31 October 2011

November addendum: music very new and very old

The schedule for Old First Concerts has been updated since I last checked it, and there are a couple of concerts of high interest that I had not included in my November preview:

On Friday, November 11, Sarah Cahill performs "recent works by Ingram Marshall, Meredith Monk, Evan Ziporyn, and Paul Dresher (a San Francisco premiere), and will be joined by pianist Regina Schaffer for several recent four-hand pieces by Terry Riley commissioned by Cahill. Also on the program are selections from Mamoru Fujieda’s Patterns of Plants."

And on Friday, November 18, EUOUAE, which is unpronounceable like the secret name of G*d, so approach in fear and trembling, returns to perform Obrecht, Josquin, Perotin, and 10th century chant (good thing Steve Reich and the Kronos Quartet let me know who Perotin is). I posted about their first concert here, and my thanks to Unknown – the anonymity is a nice medieval touch! – for tipping me off by leaving a comment on that entry.

Haiku 2011/304

crawling through the dark
useless sight, groping hands stretch
out into nothing

Happy Halloween


Halloween rubber duckies, with thanks to V

30 October 2011

Haiku 2011/303

snapping up at night
hungry-mouthed nocturnal things
crawling through the dark

29 October 2011

Haiku 2011/302

pulled gently downward
heavy afternoon eyelid. . .
snapping up at night

28 October 2011

fun stuff I may or may not get to: November 2011

It's (almost) November: insert jokes here about Thanksgiving and turkeys. . . .

The Aurora Theater has a fun-looking new adaptation of Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale, starting 11 November through 18 December.

The Cutting Ball's Hidden Classics series kicks off its Strindberg-centered year with Play Strindberg, Durrenmatt's adaptation of The Dance of Death. Pelleas and Melisande (Maeterlinck's original play) also continues through 27 November, and you should go see it.

The San Francisco Symphony presents Michael Tilson Thomas conducting Brahms's German Requiem with soloists Kyle Ketelsen and Jane Archibald on 17-20 November, along with Schütz's "Ich bin ein rechter Weinstock" from Geistliche Chormusik and Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra (1909 Version); the Schütz and Schoenberg replace the previously announced world premiere from Sofia Gubaidulina.

The San Francisco Opera presents Handel's Xerxes with Susan Graham and David Daniels and Bizet's Carmen with Thiago Arancam and Paulo Szot (check the schedule for your Carmen, since Kate Aldrich is no longer singing all performances).

Cal Performances offers (among other things) Davitt Moroney on harpsichord playing Bach's complete French suites, 13 November; the Gate Theater of Dublin alternating Beckett's Endgame and Watt, 17-20 November; New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast in conversation, 19 November; and Eric Owens in a recital of yet-to-be-announced music, 20 November.

Magnificat presents Jephthe and other works by Carissimi, 11-13 November.

San Francisco Performances presents Marc-Andre Hamelin on 2 November playing the Berg Sonata, Op. 1, the Liszt Sonata in B minor, and several of his own works; and Alexander Melnikov on 12 November (starting at 1:30) playing the complete Shostakovich 24 Preludes and Fugues.

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music presents Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel and Menotti's The Telephone on 12-13 November (free but reservations required; call the Box Office at 415/503-6275). The next BluePrint new-music concert is on 19 November and features works by Philippe Hersant. And on 30 October (yes, wrong month, but I found out about this too late for last month's list) there is an evening concert of music by Nicholas Pavkovic, including his chamber opera Sredni Vashtar, based on the short story by Saki.

Sadly for me, I will not be going to New York to experience Satyagraha at the Met.

Haiku 2011/301

drifting back to earth
a leaf, a feather, a thought
pulled gently downward

27 October 2011

Haiku 2011/300

paths through a garden
slowly buried under leaves
drifting back to earth

26 October 2011

Haiku 2011/299

such well-meaning lies
lay pleasantly between us. . .
paths through a garden

25 October 2011

Haiku 2011/298

wishing you were here
and this postcard's bright blue skies:
such well-meaning lies