Lara Downes is busy

Lara Downes is busy. She's about to start recording Exiles' Cafe- the follow-up to her successful 13Ways of Looking at the Goldberg album. She's one of the prominent artists in the upcoming Classical Revolution Music Festival, headlining a concert at Salle Pianos on September 8 before heading off to give a series of concerts in Virgina.

She writes an interesting, revealving and lively blog, On the Bench: Conversations with Other Pianists and is seemingly always present in the online world.

On top of all of that, she's deeply involved with the The Mondavi Center Young Artists Competition, which she started and is now in its seventh year. Growing into a national competition open to artists in two age groups (10-16 and 17-21), this year's competition is expanding auditions to Portland, New York, Davis and Los Angeles. Though auditions begin at the end of September, the deadline to apply is August 31st (prizes range from $2000 to $6000). You can read more about it on On the Bench, which has links and information.

I'll be writing more about Downes soon, because on top of everything else she's involved in, she's agreed to sit down with me for a chat.

The "Great American novel" parlor game

Does anyone even do this anymore? Shutterstock photo.

Over yon in the Reverberate Hills, Patrick is seeking auxiliary material to augment his reading of Finnegan's Wake- a novel I have no intention of ever reading, but that didn't stop me from commenting on the post. It turns out both Patrick and I are currently reading Moby Dick, in anticipation of SFO's upcoming production of Jake Heggie's opera based on the novel, which Lisa proclaimed in another comment "IS the great American novel."

While I may end up agreeing with her assessment when I've finished it, her comment immediately brought two thoughts to mind. The first was, No it's not- the Rabbit tetralogy is the great American novel (even though Rabbit Redux is admitedly a significantly lesser part of the greater whole). My second thought was how impossible it is to really make such a claim- especially in 21st century America- for starters, which America, and whose, are we talking about? And that's really just the tip of the literary iceberg (or minefield).

While Moby Dick may well be the best American (meaning as commonly defined in the U.S.A.) novel of the 19th century, and I'm fond of parlor games like these, I really don't think it's possible to claim any novel as representing the apex of American (and I really mean U.S.) literature. Our country has always been fractured, though possibly never as much as it is currently except for during the Civil War era, and the character of life in the U.S. has changed radically since 1776 (or for that matter 1607, or 1492 or...). But more importantly, I would argue that the definition of what "American" means is something that can no longer be agreed upon, and this is really on my mind during this absurd election season. We can agree there have been great novels that capture something essential about the country, but the country that inspired novels like Moby Dick and Huckleberry Finn is not the same as the one which produced The Bluest Eye, Lolita, Blood Meridian, As I Lay Dying, The House of Mirth or the Rabbit books, to randomly name just a very few, all of which I'm sure have their partisans supporting their merit for the title.

Even attempts to name the greatest American novelist, as was recently attempted by The Guardian of all things, are specious at best. How one could include Nabokov (a Russian!) and exclude James (and Dreiser for that matter) in the final list of 32 contenders? It's beyond my comprehension, though it is fun as an exercise, and perhaps a more accurate measure in trying to identify that ineluctable modality of what consitutes an American literary canon.

Better, or easier at least, to approach it by timeframe, yet even there lay faultlines of race and class, not to mention geography. And even within the time frames of the 19th and 20th centuries, two wars (it would be justifiable to claim four, and even five if we stretch into the current century) radically altered the shape and perception of what "American" means. But I appreciate Lisa's declaration, and I'll stick with my own, with the following qualification- the Rabbit books comprise "the great American novel" of the post-war, White, middle-class, United States of America. There are many worthy contenders, with different qualifications of course: An American Tragedy, The Ambassadors, The Custom of the Country, The Crossing, Revolutionary Road, As I Lay Dying and Sabbath's Theater are some which spring to mind without looking at the bookshelves.

What say you?

A 1/2 dozen picks from SFJazz's 30th annual festival

Buika. CAMI photo.

As usual, SFJazz presents a tempting array of diverse artists spanning multiple genres- it's hardly strictly just jazz. There are 28  different shows this year- and while it would be easy to select twelve, selecting almost half the schedule seems gratuitous, so I've narrowed it down to a 1/2 dozen. I'm passing on some huge names- Branford Marsalis, Ornette Coleman, and Gilberto Gil among them, and focusing instead for the most part on shows I think will be rewarding or different enough to take a risk on checking out. This leaves out many of the "traditional" jazz concerts on this year's schedule, but I'm betting there'll be plenty of those to check out when the SFJazz Center new building opens next year, on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (January 21st), 2013.

The picks are in order of preference, starting at the top:

The Robert Glasper Experiment  November 1
Listen to Robert Glasper for just a few minutes and it becomes obvious he's absorbed a lot of music on a profoundly deep level. His last SFJazz show was one of the best concerts I saw all year and I'm looking forward to his return in support of his excellent recent album, Black Radio. He fronts two bands, and this one leans toward a harder, hip-hop influenced sound. Casey Benjamin is along on the sax, Mark Colenburg takes the drums (why no Chris Dave this time around?) and the formidable Derrick Hodge anchors on bass.

Buika  November 16
One of NPR's "50 Great Voices," the MaJorcan native (pronounced "BWEE-kah") appeared in Almodovar's last film and has recently released a double album titled En Mi Piel- a fusion of Spanish, Roma, flamenco and jazz influences. She's collaborated with Cucho Valdez, Chick Corea and Anoushka Shankar, Seal and Nelly Furtado to name just a few. Heading West after completing a four-night stand at NY's Blue Note Cafe for her first SFJazz gig, she's come a long way from her days impersonating Tina Turner in Vegas.

Marc Ribot and David Hidalgo  October 24
This description from SFJazz sounds really enticing, and Hildago is an incredibly talented and versatile musician: 

The West Coast debut of the Border Music project brings together two supremely cosmopolitan guitarists, Marc Ribot and David Hidalgo, the latter of Los Lobos fame. As lead guitarist and vocalist of the legendary East LA band, Hidalgo has been a creative force straddling the border of rock, R&B, cumbia, Tex-Mex and country for four decades. Ribot, meanwhile, is a celebrated denizen of New York’s wild and wooly “Downtown” scene, where his Los Cubanos Postizos (The Prosthetic Cubans) devised ingeniously bent arrangements of classic Arsenio Rodriguez tunes. In creating the Border Music project, Ribot and Hidalgo have mashed up their two primary bands, with Los Lobos drummer Cougar Estrada joining Ceramic Dog bassist Shahzad Ismaily, keyboardist Anthony Coleman and percussionist EJ Rodriguez. The amalgam is rootsy and mercurial, thoughtful, soulful and hugely entertaining.

Sounds good to me.
Sonny Rollins  September 30
He's Sonny Rollins. Enough said.

Eliane Elias  October 19
SFJazz brings the Brazilian-born New Yorker to town in support of her new album Swept Away, a collaboration with bassist Marc Johnson, who'll be joining Elias onstage with Rubens de la Corte on guitar and Rafael Barata on drums for a night of smoldering bossa nova.

Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers  November 10
The first time I saw and heard Lavay Smith was in the upstairs room of the now-defunct Paradise Lounge, a long, long time ago. I had never seen anything quite like her. Here was a woman of the moment singing the sounds of the past and doing it with authority, authenticity, a whole lot of sass and no small amount of sex appeal. All these years later, the lady and her band are still going strong, and have only gotten better with time.

Christian Tetzlaff shreds my stats



Christian Tetzlaff. Photo by Matthew J. Lee of the Boston Globe

 Thanks to a profile in the August 27 issue of The New Yorker (well worth reading, btw), my post from January about Christian Tetzlaff's stunning performance of Ligeti's Violin Concerto with the SF Symphony has been read quite a bit in the last week. This might be a good time to make sure you don't miss his next Bay Area appearance when he returns on February 12 to perform works by Bartók, Ysaÿe, Kurtág, Paganini, and J. S. Bach. The solo recital will take place at Berkeley's First Congregational Church and is presented as part of Cal Performances Koret Recital Series.

A dozen picks from Cal Performance's 2012-13 season

Esa-Pekka Salonen. Photo by David Fray.

Talk about an abundance of riches- Cal Performances is offering more than 60 different programs this year and truly have something for every age and taste. There are visiting circus troupes, theater, dance and ballet companies, orchestras, musicians, and singers from around the world. Despite the attempt to judiciously narrow down the list of contenders in a second pass through the schedule, two dozen choices still remained. What to do? I decided to go with a mix of performers I've never seen and those whose past performances make me loathe the idea of missing the chance to see them again. Such a methodology leaves out a lot- it's so haphazard. It will certainly result in omissions that will embarrass me later. To mitigate that embarrassment I'm going to hedge just a bit and list the top 12 in my own personal order of preference, and then include another dozen in no particular order that I would certainly see if I could. Even stretching the rules to this extreme there shall remain omissions that you, dear reader, would include in your own top 12. But it's my list, and if you're so compelled, the comments section awaits you to add yours.

I've decided not to include what should unequivocally take the number one spot on the list (and is probably the major event of the performing arts season throughout the entire Bay Area, if not the state), because if you don't already have a ticket for Einstein on the Beach you are just about out of luck- at the time of this writing there were only six or seven seats left for the entire run. I'm also not including what would be my third choice, which is the return of the Ojai North! festival next June under the artistic direction of Mark Morris. These performances should be considered a "must" for any classical music enthusiast (and the program has yet to be announced).

Here's the dozen, starting at the top:

Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra  November 9,10 & 11
Salonen leads the British orchestra in three different programs: the first night features his own Helix, Beethoven's 7th, and Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique. The second night is Berg's Wozzeck. The third night is a performance of Mahler's 9th. I would see all three- but if I had to prioritize it would be Wozzeck first, then Mahler, and finally Beethoven. But I'd hate to miss any of it.

The Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra: Swan Lake  October 10-14
This should really not require any explanation, but if you've never seen Swan Lake, you should, and why not see it performed by some of the world's most renowned (and many would argue best) dancers?

Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott  January 24
A musician who needs no introduction, a concert guaranteed to sell out, get a ticket- the program for this evening of duos is a small miracle in its alluring grouping of Stravinksy, de Falla, Brahms, Messiaen and more. If you have never seen Yo-Yo Ma perform before, you really should. Really.

Christian Tetzlaff   February 12
Tetzlaff, a truly interesting musician recently profiled in The New Yorker (Aug. 27, 2012), returns to the Bay Area in this solo recital featuring works by Bartók, Ysaÿe, Kurtág, Paganini, and J. S. Bach. His last local performance (with the SF Symphony) was stunning. Not to be missed. 

Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra   March 17
Hate the name all you want, but this is the biggest jazz event of the season.

Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela  November 29 & 30
Conductor, music director, & sex symbol Gustavo Dudamel brings 200 of his El Sistema charges to the U.S. to perform ¡MUSICA!, two programs featuring music from Latin American composers Chávez, Orbón, and Revueltas on night the first, followed by works from Benzecry, Villa-Lobos, and Estevan on the next. Though I haven't seen Dudamel conduct these performers, just about everyone I know who has raves about their performances. 

Les 7 Doigtsde la Main Circus (The Seven Fingers of the Hand Circus)  May 3-5
The Canadian cirque nouveau troupe brings their fourth production, PSY to Berkeley, which the Boston Herald described "is like having the front row seat to someone else's fever dream. Les 7 Doigts raises the bars on what cirque nouveau can do- not just physically, but emotionally."

Nicolas Hodges  January 27
Hodges returns for another provocative and intriguing recital featuring the world premiere of Harrison Birtwistle's Gigue Machine alongside works by Mozart, Debussy and Stravinsky.

The Calder Quartet performs Nancarrow   November 3
Cal Performances, in collaboration with Other Minds, celebrates the music of Conlon Nancarrow (1912-1997) in his 100th birthday year. The remarkable Calder Quartet performs Nancarrow's string quartets, as part of a weekend of performances celebrating Nancarrow's incredible, unexpected, and visionary musical voice. To quote Frank Zappa on Nancarrow's music: "The stuff is fantastic...You've got to hear it." 

Composer Portrait: Esa-Pekka Salonen  November 8
I say go "all in" during the Finn's visit and attend this performance of works composed by Salonen performed by pianist Gloria Chang and others during an evening which also features a discussion between the composer and Cal Performances' director Matias Tarnopolsky.

Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour  January 19
Celebrating 55 years of the festival by taking some great performers on the road, the line-up for this show is about as close to a guaranteed night of great music as can be had, featuring vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater, Christian McBride on bass, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, Benny Green on the drums, sax player Chris Potter, and Lewis Nash on drums.

The Secret Garden  March 1-3,9,10
A collaboration between Cal Performances and San Francisco Opera, this is the world premiere of Nolan Gasser and Carey Harrison's adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's children's novel. Cast TBA. Sung in English and suitable for the entire family.

The other highly worthwhile dozen (in no particular oder): Theatre de la Ville's production of Ionesco's Rhinoceros, Mummenschanz, the Delfeayo Marsalis Octect, Mark Morris Dance Group's The Hard Nut, Joffrey Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca, Mohammed Reza Shajarian, Simon Trpčeski, Susanna Phillips, Eric Owens, Australian Chamber Orchestra.

And don't forget Free For All, a day long event of free performances of all types and for all ages, taking place across the UC Berkeley campus on Sunday, September 30. More than two dozen companies will be performing, including Kronos Quartet, Cypress String Quartet, harpsichordist Davitt Moroney, pianist Shai Wosner, carillonist Jeff Davis and the University Chorus and Symphony. Jazz musicians will include saxophonist George Brooks, Brazilian pianist Marcos Silva and Intersection, Pamela Rose’s Wild Women of Song and multiple performances by the UC Jazz Ensembles. Theatrical performances will be given by Eth-Noh-Tec Asian-American Story Theater, Shotgun Players, storyteller Dianne Ferlatte and accompanist Erik Pearson, shadow puppeteer Daniel Barash and UC Berkeley’s Department of Theater, Dance & Performance Studies. A wide variety of ethnic traditions will be on display by the Lily Cai Chinese Dance Company, Chitresh Das Dance Company performing kathak dance from India, San Francisco-based Gamelan Sekar Jaya, the University’s Gamelan Sari Raras, Kitka singing Eastern European songs and San Francisco Taiko Dojo performing Japanese drumming. All performances and events are free.

Phew.

Merola 2012: still smoking

Elizabeth Baldwin, soprano.

This year's Merola Grand Finale featured 23 singers performing selections from 19 operas over the course of  nearly 3 hours. Despite the mammoth proportions, the concert felt largely seamless and for the most part flew by. Credit that to the abundant talent on the stage, a consistently engaged performance by the San Francisco Opera Orchestra under conductor Nicholas McGegan, and especially the mostly thoughtful staging of it all by director Jennifer Williams, which looked great on the set of San Francisco Opera's upcoming production of Moby Dick.

The first stand-out performance of the night was Erin Johnson's clear, bright turn as the Female Chorus in "Their spinning wheel unwinds dreams" from Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, but then Sarah Mesko and Casey Candebat performed "Ah! Mon courage m'abondonne..." from Massenet's Werther and a greater intensity began to emanate from the stage. Both singers projected an air of being ready for the War Memorial stage, and while Candebat may have gotten the slightly larger amount of the first sustained applause of the night, I thought Mesko burned a bit brighter. Either way, it was an impressive pairing, as were Jennifer Cherest (in an arresting gown) and Andrew Stenson who immediately followed them in "Mein Freund. Vrenunft!" from Lehar's Die lustige Witwe, though this could have been even better if Stenson spent more of his time singing to Cherest rather than the audience.

The second half of the concert got off to a very strong start with Suzanne Rigden (showing off a pair of fantastic shoes) and Aviva Fortunata sounding beautiful together in "Ich danke Fraulein..." from Struass' Arabella. Theo Lebow joined Cherest to impress the audience in "Voglio amar e disamar" from Handel's Alcina- the soprano's second marvelous turn of the night, accompanied by a memorable cello solo from the pit.

Joshua Baum, Seth Mease Carico and Gordon Bitner succeeded with the "Pappataci" number from Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri,  working well as an ensemble to nail the song's comedic elements. Chuanyue Wang, perhaps the most gifted tenor in this year's group, impressed with Donizetti's "Povero Ernesto!" from Don Pasquale, though one suspects he could have done even more with a stronger selection. He was followed by Elizabeth Baldwin's turn as Medora singing "Egli non riede ancora!" from Verdi's Il Corsaro in arguably the best vocal performance of the evening. Baldwin brought it all- a large, clear voice, great diction, and stage presence. Expect big things from her.

She was followed by the most delightful pairing of the evening: spunky and bright-voiced Rose Sawvel and Joseph Lattanzi in a sexy, bawdy, laughter-inducing performance of the "ZZZ Song," or more properly known as the "Duo de la mouche" from Offenbach's Orphee aux Enfers.

"Bevo al tuo fresco" from Puccini's La Rondine closed the evening and featured the entire group in the chorus (it was a nice touch to include the non-singing participants from the program here)- a perfect, elegant choice.

The only sour note was the decision to have singers smoking cigarettes during at least three of numbers, which is just ridiculous and lazy stage direction in the year 2012. Surely there are more interesting ways of illustrating a character than this? Rather than say anything about the character, all it does is pull the audience out of the moment, screaming that the singers themselves are showing a character, not portraying one, because not one could convince a single soul they do indeed, smoke. So stop the smoking onstage already- it's an outdated, overused cliche that works against the singer's performance. And it looks stupid.

Compliance

Dreama Walker in Compliance

Perception is a funny thing.

What would be your response if a stranger came up to you on the street and asked, "Would you want to watch a movie about a girl being sexually humiliated?"

What if someone you know intimately asked, "Do you want to watch a girl being sexually humiliated?"

And finally, would you willingly witness a girl being sexually humiliated? Now I'm asking you this question, directly.

Does your answer differ depending on how you perceive the question or who is asking the question?

Would your answer differ if the humiliation of the girl was used in a film, rationalized as a convenient vehicle through which other important or relevant questions about societal norms are raised?

If you answered "Yes," "Maybe," or "It depends" to the first or third question, or if your answer changes because it's "just a movie" then perhaps you may find justification for sitting through the entire length of Craig Zobel's film "Compliance."

I couldn't, and didn't.

Not because it disturbed me (I expected- even wanted it to be, disturbing), but because I didn't want to comply with what the director asks from the audience, which is essentially: "Watch this movie about a girl being sexually humiliated in the name of art." Or social commentary. Or even worse, entertainment.

I appreciate extreme cinema and admire filmmakers who are willing to push, even smash, the boundaries of what's considered acceptable. A Serbian Film, Irreversible, I Stand Alone, and Martyrs are examples of films that ask a lot of their viewers and take them to some really horrible places. I don't believe films like these are meant to be enjoyed so much as respected, discussed, and even admired (or in some cases, like Gaspar Noe's Enter the Void, simply endured). There's usually some level of artistic or social merit to be found even in the meanest exploitation, torture-porn or grind house film, however small or inconsequential, and let's admit that it's usually the latter. Even in films with no obvious artistic or social merit, there's still the undeniable entertainment value of a mean thriller like Se7en or a nasty scare like A Nightmare on Elm Street, even if it's not your cup of tea. It's unreasonable (or ignorant) to deny that cathartic pleasures and meta-commentary can be found in the Saw films, Catherine Breillat's oeuvre, or the highest-grossing torture-porn movie ever made, The Passion of the Christ. Just because you may not like it doesn't mean it isn't there.

However, there are some films without any of these qualities whatsoever. They can't be justified. They can't be rationalized. Like child pornography, they exist for no other reason other than there's a market for it. Once in awhile I get fooled into thinking a film is going to be something other than what it is. I sit down expecting to experience a thrill, or a scare, and I'm not opposed to feeling traumatized (A Serbian Film) or pummeled (Requiem for a Dream). Bring it on- I can take it. But instead of experiencing any of those reactions I'm sitting there watching the movie and slowly I start to feel like a sleazebag. Like I'm complicit in something really nasty. Complicit in creating a market for something that has no redeeming value whatsoever. That I'm actively participating in the most base human behavior possible by providing my tacit approval in agreeing to watch what is being portrayed onscreen. Only a handful of films have left me feeling this way, including The Girl Next Door (in my opinion the most reprehensible piece of trash ever filmed) and Hitchcock's masterpiece of misogyny, Frenzy.

Where's the line? I guess it's one of perception. Many consider A Serbian Film to cross the line of what's acceptable. Certainly what's portrayed in that film is vile and the fact that the audience is watching it onscreen feels beyond the pale while it's happening. But the fact that the characters in the film are caught in a web of circumstances controlled by forces greater than they can comprehend drives the film's narrative power, as it does in Martyrs. The characters are victims, to be sure, but they're not stupid, willing victims, and there's power in that kind of narrative, no matter how bleak or horrific the story or plot.

In Compliance the audience is forced to watch characters who are stupid do stupid things, and then do vile things because they're too stupid to know any better (at least in the hour I watched before bailing). During the screening I attended, someone in the audience yelled out "No one is that stupid!" and I'd have to agree. In fact, that's probably a mantra entire audiences will repeat silently to themsleves while watching the film, and perhaps the film's palpable tension comes from waiting for one of the characters, any character, to wise-up. My question is, what are you willing to watch while waiting for that moment to come, especially if there isn't the slightest inkling that it will? The sexual humiliation of a young, ignorant girl? I'm not. For me the tension was all about deciding if I wanted to continue to watch. Did I want to be complicit?

In the film, 19 year-old Becky (Dreama Walker) works the counter at a fast food restaurant managed by the harried, drab, middle-aged Sandra (Ann Dowd). Sandra gets a call from a man impersonating a police officer claiming Becky stole money from a customer's purse. He goes on to explain the police can't come over just yet because they are at Becky's house investigating her brother's drug operation, so until they get there, they need Sandra's assistance in confirming Becky has stolen the money and to detain her until they arrive. Following the cop's instructions, Sandra conducts a strip search of Becky, which yields nothing because Becky hasn't actually done anything. In fact it's obvious from the impersonator's first words his story makes little sense, but Sandra, too dim-witted and distracted to stop and question the implausibility of it all, keeps agreeing to the increasingly invasive and obviously illegal requests from the "officer" on the other end of the line. Unable to find the money Becky has stolen, Sandra summons Van, her fiance who has been drinking all night, to the restaurant to take over Becky's detainment and follow the cop's orders while she goes back to managing the restaurant on a busy Friday night. When the buzzed Van is asked by the cop to tell Becky to remove the apron she's using to cover her now naked body with he complies. And she complies, because the cop tells her it's either agree to this or spend the night in jail. The choice is hers. She chooses to comply, and keeps complying, even though every 19 year-old must know that one is innocent until proven guilty and everyone who has completed high school should have heard the phrase "unlawful search and seizure" at least once- even if only during a TV show. At the point where Van is asked by the "officer" to describe what Becky's nipples look like, and after he hesitates for only a moment before complying with this absurd request, we decided it was time to bail. How much more did we need to see? We weren't the only walk-outs, either.

Compliance claims to be "inspired by true events." That's a pretty disturbing notion when you stop to unpack that little bit of information. Whatever really happened in real-life to "inspire" this film was certainly sad, and the psychology of the people involved could be fascinating, but why use it as the basis of a dramatic film? That would take some real skill to pull off and Zobel's script doesn't have it. The real-life circumstances that exist underneath the film's story- the abuse of power, people's blind willingness to submit to authority, the mind-set of victims, the perils of inadequate management in corporations, and sexual abuse in the workplace could all make riveting subjects. But Compliance, despite whatever you read, isn't really about any of those things because the script lacks that one crucial moment when someone tries to the right thing and fails, thus making the conclusion inevitable, however disturbing. Had this been attempted by at least one character (in the first hour at least), I may have stuck around. But it's not there. Not one of the major characters ring true.

There is nothing to watch but one girl's humiliation- one step at a time and while I could watch a documentary about sexual victimization, I have no interest in seeing it dramatized for its own sake. From what I could tell that's all Compliance really offers the audience. For me, it wasn't worth sticking around another 30 minutes to see if I was wrong- I already felt slimed enough and I'm not sure that even if the moment came that far into the film it would have made any difference at that point. In fact I know it wouldn't have.

A dozen picks from SF Performances 2012-13 season

Anne-Sophie Mutter

San Francisco Performances, the City's leading presenter of visiting artists, has some fantastic performers lined up this year, including three of the most prominent violinists in the world (who happen to be female).

The selections are listed in chronological order.

Jonathan Biss (piano), Mark Padmore (tenor), Carey Bell (clarinet), Scott St. John (viola)  October 4
Biss is a young pianist making a name for himself as a musician as well as a thoughtful writer. A featured artist this season, he brings four different programs and line-ups with him (headlining his own series) emphasizing the music of Schumann and his influence. All seem worthwhile, but the presence here of Carey Bell, Principal Clarinet of the San Francisco Symphony and a truly marvelous musician, makes this one a must. Program: Schumann: Märchnerzahlungen, Fantasy; Kurtag: Homage à Schumann; Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte

The Bad Plus  October 12
Reid Anderson, Ethan Iverson and David King comprise one of the most adventurous and intriguing jazz ensembles of the last decade. Rolling Stone magazine said they're "about as badass as highbrow gets." I wish I'd said that. Program: The West Coast Premiere of Rite of Spring (a re-working of Stravinsky's in celebration of its 100th anniversary) and other works.

Jean-Yves Thibaudet  November 4
Thibaudet has been on the scene for so long it's easy to take him for granted. At least I recently felt that way, and had only a marginal interest in seeing him perform with the Symphony last season. Well, I left that concert more impressed with Thibaudet than ever before, and I'm really looking forward to hearing him again in this solo recital featuring some of Debussy's most beautiful compositions. Program: Debussy: Préludes, Book II; Suite Bergamasque; Estampes; L'Isle joyeuse.

Kate Royal and Malcolm Martineau  November 10
In May of 2011 the soprano was to perform a program called "Lesson in Love" but it was cancelled for health reasons. Now she's returning to tell us "The Truth About Love," - a love story told through song featuring works by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Faure, Debussy, Bridge and Britten. She'll be accompanied by the excellent pianist Malcom Martineau.

Pavel Haas Quartet  November 13

Performances of Janáček's masterful first string quartet are rare enough, and though it was recently performed during last June's Ojai North! festival, here's an opportunity to hear it without any of the added distractions that concert featured. That's reason enough to go, but the scheduling of Beethoven's Op. 130, complete with Grosse Fugue, makes this an especially inviting program. Brahms' Quartet in A minor, Op. 51, No. 2 is also on the schedule.

Hilary Hahn and Valentina Lisitsa  February 9
Hahn and Lisitsa will perform Beethoven's Sonata No. 4 in A minor, Opus 23; Bach's: Sonata No. 2 in A minor for Solo Violin, BWV 1003 and selected shorts commisioned by Hahn from Mason Bates, David Lang, Edgar Meyer, Krzysztof Penderecki, Valentyn Silvestrov, Mark Anthony Turnage, Du Yun and others in the intimate Herbst Theatre. What more do you need to know?

Anne-Sophie Mutter and Lambert Orkis  March 4
Anne-Sophie returns to Davies Symphony Hall for the first time in four years to perform Lutoslawski's Partita; Schubert's Fantasie in C Major, D. 934; Previn's Sonata No. 2; and Saint Saens' Sonata for Violin and Piano in D minor, Op. 75. Again, what more do you need to know?

Jonathan Biss  March 17
Biss' solo recital features Schumann's Fantasiestücke, interspersed with selections from Janáček's On an Overgrown Path and Davidsbündlertänze. What this really means I'm not sure, but Berg's Sonata No. 1 is also on the program and it's always interesting to see this daunting work performed.

Midori  March 23 & 24
Midori performs Bach's Partitas and Sonatas for solo violin. The first evening features Sonatas 1 in G minor and 3 in C Major along with Partita No. 2 in D minor. The second features (yes, this is obvious, but still, for those who can't do the math, here it is-) Partitas No. 1 in B minor and No. 3 in E Major, along with Sonata No. 2 in A minor. Both evenings take place at St Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco.

Luciana Souza  March 30
The unique jazz singer is joined by Romero Lubambo on guitar in a program of Brazilan duos behind the release of Duos III, which commemorates her ten year journey through this musical terrain.

Philip Glass at 75: Koyaanisqatsi  May 26
Godfrey Reggio’s iconic film will be screened with a live performance of its soundtrack by the composer and his ensemble. A truly special event.

Finally, let me just say that if they weren't scheduled for Saturday mornings at 10:00 AM, the Alexander String Quartet's programs during San Francisco Performance's upcoming season could easily have taken up a third of the dozen picks through the combination of their formidable talent, the quality of their programs (Schubert and Britten are prominently featured this season), and the presence of historian/lecturer extraordinaire Robert Greenberg. But they are at 10:00 AM, and that's too early for me to include on this list (I follow my own arbitrary rules)- but if that doesn't sound too early to you, I bet they're going to be wonderful. 

Individual tickets go on sale August 20; series are on sale now. Single tickets may be purchased by calling the main box office at (415) 392-2545 or by visiting the website at sfperformances.org.

A dozen picks for the San Francisco Symphony's 2012-13 season

When the San Francisco Symphony announced their upcoming 2012-13 season back in early March just as the American Mavericks Festival getting underway, I thought the timing was certainly odd. Season announcements are big deals, yet the Symphony chose to do it just as one of the central events (perhaps the central event) of their centennial season was about to begin. It struck me as competing against one's self for attention. It didn't seem to draw a lot of attention or commentary from the usual channels. I took a quick perusal of it, thinking, not surprisingly, hmmm, can't compare to this year (but what could have?) and set it aside. A couple of months later, as the centennial was winding down, I took a second look, this time more in-depth, and was surprised to see discover how much of it I wanted to see- which was almost all of it. In fact, minus the Mavericks festival and visiting orchestras, the upcoming season looks about as good on paper as its predecessor, which is no small accomplishment. On top of that, it's probably the quirkiest schedule they've ever come up with, featuring some extremely alluring concerts that are only scheduled for one or two nights. This makes the task of coming up with a dozen top picks for next season quite difficult. In years past the season was made up of 24 different programs, plus the chamber series, Great Performers, and holiday concerts. Next year there are 37 (at last count- it still seems to be changing) to choose from, plus the usual extras, of which there seem to be even more than usual. It's almost too much to ponder. To complicate things further, after combing through the schedule a few times there are at best only a half-dozen programs that I would skip (due to the music or the conductor featured on the program). That makes it pretty difficult for the average concert-goer, who might attend 3 to 6 performances during the season, to decide on what to attend. I guess that's a good problem to have, but still- I had serious trouble narrowing it down to twelve.

For example, some people will be torn between the October 31st and the November 1st and 2nd concerts. Both feature Rachmaninoff's 2nd Symphony. But the Halloween gig has Yuja Wang peforming Prokofiev's 2nd piano concerto while the other nights feature Lang Lang playing Bartok's 2nd instead. It's an easy choice for me (Yuja), but I'd still feel like I was missing out one way or the other and I'm sure the folks who choose Lang might also feel conflicted. There are two versions of an all-Stravinsky program featuring The Rite of Spring, both for two nights only, one features Agon and Gil Shaham performing the Violin Concerto, the other has Les Noces and a Russian folk ensemble. I'd want to see both versions, but not back-to-back performances of The Rite of Spring. The Missa Solemnis returns for a mulligan, and for only two nights. Renée Fleming comes into town sing French composers, and Susan Graham joins her for one night only in a different, all-French program. Then there are the "regular" subscription concerts, which also offer plenty to choose from this year.

There's also a healthy dose of Beethoven this year, which in my opinion is never a bad thing, and a great selection of standard rep performed by some world-class soloists and conductors. For relative newcomers to the Symphony and staunch lovers of the "three Bs" and standard rep, this is a fantastic year to splurge and see as much as you can. Yet there's also plenty for those whose ears crave new or more obscure music. All in all, there's a lot to look forward to this year at Davies.

So, with just a couple of exceptions, I'm leaving most of the odd-ducks mentioned above out of contention and selecting mostly picks from the subscription programs, meaning they'll be performed at least three nights. They appear in chronological order and it's just coincidence the majority of them appear in the season's second half.

MTT conducts Mahler's Fifth  September 28-30
Just when you think MTT has shown us just about everything he can possibly do with Mahler, he proves how wrong that assumption is- last year's performance of Mahler's 3rd was one of the very best concerts I've ever witnessed. At this point it might be considered foolish to miss a performance of Mahler's work led the conductor who can arguably lay claim as its most persuasive living interpreter. The West Coast premiere of Samuel Carl Adams' Drift and Providence is also on the program.

Vladimir Jurowski conducts Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, featuring Khatia Buniatishvili, Elena Zaremba, and Andrey Breus  October 18-20
The Principal Conductor of the London Phil makes debut with the orchestra in a program featuring the Georgian Buniatishvili playing the Rach 2nd (which is reason enough to go), but the main event is the U.S. premiere of Levon Atovmyan's arrangement  of Prokofiev's Ivan the Terrible, which the SFS hasn't performed since 1979, as well as the SFS's first performances of Scriabin's Reverie.

MTT and Yuja Wang  October 31st
Yuja performs Prokofiev's 2nd Piano Concerto and MTT leads the orchestra in Rachmaninoff's 2nd Symphony. On Nov. 1st and 2nd, Wang is replaced by Lang Lang performing Bartok's 2nd Piano Concerto, again with Rach's 2nd Symphony. Kinda strange, especially when you add in the concert of October 27th, when Yuja performs Rach's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and the orchestra plays an encore of the Mahler 5th. Confused? Just go on Halloween (assuming you can score a ticket).

MTT and Yefim Bronfman  December 5-8
My personal favorite at the keys, Bronfman's local performances these past years have been consistently stunning. He returns to Davies to play Beethoven's Emperor Concerto. This is a bit of a disappointment because Fima was supposed to perform a new work by Jorg Widmann, but word is it won't be ready on time, so we get the Emperor instead. I can easily live with that. Also on the program is the world premiere of Assistant Concertmaster Mark Volkert's Pandora and R. Strauss' tone poem Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks.

MTT and Renée Fleming  January 10, 12, 13
It's Renée Fleming. That's really all you need to know.
And on January 16 it's Renee Fleming and Susan Graham singing French stuff accompanied by Bradley Moore. Like Christmas, only better.

MTT and Yuja Wang  March 6-9
Yuja returns for Beethoven's 4th Piano Concerto, my favorite of the five. Also on the program are Berio's Eindrucke and Brahms' First Symphony. This year features a lot of Yuja and a lot of Beethoven. That's a good thing-especially when it's at the same time.

MTT conducts Mahler's 9th  March 14-17
See comments above for Mahler's 5th. Then get a ticket to hear this.

Blomstedt conducts Wagner, Beethoven and Lidholm  April 11-14
Last season Blomstedt lead truly great performances during his two weeks at the podium. This year he's conducting core rep and modern classics. These concerts, featuring the Eroica symphony, the Prelude from Tristan un Isolde (perhaps the greatest fifteen minutes of music ever written) and Ingvar Lindholm's last twelve tone work from 1963, just may be the one I'm most looking forward to hearing.

Blomstedt and Julia Fischer  April 17-20
The second week of Blomstedt's visit features Fischer as the soloist for Beethoven's Violin Concerto and Nielsen's Symphony No. 5 by one of the composer's best interpreters. This will be a night of incredibly rich music.

Christoph Eschenbach and Matthias Goerne  April 25-27
Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1 is a draw unto itself, and there also the ever-popular From the New World by Dvořák, but the real attraction here is Goerne, whose recitals last year drew raves from coast-to-coast. I missed his last local performance, but won't make that mistake again. He'll be singing "Die Frist is um" from The Flying Dutchman and Wotan's Farewell from Die Walküre. 

MTT conducts Beethoven's Missa Solemnis  May 10, 11
Last year this didn't quite work. Let's try it again.

West Side Story in concert  June 27-30, July 2
I don't even care that the cast hasn't been announced yet. Nothing would keep me from seeing this one. Nothing.

Tickets are now on sale for all concerts. Call (415) 864-6000 or buy them online.

La finta giardiniera

Jacqueline Piccolino and Theo Lebow. Photo by Kristen Loken

Hmm. Let's see if I can remember it all: attempted rape; attempted homicide; two lovers receive electro-shock therapy; a quintuple homicide; mistaken identities galore; an orgy in a wood including a woman dressed as a raccoon; constant cigarette smoking; attempted suicide by hari-kari; singing zombies. All that and a happy ending, too. Who said opera is dull stuff?

I'm not sure Mozart envisioned these kinds of things unfolding onstage when he composed La finta giardiniera at the age of eighteen, but he surely did the set the stage when he decided to create an opera about a woman who can't get over a man who stabbed her in the chest and then left her for dead. Glenn Close, I mean Sandrina, then stalks, sorry, she then masquerades as a gardener to keep tabs on the fine fellow- a poobah named Clount Belfiore, whose sights are now set on society gal Arminda, who has promised she would give it up to Ramiro but is now reneging on that deal because she's rather be with Scott Peterson, I mean Belfiore. Meanwhile, Sandrina has to fend off her lecherous boss the mayor, who in turn is desired by his nursemaid, who in turn is longed for by Sandrina's manservant, who expresses his desire in three languages.

Wait. Sandrina has a manservant? Yes, of course she does, because our battered-woman-heroine, now pretending to be a garden girl, is actually a noblewoman named Violante. Of course she is, right? I mean a woman without means who was stabbed and left for dead would probably just become Moll Flanders or something in real-life and that would make for a boring opera, unless it's La Traviata or Lulu, neither of which are about any such thing but you can imagine such an incident as a plausible back story for either.

So yeah- the story's a total mess and the bizarre choices made by Director by Nicholas Muni certainly don't help, but I can empathize with his plight because honestly I don't know what anyone could do with La finta to make it coherent. I suppose going for an incomprehensible, Amero-trash kind of production makes sense in that light, and that's pretty much what was delivered. How else can you explain why  half the cast pointlessly smokes cigarettes during the production?

This would have been an almost thankless outing as a showcase for the Merola Opera Program's singers if not for Mozart's music, which even at this early stage showed traces of the brilliance which would show up later in Cosi and Don Giovanni.

Jacqueline Piccolino was outstanding as Arminda, making her impact felt immediately and sustaining it through the long night. It took Jennifer Cherest awhile to overcome the odd arc of the title character, but she gave a wonderful performance in the final act, especially in the odd duet with Theo Lebow's Belfiore. Lebow also managed to overcome the weirdness of his character, managing to turn the attempted murderer into a sympathetic lover. Sara Mesko was so convincing in the trouser of Ramiro I thought we may have been hearing a countertenor at first, which is especially odd since she's a mezzo. Rose Sawvel's Serpetto was a delightful, spunky, well-sung spitfire. Casey Candebat handled his assignment as the stock buffoon with aplomb, as did Gordon Bitner as Nardo, the most thankless role in the opera. The singers combined effectively in the ensembles and all managed to transcend the oddities of Muni's production and Mozart's muddle of a libretto to deliver solid performances.

Gary Thor Wedow conducted and though the acoustics of the Cowell Theatre can be a challenge, like some of the chatty audience members on this particular night, the music sounded appropriately paced. The Cowell's chorus of seagulls managed to be held at bay until the final act, when their presence suddenly made a significant impact to the spectacle of watching an electrocution.

Searching for Sugar Man

Rodriguez. Know the name? Probably not, but that's about to change.

Some things are known about him. Much is not. Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore discovered Rodriguez playing in Detroit bars, and comparing him to Dylan, secured a record contract and produced his first album, Cold Fact in 1970. Coming From Reality  followed in 1971. Both were expected to do well critically and commercially, but flopped with the public. After those disappointments, what exactly became of Rodriguez is something of a mystery, though apparently he largely dropped out of the music scene, worked as a manual laborer in his native Detroit, and had a family. During this absence from the public eye, bootlegged copies of his records came to be widely disseminated in South Africa. Somehow, a Mexican-American electric folkie's music came to represent the political and cultural aspirations of Afrikaners opposed to apartheid, and though barely anything was known about Rodriguez (the country didn't even have broadcast television during this era), his music became incredibly popular.

In 1991 both records were released officially in that country. A few years later one of Rodriguez's daughters stumbled upon a website dedicated to him run by a South African fan named Steve "Sugar" Segerman, who had been trying to learn what became of the singer, now a cultural icon in that country. Contact was soon established and in 1998 Rodriguez went to South Africa for the first time for a successful tour which drew large, adoring audiences.

This is the story told in Malik Bendjelloul's documentary Searching for Sugar Man, which focuses on Segerman's search and the resulting trip to South Africa. Bendjelloul also interviews Coffey and Theodore, whose enthusiasm for Rodriguez's music remains palpable forty years later, as does their disappointment that he never reached a wider audience at home. Also interviewed are the record label executives behind the original American releases and their re-release in South Africa. In the U.S. the album was released on Sussex- a lable run by Clarence Avant which folded in the mid 70's. Avant claims to have no idea where the money from the South African sales went, though the South African label says the royalties were paid to Sussex. While Avant is pressed hard in the film to the point where his responses grow testy, his South African counterpart is largely left off the hook to answer for where all the money from an album that went platinum. The film makes it clear that Rodriguez, who has lived in the same grubby, run-down apartment for over forty years, never got any of it.

Searching for Sugar Man certainly creates an aura of mystery around Rodriguez and whets the viewer's appetite for more of his music- and for more details of his story, which never arrive. It raises a whole host of questions it never answered in the film: Where did the money go? Why did Rodriguez stop making music? Who is the mother of these daughters and what was this family like? Why does no one speak of her? What are these dark things the daughters are alluding to about their father's personality? What are his plans for the future? Who is this guy? But the fact that one wants to know more about his subject is a sign of success for the filmmaker.

Do we need to know these things in order for the film to work? No, it works well enough on the strength of Rodriguez's music, the nature of the story, and its adherence to a classic narrative arc. Bendjelloul knows what he's doing. But that internet thing, which was responsible for connecting the artist to an audience without which he would have known nothing about, poses problems, as I suspect almost everyone who sees this film is going to go online after watching it to learn more about its subject. There they will find  Bendjelloul has left out some noteworthy parts of the story. A lot of parts actually, which in retrospect make the film seem slightly disingenuous in how it presents its subject's career. Does that change the quality or merit of the film itself? I'll let you decide how you feel about that, but would strongly suggest you look up Rodriguez's career after seeing the film, and only suggest a more comprehensive approach, including the missing chapters from its subject's career, could have made a good film into a great one- and that's a cold fact.

For the most part Rodriguez's music has held up incredibly well. To coincide with the film's release, Rodriguez is about to embark on a U.S. tour, which wraps up on September 29 at Bimbo's in San Francisco. Tickets are on sale now for what could be a very intriguing show. The film's soundtrack is now available on Sony, or you can hear the original Sussex albums on MOG.