San Francisco Electronic Music Festival
Listen to the Music
It’s almost here, but it’s going to be a cool, under-the-radar event. A few big names headline the festival, even though it’s not making big news: MacArthur Award–winner and Guggenheim Fellow Trimpin, who gets computers to play acoustic instruments in amazing ways (for starters); indie-rock musician Alessandro Cortini (who has also played with Nine Inch Nails); and instrument designer Don Buchla, who recently redesigned the analog synthesizer model he was building in the 1970s and ’80s. But that’s not really the reason to head over to the de Young Museum; the main reason is to hear sounds you probably have missed if you’re only paying attention to the mainstream. This is an area, after all, that’s about innovation, and the younger generation has some startling, new approaches that will definitely expand your horizons.
S.F. Electronic Music Festival, Sept. 9-11, 8 p.m. (Sept. 10 at 9 p.m.), Brava Theater, de Young Museum, S.F., $16.
Stanford Lively Arts: Bang on a Can All-Stars
While the New York–based Bang on a Can All-Stars have reached San Francisco in both of the last two years, it’s still a pretty good idea to check out their concert for Stanford Lively Arts. This group has been changing the face of music, from New York out, for more than two decades. They’re about erasing boundaries between genres: They even advertise their rock-derived instrumentation (keyboard, electric guitar, bass, and drums, along with clarinets and cello).
On this concert, the All-Stars play a few of their classic repertoire pieces — Brian Eno’s Music for Airports and Julia Wolfe’s Big Beautiful Dark and Scary, alongside new pieces by David Lang (a Stanford alum and cofounder of BOAC) and Louis Andriessen, one of Lang’s teachers. Andriessen is that rare individual who is famous as both a composer and a teacher. Now, at age 71, he is just becoming more creative. His Life is a multimedia work, with a film by Marijke Van Warmerdam.
Stanford Lively Arts presents the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Nov. 5, 8 p.m., Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Stanford University, $22-$50.
San Francisco Contemporary Music Players
One of the more underrated musical groups in the Bay Area is the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. They consistently thrill their audience with some of the most exciting and varied programming around, but what really excites me about their season is the Contemporary Insights series. The day before each concert, they open their final rehearsal to the audience and have an informal gathering and discussion with the performers, the conductors, and the composers (when available). This season easily matches up to past ones. On their first concert alone, titled “Points in Recent History,” John Cage’s Seven and Philip Glass’ minimalist landmark Music in Similar Motion share space with two recent pieces new to Bay Area audiences.
The S.F. Contemporary Music Players: “Points in Recent History,” Nov. 8, 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre, S.F., $10-$30; “Contemporary Insights,” Nov. 7, 4:30 p.m., ODC Dance Commons, S.F., free.
Berkeley Symphony: Musica de Amor
As excited as I am that the Berkeley Symphony is committed to presenting new works, I couldn’t be more thrilled that it’s playing a commission by Enrico Chapela on the second concert of its new season. This Mexican composer’s influences range from rock to minimalism to folk music. He’s hot and has been getting attention from musicians and audiences alike.
Yet I was sold on this evening before I even knew about the Chapela commission. Reason: Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs are some of the most emotionally intense music of recent memory. They were written by the composer for his wife, soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, as she was fighting breast cancer. He chose his texts from later love poems of Pablo Neruda, including the haunting and beautiful “Amor mio, si muero y tu no mueres” (My love, if I die, and you do not). She passed away less than a year after giving the premiere performances.
Berkeley Symphony presents “Musica de Amor,” Dec. 2, 8:00 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, $20-$60.
San Francisco Symphony: John Adams’ El Niño
The San Francisco Symphony launches its Project San Francisco with two weekends highlighting the music of Bay Area resident John Adams. These weekends highlight two of my personal favorite works of his, El Niño and Harmonielehre.
El Niño is a nativity oratorio that has the option of being fully staged. The texts are taken from all over the planet throughout time, covering the prophets Haggai and Isaiah and pairing them with Hildegard of Bingen, Gabriela Mistral, and Rosario Castellanos. These texts are woven together to create a story about the power of motherhood, and the joy of life itself.
The San Francisco Symphony presents John Adams’ El Niño, Dec. 2-4, 8 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall, S.F., $35-$140.
San Francisco Symphony: John Adams’ Harmonielehre
The following week, Michael Tilson Thomas conducts Adams’ Harmonielehre (1985). This symphony was inspired by a dream Adams had in which a tanker ascends from the San Francisco Bay into the sky. For Adams, though, this work looks both forward and back. The title comes from a textbook by Arnold Schoenberg and translates roughly as “Harmony Lessons.” Schoenberg was writing his books at the same time he was “learning” (inventing, really) his own harmonic rules, later dubbed “atonality.” Similarly, Adams used this symphony as a bridge between the 19th- and early 20th-century music he loved, and minimalism, which influenced him so greatly. Looking back and combining two disparate styles opened up new musical possibilities for the composer.
Adams has become one of the more appreciated contemporary composers, and this is his most widely performed, large symphonic work. It’s got minimalism’s driving, rhythmic power and Romanticism’s lyrical warmth. It’s also an amazing showcase for the orchestra that originally commissioned it.
Michael Tilson Thomas conducts the San Francisco Symphony in John Adams’ Harmonielehre, Dec. 8-11, 8 p.m. (Dec. 9 at 2 p.m.), Davies Symphony Hall, S.F., $35-$140.