, and the defense industry.
Oct. 5, 2 p.m., Castro Valley Center for the Arts, $10 suggested donation, (510) 889-8961, www.cvorchestra.org. (C.G.)
Recital
Isabel Bayrakdarian Sings of Armenia
The visually and artistically spectacular soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian, accompanied by the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, sings a concert that is not for the faint of heart. It centers on the celebration of a contemporary composer all but completely unknown in these parts. The composer in question is Gomidas Vartabed (1869-1935), the soprano’s fellow Armenian, the country’s national composer. Besides Gomidas’ Songs of Yearning, Songs of Nature of Love, and other works, the soprano will also sing works by Bartók, Ravel, Nikos Skalkottas, and Gideon Klein.
Oct. 4, 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre, $40-$65, (415) 392-2545, www.performances.org. (J.G.)
Isabel Bayrakdarian
More Hot Beethoven
As the tours through Beethoven piano sonatas continue at major Bay Area presenters, we should not forget the locals engaged in similar quests. William Corbett-Jones, longtime San Francisco State faculty member will give an all-Beethoven concert consisting of the Opus 27 sonatas (which include the “Moonlight”), the experimental Op. 26 in A-flat Major, and the “Appassionata” sonata (Op. 57, in F Minor).
Oct. 5, 3 p.m., Knuth Hall, Creative Arts Building, San Francisco State, $10-$15, (415) 338-1431, www.musicdance.sfsu.edu. (M.Z.)
Goode Keeps Going
Music lovers have to be glad that Richard Goode has decided to skip retirement for now. The 65-year-old pianist may be collecting Social Security, but he is still one of the most musical and intellectually incisive pianists alive. In his Cal Performances recital, of Bach and Chopin, both his beauty and warmth of tone and his natural and persuasive way of rendering complex thoughts will come to the fore.
Oct. 5, 3 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, $34-$62, (510) 642-9988, www.calperformances.org. (M.Z.)
David Tanenbaum
If you love the guitar but want to hear something new and unusually engaging, David Tanenbaum is your most reliable guide. He follows last summers ear-opening program of music by Jorge Liderman and Terry Riley with a fall concert of guitar in combination with other instruments. This time Bach’s Sonata BWV 539, Astor Piazzolla’s Histoire du Tango, Steve Reich’s Nagoya Guitars, and Aaron Jay Kernis’s work for guitar and string quartet, 100 Greatest Dance Hits, will be featured along with guitarist Peppino D’Agostino, harpsicordist Corey Jamason, and violinist Axel Strauss.
Oct. 11, 8 p.m., San Francisco Conservatory, $36, (415) 242-4500 or (650) 726-1203, www.omniconcerts.org. (S.C.)
Impressive Lineup
All of Beethoven’s sonatas are great, but when András Schiff resumes his cycle for San Francisco Performances, he’ll be getting to the heart of the order, as they say in Beethoven. Beginning with the three sonatas of Op. 31 (Nos. 16-18, the set that includes the pathbreaking “Tempest” sonata), he continues through the “Waldstein” Sonata (No. 21). The next week’s concert plunges through the next five, including the “Appassionata” (No. 23) and the “Les Adieux” (Farewells, No. 26). It’s a full measure of heroic-period Beethoven, guided by Schiff’s power and precision at the keyboard.
Oct. 12, 7 p.m.; Oct. 19, 7 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, $25-$81, (415) 398-6449, www.performances.org. (M.Z.)
Master Class
Coach Hampson
Performer, musicologist, and musical Americana promoter, voice coach Thomas Hampson is among the finest master class coaches. He will now appear in a Master Workshop, apparently a master class on a graduate level, hosting the first event in Lieder Alive! — a program that’s working on engaging some great singers, including Christa Ludwig, Thomas Quasthoff, Adrianne Pieczonka, and Angelika Kirchschlager. Apparently, Marilyn Horne has already signed up, for next summer.
Maxine Bernstein is program director, and she managed to get Hampson for two consecutive evenings of “Mostly Mahler” workshops with such worthies as S.F. Opera Adler Fellows Heidi Melton and Katharine Tier.
October 1 and 2, 7 p.m., San Francisco Conservatory of Music Concert Hall, $15-$20 [$30 for both evenings], (415) 561 0100, www.cityboxoffice.com.
(J.G.)
Hampson in master class action
Gala
Marsalis + Brazil = Festa
The season opener at Stanford Lively Arts might just set the standard for these kinds of things. The 2008–2009 season kicks off with a Brazilian themed evening — the honorary host is Maurício E. Cortes Costa (Consul General of Brazil) and Grammy winner Branford Marsalis and Philharmonia Brasileira join together for a performance of Marsalis Brasilianos. Following the concert is a cocktail reception with live music by Brazilian vocalist Claudia Villela and guitarist Ricardo Peixoto and a formal dinner at 6 p.m. with gourmet Brazilian cuisine.
Oct. 5, 2:30 p.m., Memorial Auditorium, Stanford University, $500 for the package, (650) 723-2551, www.livelyarts.stanford.edu. (C.G.)
Musical
Spring Awakening
Winner of eight Tony Awards last year, including Best Musical, Spring Awakening is arriving at the Curran Theater, the first stop on a national tour after its Broadway run. Originating with Lulu dramatist Frank Wedekind’s “scandalous” 1891 work, this dark play about angst-filled adolescent sexual “awakening” in late-19th century Germany has been scored by Duncan Sheik, with lyrics by Steven Sater, and choreography by Bill T. Jones.
A review by Charles Isherwood in The New York Times described it as “a brave new musical, haunting and electrifying by turns, [which] restores the mystery, the thrill and quite a bit of the terror to that shattering transformation that stirs in all our souls sometime around the age of 13.” Caveat emptor, a much dimmer take on the musical may be found in Barnard College drama professor Shawn-Marie Garrett’s review.
Through Oct. 12, Curran Theatre, San Francisco; $30-$99, (415) 512-7770, www.shnsf.com. (J.G.)
Spring Awakening
Early Music
Charpentier the Pleasure-Seeker
When Warren Stewart’s Magnificat performs their core 17th-century repertory, the appeal of this music becomes instantly obvious, and not a matter for specialists and hard-core fans. Expect the usual sparks to fly when the group takes up Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s divertissements Les Plaisirs de Versailles and La Couronne des fleurs. This is Charpentier in a vein you will have rarely encountered, and it should be a jewel of a concert.
Oct. 3, 8 p.m., First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto; Oct. 4, 8 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley; Oct. 5, 4 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco, $10-$30, (800)-853-8155, www.magnificatbaroque.org. (M.Z.)
Wheel of Fortune
The award-winning early music group Ensemble La Rota delves into 14th-century song with a larger scope than is customary. Their program, titled “Heu Fortuna: Music at the Time of Philip the Fair,” moves from the powerful and arts-rich court of the Duke of Burgundy to the streets (with one member playing a hurdy-gurdy) to the fields. Make way, Binchois.
Oct. 10, 8 p.m., First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto; Oct. 11, 7:30 p.m., St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Berkeley; Oct. 12, 4 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco; $22-$25, (510) 528-1725, www.sfems.org. (M.Z.)
Choral
St. Francis: Musings on a New World Order
Artists’ Vocal Ensemble (AVE) is a small group of well-trained singers whose performances have often been documented by SFCV. This month, they offer a program of music to San Francisco’s namesake, drawing on everything from medieval polyphony (Perotin) to a contemporary work by Morten Lauridsen.
Oct. 11, 8 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley; Oct. 12, 4 p.m., Noe Valley Ministry, San Francisco, $10-$20, www.ave-music.org. (M.Z.)
Scott Cmiel is chair of the guitar and musicianship departments in the preparatory division of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Jeff Dunn is a freelance critic with a B.A. in music and a Ph.D. in geologic education. A composer of piano and vocal music, he is a member of the National Association of Composers, USA, and serves on the boards of Composers, Inc. and New Music Bay Area.
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.
Jason Victor Serinus writes about music for Opera News, Opera Now, American Record Guide, Stereophile, San Francisco Magazine, Muso, Carnegie Hall Playbill, East Bay Express, East Bay Monthly, San Francisco Examiner, Bay Area Reporter, hometheaterhifi.com, and other publications.
Michelle Dulak Thomson is a violinist and violist who has written about music for Strings, Stagebill, Early Music America, and The New York Times.
Michael Zwiebach holds a Ph.D. in music history from UC Berkeley.
©2008 By Scott Cmiel, Jeff Dunn, Janos Gereben, Catherine Getches, Jason Victor Serinus, Michelle Dulak Thomson, Michael Zwiebach, all rights reserved.