Avedis Chamber Music Series begins its 29th season this week with the first of four concerts on Sundays at 2 p.m. in the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.
Photo by Mark Brandenburg
Stanford Woodwind Quintet opens the series with Damase’s Fantômes — a suite of nine pieces for woodwind quartet commissioned by Avedis for its 20th anniversary season and premiered in 2005. The Latin flavor of Danza de Mediodia by Mexican composer Arturo Marquez contrasts with Englishman Gordon Jacob’s Sextet, and the brilliance of Dutch Holocaust victim Léo Smit’s Sextuor.
The quintet consists of musicians well-known from major orchestras around the Bay: Alexandra Hawley, flute; James Matheson, oboe: Mark Brandenburg, clarinet; Lawrence Ragent, horn; Rufus Olivier, bassoon; they are joined by Paul Hersh, piano.
Avedis's next program, Feb. 16, is an all-Bach affair, including sonatas by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Johann Christoph Friedrich, then works by J.S. himself: the trio sonata from Musical Offering and the Coffee Cantata — with soprano Shawnette Sulker, tenor Michael Dailey, and baritone Jeffrey Fields.
The other two concerts are scheduled for March 16 (more Damase, Lowell Liebermann, Haydn, and Schubert) and April 20 (yes, Damase again, plus Piston, Ibert, and Jean Françaix).