Friction Quartet Everywhere
Old First Concerts, Sept. 9
The exciting, youthful San Francisco ensemble, Friction Quartet, with a record of 70 world premiere performances and 32 commissions, are artists-in-residence at Old First Concerts this year. On September 9 at Old First, they will offer the local premiere of Brian Baumbusch’s Three Elements, Ravel’s String Quartet, Philip Glass’ String Quartet No. 3 (using themes from his score for the film Mishima), and Garth Knox's Satellites.
Violinists Kevin Rogers and Otis Harriel, violist Taija Warbelow, and cellist Doug Machiz will return at the end of August from a tour of Europe, and also perform at the SF Music Day, at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 25 in Herbst Theater, and celebrate their fifth anniversary at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 29 at the Center for New Music.
(Janos Gereben)
Something So Reich
San Francisco Symphony, Sept. 11
On September 11, the San Francisco Symphony will celebrate the 80th birthday of composer Steve Reich—arguably the foremost living U.S. composer—with a feature concert. Guest guitarist Derek Johnson will perform Electric Counterpoint (1987), originally written for Pat Metheny for soloist and up to twelve pre-recorded guitar parts; Kronos will perform the piece that accompanied it on the original Elektra Nonesuch release, Different Trains, derived in part from spoken word recordings of holocaust survivors. Also on the program are Six Marimbas (1974) and the recent Double Sextet (2007), performed by dedicatees Eighth Blackbird and members of the Symphony.
(Giacomo Fiore)
The Place Where You Go To Listen
Presidio, Sept. 11
Where do you go to hear new music? On September 11, the Presidio: here, the After Everything collective will mount The Place Where You Go To Listen, an open-air new music event. Listeners will be able to walk among the sculptures of Andy Goldsworthy, hearing music by John Luther Adams, Toru Takemitsu, and Anna Clyne performed by the Del Sol String Quartet, flutist Tod Brody and guitarist David Tanenbaum, and the teenage new music group Formerly Known as Classical. For the finale, the After Everything Orchestra, conducted by Director Matthew Cmiel, will perform works by Kaija Saariaho and more.
(Rebecca Wishnia)
Paul Dresher Ensemble, Schick Machine
Z Space, Sept. 23–25
The Peacock, the Tumbler, the Hurdy Grande — these are but a few of the fantastical, invented instruments virtuoso percussionist Steven Schick will play in the Paul Dresher Ensemble production of Schick Machine. Schick will take the audience through a veritable garden of percussive delights in this solo show.
(Rebecca Wishnia)
In the Light of Air, SFCMP
Taube Atrium Theater, Oct. 8
The San Francisco Contemporary Music Players kick off their 2016–17 on Saturday, October 8, at the Taube Atrium Theater. The program consists of premieres by Joe Pereira and UCB Composition Professor Ken Ueno, a performance of Toru Takemitsu’s Towards the Sea (1981), for guitar and alto flute, and Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s In The Light of Air, a 40-minute chamber tetralogy written for ICE in 2013, and employing a mesmerizing light installation designed by the composer.
(Giacomo Fiore)
Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra
Cal Performances, Oct. 7-9
The orchestra event of the past season in London was the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Stravinsky series, titled “Myths and Rituals.” Conceived by Music Director Esa Pekka Salonen and musicologist Jonathan Cross, it takes in some of the deepest and most fascinating aspects of the composer’s personality. On Oct 7-9, the orchestra and conductor bring two of these programs to Cal Performances as part of their Berkeley RADICAL residency. On Sunday the 9th (3 p.m.), hear Oedipus Rex, Stravinsky’s collaboration with Jean Cocteau, with tenor Nicholas Phan and mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung in the leads. That’s followed by Symphony of Psalms, with the participation of three different choirs.
(Michael Zwiebach)
Jonathan Biss: Late Style
Jonathan Biss, Brentano Quartet with Violist Hsin-Yun Huang,
Herbst Theater, S.F., Oct. 19
In the second of two San Francisco Performances concerts by these artists, following an all-Beethoven program on October 15, a richly varied bill explores what Biss labels “the various inscrutabilities of composers in their late years.” The evening opens with selections from Bach’s cerebrally braided Art of the Fugue, followed by Elgar’s broad-beamed, Brahmsian Piano Quintet in A Minor, Op. 84. A transcription of madrigals by the 16th-century dark prince Gesualdo and Mozart’s last major chamber work, the thematically unified Op. 64 String Quintet in E-Flat Major, round out the evening. Rather than looking ahead toward his own demise, Mozart seemed to be anticipating Beethoven’s great innovations to come.
(Steven Winn)
Jazz dell’Arte: San Francisco Chamber Orchestra
October 28-30, Berkeley, San Francisco, Palo Alto
Jazz violinist and two-time Grammy Award winner Evan Price appears with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra this October — playing the world premiere of his own Concerto for Jazz Violin and Orchestra, an SFCO commission. Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite rounds out the program, which runs from October 28 to 30.
(Rebecca Wishnia)
Icons of Sound: Hagia Sophia Reimagined
Capella Romana, Stanford Live, Nov. 4
“It is impossible to describe the experience objectively; to even attempt to do so would miss the point of a sensual experience meant to induce a transcendent state … Closing my eyes, it was not hard to imagine that the singers’ voices were actually reverberating back and forth through Hagia Sophia’s enormous sanctuary and remarkable 50 meters high dome.” So wrote SFCV’s Victor Jason Serinus about Capella Romana’s awe-inspiring “Hagia Sophia Reimagined” when the choral group brought this program to Stanford Live in 2013. Well, if you missed it, or you miss it, you’ve got another chance this Nov. 4. Entrancing, in every sense of the word.
(Michael Zwiebach)
Joshua, Philharmonia Baroque
San Francisco, Palo Alto, Berkeley, Dec. 1-4
In the seemingly endless stream of rediscovered Handel works, this relatively late oratorio figures to be an especially choice find. Philharmonia Baroque, whose many achievements in the field include a superb account of the opera Atalanta a decade ago, take this Biblical tale on tour around the Bay. Choral highlights include a brass-framed “Glory to God,” a rhythmically charged “Hail! Mighty Joshua, hail” and the cheery “See the Conq’ring Hero Comes,” which gained greater fame when it was repurposed in the composer’s better-known Judas Maccabaeus. (Steven Winn)
Fifty for the Future: Kronos Quartet
Cal Performances, Dec. 3
The acid test for any new composition is whether it can hold up in repeated hearings and become a repertory item. New music supergroup Kronos Quartet almost takes the fun out of this game because their judgment is so unerring. That’s why their “Fifty for the Future” concerts are in the must-hear category. The experience Kronos has had in commissioning and working with composers has shown in the first iterations of this five-year project: These are virtually all major works, in a huge range of styles, written by composers from all over the globe.
(Michael Zwiebach)
Reverence: Berkeley Symphony Orchestra
Zellerbach Hall, Dec. 8
The Berkeley Symphony may be a local, relatively low-budget, professional orchestra, but the musicians play like lions and the programs are always out of the ordinary. The December 8 concert features a major work they co-commissioned, Sir James MacMillan’s Fourth Symphony, premiered last year by the work’s dedicatee, Donald Runnicles, and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Music Director Joana Carneiro then teams up with pianist Shai Wosner for Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto.
(Michael Zwiebach)
Nutcracker, S.F. Ballet
The oldest Nutcracker in the country is coming again - San Francisco Ballet's renowned Nutcracker, Dec. 10-29, War Memorial Opera House
Since Christmas Eve, 1944, ahead of all American and most of Europe's ballet companies, San Francisco Ballet has presented the enchanting story ballet to Tchaikovsky's best-known music.
Company Director Helgi Tomasson's variation on the original Marius Petipa-Lev Ivanov choreography uses Broadway great Michael Yeargan's scenery, set during the 1915 San Francisco World’s Fair, with Martin Pakledinaz’s sumptuous costumes. With 33 performances in the 3,200-seat War Memorial, there are (pricey) tickets available if you don't wait too long, and every S.F. Ballet star gets a turn in the principal roles.
(Janos Gereben)