Cal Performances presents the Mark Morris Dance Group in two different programs (the second of which includes a return engagement for Spring, Spring, Spring, Morris's version of The Rite of Spring, set to the arrangement by The Bad Plus). That's 25 - 28 September in Zellerbach Hall; more information here.
Theatrical
Shotgun Players present The New Electric Ballroom by Enda Walsh, directed by Barbara Damashek, 3 September to 5 October; more information here.
Baritone Christian Gerhaher makes his San Francisco debut on 30 September in St Mark's Lutheran, presented by San Francisco Performances. Accompanied by pianist Gerold Huber, he will perform works by Beethoven, Schoenberg, Haydn, and Berg. More information may be found here.
Countertenor Brian Asawa sings Schubert and Strauss, accompanied by pianist Kevin Korth, in the opening concert of Lieder Alive's Liederabend Series. That's 7 September at Salle Pianos at 1632C Market Street (between Franklin and Gough) in San Francisco: more information here.
At the SF Jazz Center Paula West performs a tribute to Ethel Waters, 11 - 14 September; more information here.
Gabriel Kahane is touring with Irish band Bell X1. Their Bay Area stop will be 18 September at The Chapel (777 Valencia Street in San Francisco; you can find the other cities and dates of the tour by clicking through his name to his website). More information on the SF performance here. You should also check out his new CD, The Ambassador, which is available in the usual places as well as on his website. I ordered a different CD from his website a while ago, and it came with a handwritten thank you note from Kahane – let me tell you, that young man was raised right.
New/Modern Music
At Old First Concerts, Wild Rumpus performs music by Per Bloland, Ruby Fulton, Gyorgy Kurtag, Philip Glass, Lee Hyla, and Caroline Miller in a concert called Kafkaesque on 5 September; more information here.
At the SF Jazz Center, the Calder Quartet begins a three-concert survey of Bartok's string quartets, followed by jazz variations. On the first concert, 24 September, the Quartet will perform the Bartok quartets #1 and #4 in the first half; for the second half, they will be joined by jazz bass player Christian McBride for what is described as "a sublime intersection of musical disciplines." OK! More information here. (The second and third concerts take place in October and November.)
The Center for New Music presents "As a Fowl," a concert that includes the Jarring Sounds, Amy Foote, and Alexis Luque in music by local composer Kyle Hovatter; that's on 5 September; more information here.
San Francisco Symphony is reviving Henry Brant's Ice Field, a site-specific, spatially arranged work composed for Davies Hall in 2001 (it also won the Pulitzer Prize in Music). Site-specific and spatially aware means that (1) Davies is really the place to hear it, and (2) recordings (if there are any) just aren't the same (I know, they never are, but recordings really can't capture the arrangement of music in space). Cameron Carpenter will be improvising on the organ as part of the piece. Sounds fun! It's performed with Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #3 and the Tchaikovsky 5, and I'm not the only person to notice that the combo seems a bit random. I have mixed feelings about this. I can imagine three different audiences, sitting disgruntled through the other two-thirds of the concert. On the other hand, maybe someone who went for one piece will enjoy the others too – I know I'd enjoy any of the three (though it's doubtful whether I'd rouse myself at this point in my concert-going life to go hear the Brandenburg Concerto or the Tchaikovsky – so maybe reminding people like me of the virtues of the familiar is an added benefit of the randomness). I'd like to hear more contemporary music at the symphony, but on the other hand I think it's good to mix it in with the rest of the repertory instead of segregating it. You can check it all out for yourself 18 - 21 September; more information here.
Symphonic
In addition to the Bach/Brant/Tchaikovsky concert mentioned above, there are some other interesting programs at the San Francisco Symphony: Michael Tilson Thomas conducts Romeo-and-Juliet-themed music by Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, and Stravinsky's Scherzo à la Russe, along with Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major, with the much-praised young British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor as the soloist, 5 -6 September; more information here. Michael Tilson Thomas conducts Rossini's Overture to La gazza ladra, along with Alternative Energy by Mason Bates (more new music!) and the Beethoven Piano Concerto 1 with soloist Leif Ove Andsnes, 10 -13 September; more information here.
Baroque Music
At Old First Concerts, the Vinaccesi Ensemble performs music by Salamone Rossi and Benedetto Marcello, on 7 September; more information here.
Operatic
San Francisco Opera begins its new season with two interesting-looking offerings: Sondra Radvanovsky, who made a big hit here a few years ago as the Trovatore Leonora, returns in the title role of Norma, with Music Director Nicola Luisotti conducting. That's on 10, 14, 19, 23, 27, and 30 September. (There is also a performance on 5 September, but that is the season opening night, so proceed at your own risk. I wash my hands of it.) And then Patricia Racette and Brandon Jovanovich return in the company premiere of Carlisle Floyd's Susannah, directed by Michael Cavanaugh, who did an outstanding job here a few years ago with Nixon in China. And that's on 6, 9, 12, 16, and 21 September. Info on Norma is here and on Susannah here. And please note that the Opera, unlike some other local arts organizations, is finally recognizing the reality of most of our lives by moving to a standard curtain time of 7:30 rather than 8:00, for which I salute them.
Cinematic
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival expands into the fall with Silent Autumn, a one-day festival at the glam and period-appropriate Castro Theater that offers a varied sampler of silent films, from comedians like Keaton and Laurel & Hardy and romantic Hollywood idols like Valentino to the extravagant expressionist reaches of German cinema. That's on Saturday 20 September; check out the full schedule here (and click through for tickets).
Visual Arts
Let me just say that I really miss the SF Museum of Modern Art. On the first Tuesday of every month, I receive a poignant reminder of the good old modern days in the form of my calendared reminder not to go to SF MoMA that day, since first Tuesdays were free days and consequently a total nightmare. Anyway, we're roughly at the halfway point of their three-year closure for expansion, and on 10 September from noon to 2:00 they are holding a free public "Topping Out" Celebration, as "the final beam is hoisted into place and our steel structure reaches its highest point." More information here.
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