Friday, October 16
California Bach Society, Paul Flight, Director
“A Bohemian Masterpiece” California Bach Society opens their 45th anniversary season with the Missa Votiva, a rediscovered masterpiece by Czech composer Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679–1745). A violone player in the Dresden court orchestra, Zelenka began composing sacred music for the Catholic Elector of Saxony around 1710, and he was appointed Church Composer in 1735. Zelenka’s Missa Votiva (1739) for chorus, orchestra, and soloists, is a powerful mixture of operatic bravura and stunningly expressive counterpoint, rivaling works by contemporaries Bach, Handel, and Telemann. Zelenka’s mass is one of the most dramatic, formally innovative, and gripping sacred works of the eighteenth century. This triumphant tour de force will delight our Bay Area audiences. Read more . . .
8 PM
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church
1111 O’Farrell Street, San Francisco
General admission $28 in advance, or $33 at the door; senior $20 advance or $24 door. Students and under 30 always pay $10.
SFEMS members receive a $5 discount on the advance purchase price when using promotion code “SFEMS” until 5 PM, Thursday, October 15.
Order by phone at 650-485-1097 or online at www.calbach.org/tickets.pl.
Handel and Haydn Society
Guy Fishman, principal cellist of Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, will perform suites nos. 1, 2, and 4 for unaccompanied cello by Johann Sebastian Bach on baroque cello. Composed between 1717 and 1723, the set of six suites for solo cello constitutes the center of every cellist’s repertoire. These magnificent works were almost unknown for the first 100 years of their existence, then relegated to students and presented infrequently. Restored to their rightful place on the concert stage in the early 1900s, they are now widely recorded by the world’s greatest artists. Guy Fishman will perform three of them on a cello by David Tecchler, built in Rome in 1704.
8 PM
Saint Mary Magdalen Church
2005, Berryman, Berkeley
$15 to $20
510-526-4811, [email protected]
Saturday, October 17
California Bach Society, Paul Flight, Director
“A Bohemian Masterpiece” California Bach Society opens their 45th anniversary season with the Missa Votiva, a rediscovered masterpiece by Czech composer Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679–1745). A violone player in the Dresden court orchestra, Zelenka began composing sacred music for the Catholic Elector of Saxony around 1710, and he was appointed Church Composer in 1735. Zelenka’s Missa Votiva (1739) for chorus, orchestra, and soloists, is a powerful mixture of operatic bravura and stunningly expressive counterpoint, rivaling works by contemporaries Bach, Handel, and Telemann. Zelenka’s mass is one of the most dramatic, formally innovative, and gripping sacred works of the eighteenth century. This triumphant tour de force will delight our Bay Area audiences. Read more . . .
8 PM
All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Palo Alto
555 Waverley St, Palo Alto
General admission $28 in advance, or $33 at the door; senior $20 advance or $24 door. Students and under 30 always pay $10.
SFEMS members receive a $5 discount on the advance purchase price when using promotion code “SFEMS” until 5 PM, Thursday, October 15.
Order by phone at 650-485-1097 or online at www.calbach.org/tickets.pl.
San Francisco Bach Choir, Magen Solomon, Director
“The Gift of 1685: Bach, Handel and Scarlatti.” The San Francisco Bach Choir opens its 80th-anniversary season with festive music by three masters, all born in the auspicious year of 1685. This exuberant music displays the full talent and prowess of these youthful composers, (none then older than 36) as they combine Italian, German, and English styles. Program includes George Frideric Handel, Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne; Domenico Scarlatti, Magnificat; and Johann Sebastian Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No.2 in F Major. With the Jubilate Orchestra.
7:30 PM
Calvary Presbyterian Church
2515 Fillmore St. (at Jackson), San Francisco
Advance $25/$20, Door $30/$25, Under 30 yrs. $10, 18 yrs. and under free.
Tickets online or by phone at 855-4SF-BACH (855-473-2224, toll-free)
www.sfbach.org/
Sunday, October 18
California Bach Society, Paul Flight, Director
“A Bohemian Masterpiece” California Bach Society opens their 45th anniversary season with the Missa Votiva, a rediscovered masterpiece by Czech composer Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679–1745). A violone player in the Dresden court orchestra, Zelenka began composing sacred music for the Catholic Elector of Saxony around 1710, and he was appointed Church Composer in 1735. Zelenka’s Missa Votiva (1739) for chorus, orchestra, and soloists, is a powerful mixture of operatic bravura and stunningly expressive counterpoint, rivaling works by contemporaries Bach, Handel, and Telemann. Zelenka’s mass is one of the most dramatic, formally innovative, and gripping sacred works of the eighteenth century. This triumphant tour de force will delight our Bay Area audiences. Read more . . .
4 PM
First Congregational Church
2345 Channing (entrance on Dana near Durant), Berkeley
General admission $28 in advance, or $33 at the door; senior $20 advance or $24 door. Students and under 30 always pay $10.
SFEMS members receive a $5 discount on the advance purchase price when using promotion code “SFEMS” until 5 PM, Thursday, October 15.
Order by phone at 650-485-1097 or online at www.calbach.org/tickets.pl.
Vibeka Lyman, harpsichord
“The Leaves Bee Greene” A peace concert. No other information given.
5 PM (reception to follow concert)
BFUU Hall
1606 Bonita, Berkeley
$15 No one turned away for lack of funds
MusicSources
Artistic Director Gilbert Martinez returns from Europe with a program of 17th-century harpsichord music from Italy, France, England and Northern Germany, including works of Byrd, Tomkins, Frescobaldi, Storace, Louis Couperin and Froberger. Various harpsichords will be spotlighted, including a beautiful replica of an Italian harpsichord by Carlo Grimaldi and a replica of a Flemish harpsichord by Andreas Ruckers.
5 PM
St. Mary Magdalen Church
2005 Berryman Street, Berkeley
$30 non members, $25 MusicSources members and seniors, $10 students 18 yrs. or younger
510-528-1685 or
[email protected]
San Francisco Bach Choir, Magen Solomon, Director
“The Gift of 1685: Bach, Handel and Scarlatti.” The San Francisco Bach Choir opens its 80th-anniversary season with festive music by three masters, all born in the auspicious year of 1685. This exuberant music displays the full talent and prowess of these youthful composers, (none then older than 36) as they combine Italian, German, and English styles. Program includes George Frideric Handel, Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne; Domenico Scarlatti, Magnificat; and Johann Sebastian Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No.2 in F Major. With the Jubilate Orchestra.
4 PM
First Unitarian Universalist Church
1187 Franklin Street (at Geary), San Francisco
Advance $25/$20, Door $30/$25, Under 30 yrs. $10, 18 yrs. and under free.
Tickets online or by phone at 855-4SF-BACH (855-473-2224, toll-free)
www.sfbach.org/
San Francisco Renaissance Voices, Katherine McKee, Music Director
“Viva Italy!” Music of the Italian Renaissance featuring Palestrina’s Missa Nasce la gioa mia, based on the madrigal of the same name by Giovan Leonardo Primavera, performed by a sextet of our singers. Also rarely-performed madrigals by Asola, Vecchi, Casulana, Aleotti, Croce, Striggio and Marenzio for three, four, five and six voices
7:30 PM
Seventh Avenue Presbyterian Church
1329 Seventh Avenue, San Francisco
Tickets $30 General, $25 Student/Senior
San Francisco Performances presents Anonymous 4
The legendary a cappella vocal quartet, including Ruth Cunningham, Marsha Genensky, Susan Hellauer and Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, perform “Anthology,” a program of ancient, traditional and modern works, ranging from medieval chant and conductus to 19th-c. folk and popular songs to works by 20th-c. composers. This is the first of two Farewell Concerts, which will be the quartet’s final performances in Northern California. They will return with fiddler Bruce Molsky on Sunday, November 15, to perform “1865,” commemorating the 150th anniversary of the end of the American Civil War
7 PM
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church
1111 O’Farrell Street, San Francisco
Tickets: $50/$70
415-392-2545; sfperformances.org
Stanford Live presents the Handel and Haydn Society
“The Bicentennial Tour” Come hear the splendid period-instrument orchestra and chorus—considered America’s oldest continuously performing ensemble—on its celebratory bicentennial tour. Founded in Boston in 1815, the Society is renowned for its historically informed performances of baroque and Classical music. The program will include George Frideric Handel, Coronation Anthems Nos. 1 and 3 (The King Shall Rejoice), Zadok the Priest, and Part III from Messiah; Antonio Vivaldi, Concerto for Two Violins in A Minor, Op. 3, No. 8, and “Summer” from The Four Seasons; and J.S. Bach, Singet dem Herrn.
2:30 PM
Bing Concert Hall
Stanford University, Palo Alto
$30 to $95
Tickets online or 650-724-2464
[email protected]
Continue reading next week’s calendar . . .
