Harnoncourt Concludes Collection with Dvořák

Photograph of Antonín Dvořák’s funeral in Prague on May 5, 1904 (from Jarmil Burghauser’s catalog of Dvořák’s works and the reason for the “B” catalog numbers)

I have now listened to the final four CDs in the Warner box set of 42 CDs of recordings made by Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. Some readers may recall that, in my last article, Johannes Brahms was allocated only three CDs. That leaves four CDs devoted entirely to Antonín Dvořák, which made for a particularly stimulating conclusion.

The first three of those CDs account for the last three symphonies: the seventh (B. 141) in D minor, the eighth (B. 163) in G major, and the ninth (B. 178) in E minor, usually known by its title “From the New World.” The final CD presents Dvořák’s only piano concerto, B. 63 in G minor with French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard as soloist. Each of these four CDs concludes with a tone poem. In “order of appearance,” these compositions are:

1. The Wild Dove (B. 198)
2. The Noon Witch (B. 196)
3. The Water Goblin (B. 195)
4. The Golden Spinning Wheel (B. 197)

I must confess that the first pocket score I ever purchased was for B. 178 (although those catalog numbers were not used at that time). I think it was my father that thought this would be a good start, but he had forgotten that we did not have the music in our record collection. As a result, it was a while before I could put that score to good listening use; but it has now served me well for several decades!

That said, Harnoncourt’s conducting is often as good a “tour” through any piece of music as one would encounter through score-following. Mind you, where Dvořák is concerned, I still treasure my Naxos seventeen-CD box set: The Complete Dvořák Published Orchestral Works. Past encounters with Harnoncourt, on the other hand, are more distant. Ironically, they involve another Warner box set, Gidon Kremer: The Warner Collection, which outdoes the Dvořák box with 21 CDs. However, Harnoncourt appears in this collection in only two of those CDs, one for Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 61 violin concerto in D major and the other for Johannes Brahms’ Opus 77 violin concerto, also in D major, which also includes the Opus 102 “double” concerto in A minor with Clemens Hagen playing cello.

In other words, prior to the release of the Warner box set, it has been about half a decade since I last wrote about my listening experiences of Harnoncourt. On the other hand, the Concertgebouw box covers a decidedly longer period of time. The earliest recordings date back to 1980, and the most recent were recorded in 2001.

The music, on the other hand, is limited to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; but, where most of the composers are concerned, depth matters more than breadth. When it comes to Harnoncourt’s career, he did not retire until December 5, 2015, which was the day before his 86th birthday! He would die the following year, on March 5, 2016.

Măcelaru Leads an Uneven Evening at Davies

Cristian Măcelaru, this week’s SFS conductor (from the Web page for this concert)

Last night Cristian Măcelaru returned to the podium in Davies Symphony Hall to lead the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) in the first of this week’s three concert performances. The program was given a straightforward overture-concerto-symphony structure, with the “overture” being a world premiere performance. “Embers” was only recently completed, composed by Tyler Taylor on an SFS commission. This was followed by Sergei Rachmaninoff’s first piano concerto, which was also his Opus 1, composed in the key of F-sharp minor with Simon Trpčeski as the piano soloist. The program concluded with Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 95, his ninth and final symphony, best known for its title, “From the New World.”

The symphony was the most familiar work on the program, but it was also given the most convincing performance. Each of the four movements provides a different perspective of the composer’s impressions of his visit to the United States. His “guide” for the symphony was the black Pennsylvanian composer and singer Harry T. Burleigh, who studied under Dvořák at the National Conservatory. It was probably through Burleigh that he came to know the music for “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” which finds its way into the symphony’s first movement. Turnaround is, of course, fair play; and the principal theme from the Largo movement of Opus 95 became the popular song “Goin’ Home.” That theme returns in the symphony’s final movement. It would be fair to say that Măcelaru had a solid command of this symphony’s “American spirit,” and that command brought a freshness to music that was probably familiar to many (if not most) in the audience.

Taken as a whole, the symphony provided well-needed relief from the sledge-hammer rhetoric of Rachmaninoff’s concerto. I also found that the concerto’s concluding Allegro vivace reminded me of the old joke about the cowboy who gets on his horse hand rides off wildly in all directions. Trpčeski did not announce his encore, which I could only describe as “violent vivace,” possibly a product of Sergei Prokofiev. [added 5/24, 8:05 a.m.: According to Lisa Hirsch’s article on May 23 for the San Francisco Chronicle, the encore selection was the third and final movement (“Precipitato”) of Prokofiev’s Opus 83, seventh, piano sonata in B-flat major.] Assistant Concertmaster Wyatt Underhill then joined Trpčeski for a duo performance of music that was not identified. [added 5/24. 8:10 a.m.: According to the same source, this selection was a composition by Evgeny Svetlanov entitled “Two Simple Tunes.”]

The commission for “Embers” was part of the Emerging Black Composers Project. Taylor “pulled out all the stops” in his composition efforts, writing for a full complement of winds (including alto flute, contrabassoon, and tenor saxophone) and just about every percussion instrument one could imagine. In many respects, the music was a journey through along a path of a rich diversity of sonorities; and the quarter-hour duration of the composition provided just that right amount of time to make that journey an engaging one. Taylor himself introduced the performance. Like the music, his introduction was neither too long nor too short.

Olga Kern Returns to CMSF, Joined by Quartet

Olga Kern seated at a Steinway piano (photograph by Natalia Roslova, Web page from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)

Yesterday afternoon saw the penultimate recital in this year’s season in San Francisco presented by Chamber Music San Francisco (CMSF). The recitalist was Russian-born pianist Olga Kern, who has made frequent appearances in past CMSF seasons. The first half of her program presented solo performances of compositions by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Alexander Scriabin, and Mily Balakirev. For the second half she was joined by the Dalí Quartet, whose members are violinists Ari Isaacman-Beck and Carlos Rubio with Adriana Linares on viola and cellist Jesús Morales. They concluded the program with Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 81, the second of his piano quintets, composed in the key of A major. This was preceded by a string quartet performance of Astor Piazzolla’s Tango Ballet.

Each half of the program had its own approach to encores. Kern preceded the intermission with three solo offerings. She began with “Feux d’artifice” (fireworks), the last of the 24 pieces in Claude Debussy’s Préludes collection. This was followed by “Spinning Wheel,” a composition by Charles Lisberg that has been in Kern’s repertoire for many years. Her final selection was “Étincelles” (sparks), the sixth piece in Moritz Moszkowski’s Opus 36 collection, 8 Characteristic Pieces. The encore following the Dvořák performance was the Scherzo movement from Robert Schumann’s Opus 47 piano quartet in E-flat major. Sadly, there was a lack of clarity in Kern’s account of the piano part for that energetic movement.

The performances were more than somewhat mixed. There were significant problems with a blurring of thematic lines in just about all of Kern’s solo selections, not just in her approach to the Schumann quartet. On the other hand, Linares’ viola work practically soared with expressiveness in both the Dvořák quintet and the “Encuentro–Olvido” movement of Tango-Ballet. In other words, there were any number of moments of engaging performances; but, unfortunately, none of them involved the pianist.

Better Late than Never!

I just received a last-minute announcement that the Ives Collective will be performing in Noe Valley this afternoon. The performers will be pianist Gwendolyn Mok joined by a trio of string players: violinist Terrie Baune, Susan Freier on viola, and cellist Stephen Harrison. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Johannes Brahms’ Opus 26, the second of this three piano quartets, this one composed in the key of A major. The first half of the program will conclude with Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 47, “Maličkosti,” known in English as the five bagatelles for two violins, cello, and harmonium. The harmonium part will be taken by Mok on piano. She will open the program with Ludwig van Beethoven’s string trio in C minor, the last of the three trios collected as his Opus 9.

Poster for the event being discussed (note that the address is incorrect, as it is also on the Web site; the correct address is in the paragraph below)

The performance will take place this afternoon (Sunday, April 26) at 4 p.m. The venue will be the Noe Valley Ministry, which is located in Noe Valley (of course!) at 1021 Sanchez Street. Admission will be pay-what-you-can at the door. Both cash and checks will be expected.

SFP’s 2026 Subscriber Gift Concert

Mezzo Nikola Printz (photograph by Destiny Grace, courtesy of SFP)

Last night in Herbst Theatre, San Francisco Performances (SFP) presented its annual Gift Concert. For those that do not already know, the “gift” is that subscribers and donors are entitled to tickets at no charge. The performers were the Catalyst Quartet, whose violinists, Karla Donehew Perez and Abi Fayette, alternate in occupying first chair. The other members of the quartet are Paul Laraia on viola and cellist Karlos Rodriguez. The ensemble has been visiting SFP since March of 2018, and last night was their ninth appearance. In the second half of the program, they were joined by mezzo Nikola Printz, along with Terrence Wilson on piano.

The program began with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Opus 5, a set of five “Fantasiestücke” (fantasy pieces) composed for string quartet. Born in London, he entered the Royal College of Music at the early age of fifteen, studying under Charles Villiers Stanford. Early in his career he attracted the support of Edward Elgar, who commissioned a composition for the Three Choirs Festival. His other major support came from Antonín Dvořák. Nevertheless, each of the five Opus 5 pieces had its own characteristic voice for an engaging journey of discovery. The first half of the program concluded with Libby Larsen’s “Sorrow Song and Jubilee,” a reflection on the spiritual “Swing Low Sweet Chariot.”

The second half of the program began with Noah Luna’s arrangement of “Going Home,” a spiritual-like song that appropriated the principal theme from the second (Largo) movement of Antonín Dvořák’s ninth symphony, given the title “From the New World.” Printz was the vocalist, who then went on to sing the five vocal settings in Edward Elgar’s Opus 37 Sea Pictures in an arrangement by Donald Fraser. Printz’ delivery could not have been more engaging, particularly in the diversity of dispositions in the Elgar cycle.

While only four works were performed, last night was a “gift” of rich diversity, the perfect way for SFP to thank its generous supporters.

SFS: Rustioni Conducts Dvořák and Brahms

Statue of Antonín Dvořák in Prague with the Rudolfinum behind (from a Wikimedia Commons Web page, photograph by Andrevruas, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license)

Last night in Davies Symphony Hall Daniele Rustioni made his debut as conductor of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). He prepared a program of two major works, both composed in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. These were presented in reverse chronological order, beginning with Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 104 cello concerto in B minor. The intermission was then followed by Johannes Brahms’ Opus 73 (second) symphony in D major. The concerto soloist was cellist Daniel Müller-Schott, also making his SFS debut.

Brahms was instrumental in launching Dvořák’s career. However, it would be fair to say that the latter honored the legacy of the former by finding his own way of doing things. That “path” eventually led him to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, where, in 1892, he was appointed the directorship of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York City. Opus 104 is one of the works he composed during his time in the United States, but it would be fair to say that his Bohemian rhetoric prevailed over any American influences.

The Opus 104 concerto has become an audience favorite, and it would be fair to say that most of the audience members had a personal favorite cellist in mind before Müller-Schott took the stage. Nevertheless, while his performance could not have done a better job in honoring the composer’s legacy, he brought a fresh gust of energy to the outer Allegro movements while finding just the right rhetoric for the middle Adagio movement. That full scope of dispositions emerged readily through the chemistry between soloist and conductor. It would not surprise me if I learned that the coupling of conductor and soloist was a meeting of old friends.

As might be expected, the audience was impressed enough to demand an encore from Müller-Schott. As many may have hoped, he turned to Johann Sebastian Bach for that encore. He performed the final Gigue movement from BWV 1009, the third of the six solo cello suites, this one composed in the key of C major.

The second half of the program was devoted entirely to Johannes Brahms’ Opus 73, his second symphony composed in the key of D major. My past listening experiences have led me to believe that this is the one of the four symphonies that tends to draw the most attention. There is an affability in all four of the movements that departs from much of the tension that plays out in the other symphonies.

However, there is also a cerebral side to Opus 73. Brahms structured it around a motif that could not be simpler: a half-step down followed by a half-step back. That three-note motif begins the symphony, and it surfaces in each of the four movements with decidedly different settings. I have to confess that Brahms’ capacity to make more and more with less and less (thank you, Buckminster Fuller) has made this my favorite of the composer’s four symphonies. Rustioni’s account last night could not have been more absorbing, making me wonder whether Opus 73 might also be his favorite!

SFP: Plans for 2026 Gift Concert

Yesterday afternoon San Francisco Performances (SFP) announced its annual Gift Concert. The “gift” is that subscribers and donors are entitled to tickets at no charge. However, one week from tomorrow, March 19, seating for the general public in the Orchestra and Boxes will be available at the price of $55. As usual, tickets may be purchased online through an SFP Web page or by calling 415-392-2545. Remaining tickets will be available at the door with a 50% discount for students and 20% off for seniors.

Catalyst Quartet members Karlos Rodriguez, Paul Laraia, Abi Fayette, and Karla Donehew Perez (photograph by Ricardo Quiñones, courtesy of SFP)

This year the program will present both vocal and chamber music. The vocalist will be mezzo Nikola Printz, who is no stranger to San Francisco. This past October she was one of the participants in Death by Aria, the Halloween-themed concert produced by pianist Ronny Michael Greenberg. The instrumentalists for the concert will be pianist Terrence Wilson and the members of the Catalyst Quartet: violinists Abi Fayette and Karla Donehew Perez, Paul Laraia on viola, and cellist Karlos Rodriguez.

Catalyst will begin the program with a performance of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Opus 5, given the title Fantasiestücke. Printz will then sing “Sorrow Song and Jubilee” by Libby Larsen. This will be followed by Noah Luna’s arrangement of “Goin’ Home,” a spiritual-like song using the principal theme from the Largo movement of Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 95 (ninth) symphony in E minor. Printz will conclude the program with a performance of Edward Elgar’s Opus 37, his Sea Pictures song cycle in an arrangement by Donald Fraser.

This concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 7. It will take place in Herbst Theatre, whose entrance is on the ground floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue, located on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. This venue is excellent for public transportation, since that corner has Muni bus stops for both north-south and east-west travel.

Violinist Perlman Returns to Davies to Lead SFS

Itzhak Perlman with his violin (from the SFS Web page for last night’s program)

Last night violinist Itzhak Perlman returned to Davies Symphony Hall for the third consecutive season. However, while he may well have been the most popular recitalist in the last two Great Performers Series seasons, last night he assumed the podium of the San Francisco Symphony. In his role as conductor, he led the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) in performances of Johannes Brahms’ Opus 80 “Academic Festival Overture” before the intermission and Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 88 (eighth) symphony in G major in the second half of the program. On the other hand, he began the evening with Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1041 violin concerto in A minor, conducting while playing the solo violin part. In other words, a modest offering of music from the early eighteenth century gave way to a major journey through the late nineteenth.

The Brahms-Dvořák connection is an interesting one. The latter was an early success in Prague but did not receive broader attention until winning a prize at the Austrian State Competition, where Brahms was one of the members of the jury. It was through that “Brahms connection” that Fritz Simrock became Dvořák’s publisher. It was therefore interesting to see that the Brahms and Dvořák selections were composed at both ends of the same decade. The overture was composed in 1880 and the symphony in 1889.

Both works were given thoroughly engaging accounts under Perlman’s baton. His chemistry with the ensemble could not have been better. The same can be said for the beginning of the program, where he doubled as both soloist and leader. The selection was Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1041, his first violin concerto composed in the key of A minor. This was performed with a reduced string ensemble, taking a “historically appropriate” approach. The instruments were, of course, more “contemporary;” but the way in which they were deployed under Perlman’s leadership made for an engaging account, regardless of any historical issues!

As always, the audience gave Perlman a generous reception for his return to San Francisco; and, given the overall quality of the full evening’s performance, they had every right to do so!

Aris Quartet Launches New CMSF Season

The first chamber music recital in the 2026 Chamber Music San Francisco (CMSF) season took place yesterday afternoon in Herbst Theatre. The program was performed by the Aris Quartet, whose members currently are violinists Sophia Jaffé (substituting for the ensemble’s leader) and Noëmi Zipperling, Caspar Vinzens on viola, and cellist Lukas Sieber. The program was a straightforward one, framed by two of the three “B” composers.

The program began with Ludwig van Beethoven in a performance of the second of his six “early” string quartets, Opus 18, Number 2, composed in the key of G major. Johannes Brahms provided the conclusion with the second of his Opus 51 quartets, set in the key of A minor. The “middle ground” was taken by Dmitri Shostakovich with a performance of what is probably his best-known string quartet, Opus 110 (the eighth) in C minor.

There is much to enjoy in Beethoven’s Opus 18. One can appreciate his sense of humor during his early period, most evident in the G major quartet with the Allegro “disruption” of the second Adagio cantabile movement. Also, the third movement is a scherzo, making a significant departure from Joseph Haydn’s use of the minuet. (Haydn’s Opus 33 quartets originally had scherzi, but he replaced them with minuets!) The Brahms quartets, receive far less attention; so I was particularly glad to see the Aris Quartet compensating for that shortcoming. They were as attentive to Brahms as they were to Beethoven, and the journey was just as engaging.

Shostakovich was in Dresden when he composed his Opus 110 quartet, and it was inspired by those in Dresden that were victims of the firebombing in World War II. By the time he composed this music, he was not shy in working his initials (D-S-C-H) into the score. Also, those familiar with the “Leningrad” symphony (Opus 60 in C major) know that it included a shave-and-a-haircut motif, which returns in Opus 110, now in a minor key.

Bust of Erwin Schulhoff at the fortress Wülzburg near Weißenburg in Bavaria (photograph by Aarp65, from Wikimedia Commons Web page, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)

For the encores the ensemble turned to Czech composers. They began with the “Alla Czecha” movement from Erwin Schulhoff’s Five Pieces for String Quartet. This was followed by Antonín Dvořák’s B. 152, his string quartet setting of Cypresses. The quartet played the penultimate movement, “Nature Lies Peaceful in Slumber and Dreaming.” This provided the perfectly polite and proper way to say farewell to an attentive audience!

“Something Completely Different” at Davies

Violinist Aleksey Igudesman and actor John Malkovich (courtesy of SFS)

Those old enough to remember Monty Python’s Flying Circus may be pleased to learn that the genre of off-beat comedy will be coming to Davies Symphony Hall. The San Francisco Symphony (SFS) will host violinist Aleksey Igudesman; but the ensemble will also have to contend with another guest artist seldom appearing in a concert hall, John Malkovich. I first encountered him when I was living in Stamford, Connecticut in 1982, making regular train rides into Grand Central Station.

While much of my time was spent in Lincoln Center, I also made regular visits to plays performed both on and off Broadway. It is probably fair to say that, even to this day, the most memorable of those plays was Sam Shepard’s True West. As the Wikipedia page puts it, the narrative involved a “volatile relationship between two brothers,” making for an uncanny mix of nostalgia and disaster. The role of one of those brothers was taken by Malkovich; and, after having seen him on the stage for the first time, I have done my best to keep track of every step in the advancement of his career.

Almost 45 years have elapsed; and, once again, I shall have the opportunity to see Malkovich on the stage. This time, however, the venue will be Davies. The title of his performance with Igudesman is The Music Critic. The violinist will perform works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Antonín Dvořák, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Sergei Rachmaninoff with SFS. However, he will also share the stage with Malkovich assuming the “title role.” Once again, Malkovich will be performing a “volatile relationship,” this time unloading (in the words of the advance material) “a frivolous potpourri of musical insults” on Igudesman’s performance.

As most readers probably already know, this performance will take place in Davies Symphony Hall. It will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 6. The address is 201 Van Ness Avenue; but it occupies the entire block with Van Ness to the west, Franklin Street to the east, Hayes Street to the south, and Grove Street to the north. The entrance is on the Grove Street side, which is also where tickets may be purchased at the Box Office. Tickets are currently available at prices from $75 in the Second Tier to $275 in the Orchestra. Seats will not available in the Terraces above the stage. A Web page has been created for online purchases. Tickets may also be purchased by calling the SFS Box Office at 415-864-6000.

Davies Hosts Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival

Once again, the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra (SFSYO), led by Radu Paponiu, hosted the annual Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival in Davies Symphony Hall. They shared the stage with four other Bay Area ensembles:

1. Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra with Music Director Jim Stopher
2. Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra with Music Director Jaco Wong
3. Young People’s Symphony Orchestra with Music Director David Ramadanoff
4. California Youth Symphony with Music Director Leo Eylar

Newscaster Wendy Tokuda served as Master of Ceremonies.

Marin began the program with the overture to Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Nabucco. This could not have been a better opening, putting the full ensemble to good use. Stopher conducted without a score, keeping his full attention focused on all of the performers.

Wong took a smooth segue from Gabriela Lena Frank (the “Pinkillo Serrano” movement from Apu: Tone Poem for Orchestra) to Sergei Prokofiev, his Opus 100 (fifth) symphony in B-flat major. The latter was limited to its last (Allegro giocoso) movement. This involved a fair amount of cello work, which came across as weak. This may have been just as well since there were major problems with the overall balance of the ensemble. Far more confident was the SFSYO approach to Johannes Brahms’ Opus 80, his “Academic Festival” overture with an “encore” of Martin Schmeling’s orchestration of the fifth of the Brahms “Hungarian Dance” compositions.

Antonín Dvořák’s summer residence, where he composed his Opus 88 (photographer not identified, from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)

The second half of the program began with David Ramadanoff leading the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra in the first movement of Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 88 (eighth) symphony in G major. Sadly, the conductor did not appear to be particularly connected to his score, but the ensemble seemed quite capable of maintaining the necessary inertia. More problematic was Leo Eylar’s approach to Paul Dukas’ “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” which never seemed to find the right balance across the composer’s engaging instrumental diversity. The program then concluded with an “all hands on deck” performance of the final movement of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 93 (tenth) symphony in E minor.

Since I made my move to the Bay Area, I have tried to keep up with this annual gathering of youth orchestras. I like to think of them as forecasting what to expect in future concert performances. As can be seen from the above account, this year’s forecast was a mixed one. On the other hand, forecasts can only be speculative; so all I can do is wait to see if I ever encounter any of yesterday afternoon’s performers in the future!

SFS Youth Orchestra Off to an Engaging Start

Yesterday afternoon Davies Symphony Hall saw the beginning of the 2025–26 season of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) Youth Orchestra led by Wattis Foundation Music Director Radu Paponiu. The program followed the traditional overture-concerto-symphony structure, with the exception that, for this particular program, each half had its own overture: one for the concerto and one for the symphony. These latter major works were both composed in the nineteenth century, Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 64 violin concerto in E minor prior to the intermission and Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 88 (eighth) symphony as the final offering.

That symphony, completed in 1889, was preceded by its own overture, Johannes Brahms’ Opus 80, the “Academic Festival Overture” composed in the summer of 1880. In the first half of the program, the concerto was preceded by the most recent work on the program, “Kayumari,” completed in 2021 by Gabriela Ortiz. I have to confess that my first impression of the recent work was somewhat mixed. There was an abundance of both energy and fun in Ortiz’ rhetoric, but those high spirits tended to be undermined by too much repetition. At the risk of sounding too old-fashioned, I have to confess that, when it comes to preparing the audience for the music that is to follow, Brahms gave a far more satisfying account than Ortiz did.

On the other hand, all of the nineteenth-century selections were thoroughly engaging. Aaron Ma was the soloist for the Mendelssohn concerto, and his command of the score could not have been better. The same can be said of his interplay with the ensemble passage.

However, the coupling of Brahms with Dvořák was definitely the high point of the afternoon. In that context it is worth recalling that Brahms first became aware of Dvořák when the former served on the jury of an Austrian State Competition in 1874. Brahms was so impressed with Dvořák’s skills as a composer that he recommend Dvořák to his publisher, Nikolaus Simrock, who gave Dvořák a commission that resulted in the Opus 46 Slavonic Dances collection.

As was announced about a month ago, today’s concert was the first of five. The next one will be the annual performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” at 2 p.m. on December 14. The remaining events will take place next year as follows:

• January 18, 3 p.m.: Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival
• March 8, 2 p.m.: Gustav Mahler’s fourth symphony in G major with soprano Hanna Cho as vocalist for the final movement
• May 17, 7:30 p.m.: Two major symphonies: Beethoven’s first (Opus 21 in C major) and Dmitri Shostakovich’s fifth (Opus 47 in D minor)

Canellakis Links Dvořák, Prokofiev, and Sibelius

I look forward to Karina Canellakis’ visits to the podium of the San Francisco Symphony because she always seems to find imaginative approaches to preparing her programs. Her last visit in April of last year offered a coupling of Richard Strauss with Maurice Ravel, not the sort of “balancing act” one tends to expect! This week the second half of her program consisted entirely of Jean Sibelius’ Opus 22, a composition of four “Legends,” each based on one of the epic poems collected in the Kalevala, a collection of tales from Finnish, Karelian and Ingrian folklore and mythology. The first half began with Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 66, given the title “Scherzo capriccioso.” This “overture” was followed by the concerto selection, Sergei Prokofiev’s Opus 26 (third) piano concerto in C major with Alexandre Kantorow as soloist.

Conductor Serge Koussevitzky, during his tenure as conductor with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (from Wikimedia Commons, no known copyright restrictions)

Opus 26 tends to be the most affable of the five Prokofiev piano concertos, which is not to say it shies away from bold strokes. It was completed after his move to the United States and was championed by Serge Koussevitzky, then conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. There are no end of technical demands on the soloist, and Kantorow rose to the challenges of all of them. Prokofiev was clearly as interested in the diversity of instrumental sonorities as he was in the technical keyboard challenges, and Canellakis could not have done a better job in giving all of those sonorities their due. Having established the full scope of his technical capabilities, Kantorow then selected, as his encore, Franz Liszt’s transcription of “Isoldes Liebestod,” the final scene of Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde. This probably went down well with those (like myself) that had enjoyed the performance of Parsifal at the San Francisco Opera!

For those acquainted with Dvořák’s music, Opus 66 was probably familiar. Canellakis gave it a vigorous account, giving the evening an energetic start. This was an excellent example of the composer’s capacity for instrumentation at its richest. Canellakis knew how to balance the full breadth of those sonorities every step of the way. Unless I am mistaken, this was my first contact with the music in a concert setting; and there was much more to hear than could be delivered by any recording!

The second half of the program was devoted to Jean Sibelius’ Opus 22 Lemminkäinen Suite, known more accurately as Four Legends from the Kalevala. Lemminkäinen is the heroic character of the Kalevala, a collection of Finnish folklore, myths, and epic poetry. The most familiar of the “legends” is the second movement, “The Swan of Tuonela.” This piece is the envy of English horn players, and Russ de Luna could not have given it a better account, even if the mythic context is a somewhat morbid one. Sadly, this is the only one of the four movements that says its piece in just the right duration of time. The others tend to overstay their welcome. Whether or not this is also the case for the texts that inspired the music will be left as an exercise for the reader!

Perlman’s Great Performers Recital at Davies

Violinist Itzhak Perlman (from the San Francisco Symphony Web page for his recital)

Last night violinist Itzhak Perlman returned to Davies Symphony Hall for his latest recital in the San Francisco Symphony Great Performers Series. Perlman has not been a stranger to San Francisco; but, according to my archives, I have not encountered him since his Opening Night Gala performance with the San Francisco Symphony in September of 2018. He used that event to promote his Perlman Music Program, bringing six of the alumni in tow. Last night was a more traditional duo recital with pianist Rohan De Silva as accompanist.

Where violin recitals are concerned, “traditional” usually means “beginning with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.” Sure enough, the evening began with the two-movement K. 301 sonata in G major. The rest of the program took a one-century leap into the last decades of the nineteenth century. The intermission was preceded by César Franck’s A major sonata and followed by the G major sonatina, Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 100.

There were, of course, encores: six of them, all probably familiar to those following violin recitals. Fritz Kreisler was represented by both the familiar “Liebesfreud” (love’s joy, the first of the three Alt-Wiener Tanzweisen pieces) and the less-encountered Opus 3, “Tambourin Chinois.” The other composer given two encores was Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the “Chant sans paroles” and “Humoresque,” the second of the two Opus 10 pieces. Perlman then concluded the encores with the one that probably drew the most listeners, the theme that John Williams composed for the movie Schindler’s List.

Taken as a whole, this was an evening of satisfying diversity. However (perhaps because age is catching up on me), it was hard to come away without thinking this had been a “business as usual” encounter. Perlman is clearly as skilled and focused as ever. Nevertheless, there was little, if any, among the stimuli to excite the “little grey cells.” I almost (but not quite) felt that revisiting the album tracks would have been just as stimulating.

Guarneri Quartet: its 19th Century Comfort Zone

The above claim that the nineteenth century was the “comfort zone” of the Guarneri Quartet can be affirmed by the fact that the composers from that century account for the “lion’s share” of the 49 CDs in the Sony Masterworks box set, Guarneri Quartet: The Complete Recordings 1965–2005 (not including the previously reported releases of works by Franz Schubert). As might be guessed, primary attention goes to what may be called the “Schumann-Brahms axis,” given that some of the multiple-CD albums in the collection are devoted to “side-by-side” recordings of music by Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. Brahms first met Robert and Clara Schumann in October of 1853, and he would maintain a relationship with Clara after Robert’s death. (Clara, in turn, would perform Brahms’ music in her recitals.)

Those “side-by-side” albums account for all of the quartets by both of the composers, as well as the album of the three Brahms piano quartets coupled with Schumann’s Opus 44 piano quintet. Many readers probably already know that Arnold Schoenberg was so taken with the first of these quartets, Opus 25 in G minor, that he orchestrated the score, hoping that the music would receive more attention. (That attention would benefit from George Balanchine decision to choreograph the Schoenberg version.) The pianist for these compositions is none other than Artur Rubinstein, who also joined the Guarneri in their recording of Brahms’ Opus 34 quintet in F minor. As far as the string quartets are concerned, it may will be the case that I have not encountered any of them since the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan celebrated the sesquicentenary of the birth of Johannes Brahms (born in 1833) with a marathon series of concerts covering all of his chamber music for piano and strings.

Photograph of Dvořák with his friends and family in New York (1893 photograph by unknown photographer, public domain, from Wikimedia Commons)

Antonín Dvořák receives just as much attention as Brahms in the Guarneri repertoire. Nevertheless, the account of string quartets is relatively sparse, perhaps under the assumption that only Opus 96 in F major, known as the “American” quartet, tended to draw audience enthusiasm. On the other hand, Rubinstein again appears as “guest artist for both the Opus 81 piano quintet in A major and the Opus 87 piano quartet in E-flat major. On the other hand, I have confess a fondness for the Opus 74 terzetto, which I came to know and love through another choreographer of Dvořák’s music, Antony Tudor. His use of Opus 74 near the beginning of Leaves are Fading was responsible for getting me hooked on future encounters with Dvořák’s chamber music for strings.

As might be guessed, the collection includes Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 20 octet in E-flat major, which was recorded during the Marlboro Music Festival. The Guarneri also recorded an early Mendelssohn quartet, Opus 13 in A minor, coupled with Edvard Grieg’s Opus 27 quartet in G minor. The only other composer to receive more than one CD is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. His Opus 11 quartet is D major is coupled with Giuseppe Verdi’s E minor quartet. The other album is devoted entirely to the Opus 70 “Souvenir de Florence” sextet, which includes violist Boris Kroyt and Mischa Schneider on cello.

There is one more Rubinstein album. He joins the ensemble in performing Gabriel Fauré’s Opus 15 piano quartet in C minor. This early work in the Fauré canon is coupled with one of the latest, his Opus 121 string quartet. Finally, the quartet accounts for the latter end of the nineteenth century with an album that couples two “second quartets.” These are the D major quartet by Alexander Borodin and the Opus 15 (second) quartet by Ernst von Dohnányi, composed in the key of D-flat major.

Taken as a whole, Guarneri seems to have done a good job in embracing the rich breadth of the nineteenth century, providing an engaging diversity in the recordings they released for this period.

SF Phil to Conclude Season with Groupmuse

The final concert in the 2024–2025 season of the San Francisco Philharmonic (SF Phil) will be a Groupmuse Night Out program. That means that tickets will be available through a Groupmuse event page, where “Supermusers” will be entitled to the $12 admission rate, rather than the $18 charge for all others. The performance will take place in Herbst Theatre, located at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. It will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 26.

Ani Bukujian and Jessica Bejarano on the poster for the final SF Phil concert of the season (from the Groupmuse event page)

Music Director Jessica Bejarano will wrap up the season with one of the most familiar symphonies in the repertoire, Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 95 symphony in E minor given the title “From the New World,” now numbered as his ninth symphony. In the first half of the program Ani Bukujian will be the violin soloist in Samuel Barber’s violin concerto. Bejarano will get things off to a rousing start with the instrumental Bacchanale from Camille Saint-Saëns’ opera Samson and Delilah. The run time should be about 90 minutes.

Another Vinyl Release of the Takács Quartet Due

Cover of the album being discussed (from an Amazon.com Web page)

At the beginning of this month, I wrote about Hyperion releasing a vinyl long-playing (LP) of an album of string quartets by both Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn. The performance was by the Takács Quartet, and they will be releasing another such LP at the end of this month. The new release consists of two piano quintets from two different centuries. It begins in the mid-thirties of the last century with a piano quintet in A minor by Florence Price, followed by the 1887 (second) piano quintet in A major by Antonín Dvořák (his Opus 81). Once again, for those that are not enthusiastic about vinyl, the album is also available for digital download.

The Wikipedia page for Price makes it clear that Price was not only aware of Dvořák’s compositions but also probably influenced by them. One might almost say that she responded to a Czech’s reflection on American music by creating a more American perspective on the repertoire. Some might wonder whether this new album would have benefitted from “chronological ordering,” beginning with Dvořák and concluding with Price. I would disagree.

Price clearly had many influential sources; but, as an attentive listener, I would prefer that any of those influences should follow her own work on an album that includes one of her compositions. I prefer to listen to Price on her own terms. Where this new album is concerned, I would be more interested to recognize, in retrospection, any influence that Opus 81 would have had on her work. Having now listened to this album several times, I feel moderately confident that any such influence would be a weak one!

Quartets by Dvořák and Tchaikovsky at SFP

Pavel Haas Quartet members Šimon Truszka, Peter Jarůšek, Veronika Jarůšková, and Marek Zwiebel (from the SFP event page)

Last night in Herbst Theatre, the Pavel Haas Quartet returned to give its sixth recital for San Francisco Performances (SFP). The quartet was founded in 2002 by Veronika Jarůšková, who remains the first violinist of the ensemble. At that time her husband Peter Jarůšek was the cellist for the Škampa Quartet, but it was not long before he moved over to his wife’s quartet. The other current members of Pavel Haas are second violinist Marek Zwiebel and Šimon Truszka on viola.

The program that the group prepared consisted entirely of two four-movement string quartets from the late nineteenth century, separated by the intermission. The first half of the program was devoted entirely to Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 61 quartet in C major. The intermission was then followed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 30 (third) quartet in E-flat major.

One of the first things to draw my attention to the Dvořák quartet was the composer’s generosity to the viola part, given a satisfyingly rich account by Truszka. Unless I am mistaken, my only previous encounter with Opus 61 was on the CD in my Brilliant Classics Dvořák Edition collection. While the composer tends to be acknowledged more for his later quartet works, this is music that definitely deserves more attention; and the Pavel Haas Quartet should be lauded for the efforts to revive interest in it.

The same can probably be said for the Tchaikovsky quartets. His chamber music repertoire was very limited. Nevertheless, he composed three “numbered” quartets, Opus 11 in D major, Opus 22 in F major, and Opus 30 in E-flat minor, as well as an earlier (1865) quartet in B-flat major, which was only published posthumously. (He also wrote an Adagio molto in E-flat major scored for string quartet and harp.) Those familiar with Tchaikovsky’s tropes will recognize many of the rhetorical turns in Opus 30, and the Allegro non troppo e risoluto Finale serves up an abundance of Russian spirit. (That is far from the only Tchaikovsky composition with a spirited conclusion!)

For the encore selection the quartet turned to Antonín Dvořák. They selected the twelfth of the eighteen love songs he had composed for Cypresses and subsequently arranged for string quartet. (Many of these were subsequently orchestrated for the performance of Antony Tudor’s ballet The Leaves are Fading.) The quartet concluded the evening with the penultimate movement in the quartet arrangement, a setting of the song “Nature Lies Peaceful in Slumber and Dreaming.” Since I became thoroughly obsessed with The Leaves are Fading after seeing it for the first time, this encore awakened no end of pleasant memories!

Horszowski Trio to Return to Noe Music

Horszowski Trio members Jesse Mills, Rieko Aizawa, and Ole Akahoshi (from the ThunderTix Web page for purchasing tickets)

The founding members of the Horszowski Trio were the husband-and-wife duo Jesse Mills on violin and Rieko Aizawa on piano joined by cellist Raman Ramakrishnan. They last visited Noe Music in 2019, giving a sold-out performance. Since that time cellist Ole Akahoshi replaced Ramakrishnan, and the three of them will return to the Noe Valley Ministry and the end of next week. They have prepared a program that promises to be an engaging interplay of old and new.

The program will begin with the oldest selection, the Hoboken XV/12 piano trio in E minor by Joseph Haydn. The most recent offering will begin the second half of the program. This will be William Bolcom’s “Introduction and Rondo - ‘Haydn Go Seek,’” the piano trio he completed in 2008. The second selections for both halves will be particularly engaging. The Haydn trio will be followed by Arnold Schoenberg’s Opus 19, a set of six “Little Pieces” for solo piano. Aizawa has arranged these pieces for piano trio. Finally, the program will conclude on the most familiar ground Antonín Dvořák's Opus 81 piano quintet. They will be joined by Owen Dalby playing second violin and violist Meena Bhasin.

As usual, the performance will take place at 4 p.m. on a Sunday, March 16. The venue will be the Noe Valley Ministry, located at 1021 Sanchez Street, between 23rd Street and Elizabeth Street. Open seating tickets may be purchased with prices of $45 for general admission and $15 for students. As in the past, there will be a limited number of reserved seats in the first few rows, which will be sold for $60. (Each price also has a modest handling fee.) All available tickets may be purchased through a single Web page.

San Francisco Philharmonic: East European Music

Poster design for the event being discussed (from the Groupmuse Web page for the event)

I have to confess that keeping up with the San Francisco Philharmonic, led by its Founder and Music Director Jessica Bejarano, tends to be a “sometime thing.” My best source is Groupmuse, but I am never quite sure whether or not I have been keeping up with things. On the basis of the home page, it would appear that the concerts for the “2024–25 season” are all taking place this year on March 1 and April 26.

There is now a Groupmuse Web page for the first of these programs, and it provides a useful account. Only two works will be performed, but both of them are ambitious. The first half of the program will be devoted entirely to Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 104, his cello concerto in B minor. The soloist will be Amos Yang, Assistant Principal Cello with the San Francisco Symphony. This will be followed by Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition suite. This was originally composed for solo piano; but, as its Wikipedia page shows, it has been subjected to a more than generous number of orchestral arrangements. The Philharmonic information does not identify which of these versions will be performed, but the arranger that has received by far the most attention has been Maurice Ravel.

This concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 1. As stated above, Groupmuse has created a Web page for this Groupmuse Night Out event. Tickets are being sold for $20 with a $10 rate for Supermusers. As of this writing, 33 of the 70 tickets are still available.