The Sierra Chamber Society, featuring members of the SF Symphony and distinguished guests, is delighted to announce the second program of its 2019-20 (33rd) season of five concerts at its usual venue and time, Sunday December 8 at 3 PM at Grace Presbyterian Church, 2100 Tice Valley Blvd in Walnut Creek (just a block east of the Rossmoor Parkway intersection). This unusual program features the celebrated Left Coast Chamber Ensemble performing Olivier Messaien's seldom-heard masterpiece from the WWII POW camp, his “Quartet for the End of Time,” scored for Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano. Also heard on this program will be Debussy's delightful and idiomatic late work, the Sonata for Cello and Piano.
Next in the season, on January 26, 2020, members of the SF Symphony will be heard in works by George Rochberg, the Ricordanza, or Solioquy for Cello and Piano (1972), a lyrical and achingly beautiful tribute to his deceased son, which, celebrating Rochberg's well known break from serial, atonal composition, famously quotes from a Beethoven Cello Sonata, Madeleine Dring's fanciful trio for Flute, Oboe and Piano, Benjamin Britten's Temporal Variations for Oboe and Piano, Stavinskys charming Divertimento for violin and piano, 4 arrangments from “The Fairie’s Kiss,” and, concluding with a work by Britten's teacher, Frank Bridge, his seldom heard and eminently listenable masterpiece, the second String Quartet.
On March 15, 2020 the SCS will present, arguably, its most ambitious and rewarding program of the season, featuring the renowned Telegraph String Quartet (TSQ), winners of the prestigious 2016 Naumburg International Chamber Music Competition, with guest soprano/mezzosoprano, and a rising New York City and international star, Abigail Fischer (www.abigailfischer.com) in the premiere of a SCS commission by eminent American composer, Robert Sirota, a work entitled "Contrapassos for Voice and String Quartet," with lyrics by SCS Director and Pianist Stevan Cavalier. Mr. Sirota is past president of the Peabody Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music, and was recently celebrated on his birthday at NYC's Merkin Hall, in a concert devoted entirely to his work, launching a year of international commissions and performances from his extensive and growing oeuvre in celebration of "Sirota@70." The SCS commission is to be an important part of this celebration. The TSQ will perform another most unusual and ambitious work on this program, Arnold Schoenberg's early post-romantic masterpiece, his second String Quartet Op. 10 which is famous as both his last tonal work and for including an extended soprano solo in its last two movements, set to poetry by the German expressionist poet, Stefan Georg. Ms. Fischer will perform in this piece as well. To cap it all off, the TSQ will perform Beethoven's colossal, and arguably most ambitious String Quartet, No. 14 Op. 131, its seven uninterrupted movements a wonder of invention and profundity.
Finally, on May 3, 2020, the SCS concludes its 33rd season with members of the SF Symphony playing Haydn's delightful String Quartet Op. 77 No. 2, Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Shostakovich-inspired Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, and concluding with Bedrich Smetana's much beloved String Quartet No. 1, "From my life."
SCS ticket prices continue to represent one of the true bargains on the Bay Area chamber music scene. Individual tickets and season subscriptions may be purchased via the link at this website, or at www.sierrachamber.com for a small additional fee. Seating is open, but SCS concerts frequently threaten to sell out, so advance ticket purchase is advisable.