Benjamin Appl & James Bailieu: Homage to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

Baritone Banjamin Appl & pianist James Bailieu recently made a return visit to Herbst Theater & San Francisco Performances with their latest program, For Dieter: The Past and the Future: Homage to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Appl was one of the great lieder singer's final pupils, & considers him a mentor, & he has put together a substantial & rewarding CD set to celebrate his centennial, filled with photographs & information about Fischer-Dieskau & including Appl's renditions of songs associated with different phases of the older baritone's often difficult life. The program at Herbst is similar to that on the recording, but with some differences in arrangement& repertory.

Usually the Herbst stage is, Steinway aside, bare for these recitals, but in this case there was the addition of a stand holding a copy of one of Fischer-Dieskau's self-portraits. Appl & Bailieu both came out, dressed with an unusual formality these days in white tie & tails (though Bailieu was also wearing some stylishly striped socks, though in muted colors). I wondered if the somewhat old-fashioned attire was part of the tribute to a giant of an earlier era.

Between the carefully selected songs, Appl & Bailieu gave us the basic facts of Fischer-Dieskau's life. As he came of age during the Second World War, we obviously start in tumultuous & troubled times; I did not know that he had a disabled brother who was murdered under the Nazi's eugenics policies. Fischer-Dieskau, always a musical child, began singing frequently when he was a prisoner of war in an American-run camp in Italy, after the collapse of the fascist regimes.

Fischer-Dieskau's musical achievements approach the legendary; though I never heard him sing live, his recordings of lieder & opera formed a basic part of my musical self-education. I can't even remember how or where I first heard of him; I just knew that his name on a recording was basically a seal of artistic integrity & therefore the disc would be worth buying & listening to repeatedly. These achievements were, it seems, not mostly mirrored in his private life, which seems to have been marked by depression, self-doubt, & other emotional struggles. He seems to have used such emotions as a spur to keep working & refining his art, though perhaps I should say his arts, as, in addition to singing, he produced an astonishing number of paintings. (Sometimes I think that good time management might be the key skill in life.)

Appl related several of his personal encounters with his mentor, including the last time the two met; I will quote Appl's words from the CD set: "The last time I visited Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in his house on Lake Starnberg was just a few weeks before his death on 18 May 2012; it was important to him to explore Schubert's Hafner-Lieder once again, The themes of these songs include a longing for death, isolation, and reproaches to the gods after a tragic life. He was depressed and his mood was dark; he often fell asleep briefly during the lessons or began to cry. I sensed that this was the last time I would be able to see him."

There were also less somber stories, including one about Appl arriving for a lesson & Fischer-Dieskau coming out to meet him & announcing that he & Julia [Varady, the soprano who was his final wife] had been discussing it at breakfast & they had decided that "Benjamin Appl" was too complicated a name for an international career, & he should now go by "Ben Appl". Appl told us he refrained from responding, "Very well, Mr Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau." What struck me as very amusing about this story was that Fischer-Dieskau's objection was to the younger man's first name, which is fairly common in the English-speaking world & in any case not very difficult, instead of to his last name, which computers struggles with, as it seems to lack the final e necessary for autocorrect's acceptance. People do get hung up on funny things.

Appl sang with a velvety warmth & an attention to meaning that would have given satisfaction to his mentor. The whole recital was clearly sincere & loving & deeply meaningful to the performers, emotions they conveyed to the audience (which thankfully refrained from unnecessary applause that would interrupt the flow of song & anecdote). Most of the pieces were in German, as you might expect, but as we neared the end there was one item in English, the mysterious & evocative setting by Fischer-Dieskau's friend Benjamin Britten of William Blake's Proverb III: "The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship." It's a sentiment that may give some insight into how Fischer-Dieskau managed through life, though the delicately suspenseful, even eerie, music undercuts any possible sense of hearty comradeship.

One interesting bit of information is that the most significant lieder set for the baritone was not Winterreise, as you might expect, but the Brahms Vier ernste Gesänge Opus 121 (Four Serious Songs), a meditative setting of Biblical texts from Ecclesiastes, Sirach, & First Corinthians. (We were given a lovely Der Lindenbaum from Winterreise earlier in the program.)

One significant different between the order of the night's program & that of the CD was the placement of Schubert's An die Musik; this act of profound thanksgiving for the "Blessed Art" opens the recording, but closed the concert. It was preceded by Schubert's Litanei auf das Fest Allerseelen (Litany for all Souls), a prayer for rest for the weary who have passed through life. Together the two songs acted as a summation of the often anguished, always dedicated musician whose art & life we had spent the evening exploring; these two last songs spread over the auditorium like a final benediction. I thought of Larkin's famous lines about the jazz trumpeter Sidney Bechet: "On me your voice falls as they say love should, / Like an enormous yes. . . ."

For the encore, Appl first read a long passage from the diaries of Fischer-Dieskau's wife about his first visit to San Francisco (I think this was in the 1950s), a narration of outward triumph but inward risk & uncertainty, as Fischer-Dieskau suffered a few vocal blips but nonetheless triumphed with critics & audience, though he was distressed & anxious enough to leave the theater while the German Consul was looking for him. The final song was another item in English, the folk song The Foggy, Foggy Dew (I assume in Britten's setting, as tribute to their association). Appl's English diction is remarkable, & his telling rendition of the song was both witty & mournful. I wondered if the choice of that particular piece as the encore was a tribute to the celebrated fogs of San Francisco.

San Francisco Opera: Beethoven & Falla

In recent seasons Music Director Eun Sun Kim has led the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in one-off concerts featuring the symphonic repertory; the most recent of these, featuring works by Manuel de Falla as well as the Beethoven 5, was the first of these I have attended. It was an enjoyable evening, & the Opera House was full & enthusiastic.

For the opener, mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack came out, looking exceedingly glam in a low-cut gown of a deep iridescent purple, with ruffles cascading down one side & her dark hair swept up, to perform de Falla's Siete canciones populares españolas (Seven Popular Songs). I don't know how many other members of the audience had these songs in the back of their minds, memories conjured up through Mack's warm, rich voice. Though they sound typically "Spanish", they also evoke different moods & modes, from the wistful regrets of El paño moruno (The Moorish Cloth), about a once-fine cloth for sale that goes for a lower price because it is stained (Ay!) – draw your own metaphorical conclusions – to the bitter edge of lost love in Canción (Song), but I found the loveliest to be Nana (Lullaby), a soothing & sad midpoint to the set.

I would happily have heard more of Mack, but after her seven songs she left the stage, & we were given a Suite from de Falla's ballet music for  El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat). Again, a piece evocative of an idealized Spain of an earlier time, a vaguely foreign world of swirling flamenco dancers, in its colors & rhythms. Kim shaped a lively performance. In the full ballet there is a witty quotation of the opening of Beethoven's Fifth, which she had worked back into this suite: a preview of coming attractions, as it were.

The opening of the Beethoven 5 is of course possibly the most famous moment in "classical" music, known to those who know nothing else, similar to "To be or not to be" for classic theater, a phrase similar in its stripped-down daring, its challenge to our existential being. I can't remember the last time I heard the Beethoven 5 played live! This is true of many of the "standards" – how often have we actually heard them live, & how recently? That's especially true if you're a long-time concert-goer, who probably, after many decades of attendance, & in the face of dwindling time, money, & energy, automatically avoids these standards. And then something happens, & we end up hearing them again, & we wonder why we don't listen to them all the time, as they have so much to give. If you keep house the way I do, you frequently have the experience of coming across something you only vaguely remembered that you owned, & finding in it, as if it were Christmas morning, the enchantments of new discovery. Revisiting the basic repertory is like that.

The performance struck me as vivid & full of tensile energy, fleet rather than ponderous. There was enthusiastic applause after the first two movements (I don't know if people were unaware of not clapping between movements, or if, in the style of our day, they didn't care about that convention); as the third movement moved right into the finale, there was no interruption then for applause, & we moved right into the blazing conclusion. Bits of this symphony have floated through my mind since I heard this performance. Through a developing struggle to some sort of breakthrough: it's an encouraging message for us, in our troubled times. I was very glad to hear this music again, played so beautifully, & I hope I never again take Beethoven or this symphony for granted.

Museum Monday 2025/44

 

detail of Triptych for Steven by Suzanne Jackson, seen at SFMOMA as part of the special exhibition Suzanne Jackson: What Is Love

Friday Photo 2025/44

 

San Leandro sidewalk: Godzilla on a skateboard

Another Opening, Another Show: November 2025

I love this time of year, as the light draws in & the temperatures drop (at least at night), but like everything else, it has its difficulties: the urge to hibernate grows stronger. At least, it is to that impulse I am attributing my increasing difficulty in getting out of bed in the mornings. As a high-functioning depressive, I generally manage to be fairly responsible, but, you know, nothing gets easier. One difficulty this month is the great number of collisions on the schedule: wonderful events, all planned for the same day. I guess it's an urge to get things scheduled before the holidays march in; next month is mostly tinsel, glitter, & drag queens, & sure, why not, but it's best to have a solid meal before you start gorging on cream puffs & bonbons. I was interested to see the number of musicals, not necessarily seasonal, but not inappropriate either, that are scheduled to run into the new year. I was also surprised by the number of choral performances happening (mostly listed under Choral, of course, but there are also major choral contributions under Orchestral & Early Music). I love Christmas music, but I salute the choral urge to sing something else. As for the conflicts, we all have some individual method for deciding among them, of course: it could be cost, or location, or some slim edge making one event more desirable to us than another; for me, start times also come into play. Long-time readers, if such there be, know I have long complained about 8:00 start times as unsuited to The Way We Live Now (I won't rehearse all that once again, at least not right now), & to my great surprise, many arts groups have made the sensible shift to earlier curtains, so that I'm somewhat bemused now when I come across organizations that persist in 8:00 beginnings – for me, the inconvenience that entails can put that show out of the running, at least as far as my ticket-buying is concerned. One of the things that happened to me during the pandemic is that, without evening performances to go to, I reverted to my natural state as someone who falls asleep early & consequently gets up early (at least, until recently; hence the concern about the trouble getting out of bed). Anyway, there's certainly a lot going on this month that can help fortify you with the strength to go on. I'd end with some sort of bromidic benediction to "go forth & be good to each other" but as that phrase floated through my mind, I thought of one of my attempts to be & do good, theater-division: I was sitting next to a woman whose hacking cough interrupted the entire first half of the show. (This was pre-pandemic, so threat level was Severe Annoyance, rather than Possibly Life-Threatening.) I decided to rein in the glares & try to be helpful, so during the intermission I asked her if she would like some lozenges from my inevitable bag of Ricola cough drops, which I carry like Saint Peter his keys or Saint Catherine of Alexandria her wheel: "Yes," she said, sticking out her hand. I gave her two or three, surely enough to carry her through the rest of the performance. "Give me more!" she demanded. I gave her a few more. Her friend stuck out her hand & said, "Well, I want some too!" I gave her some more, realizing I would now have to go back to CVS & buy another bag. And no, neither one, at any point, uttered the words "please" or "thank you". So shines a good deed in a naughty world, my people. Let's all do what we can, regardless. Here's the listing, enjoy!

Theatrical

The AfroSolo Theatre Company presents the 32nd Annual AfroSolo Arts Festival, with the theme Go Soar!, at the Potrero Stage from 31 October to 2 November, with featured performers James Cagney, J (Albert) Jackson, Augustene Phillips, Darlene Roberts, & Unique Derique.

The Marsh Berkeley presents Shameless Hussy, written by Lynne Kaufman & directed by David Keith, a two-person show about Anais Nin, the writer whose diary & erotica were both regular features in the bookstores of the late 1970s, from 1 to 16 November.

Theater of Yugen presents the classic Kyōgen comedies (in English) Shuron (A Religious Dispute) & Kaki Yamabushi (Persimmons & the Mountain Priest), directed by Lluís Valls, on 6 - 9 November at Theatre of Yugen’s NOHSpace.

Theater Rhinoceros presents The Break-Up! A Latina queer torch song, written & performed by Tina D’Elia & directed by Mary Guzmán, from 6 to 23 November.

If you're in the mood for plucky orphans, Berkeley Playhouse presents the musical Annie, directed & choreographed by Megan McGrath with music direction by Daniel Alley, from 7 November to 21 December.

The Marsh San Francisco presents Before I Forget, a memory meditation written & performed by Adam Strauss & directed & developed by Jonathan Libman, from 9 November to 13 December.

On 12 November on their San Francisco mainstage, the Marsh presents Amadeus Never Gives Me the Blues, written & performed by Amy Bouchard, about an "up-and-coming opera singer . . . torn between equal desires for career and family".

Berkeley Rep presents the world premiere of Mother of Exiles by Jessica Huang, directed by Jaki Bradley, beginning with an immigrant detained on Angel Island in 1898 & jumping ahead with her descendants into a perilous present & an unknown future, & that's 14 November to 21 December.

Shotgun Players presents Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George, directed by Susannah Martin with music direction by David Möschler, from 15 November to 30 December at the Ashby Stage.

On 18 & 20 November at the Potrero Stage, you can hear The Ballad of Madelyne & Therese, "a new song cycle written and performed by singer-songwriter Rachel Garlin" the story of two women in 1939, married to men, who have a brief romantic connection & then re-encounter each other a year later in Manhattan.

On 19 November on their San Francisco mainstage, the Marsh presents Emil Amok, 69, written & performed by Emil Amok Guillermo, a one-person show about " how everything’s flipped in a '69' world, where no one knows which way is up, morally, ethically, politically. In all aspects of his life from DEI, Harvard, NPR, and his trans daughter, when it comes to Trump, it’s personal".

UC Berkeley's Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies presents She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen, directed by Karina Gutiérrez, from 20 - 23 November at Zellerbach Playhouse.

San Francisco Playhouse presents Sondheim's Into the Woods, directed by Susi Damilano, with music direction by Dave Dobrusky & choreography by Nicole Helfer, from 20 November through 17 January 2026.

The Oakland Theater Project presents the Kander & Ebb musical Cabaret, directed by Erika Chong Shuch, from 21 November to 14 December.

On 22 November in Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents Manual Cinema in The 4th Witch, a tale about "a young girl, orphaned during wartime, who becomes unwittingly apprenticed to the three witches from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. . . . Told without text—like a silent film coming to life on stage—the story explores themes of war and generational conflict through shadow puppetry, actors in silhouette, immersive sound design, and live music".

Talking

You can spend An Evening with Annie Leibovitz at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater on 10 November, courtesy of Live Nation; the celebrated photographer will be discussing her new book, Women, & signing copies (available at the venue) afterwards.

City Arts & Lectures presents Salman Rushdie in conversation with Poulomi Saha at the Sydney Goldstein Theater on 16 November.

City Arts & Lectures presents Padma Lakshmi in conversation with W Kamau Bell at the Sydney Goldstein Theater on 17 November.

Get a jump on the holidays when the celebrated auteur of Pink Flamingoes & other fine works presents his annual one-person show, A John Waters Christmas, at the Great American Music Hall on 30 November.

Operatic

At San Francisco Opera, Parsifal continues its run, the first here in 25 years, with Eun Sun Kim conducting, Matthew Ozawa directing, & Brandon Jovanovich as Parsifal, Kwangchul Youn as Gurnemanz, Brian Mulligan as Amfortas, Tanja Ariane Baumgartner as Kundry, & Falk Struckmann as Klingsor, & this month's dates are 2, 7, & 13 November. On 1 November at the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco, the Wagner Society of Northern California will present Outside/Inside: Sacred Spaces in Parsifal with Professor Thomas Grey of Stanford University.

San Francisco Opera also presents the world premiere of The Monkey King (猴王悟空), based on the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, with music by Huang Ruo & libretto by David Henry Hwang, conducted by Carolyn Kuan, with direction by Diane Paulus & puppet work by Basil Twist, starring Kang Wang as the Monkey King, Konu Kim as the Jade Emperor, Mei Gui Zhang as Guanyin, & that runs 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 25, 28, & 30 November. (In related Monkey King business, on 24 November at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, Ruo & UC Berkeley Professor of Musicology Mary Ann Smart will discuss the opera's composition; RSVP is required.)

On 14 - 16 November at the ODC Theater, Ars Minerva presents its latest eagerly awaited recovery of a baroque opera; this time around, it's Ercole Amante by Antonia Bembo (to a libretto by Francesco Buti), with staging by company founder & Artistic Director Céline Ricci, & conducting by Matthew Dirst, starring Zachary Gordin as Ercole & Kindra Scharich as Deianira.

Opera San José presents Puccini's Madama Butterfly, conducted by Joseph Marcheso & directed by Michelle Cuizon, featuring Emily Michiko Jensen as Cio-Cio San, Kayla Nanto as Suzuki, Christopher Oglesby as Lieutenant BF Pinkerton, & Eugene Brancoveanu as Sharpless, on 16, 21, 23, 29 & 30 November.

On 20 & 21 November, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Opera program presents Britten's The Turn of the Screw, directed by Heather Mathews & conducted by Michael Christie; as usual with the Conservatory operas, there will be different casts for each performance.

On 21 November at Herbst Theater, you can hear the annual Adler Concert, The Future Is Now, featuring this year's Adler fellows; the program will be conducted by Ramón Tebar & directed by Omer Ben Seadia.

Choral

On 2 November at the 222 in Healdsburg, 21V, the chorus of soprano & alto voices of all genders, led by Martín Benvenuto & joined by Margaret Halbig on piano & Jimmy Cha on percussion, performs Promise and Peril, a Día de los Muertos Concert.

Volti opens its 47th season with Sound & Transformation, a program featuring Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate’s Visions of a Child, Žibuoklė Martinaitytė’s Chant des Voyelles (commissioned & premiered by Volti in 2018), & Marcos Balter’s Livro das Cores (a setting of texts by Pessoa), as well as a preview of Chris Castro’s Oracles, which will have a full premiere with Left Coast Chamber Ensemble next March, & you can hear all that on 7 November at Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco & 8 November at First Presbyterian in Berkeley.

On 14 November at their Caroline Hume Concert Hall, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Chorus, led by Eric Choate, will be joined by guest artists Chanticleer to perform Melchior Franck's Da Pacem Domine, Alessandro Scarlatti's Exultate Deo, Saint-Saëns's Calme des Nuits, Brahms's O Schöne Nacht, Thomas Morley's My Bonny Lass, She Smileth, John Bennett's Weep, O mine eyes, Ralph Vaughan Williams's Sweet Day, Mendelssohn's Behold, God the Lord from Elijah, Moses Hogan's Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, & his Walk Together, Children.

On 14 November at Hertz Hall, the UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus, led by Wei Cheng, will perform A Journey Beyond the World, a program featuring works by Bach, Pärt, & others.

Slavyanka Chorus, led by Artistic Director Irina Shachneva, will perform Rachmaninoff’s All Night Vigil (also known as Vespers) on 13 November at Church of the Redeemer in Los Altos, 14 November at Saint Mark's in Berkeley, & 16 November at Star of the Sea in San Francisco.

On 14, 15, & 17 November at Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco, Resound Ensemble will perform Across the vast, eternal sky, a program celebrating nature through music by Marques LA Garrett, Ola Gjeilo, Elaine Hagenberg, Stephen Paulus, Rosephanye Powell, Jake Runestad, & Caroline Shaw. 

Clerestory presents Light Unhindered, a "contemplative program of a cappella works that invoke celestial illumination and spiritual awakening" including the double-choir piece Exultemus Domine by Benedetto Bagni, Michael Trotta’s Surge Illuminare, & other works, & you can experience it 14 November at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco & 16 November at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Berkeley.

Robert Geary leads the San Francisco Choral Society & the California Chamber Symphony in The Lake Isle & Brontë by Ola Gjeilo along with Dona Nobis Pacem by Ralph Vaughan Williams, with soloists Michele Kennedy (soprano), Kenneth Goodson (baritone), Maxwell Gibbs (guitar), & Keisuke Nakagoshi (piano), & that's 15 & 16 November at Trinity + Saint Peter's Episcopal in San Francisco.

On 16 November in Zelelrbach Hall, Cal Performances presents the Vienna Boys Choir in Strauss For Ever, a program celebrating the 200th birthday of the Waltz King himself, Johann Strauss Jr.

The International Orange Chorale of San Francisco presents the world premiere of Tarik O’Regan’s Dominion of Light: A Requiem for the Estranged, & you can hear it 22 November at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco & 23 November at First Presbyterian in Berkeley (there will be a pre-concert talk by the composer at each venue).

On 23 November at the Taube Atrium Theater, John Keene leads the San Francisco Opera Chorus in an afternoon of, you know, opera choruses, with piano accompaniment by Fabrizio Corona.

Vocalists

On 30 October in the Green Room at the War Memorial Complex in San Francisco, Taste of Talent & Red Curtain Addict present their 5th annual Halloween concert, Death by Aria, featuring pianist & master of ceremonies Ronny Michael Greenberg along with mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz, soprano Maria Valdes, tenor Christopher Oglesby, & oboist & tenor Jesse Rex Barrett, who will perform music from Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, Verdi’s Macbeth, Handel’s Julius Cesar,  Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci, Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas, & Brecht/Weill's Pirate Jenny from the 3Penny Opera.

Orchestral

Violinist Daniel Hope leads the New Century Chamber Orchestra in Dobrinka Tabakova's Dawn, Dvořák's Serenade for Strings in E Major, & Vivaldi's Four Seasons, & you can hear it all on 30 October at First Congregational in Berkeley, 31 October at the Empress Theater in Vallejo, 1 November at Herbst Theater in San Francisco, & 2 November at Osher Marin Jewish Community Center in San Rafael.

On 1 November at the Opera House, Eun Sun Kim leads the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in the Beethoven 5 along with  Manuel de Falla's El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat) Suite #2 & his Siete canciones populares españolas (Seven Popular Songs) with soloist Daniela Mack.

On 1 November, the San Francisco Symphony hosts its annual celebration of Día de los Muertos; the program is "curated by longtime collaborator Martha Rodríguez-Salazar and is performed in collaboration with artistic partner Casa Círculo Cultural" & features Lina González-Granados leading the orchestra (& featured cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia) in works by Gabriela Ortiz, Arturo Márquez, Ricardo Castro, Paul Desenne, Jimmy López, Arturo Márquez, & Gabriela Lena Frank (there will also be an art installation in the lobby).

On 2 November at Herbst Theater, the San Francisco Civic Symphony, led by Paul Schrage, presents Spinning Stories, a program featuring Don Juan by Richard Strauss, Ravel's Sheherazade (with vocalist Madison Hatten), & the Schumann 3; admission is free but RSVPs are appreciated.

On 6 - 8 November, Karina Canellakis will lead the San Francisco Symphony in Dvořák's Scherzo capriccioso, Prokofiev's Piano Concerto #3 (with soloist Alexandre Kantorow), & Sibelius's Four Legends from the Kalevala.

On 7 & 8 November at Hertz Hall, the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, led by David Milnes & Wei Cheng, will perform Gabriella Smith's Tumblebird Contrails, Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme (with cello soloist Lorelei Deutsch), & the Beethoven 9 (joined b y the University Chorus & Chamber Chorus). 

Urs Leonhardt Steiner leads the Golden Gate Symphony Orchestra & Chorus in Beyond Border Walls 2025: Voices from Near & Far, a program including Last Light - Symphony #1., a world premiere from Benjamin Gribble, &, joined by Kulintang Dialect (ed by Conrad Benedicto), Lahing Kayumanggi by Lucio San Pedro, with soloists Gabrielle Goozee-Nichols (soprano) Celeste Camarena (mezzo-soprano), & Timothy Echavez Salaver (baritone), & you can hear it all on 8 November at the Benicia Clock Tower in Benicia & 9 November at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in San Francisco.

On 9 November at the Valley Center for Performing Arts in Oakland (on what used to be the campus of Holy Names College), Omid Zoufonoun leads the Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra in Adolphus Hailstork's An American Fanfare, the Brahms Violin Concerto (with soloist Michael Oliveira), Arturo Marquez's Danzon #2, & selections from Bizet's L’Arlésienne Suites.

On 9 November at First Presbyterian in Oakland, Samantha Burgess leads the Community Women's Orchestra in Uncommon Women, a program that includes Schubert's Rosamunde Overture, The Ten Woman Bicycle by June Bonacich, Joan Tower's Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman #4 , & Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries.

On 13 - 14 November, the San Francisco Symphony will be led by Sarah Hicks in Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton, combining selections from Elfman's scores with visuals, including "original sketches, drawings, & storyboards"; there will be a live vocal performance by Elfman, & violin solos by Sandy Cameron.

On 14 November at the Paramount Theater, Kedrick Armstrong leads the Oakland Symphony in the world premiere of a Symphony commission, Suite for Humanity by Cava Menzies, along with the Verdi Requiem, with soloists Tiffany Townsend (soprano), Raehann Bryce-Davis (mezzo-soprano), Robert Stahley (tenor), & Reginald Smith Jr (baritone).

On 15 November at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Caroline Hume Concert Hall, the SFCM Orchestra, led by guest conductor Earl Lee, will perform Vivian Fung's Aqua (this piece will be led by student conductor Jason Gluck), the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto #1 (with soloist Oliver Moore, winner of the Conservatory's Piano Concerto Competition), & the Shostakovich 11.

On 15 - 16 November at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek, Donato Cabrera leads the California Symphony in Jessie Montgomery's Overture, Mozart's Piano Concerto #21 (with soloist Robert Thies), & the Beethoven 3, the Eroica.

On 16 November at First Congregational in Berkeley, Ming Luke leads the Berkeley Symphony in Worlds Beyond, a program exploring "the artist’s voice at moments of transition and liminality" through Alma Monarca, a new work by Juan Pablo Contreras (a Symphony co-commission), the Four Last Songs of Richard Strauss, with soprano soloist Laquita Mitchell, Missy Mazzoli’s Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres), & the Shostakovich 9.

On 16 November at Herbst Theater in San Francisco, the San Francisco Civic Music Association, led by John Kendall Bailey, in collaboration with Chora Nova will perform Beethoven's Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage & his Elegischer Gesang as well as Mendelssohn's Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage & his Verleih uns Frieden as well as Anton Joseph Reicha's Te Deum; the concert is free but RSVPs are appreciated.

On 21 November at Hertz Hall, the UC Berkeley Philharmonia Orchestra, led by Wei Cheng & Noam Elisha, will perform Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kijé, Glazunov's Symphony #5, & the Dvořák 9, From the New World.

On 23 November in Davies Hall, Radu Paponiu leads the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in Gabriela Ortiz's Kauyumari, the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, Opus 64 (with soloist Aaron Ma), the Brahms Academic Festival Overture, Opus 80, & the Dvořák 8.

Chamber Music

On 1 November, Old First Concerts will hold an afternoon-evening marathon Concert Gala; although this is a gala, & therefore a fundraiser, admission is free & all donations are gratefully accepted. Performers scheduled to appear include pianists Sarah Cahill, Robert Schwartz, Monica Chew, Jeff LaDeur, Keisuke Nakagoshi, & Brett Waxdeck; organist John Walko; tenor Michael Desnoyers & soprano Chelsea Hollow; the Sixth Station Trio, the Wooden Fish Ensemble, the Circadian String Quartet, & the Trio de Garagem, who will perform music by Monica Chew, Chopin, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Liszt, Mozart, Hyo-shin Na, Fred Onovwerosuoke, Astor Piazzolla, David Ryther, Karen Tanaka, and others.

Left Coast Chamber Ensemble presents Midnight Memories: Mendelssohn, Mahler, Moderns, a program featuring Roberto Sierra's Tríptico, Mahler's Rückert-Lieder (arranged by David Hefti, featuring soprano Nikki Einfield), Fanny Mendelssohn's Piano Trio in D Minor, Opus 11, & Artur Akshelyan's Sillage (the 2024 Composition Contest Winner), & that's 1 November at Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco & 2 November at the Maybeck First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Berkeley.

On 8 November at Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco, the San Francisco Civic Music Association presents An Afternoon of Chamber Music, featuring Haydn's String Quartet, Opus 76, #1 (with violinists Gayle Tsern Strang & Harry Chomsky, violist Mark McAuliffe, & cellist Irene Herrmann) the Brahms Clarinet Sonata in E-flat, Opus 120 #2 (with clarinetist Michael Kimbell & pianist Elizabeth Lee,), the Oboe Sextet #2 in F major, by Cayetano Brunetti (with oboist John Quinlan, violinists Clay Froelich & Michelle Zhang, violists Andrew Zhang & Frances Gregor, & cellist Nathan Leber), & the Mendelssohn String Quartet #6 in F Minor, Opus 80 (with violinists Khang Huynh & Karen Ouyang, violist Evan Dorsky, & cellist Leo Steinmetz, cello); admission is free but RSVPs are appreciated.

On 8 November at Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances in association with the OMNI Foundation for the Performing Arts presents the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (Bill Kanengiser, John Dearman, Matt Greif, & Douglas Lora) performing pieces by Ralph Towner, Bryan Johanson, Frederic Hand, Chet Atkins, Andrew York, Michael Hedges, Kevin Callahan, & Pat Metheny, as well as traditional tunes.

On 8 November at Saint John's Presbyterian in Berkeley, Four Seasons Arts presents the Galvin Cello Quartet (James Baik, Sydney Lee, Luiz Fernanco Venturelli, Haddon Kay) in Voice of the Piano, a program which "explores the captivating versatility of the cello by reimagining iconic piano compositions through its rich tones and expressive qualities"; the composers transmogrified include Mozart, Debussy, Mussorgsky, Beethoven, Andre Mehmari, Carlos Gardel, Schumann, & Gershwin.

On 9 November at Noe Valley Ministry, Noe Music presents the San Francisco debut of the first prize winners of the 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Poiesis Quartet (Sarah Ying Ma & Max Ball, violins; Jasper de Boor, viola; Drew Dansby, cello; the name of the quartet comes from the classical Greek term meaning to make: "specifically, to create something that has never existed before"), who will perform works by Brian Raphael Nabors, Kevin Lau. Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, Sky Macklay’, & Prokofiev (his Second String Quartet).

On 9 November as part of its Chamber Music Sundaes series, the Berkeley Hillside Club presents the Tomodachi Quartet (Cordula Merks & Mayumi Wyrick, violins; Amy Hiraga, viola; Peter Wyrick, cello, joined by cellist Thalia Moore & violinist Caroline Lee to perform the Grande Sestetto Concertante (after Sinfonia Concertante in Eb Major) by Mozart & the String Sextet #2 in G Major Opus 36 by Brahms.

On 9 November in Davies Hall, a chamber-music group of musicians from the San Francisco Symphony will perform Erwin Schulhoff's Concertino for Flute, Viola, and Double Bass, Ravel's Piano Trio in A minor, & Beethoven's Septet in E-flat major, Opus 20.

On 11 November at Old Saint Mary's in San Francisco, Noontime Concerts presents the Carpe Diem String Quartet (Sam Weiser & Marisa Ishikawa, violins; Korine Fujiwara, viola; Ariana Nelson, cellist) who will perform Two Pop Songs of Antique Poems and A Letter from Afterlife by Dinuk Wijeratne, Standing Death by Paul Wianko, & Schubert's Death and the Maiden quartet.

On 11 November at their Barbro Osher Recital Hall on Van Ness Avenue, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music presents its monthly Chamber Music Tuesday, this time featuring violist Jonathan Brown, who will be joined by SFCM performers to play music by Bach, György Kurtág, Shulamit Ran, Sofia Gubaidulina, Beethoven, & Schumann.

On 14 November at Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents the Modigliani Quartet (Amaury Coeytaux & Loïc Rio, violins; Laurent Marfaing, viola; François Kieffer, cello) performing György Kurtág's Twelve Microludes, Opus 13 “Hommage à András Milhály”, Haydn's String Quartet in F Major, Opus 77, #2, & Beethoven's String Quartet in C Major, Opus 59, #3.

San Francisco Performances continues its Saturday morning Herbst Hall lecture / concert series, with host / lecturer Robert Greenberg & the Esmé Quartet (Wonhee Bae & Yuna Ha, violins; Dimitri Murrath, viola; Yeeun Heo, cello) exploring the quartets of Schubert; on 15 November, the focus will be on his String Quartet #15 in G Major.

On 16 November, the Berkeley Hillside Club presents the Melodiya Chamber Ensemble (Sergey Rakitchenkov, viola; Emile Serper,  cello; Arkadi Serper, piano) playing music by Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Glinka, Sofia Gubaidulina, Rodion Shchedrin, & Prokofiev.

On 16 November at the Legion of Honor's Gunn Theater, the San Francisco Symphony presents Alexander Barantschik (violin), Peter Wyrick (cello), & Anton Nel (piano) performing an all-Beethoven concert: his Piano Trio in E-flat major, Opus 1, #1, his Variations on Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu, Opus 121, & his Piano Trio in B-flat major, Opus 97, the Archduke.

On 16 November at Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley's Wind Ensemble II, led by Matthew Sadowski, will perform Afrospire by Bakhari S Nokuri, Into the Silent Land by Steve Danyew, Evergreen by Viet Cuong, & Love & Nature by  Gala Flagello.

On 18 November at Old Saint Mary's in San Francisco, Noontime Concerts presents violinist Karen Bentley Pollick & pianist Daniel Glover, who will play three sonatas for violin & piano by Hugo Kauder.

On 22 November at Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances in association with the OMNI Foundation for the Performing Arts presents the Romeros, three generations of the famed guitar-playing family, performing music by Vivaldi, Praetorius, Granados, Ruperto Chapi, Bizet, Boccherini, de Falla, Albéniz, Gerónimo Giménez, & Pepe Romero, as well as the world premiere of La Cita by Douglas J Cuomo (with soprano Amy Goymerac).

On 23 November, the Berkeley Hillside Club presents Victor Romasevich (violin & viola) & John Wilson (piano), performing works by Beethoven, Schumann, Iosif Andriasov, Grieg, & Zoltan Kodaly .

On 23 November, as part of the Candlelight Concert series at the Episcopal Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in San Francisco, the Friction Quartet (Otis Harriel & Kevin Rogers, violins; Mitso Floor, viola; Doug Machiz, cello), joined by bassoonist Jamael Smith, will perform a free concert that includes the String Quartet #3 by Samuel Carl Adams, Dirtwork by Michi Wiancko, Strum by Jessie Montgomery, & some folk-tune arrangements by the Danish String Quartet.

On 25 November at Old Saint Mary's in San Francisco, Noontime Concerts presents the Eos Ensemble Trio (Craig Reiss, violin; Evan Kahn, cello; Elizabeth Dorman, piano) performing the Brahms Piano Trio #1 in B Major, Opus 8 & the Shostakovich Piano Trio #2 in E Minor, Opus 67.

Instrumental

On 4 November at Old Saint Mary's in San Francisco, Noontime Concerts presents pianist Mira T Sundara Rajan, who will play pieces by Bach, Scriabin, & Rachmaninoff.

On 4 November, the San Francisco Symphony presents violinist Itzhak Perlman in recital with pianist Rohan De Silva; they will perform Mozart's Violin Sonata #2 in G major, Franck's Sonata in A Major, & Dvořák's Sonatina in G major for Violin and Piano, Opus 100.

Philharmonia Baroque starts off this season's "casual & intimate" Sessions concerts with lutenist Thomas Dunford playing music from baroque to the Beatles on 14 Noveember at the Swedish American Hall on Market Street in San Francisco.

On 14 November at Old First Concerts, pianist Tanya Gabrielian will perform Schumann's Kinderszenen, Opus 15, Sahba Aminikia's Lullaby, & the Sonata in A major for violin and piano by César Franck, as arranged for solo piano by Alfred Cortot 

Early / Baroque Music

On 2 November at the Conservatory's Sol Joseph Recital Hall, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Baroque Vocal Ensemble will perform a chamber concert featuring works by Barbara Strozzi'Giulio de Ruvo's, Vivaldi, Johann Vilsmayr, Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger, & Geminiano Giacomelli.

On 6 November at First Congregational in Berkeley, the San Francisco Early Music Society presents Tafelmusik, led by its Principal Guest Director, the violinist Rachel Podger, performing works by Bach, Handel, Telemann, & others.

Voices of Music presents The Voice of the Viol: Petrucci – the first music printer, a program featuring vocal & instrumental music performed on "early renaissance instruments including our new set of early renaissance viols with singer Danielle Reutter-Harrah", & that's 7 November at First Congregational Church of Palo Alto, 8 November at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, & 9 November at First Congregational in Berkeley.

On 9 November in Hertz Hall, Cal Performances presents period-instrument ensemble Twelfth Night, joined by soprano Nicoletta Berry, to perform Handel's Armida abbandonata, his Se vago rio & his Al dispetto di sorte crudele from Aminta e Fillide, & his É un foco quel d’amore from Agrippina, as well as Vivaldi's Overture to Il Giustino & his Violin Concerto in E minor, Telemann's Sonata in A minor, Johann Friedrich Fasch's Sonata in D Minor, & Francesco Durante's Concerto in G minor.

On 13 November at First United Methodist in Palo Alto, the San Francisco Early Music Society presents Stile Antico in a program celebrating the 500th birth-anniversary of Palestrina, featuring works he wrote for Roman performance.

On 14 November in Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents pianist Jeremy Denk playing Bach’s Six Partitas for Solo Keyboard.

On 16 November at Saint Mary Magdalene in Berkeley, the Cantata Collective presents a gala program featuring Sherezade Panthaki & Paul Max Tipton, performing Bach's Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn, BWV 152, duets from Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis, BWV 21 & Christen, ätzet diesen Tag, BWV 63, as well as selected arias.

On 16 November at Hertz Hall at UC Berkeley, the University Baroque Ensemble, led by David Miller, presents Music of Stillness, Slumber, and Rest, a program featuring thematically appropriate instrumental & vocal works by Vivaldi, Handel, Bach, Telemann, & others.

On 17 November at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Sol Joseph Concert Hall, harpsichordist Corey Jamason of the Conservatory's Historical Performance Department will perform an all-Bach program, featuring the Prelude and Fugue in B Major, BWV 868 & the Prelude and Fugue in F# Major, BWV 858 from Book 1 of The Well-Tempered Clavier, his Ouverture in the French Style, BWV 831, from Clavier-Übung II, selections from his 15 Sinfonias, his Capriccio ‘sopra la lontananza del fratello dilettissimo’,  BWV 992, & his Concerto in D Major, BWV 972 (arranged from a violin concerto by Vivaldi).

On 20 - 22 November, the San Francisco Symphony presents one of its occasional forays into the (mostly) baroque, as violinist & leader Alexi Kenney, with featured performers Yubeen Kim on flute & Jonathan Dimmock on harpsichord, guides the group through Olli Mustonen's Nonet #2 for String Orchestra, Che si può fare, Opus 8, #6 by Barbara Strozzi (as arranged by Kenney), Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #5, & Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.

Modern / Contemporary Music

On 1 November at Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents Third Coast Percussion, joined by Salar Nader on tabla, in Murmurs in Time, a program consisting of Murmurs in Time by Zakir Hussain (the tabla master who died unexpectedly late in 2024, & to whom this concert is a tribute), Lady Justice/Black Justice, The Song by Jessie Montgomery, Please Be Still by Jlin, & Sonata for Percussion by Tigran Hamasyan.

On 7 November at Old First Concerts, Ensemble for These Times (E4TT) (soprano Nanette McGuinness, cellist Megan Chartier, pianist Margaret Halbig), with guest violinist Maya Victoria, will perform Lines, Circles + Spirals, "a program featuring new music that engages with geometrical shapes, including West Coast Premieres by Clarice Assad, Hannah Ishizaki, and Karim Al-Zand, in conversation with Duo No. 1 for Violin and Cello by Bohuslav Martinu"; the program also includes pieces by Anna Clyne & Niloufar Nourbakhsh.

On 11 November at UC Berkeley's Wu Concert Hall, the University's music program will present a Korean Experimental Music Festival: Program with Traditional Korean Gayageums with Del Sol String Quartet; the festival continues on the 12th with Korean Wind Instruments with Electronics (by graduate students) & Korean Wind Instruments with Electronics (faculty works).

On 12 November at their Barbro Osher Recital Hall on Van Ness Avenue, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Composition Department presents a recital featuring the Kristin Pankonin American Art Song Award Showcase; the award is to highlight new English-language art-song cycles.

On 16 November at the Brava Theater, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players present American Reflections: Exuberance, a program featuring the west coast premiere of a new work by Samuel Carl Adams a setting of "texts by modern ecstatic poets in a song cycle for soprano Winnie Nieh" along with Shulamit Ran's Soliloquy, Terry Riley's Días de los Muertos, & the Chamber Symphony by John Adams.

On 16 November, the San Francisco Symphony presents cellist Gautier Capuçon, joined by a small group of musicians, in Gaïa, a program celebrating the earth through 16 specially commissioned pieces by Max Richter, Armand Amar, Jean-Benoît Dunckel, Gabriela Montero, Olivia Belli, Missy Mazzoli, Joe Hisaishi, Ludovico Einaudi, Xavier Foley, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, Abel Selaocoe, Michael Canitrot, Ayanna Witter-Johnson, Quenton Blache, & Jasmine Barnes.

Jazz

On 1 - 2 November at the SF Jazz Center, the SF Jazz Center Collective celebrates the 50th anniversary of Wayne Shorter's Native Dancer, playing music from & inspired by the album.

On 9 November at the SF Jazz Center, you can attend the San Francisco International Boogie Woogie Festival.

On 30 November at the SF Jazz Center, you can hear le jazz hot baby when the Django Festival Allstars, joined by guest vocalist Veronica Swift, take the stage.

Dance

On 1 November at the Paramount Theater, the Oakland Ballet presents Luna Mexicana 2025, a celebration of both Dia de los Muertos & the Company's 60th anniversary.

On 8 - 9 November at Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents Sadler’s Wells & Shaolin Temple in Sutra, in which "[c]ontemporary dance and ancient martial arts combine in this award-winning collaboration between Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, sculptor Antony Gormley, composer Szymon Brzóska, and 20 Buddhist monks from the Shaolin Temple in China’s Henan Province".

On 29 - 30 November, at Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents MOMIX in Alice, "a wild and fantastical take on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland by company founder Moses Pendleton".

Mostly Museums

The Cartoon Art Museum presents The West Coaster: New Yorker Cartoons from the Other Side, running 11 October to 22 February 2026, celebrating Pacific coast artists such as Zareen Choudhury, Eric Drooker, Lonnie Millsap, Tom Toro, Mike Twohy, Mark Ulriksen & Shannon Wheeler who have produced cartoons for the ultimate Manhattan magazine.

Happiest Place on Earth: The Disneyland Story opens on 14 November at the Walt Disney Family Museum & runs through next May.

KAWS: FAMILY, exploring the influential world created by KAWS, opens at SFMOMA on 15 November & runs through 3 May 2026.

Alejandro Cartagena: Ground Rules, exploring the Mexico-based photographer's work, opens at SFMOMA on 22 November & runs through 19 April 2026.

Two textile shows are opening at the de Young Museum, both on 29 November: The McCoy Jones Collection: Textiles from Central Asia and the Middle East features both traditional & contemporary rugs, wedding furnishings, & fabric works; Embroidered Histories explores samplers from the 17th through the 19th centuries, drawn from the museum's collection.

Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California, the absolutely stunning exhibit at BAM/PFA, closes this month on 30 November.

Cinematic

The biggest cinematic news this month as far as I'm concerned is the return of the annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival, running from 12 to 16 November at the Art Deco & conveniently located Orinda Theater; as always there is a great, eclectic selection of films with live musical accompaniment, starting with a centennial viewing of the Chaplin masterpiece The Gold Rush on opening night through Buster Keaton's lovely Go West as the closer; check out the full schedule here.

Here's what's playing at BAM/PFA this month: Cambodian Elegist: The Films of Rithy Panh runs 6 - 9 November (the filmmaker was originally scheduled to appear, but "due to unforeseen circumstances" he will not be able to); Gunvor Nelson: A Life in Film, exploring the works of the experimental Swedish filmmaker who was long resident in the Bay Area, runs 12 to 21 November; & Marta Mateus Presents Fire of Wind and Films by Margarida Cordeiro and António Reis runs 13 to 16 November.

On 15 November at the Roxie in San Francisco, CiNEOLA & the San Francisco Film Preserve present a restored version of Garras de oro (The Dawn of Justice) from 1927, "regarded as World Cinema’s first explicitly anti-imperialist film"; the screening is accompanied live with an original score by the nobozos band & following the show there will be "a panel discussion about the film’s historical significance and its preservation with Kathy Rose O’Regan (San Francisco Film Preservation), Alex Feliciano Mejia (SFSU, ethnographic scholar of race, media, and education), and Héctor Hoyos (Standord University Professor of Iberian and Latin American Cultures)".

On 22 November at the SF Jazz Center, The Queen’s Cartoonists will perform the music to some classics from the animation golden age of 1930 - 1950, as well as some contemporary cartoons.

The San Francisco Symphony presents Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, with Tan Dun's score played live by the orchestra (conducted by Sarah Hicks, with pipa soloist Gao Hong) on 25 November at Davies Hall.

This month's classic movie matinee hosted by Matías Bombal on 25 November at the Orinda Theater is King Kong.

Museum Monday 2025/43

 

Mayan mural fragment with warrior bird, now at the De Young Museum

Friday Photo 2025/43

 

Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley California

San Francisco Performances: Conrad Tao

I was back at Herbst Theater last Friday, as San Francisco Performances was presenting pianist Conrad Tao, & before I fanboy about the concert I'm going to describe what he wore.

Tao came out in a black suit & white shirt. But the trousers were elegantly baggy. And the white shirt was a fitted tanktop. I could tell it was a tanktop because his black jacket had large lozenges cut out beneath the armpits, flashing a bit of flesh. This struck me as ingenious as well as bold: less constriction in the shoulders / upper arms, as well as ventilation (Tao is a very physical player). He wore black shoes & a necklace of relatively large beads, which sometimes looked tan in the light & sometimes olive green.

So why do I mention his outfit? First, because it's rare & refreshing to see a male performer wearing something so unexpected (why should Yuja Wang get all the pianist fashion coverage?). Second, it's because the outfit struck me as an apt metaphor for the concert: outwardly standard, but . . . with a twist.

The "standard" part was Rachmaninoff, & I left the concert feeling that the composer was more interesting than I had given him credit for. The concept, as Tao explained to us – he spoke from the stage frequently, & for once I found it enlightening rather than irritating – was "The Rachmaninoff songbook": an exploration of the connections between the Russian exile & the American pop music of his day (which would be jazz, Broadway, tinpan alley): how they influenced him, & how he influenced them. The rich, melodic, moody music of Rachmaninoff plays well with the elusive moods & bittersweet turns of American pop (back before it turned into the corporate-run sludge machine it is now – only my opinion, of course).

Tao began with three Rachmaninoff preludes (in C major, Opus 32, #1; in A flat Major, Opus 23, #8; in G Major, Opus 32 #5), played with both architectural strength & emotional resilience, followed by Billy Strayhorn's celebrated Take the A Train. As mentioned, Tao is a very physical player; he rises up off the stool, sometimes hums along, taps his feet (even apart from working the pedals or tapping the iPad to change the electronic page). After this first group Tao thanked us for being there & explained the concept of the evening. Then, as he was about to start the second set, he said he had forgotten to tell us that though the pieces were often going to flow into each other, we should feel free to applaud whenever we felt like it. I braced myself, but the audience, as a pleasant surprise, though it did applaud whenever, had the good sense & good taste for once not to trample on the music with intrusive applause.

The second set opened with In Buddy's Eyes from Sondheim's Follies (this was the most recent piece performed, though its setting, a reunion of aging Follies girls, long after both their youth & the Follies have disappeared, fit right into the period, as did its ambivalent emotional message). That was followed by Auf einer Burg (instrumental only) from Schumann's Liederkreis, which I had heard from Mark Padmore & Paul Lewis just a few weeks ago (write-up here).  This is the song about an old knight, a stone knight, silently watching the quiet, rain-washed valley below; a wedding party is sailing by down on the Rhine; the musicians play merrily, but the bride is weeping. A quiet, stately song, with a wistful pang at the end. The set closed with Rachmaninoff's Étude-Tableau in A minor, Opus 39, #2. A twilit set of emotional ambiguity, played with clarity & emotional force by Tao.

Perhaps the talk from the stage worked better (for me) this time because it was clearly built into the program, not some sort of obligatory outreach foisted on someone who'd rather communicate through music. In fact "Artist Discussion" was built into the program as listed in the program book.

The next set opened with Irving Berlin's All by Myself, a surprisingly energetic & jaunty piece for such sad lyrics (denial? delusion? smiling through the tears? a plucky American refusal to give in to life's sorrows?). Tao had clued us into the lyrics, which was useful, as no one hearing the bright, ragtime-ish tune would guess it was a lament. This was followed by Tao's muscular improvisation on Rachmaninoff's famous Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Variation 15. (Tao is a composer as well as pianist.) Tao plays with strength, but also poetry & finesse, as exemplified in the delicate filigree of the next piece, Harold Arlen's Over the Rainbow as transcribed by Tao from a 1953 recording by Art Tatum. The poignancy of the original came through the elegant dissonances of this version. That was followed by Variation 18 of the Paganini Rhapsody, & the set closed with Strayhorn's poignant Lush Life, & here was a surprise: Tao sang it as well as played it. His voice is strong & expressive. I'd call it a cabaret voice, & if Tao decides to add cabaret artist to his achievements as pianist, composer, & fashion plate, I will follow along. Given the number of songs played without their lyrics, from Schumann to Sondheim, it was interesting for the artist to choose this song as the one that needed its lyrics for full effect. Perhaps it's something about the fleetingness of life  the sense of love followed hard on by loss, & still enjoying the beauty of it all that made it resonate in the context of the evening.

The first half closed with Daisies, a song by Rachmaninoff, Strayhorn's Daydream, & Rachmaninoff's Étude-Tableau in C minor, Opus 33, #3. I guess I've been thinking of Rachmaninoff as one of those composers glommed onto by people who resist any whiff of the 20th century (even now, well into the 21st). This concert convinced me I have been foolish in my opinion, & I need to go into the CD collection & start listening again, with cleansed ears.

All of that was the first half! Which ended with many in the audience already standing to applaud. The second half was a single piece, Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, Opus 45, as arranged for solo piano by Inon Barnatan. It's a compelling piece (if I've heard it, it was too long ago for me to bring any thoughts or let me say preconceptions to this performance), in three movements, originally intended as a ballet score. Though the original section titles (Noon, Twilight, & Midnight) were dropped by the composer, you could, if you were so inclined, & had read the information in the program book, see some reflections of the jettisoned titles in the music.

There was one encore, after Tao gracious thanked us once again for staying & for being there for what he described as a "long evening" (I did not feel it was too long!): we were given the song Full Moon and Empty Arms, which was set to music lifted directly from Rachmaninoff. Once again, Tao sang the piece, which expresses the wistful, wishful mood of much of the evening's music, as well as perfectly showing the connections between the classical composer & his fellow musicians in adjacent fields. It was an excellent choice as closer, & rounded off the concert beautifully.

Museum Monday 2025/42

 

detail of Landscape at Beaulieu by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, now at the Legion of Honor

Friday Photo 2025/42

 

pumpkins