Listening Ahead
Our Critics’ Choices of Upcoming Events in the Bay Area
for October 7 – 20, 2008
Recital
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 “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.)
War Memorial
When Russia was invaded by Germany in 1941, Prokofiev was recovering from his first heart attack. He was separated from his family, by state order, and moved out of Moscow. And yet, in addition to his monumental opera, War and Peace, he managed to complete the Fifth Symphony, the ballet Cinderella, a number of other works, and three piano sonatas, Nos. 6-8, which are often called the “War Sonatas.” All of them have dark moments, particularly the savage Seventh, but those are matched by passages of beauty and introspection, particularly in the Eighth. Pianist Stephane Ginsburgh will play all three in a highly recommended concert at Old First Church.
Oct. 17, 8 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (M.Z.)
Prized Pianism
Eighteen years after winning the Leeds Piano Competition, Warsaw-born Piotr Anderszewski continues to touch the heart with rare poetic nuance. His return to Cal Performances finds him performing music by two masters, Mozart and Bach.
Oct. 19, 5 p.m., Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley, $46, (510) 642-9988, www.calperformances.org. (J.V.S.)
Piotr Anderszewski
The Borel Script
Distinguished harpsichordist Davitt Moroney is also known for marvelous discovery, often unearthing long-lost manuscripts and putting on performances that can generate an unparalleled buzz in the international music world. In his October concert, put on by MusicSources, he gives the West Coast premiere of newly discovered French works in the Borel Script (c. 1660), a significant keyboard manuscript recently acquired by the Hargrove Music Library at UC Berkeley. You may know Moroney for his exceptional keyboard skills, or as one of the foremost interpreters of Byrd (he won a Gramophone Award in 2000 for his recording of the complete keyboard works), but what can be most exciting about the musicologist/musician is everything you don’t know, showcased in the little-known repertoire that he brings to light.
Oct. 19, 5 p.m., St. Mary Magdalen Church, Berkeley, $25-$30, (510) 528-1685, www.musicsources.org. (C.G.)
Davitt Moroney
Dance
Kirov Classics
The Kirov Ballet is one of the world’s most famous dance institutions. The technical perfection of their corps de ballet is incredible, rivaled only by that of their Parisian comrades. And assuming that Diana Vishneva is not still nursing an injury that prevented her from strutting her stuff in an American Ballet Theater program earlier this year, the company will bring sufficient star power to make their appearance in Berkeley a must for balletomanes. They perform a program of excerpts from Russian 19th-century faves, including the “Kingdom of the Shades” scene from La Bayadère, and also the full-length comic ballet Don Quixote.
Oct. 14-15, 17-19, 8 p.m.; Oct. 18, 2 p.m.; Oct. 19, 3 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley, $50-$125, (510) 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu. (M.Z.)
Symphony
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. 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
Striking Start at Santa Rosa Symphony
The Santa Rosa Symphony gets its season started off with a powerful program featuring one of the best-known compositions by the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, his Music for Strings, which some listeners may recall from the film scores of Being John Malkovich and The Shining. (If not, that should give you an idea of what is in store.) Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 2 follows that antiphonal piece and the great violinist Vadim Gluzman is the guest artist in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D Major.
Oct. 18, 2 p.m., 8 p.m.; Oct. 19, 3 p.m., Oct. 20, 8 p.m., Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, Santa Rosa, $27-$50, (707) 546-8742, www.santarosasymphony.org. (C.G.)
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
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. 14, 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.)
BluePrint Project
Nicole Paiement’s ongoing BluePrint series opens this year with what is obviously (though not billed as such) a pre-election special: a program whose anchoring pieces react, in varying but similarly pain-fraught ways, to political events. On the program are the late Andrew Imbrie’s From Time to Time for 10 musicians (reflecting on the Japanese invasions of China and other nations before and during World War II); John Harbison’s Abu Ghraib; and Frederic Rzewski’s Coming Together, whose text (from a letter written by one of the leaders of the 1971 Attica prison uprising) will be declaimed by the brilliant violinist/vocalist Carla Kihlstedt. Pieces by Bright Sheng (Postcards, for chamber orchestra) and John Halle (Homage) complete a program that, in the typical Paiement manner, throws light on a difficult theme from many and unexpected angles.
Oct. 18, 8 p.m., Concert Hall, San Francisco Conservatory, $15-$20, (415)503-6275, www.sfcm.edu. (M.D.T.)
Nicole Paiement
Reaching the Heights
Meredith Monk’s latest site-specific, multimedia work is Songs of Ascension, a work reflecting on religious pilgrimage and the spiritual metaphor of rising or going upwards. The evening-length work premieres at Stanford Lively Arts.
Oct. 18, 8 p.m., Memorial Auditorium, Stanford University, $13-$60, (650) 723-2551, http://livelyarts.stanford.edu. (M.Z.)
Earplay
Like many new-music organizations, Earplay is giving room on their opening concert to celebrate the works of 100-year-old Elliot Carter. The wonder of it is that he is still at the composing thing, as Steep Steps (2001) and Au Quai demonstrate. Also on the program is Jennifer Higdon’s marvelous and approachable Dark Wood and a new work by Eric Zivian.
Oct. 20, 7:30 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $10-$20, (415) 585-9776, www.earplay.org. (M.Z.)
Chamber Music
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
Emerson Quartet plays Shostakovich
There’s no more bleak and depressing music than late Shostakovich, yet somehow through the grimaces and pain it gives its listeners the strength to carry on. Here’s your chance to wallow in despair and come out with catharsis as the great Emerson Quartet plays Shostakovich’s last three string quartets, Nos. 13-15, all in one concert. Wear your most somber late-Soviet-era garb.
Oct. 15, 8 p.m., Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Stanford, $23-$52, (650) 725-2787, http://livelyarts.stanford.edu (D.B.)
Yuja Wang
Photo by Mitch Jenkins
Chamber Music Day (Live and Free)
The San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music was founded in 1998 to support chamber music in the San Francisco Bay Area, by fostering existing ensembles, cultivating audience interest, and fostering a climate for new ensembles to flourish. SFFCM now serves an increasingly diverse field and their Chamber Music Day Live has so many great artists it’s hard to single just a few out. But to demonstrate the range of top-notch talent here’s a sample: martha & monica, sfSound, Left Coast Ensemble, Del Sol String Quartet, Heidi Melton, Cypress String Quartet, and Quinteto Latino. And speaking of inspiring performers, SFFCM is committed to inspiring more with its noteworthy Musical Grant Program. Read about it.
Oct. 19, 3 to 10 p.m., Temple Emanu-El, San Francisco, (415) 710-0551, free, www.sffcm.org. (C.G.)
Tokyo String Quartet
Normally, you don’t need an extra reason to make a date to see the Tokyo String Quartet. They’re among the best quartets in the world, and they’re playing Beethoven’s delightful Quartet in G Major, Op. 18; and Bartók’s sublime Quartet No. 5. But on their concert for San Francisco Performances, they’re bringing clarinetist Sabine Meyer in tow for Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet. How could you pass that up?
Oct. 16, 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $32-$49, (415) 398-6449, www.performances.org. (M.Z.)
Opera
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. 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
Idomeneo, San Francisco Opera
Idomeneo may be the most brilliant opera you’ve never seen. Set on Crete in the aftermath of the Trojan War, Mozart’s 1781 opera seria has only been presented three times by San Francisco Opera — most recently, in 1999, with a cast that included Barbara Bonney as Ilia, Vesselina Kasarova as Idamante, and the late, great Gosta Winbergh in the title role. This fall, the company revives the opera for six performances starring today’s reigning Idomeneo, tenor Kurt Streit. The cast also features San Francisco Opera debuts by Genia Kuhmeier (Ilia) and Iano Tamar (Elettra); Alice Coote sings Idamante. Donald Runnicles conducts, and John Copley directs.
Oct. 15-31, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, $15-$290, (415) 864-3330, www.sfopera.com. (G.R.)
Carmen
Bizet’s Carmen is just one of many works that caused a scandal before it became a bedrock repertory item. It still can be edgy in the hands of a good director, committed cast, and a ruthless conductor. Which way will David Cox’s West Bay Opera production lean? Sarah Barber, Ben Bongers, and Jason Detwiler take the lead roles.
Oct. 17, 25, 8 p.m.; Oct. 19, 26, 2 p.m., Lucie Stern Theatre, Palo Alto, $20-$55, (650) 843-3900,. (M.Z.)
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
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.)
Bach Reconstructed
The always entertaining Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra plays a concert of music by Bach, featuring oboist Gonzalo Ruiz. Ruiz argues that the second Orchestral Suite was originally written with with an oboe soloist in mind. You’ll be able to decide whether you agree, when Ruiz and the orchestra present it that way. In the concert’s second half, conductor Paul Goodwin (an eminent oboist himself, and associate conductor of the Academy of Ancient Music) unveils a suite that he has arranged from instrumental sinfonias in the Bach cantatas. It’s a chance to hear Bach’s music afresh from these great early music specialists.
Oct. 17, 8 p.m., First United Methodist Church, Palo Alto; Oct. 18, 8, p.m., and Oct. 19, 7:30 p.m., First Congregational Church, Berkeley; Oct. 21, 8 p.m., Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church, Lafayette; Oct. 24, Herbst Theatre, San Francisco; $30-$75, (415) 252-1288, www.philharmonia.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.)
Bach Family Frolic
J.S. Bach came from a long line of distinguished Thuringian church musicians, dating all the way back to the 16th century. Meet some of the elder Bachs, along with Dietrich Buxtehude and others in this concert exploring Johann Sebastianʼs musical heritage. Music of Johann Christoph, Johann Michael, and more — itʼs a full batch of Bachs. Erica Schuller is the soprano soloist and Katherine Growden brings her richly satisfying voice to the mezzo-soprano parts.
Oct. 18, 8 p.m., Oct. 19, 4 p.m., Calvary Presbyterian Church, San Francisco, $15-$28, (415) 441-4942, www.sfbach.org. (M.Z.)
David Bratman is a librarian who lives with his lawfully wedded soprano and a wall full of symphony recordings.
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.
Georgia Rowe is a Bay Area arts writer. Her work has appeared in Opera News, Gramophone, The San Jose Mercury News, The Oakland Tribune, The San Francisco Examiner, and The Contra Costa Times.
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 David Bratman, Scott Cmiel, Jeff Dunn, Janos Gereben, Catherine Getches, Georgia Rowe, Jason Victor Serinus, Michelle Dulak Thomson, Michael Zwiebach, all rights reserved.