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IN Listening Ahead THIS WEEK:
CHORAL
MUSIC
CHAMBER
MUSIC
OPERA
SYMPHONY
DANCE
WORLD MUSIC
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A Selective and Subjective Guide
to the Classical Music Scene
for March 14–27, 2006
By Janos Gereben
and Mickey Butts
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CHORAL MUSIC
Rachmaninoff Festival Choir
The Rachmaninoff Festival Choir, a 100-member ensemble from Maine that's dedicated to performing works of the Russian Orthodox Church, is visiting the Bay Area to present its namesake composer's powerful and rarely heard Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. The concert is directed by Anthony Antolini, who teaches at Bowdoin College, published the first modern edition of the piece, and produced the public television documentary Rediscovering Rachmaninoff. He recorded the work in 1996 and took the choir to Russia in 2002, where it gave the first liturgical performance of the piece since the church banned it after it was written in 1910. Andre Papkov, an ordained Russian Orthodox priest, sings the supremely low basso profundo role. March 15, 8 p.m., Stanford Memorial Church, Palo Alto; March 16, 7:30 p.m., Grace Cathedral, San Francisco; free, (415) 749-6350 and (650) 723-1762, http://www.gracecathedral.org/calendar/detail.php?eid=651 and http://events.stanford.edu/events/80/8069/. (M.B.)
Cantabile's Mass Transit
Cantabile Chorale has a clever — if not entirely clear — name for its next series of concerts. Mass Transit is about Masses, alright, but just what's so transitory about William Byrd's Mass for Four Voices, and a collection of modern works entitled Missa Eclectica? No matter, Sanford Dole will conduct the 70-voice chorus in an interesting concert of seldom-heard choral music. March 17, 8 p.m., St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, San Francisco; March 18, 8 p.m., First United Methodist Church, Palo Alto; March 19, 7:30 p.m., First Congregational Church, Berkeley, $6-$25, (650) 424-1410, www.cantabile.org. (J.G.)
Ragazzi's Mass for the Children
Peninsula-based Ragazzi Boys Chorus joins St. Andrew's Adult Choir and the Saratoga Symphony. March 19, 3 p.m., Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church, Saratoga, $16-$25, (650) 579-5568 and (650) 342-8785, www.ragazzi.org. (J.G.)
Pacific Collegium
Early music newcomers Pacific Collegium, a group of 17 stellar singers under the direction of Christopher Kula, presents a concert of rarely heard 20th century pieces, including Hindemith's Mass, Gorli's Requiem (a U.S. premiere), and Britten's Sacred and Profane. Kula says he'll interlace the Mass "with the Gregorian propers for the Annunciation, putting this angular final work of Hindemith in a psuedo-liturgical context." March 24, 7:30 p.m., Trinity Episcopal Church, San Francisco; March 25, 7:30 p.m., St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Belvedere; March 26, St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Berkeley; $8-$18, info@pacificcollegium.org, www.pacificcollegium.org. (M.B.)
A New Passion
San Francisco's St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, a patron saint of Bay Area classical music that rivals the saints that adorn its walls, presents a contemporary passion with a clever new hook: All four gospels are presented simultaneously, conflicting accounts and all. A professional orchestra and soloists round out the church's choir, under the direction of Sanford Dole, music director of Cantabile and a founding member of Chanticleer. The performance of The Passion and Death of Jesus Christ According to the Gospels, by San Francisco composer Scott King and co-librettist Christopher St. John, mixes oratorio singing with calypso and even the blues. March 24, 7:30 p.m., Christ Episcopal Church, Los Altos; March 25, 7:30 p.m., St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Berkeley; March 26, 6 p.m., St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, San Francisco; $20 donation at the door, (415) 983-0648, http://wholemediagroup.com/Passion.html. (M.B.)
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CHAMBER MUSIC
Free Concerts in Contra Costa
In its continuing series of free concerts, the Contra Costa Performing Arts Society presents programs that include the music of Amilcare Ponchielli, Leonard Bernstein, and Robert Muczynski (on March 14); Charles Bochsa, Gabriel Faure, Michio Miyagi, Frederic Rzewski, and Mozart (on March 24). March 14, 8 p.m.; March 24, 10:30, Grace Presbyterian Church, Walnut Creek, free, www.ccpas.org. (J.G.)
S.F. Chamber Orchestra's Bernstein Bash
Saluting Leonard Bernstein's legacy with free concerts, the S.F. Chamber Orchestra performs his Arias and Barcarolles, I Hate Music song cycle, selections from Trouble in Tahiti (with Anja Strauss and Roberto Perlas Gomez), Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (with Teddy Abrams and Sarah Cahill), and the West Side Story suite (with the Shark String Quartet). March 17, 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre; March 19, 3 p.m., First Congregational Church, Berkeley; free, (415) 248-1640, www.sfchamberorchestra.org. (J.G.)
Soprano Anja Strauss sings Bernstein
with the S.F. Chamber Orchestra
Moscow SQ at Kohl Mansion
Getting to Kohl Mansion in Burlingame is not easy, but once you make it, you'll find a unique concert venue. The performance space is princely, the program promising: The Moscow String Quartet plays Beethoven's String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 95; Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 7 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 108; and Stravinsky's Three Pieces for Strings. The quartet consists of four women, all former students of the Borodin Quartet's Valentin Berlinsky. March 19, 7 p.m., Kohl Mansion, Burlingame, $19-$38, (650) 762-1130, www.musicatkohl.org. (J.G.)
Left Coast's British Venture
Kurt Rohde's Left Coast Chamber Ensemble offers a program called The British Have Arrived! in Mill Valley and San Francisco, featuring Thomas Adès' Arcadiana for String Quartet, Britten's String Quartet No. 1 in D Major, and Haydn's String Quartet, Op. 76, No. 2 (written during the composer's "London years"). March 23, 8 p.m., Throckmorton Theatre, Mill Valley; March 27, 8 p.m., War Memorial Green Room, San Francisco, $15-$20, (415) 642-8054, www.chambermusicpartn.org. (J.G.)
Kurt Rohde of the
Left Coast Chamber Ensemble
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OPERA
North Bay's Original Macbeth
Verdi's Macbeth gets many productions — although not enough from this fan's point of view — but we seldom get to hear the original, 1847 version. North Bay Opera to the rescue with S.F. Opera's Philip Kuttner conducting four performances in yonder Fairfield (see review in this issue). The exciting young cast includes Sri Lanka's greatest (if probably only) operatic tenor, the Adler Fellow Sean Panikkar as Macduff. Pamela Hicks is Lady Macbeth, Clifton Romig is Banquo, and Joe Kinyon sings the title role. March 15, 7:30 (student night); March 18, 8 p.m.; March 19, 2 p.m., Fairfield Center for the Creative Arts, $12-$37, (707) 428-7664, www.northbayopera.org. (J.G.)
Tenor Sean Panikkar
in "original" Macbeth
Pocket's Bartered Bride
Donald Pippin's Pocket Opera presents Bedrich Smetana's The Bartered Bride in Pippin's translation, which opens with this cheerful invitation: "Come along, the mood is merry; / See the budding peach and cherry. / Love that hovers in the air / Beckons to the young and fair," and goes on to produce a remarkable rhyming of "flicker" with "liquor": "Trials, troubles / Hurdles lie ahead. / Love begins to flicker; / Bored wives boss and bicker; / Husbands turn to liquor." March 18, 2 p.m., Florence Gould Theater, Legion of Honor, San Francisco; March 26, 2 p.m., Napa Valley Opera House, Napa, $18-$35, (415) 972-8934, www.pocketopera.org. (J.G.)
La Clemenza in Fremont
The Fremont Symphony, conducted by former West Bay Opera artistic director David Sloss, performs a concert version of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito. The cast includes S.F. Opera Adler Fellow Melody Moore, Harold Gray Meers, and Megan Dey-Toth. March 25, 8 p.m., Smith Center for the Performing Arts at Ohlone College, Fremont, $20-$37, (510) 794-1659, www.fremontsymphony.org. (J.G.)
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SYMPHONY
California Symphony Is a-Dancin'
"Shall We Dance?" asks California Symphony, and the answer is yes, at the orchestra's next pair of subscription concerts, a program complete with waltzes from stage and film, music by Bernstein, Sondheim, and Rozsa, then the Brahms Double Concerto with violinist Chee-Yun and cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and Shostakovich's Ninth Symphony. March 14, 7:30 p.m., Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, $20-$59, (925) 943-7469, www.californiasymphony.org. (J.G.)
Chee-Yun in
the Brahms Double Concerto with
the California Symphony
The Russians Are Coming ...
The Russian National Orchestra, conducted by Michael Pletnev, will give a single concert in Davies Hall, playing the Rachmaninoff Vocalise and Piano Concerto No. 3 (with Alexander Mogilevsky as soloist), and the Tchaikovsky Suite No. 3. The RNO — whose touring is made possible by large donations from San Francisco's Gordon Getty and Seattle's Charles Simonyi — is considered (by the New York Times) "Russia's first and foremost independent orchestra," but on its current tour, it remains firmly rooted in the 19th century, with only "a dash of Stravinsky," and not even that in San Francisco. March 26, 7 p.m., Davies Hall, San Francisco, $20-$79, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (J.G.)
Elvis Costello With the San Francisco Symphony
The restless, genre-jumping legend (and now classical music composer) mixes his popular songs with his first full-length orchestral work, Il Sogno ("The Dream") on March 27 at Davies Hall. The 2004 Deutsche Grammophon release was recorded with Michael Tilson Thomas and the London Symphony Orchestra, and the piece is in San Francisco on tour following its 2004 premiere in New York. March 27, 8 p.m., Davies Hall, San Francisco, tickets sold out, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org.(M.B.)
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DANCE
Old and New Music for ODC Season
ODC/Dance San Francisco, proud owner of a major new dance facility, begins its 35th season this week with three programs, each featuring a world premiere and an impressive amount of new and commissioned music. Besides such classical works as Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in D, used by company founder/director Brenda Way in her Part of a Longer Story, Arvo Pärt's Trisagion for KT Nelson's Floating Ridge, and piano music by Milhaud for Nelson's Shenanigans, new music abounds. There's Marcos Zarvos' Nepomuk's Dances composed (for the Ethel String Quartet) for Nelson's Stomp a Waltz, Ara Anderson's music for Way's Time Remaining, Phil Kline's work for Nelson's Lost at Sea, Jack Perla's music for Way's On a Train Heading South, and more. Through March 19, varying times, Yerba Buena Center Theater, San Francisco, $15-$40, (415) 978-2787, www.odcdance.org. (J.G.)
New Music for Diablo Ballet Anniversary
Diablo Ballet, with co-artistic directors Lauren Jonas and Nikolai Kabaniaev, is celebrating its 12th anniversary, giving a program based on music by George Gershwin (George Balanchine's Who Cares?), Aspen composer Sam Chittenden (the world premiere of Kabaniaev's 3 A.M. Suite), and by Michael Bemesderfer, Gorgon Brislawn, Darren Driver, Jack Campbell, Nick Peck, and Kabaniaev (for Kabaniaev's own Pas de quatre et pas de six). March 24 and 25, 8 p.m., Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, $26-$38, (925) 943-1775, www.diabloballet.org. (J.G.)
Karyn Lee Connell
in Balanchine's Who Cares?
Photo by Ashraf
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WORLD MUSIC
Hula, Sacred and Uptempo
Going cross-cultural can be forced and tedious, but when it works, it brings out new aspects of seemingly unrelated art forms. When the San Francisco-based hula group Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu dances "No'eno'e Maikai'i Ke Aloha," Leo Delibes' "Sous le Dôme épais" (better known as the "Flower Duet" from Lakme), something wonderful happens to both hula and French romantic music. Patrick Makuakane has been both preserving the ancient, sacred art of hula and enhancing it in surprising but relevant contexts. Makuakane's thoughtful, deeply-felt, moving tributes to the Islands, from utterly simple, spiritual music to the raucous sounds of wartime Waikiki entertainment, his explorations of artistic connections with opera or the Beatles (the music of Lennon and McCartney are used) — all this and much more variety make Na Lei performances experiences to be treasured. March 18, 2 and 8 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley, $20-$32, (510) 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu. (J.G.)
Hula troupe Na Lei:
Hawaiian music, Delibes,
and The Beatles
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Many more events are listed in the SFCV Calendar.
(Janos Gereben is a regular contributor to San Francisco Classical Voice. His e-mail address is janosg@gmail.com. Mickey Butts is executive director, editor, and publisher of San Francisco Classical Voice. His writing has appeared in Salon, Food & Wine, The Industry Standard, The Financial Times, Wired, The Nation, and The San Francisco Chronicle.)
©2006, all rights reserved
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