Brandenburgs For Mother's Day

On Mother’s Day, as on most holidays, concertgoing opportunities will be limited, as presenters fear loss of their audience to other activities, such as the

traditional Mother’s Day whitewater rafting trip, or the traditional Mother’s Day Spam-sandwich-dinner-cooked-by-your-5-year-old.

For those who would celebrate the holiday by taking mom to a concert there is an option courtesy of Chamber Music San Francisco. As part of its newly expanded activities, CMSF has asked prominent Bay Area early music musicians to present a program of Bach and Vivaldi. These heavy hitters (Judith Linsenberg and Kit Higginson on recorders; Kati Kyme, Cynthia Freivogel, Cynthia Roberts, David Daniel Bowes, Tanya Tomkins, Farley Pearce, strings; and Katherine Heater, harpsichord) may not be household names, but they’re all top-rank professionals playing on period instruments. And since most of them are members of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and the American Bach Soloists, they play together a fair bit.

There’s a reason Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos are among his best-loved pieces — they’re great entertainment as well as great music. All of these players have the early music knowledge to make the Brandenburgs dance (Nos. 4 and 5 are on the program). And Linsenberg has been putting virtuosic zing into Vivaldi’s Concerto in C Minor (RV 441) for some time. You can hear her on Fire

Beneath My Fingers and a number of other CDs released by Musica Pacifica, the group she cofounded.

Kyme was an original member of both PBO and ABS, and has performed in orchestras worldwide, including the premiere performance of Shaker Loops at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, back in 1979. She’s also a member of the New Esterházy Quartet, which has just released another recording in its series of Haydn string quartets, The Fabulous Fifties.

Tomkins is as renowned a soloist as an orchestra member, and her performance of the Bach Cello Suites was a highlight of this past season. She’s also one of the more physically expressive players you’ll see, so she’s great to watch as well as hear.

The Frances Gould Theatre at the San Francisco Legion of Honor is the perfect place to go see a concert. You’re up close and the sound is better than in most of the auditoriums where you typically get to hear these players. And the musicians are exciting to watch, too, as anyone was has attended a Philharmonia Baroque or ABS concert can aver. So no matter how you’ve planned to fete Mom, a little live music can only make it better.