Saturday, May 30
Les Voix Humaines
A program of French baroque music for voices and viols, featuring the hauntingly beautiful Tenebrae Lessons by François Couperin. The Leçons de ténèbres pour le mercredi saint (“Tenebrae Readings for Holy Wednesday”) are a series of three vocal pieces composed by François Couperin for the liturgies of Holy Week, 1714, at the Abbaye royale de Longchamp. Couperin’s Leçons de Ténèbres use the Latin text of the Old Testament Book of Lamentations, in which Jeremiah deplores the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. In the Catholic tradition, they symbolize the loneliness of Christ, betrayed by Judas and abandoned by his apostles. Sopranos Rita Lilly and Luciana Miranda combine their beautiful voices in combination with the sensitively realized music of the viola da gamba, played by Lynn Tetenbaum, and the harpsichord, touched by Andy Canepa. Julie Jeffrey joins Andy and Lynn to help realize pieces for gambas and harpsichord by Marin Marais and François Couperin.
8 PM
St. Mary Magdalen Church
2005 Berryman St., Berkeley
Advanced tickets, $15 general/$10 students and Seniors. Tickets at the door, $20/$15. Children 17 and under are free.
Mid-Peninsula Recorder Orchestra, Frederic Palmer, Director
Spring concert, featuring an antiphonal canzona by Giovanni Gabrieli, settings of “Farewell my love” by Francisco Guerrero and Josquin des Pres, an arrangement for recorders of the theme music from a popular Swedish children’s program, a pair of dances by the 16th-century Italian composer Giorgio Mainerio, a concerto by the 17th-century Polish composer Adam Jarzebski, with bassoon soloist Gregor Dairaghi, and a suite by the early 18th-century German composer Johann Philipp Krieger.
2 PM
Trinity Presbyterian Church
1106 Alameda de las Pulgas, San Carlos
Free
http://mpro-online.org/ or 650-591-3648
San Francisco Renaissance Voices, Katherine McKee, Music Director
“Our Favorite Things—A Celebration of 10 Years of Renaissance Music Making,” an a cappella tour de force, with music from the heart of the Renaissance, including Adriano Banchieri’s Madrigale Bestiale, the In Paradisum of Juan Esquivel, Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina’s Super flumina Babylonis, Clement Janequin’s raucous Le Guerre, Gregorio Allegri’s luminous Miserere, and other music by Byrd, Gesualdo, Hildegard, Josquin, Lassus, Monteverdi, Obrecht, Rossi, and more.
8 PM
Crowden Music Center
1475 Rose Street, Berkeley
$30 General, $25 Student/Senior, $15 Child under 12
Tickets online
www.SFRVoices.org
Women’s Antique Vocal Ensemble (WAVE), Cindy Beitmen, Director
“Madrigal History Tour” Where did the madrigal begin? How did it develop? Who were the first composers to write madrigals? WAVE will take you on a tour of the history of the madrigal and clear up some of the mysteries surrounding this very popular form of musical composition. Composers include Verdelot, Monteverdi, Gesualdo, Arcadelt, Rore, Gabrieli, Festa, Flecha, Guerrero, Hassler, and Schütz. We will be joined on this musical journey by Bay Area instrumentalists Shira Kammen, vielle, viola da gamba, and harp; Howard Kadis, archlute; Tobi Szuts, Adaiha MacAdam-Somer, and Farley Pearce, violas da gamba, and Joyce Johnson Hamilton, cornetto.
8 PM
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley
$20 general/$15 students and seniors. All tickets will be sold at the door.
Information: www.wavewomen.org, [email protected], or 510-730-2068
Sunday, May 31
Les Voix Humaines
A program of French baroque music for voices and viols, featuring the hauntingly beautiful Tenebrae Lessons by François Couperin. The Leçons de ténèbres pour le mercredi saint (“Tenebrae Readings for Holy Wednesday”) are a series of three vocal pieces composed by François Couperin for the liturgies of Holy Week, 1714, at the Abbaye royale de Longchamp. Couperin’s Leçons de Ténèbres use the Latin text of the Old Testament Book of Lamentations, in which Jeremiah deplores the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. In the Catholic tradition, they symbolize the loneliness of Christ, betrayed by Judas and abandoned by his apostles. Sopranos Rita Lilly and Luciana Miranda combine their beautiful voices in combination with the sensitively realized music of the viola da gamba, played by Lynn Tetenbaum, and the harpsichord, touched by Andy Canepa. Julie Jeffrey joins Andy and Lynn to help realize pieces for gambas and harpsichord by Marin Marais and François Couperin.
3 PM
St. Mary Magdalen Church
2005 Berryman St., Berkeley
Advanced tickets, $15 general/$10 students and Seniors. Tickets at the door, $20/$15. Children 17 and under are free.
San Francisco Renaissance Voices, Katherine McKee, Music Director
“Our Favorite Things—A Celebration of 10 Years of Renaissance Music Making,” an a cappella tour de force, with music from the heart of the Renaissance, including Adriano Banchieri’s Madrigale Bestiale, the In Paradisum of Juan Esquivel, Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina’s Super flumina Babylonis, Clement Janequin’s raucous Le Guerre, Gregorio Allegri’s luminous Miserere, and other music by Byrd, Gesualdo, Hildegard, Josquin, Lassus, Monteverdi, Obrecht, Rossi, and more.
4 PM
St. Bede’s Episcopal Church
2650 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park
$30 General, $25 Student/Senior, $15 Child under 12
Tickets online
www.SFRVoices.org
Women’s Antique Vocal Ensemble (WAVE), Cindy Beitmen, Director
“Madrigal History Tour” Where did the madrigal begin? How did it develop? Who were the first composers to write madrigals? WAVE will take you on a tour of the history of the madrigal and clear up some of the mysteries surrounding this very popular form of musical composition. Composers include Verdelot, Monteverdi, Gesualdo, Arcadelt, Rore, Gabrieli, Festa, Flecha, Guerrero, Hassler, and Schütz. We will be joined on this musical journey by Bay Area instrumentalists Shira Kammen, vielle, viola da gamba, and harp; Howard Kadis, archlute; Tobi Szuts, Adaiha MacAdam-Somer, and Farley Pearce, violas da gamba, and Joyce Johnson Hamilton, cornetto.
4 PM
St. Albert Priory Chapel
6172 Chabot Road, Oakland
$20 general/$15 students and seniors. All tickets will be sold at the door.
Information: www.wavewomen.org, [email protected], or 510-730-2068
Continue reading next week’s calendar . . .
