SFJazz & San Francisco Performances 2013-14: a dozen picks

The Bad Plus. Photo by Cameron Witting.

SFJazz and San Francisco Performances have shared many of the same venues over the years, and many artists have appeared on both rosters. This year is no different, as the Herbst Theater goes dark for seismic retrofitting and other changes, San Francisco Performances moves into new places, and this season finds many of their concerts taking place inside SFJazz's new hall. The two organizations have different missions, styles and audiences, but both are equally committed to bringing the best performers from around the world to the local audience. Here are twelve concerts and performances culled from both of their schedules which will no doubt please music and dance lovers:

Robert Glasper Experiment. Oct. 18 (2 shows)
Glasper is one of the most interesting young jazz musicians on the scene right now. His exceptional technique combined with his deep knowledge of musical idioms and the ability to incorporate them makes him a rewarding artist to check out. The last time I saw him he ended up on my best of the year list.

Esperanza Spalding, Geri Allen, & Terri Lynn Carrington. Oct. 24 (2 shows)
Spalding may be the most famous member of this trio, aka ACS, but she's matched at every level by Allen and Carrington. Should be a tour de force.

Eddie Palmieri. 11/29-12/1
The pianist rolls into town for three nights with multiple formats and line-ups. All will undoubtedly be cooking. It's up to you to choose how spicy you want it: one show on 11/29 with the EP Septet with Donald Harrison and Eddie Cuber; Salsa party? There are two shows with the septet on 11/30, reserved and dancefloor seating available. Choose the dance floor, of course because nobody can set a groove on fire like Palmieri. On 12/1 he performs with Alfredo de la Fe and Joe Locke, along with the sextet version of the band.

Wayne McGregor Random Dance. Jan 17-19
Choreographer/Director/Tech Magician Wayne McGregor’s astounding company returns to SF Performances with an evening-length tour-de-force for ten dancers that blurs the lines between live performance, philosophy and real-time technology. FAR features a superbly hip score by Brian Eno collaborator Ben Frost and an ambitious set featuring 3,200 computerized LED penlights. As with his other works, a cognitive research process informed FAR’s creation, sparked by the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment.

Heidi Melton. Jan. 26
The local favorite and rising international star comes home to sing songs by Berlioz, Haydn, Heggie and Horowitz. Her voice is so strong that if you sit up front I guarantee you will feel the air around you moving as she sings.

Alina Ibragimova & Cedric Tiberghien. Feb. 15
This intriguing duo will perform Mozart's Sonata in G Major, KV 301 and Sonata in E minor, KV 304; Cage's Six Melodies: Webern's Four Pieces, Opus 7, and Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata. The Kreutzer is what draws me to this one. I'm always interested in hearing it performed, especially by a man and a woman. Tolstoy's tale sticks with me I guess.

Stephen Petronio Company. March 14, 15
The mythology of resurrection has inspired innovative New York dance-maker and SF Performances favorite Stephen Petronio to create a new evening-length work with composer Son Lux and visual artist Janine Antoni. Petronio’s hallmark is a visceral collision of movement, music, visual art and fashion that come together in vividly sensual performance landscapes that are “unlike anything offered by other contemporary choreographers.” (The New York Times)

Hugh Masekela. March 25, 26
The South African horn player comes to town to celebrate his 75th birthday. Hearing him play "Grazing in the Grass" will make me a happy person. Everything after that is just a bonus, but I'd be surprised if this didn't end up being an exceptionally great evening of music.

Brad Mehldau Trio. April 5
If the Keith Jarrett Trio are the elder statesmen of the trio format, these guys are its next great generation. Will definitely sell out early.

Stefan Jackiw & Anna Polonsky. April 13
Here's some hype: "This is a young violinist whose artistry has been acclaimed as 'striking for its intelligence and sensitivity' (Boston Globe) and 'playing that’s off the scale'(Washington Post). Stefan Jackiw's performance of the Mendelssohn Concerto at the Sydney Opera House was seen by more than 30 million viewers on YouTube. Not yet 30 years old, he has been catching ears and turning heads in the music world for more than a decade and has been favorably compared to the young Perlman and Stern." I know next to nothing about these two except for what I've read in the press but the program they've scheduled is probably the most interesting I've seen this year, so yes, definitely. I want to check this out: Mozart's Violin Sonata in B-flat Major, K. 378; Lutoslowski's Partita; Saariaho's Nocturne; and Brahms' Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Opus 108.

Stephanie Blythe. May 3
Blythe is a force of nature and she's singing a program dedicated to American music with Warren Jones, one of the best collaborative pianists in the business. There are a lot of recitals to see this year, but none I want to hear more than this one.

The Bad Plus. May 8-11
Standing outside Hertz Hall last summer getting ready to hear this trio perform Stravisnky's Rite of Spring during the Ojai North! Festival this past summer I met a man who told me he never, ever misses a show by this band. When the performance was over, I too, was completely converted. These guys are brilliant and they kick ass.

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.

Leif Ove Andsnes

Leif Ove Andsnes. Photo by Felix Broede.

Leif Ove Andsnes returned to San Francisco Thursday night for a solo recital of music by Haydn, Bartok, Debussy and Chopin. Perfectly planned, the Norwegian pianist started off wonderfully with an expressive account Haydn's Piano Sonata in C minor and things got better as the night progressed. The Haydn sonata was an interesting, slightly odd, choice since they're relatively neglected among the composer's other works, but Andsnes made a case for why we should be hearing them more often (Haydn composed over 60 piano sonatas)- it sounded much more ahead of its time than I would have expected. Bartok's Suite for Piano, Opus 14, a four movement piece drawing on the composer's interest in folk music without really quoting any, presented a different vision of his work than that of the three piano concertos. The last piece of the first half was Debussy's Images Book 1. By the time Andsnes got to these three musical impressions of water, the work of Rameau, and movement, he'd won me over with his elegant and tasteful playing. Neither flamboyant nor stern, he performed like a man in love with a keyboard, coaxing from it what he wished with seeming ease  and pleasure.

He even made the difficult pieces of the all-Chopin second half look like a labor of love, though they're notoriously challenging. Andsnes played four waltzes followed by two Ballades with a Nocturne sandwiched in between the latter. The second waltz, in G-flat Major, Opus 70 No. 1, parts of which were later used in the ballet Les Sylphides, was was the highlight of the performance, though Andsnes performed impressively  throughout the set. Okay, the last Ballade (in G minor, Opus 23) was a little rushed, but that's the only quibble I have for the excellent, illuminating performance.

There were two encores- another waltz by Chopin, and then, oddly Grenados' "Andaluza," - a Spanish Dance that didn't quite fit the theme, though like everything else, it was marvelously played.

Patrick Vaz has a brilliant stream-of-conscious take on the evening here. The well-attended concert was presented by San Francisco Performances.

More, please! Joyce DiDonato, Jake Heggie, & the Alexander String Quartet perform Camille Claudel: Into the Fire

Camille Claudel

The Alexander String Quartet celebrated their 30th anniversary by sharing the limelight with others- a trait that probably plays no small part in their longevity as a performing ensemble. Long considered something of a "house band" for San Francisco Performances and San Francisco State University, they marked the occasion at a concert last night at the Herbst Theater which was simply brilliant. In the program notes Jake Heggie, composer of Dead Man Walking and Moby-Dick among other works, relates the story of how SF Performances' Ruth Felt asked him about composing a piece to mark the quartet's upcoming anniversary and how he then managed to involve mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and librettist Gene Scheer in the creation of a song cycle based on the story of Camille Claudel, about whom Heggie has been interested in creating an opera.

That was a fortuitous bit of networking, judging by last night's resulting program.

It began with Heggie accompanying DiDonato in Reynaldo Hahn's Venezia song cycle, which I heard Christopher Maltman perform just two weeks ago in the same theater. My thoughts on Maltman's recital were mixed, perhaps unenthusiastic, for a performer of obvious vocal abilities and for awhile I wondered if I had been unduly critical of the performance. DiDonato's performance re-assured me I was not- in fact after watching and hearing her sing the same material I think I may have been more generous to Maltman than his performance merited. DiDonato was completely engaged, continuously making eye-contact with seemingly everyone in the house from the moment she began, performing each song with a unique and distinct character, alternating between tenderness in one to bright sass in another. And her voice? Splendid. The last long, lovely legato note of "La Primavera" was gorgeous. Heggie looked like he enjoyed every moment of accompanying her, but more than that I can't say about his performance because DiDonato was so mesmerizing to watch and hear all I really noticed was his ear-to-grin at the conclusion of each song. There's a reason it's recently been said she's at the apex of her career and last night was evidence of it.

Then the Alexanders came onstage to perform Debussy's Sting Quartet in G minor. On paper this seemed like almost too-safe of a choice for the occasion, but they managed to uncover new tones within the familiar territory and delivered an impressively thoughtful performance. Cellist Sandy Wilson brought the morose tone of the first movement to the forefront and it colored everything in its wake. Violist Paul Yarbrough picked up the thread from Wilson in the second movement, adding a quizzical element, and the violins of Zakarias Grafilo and Frederick Lifsitz performed the pizzicato ending with exceptional finesse.

As a unit, they seemed intent to remove the "impressionist" sheen off the composer's reputation, especially in the Scherzo, which sounded uncharacteristically Romantic, and the fourth sounded almost Modernist. But every movement was performed with its own distinct emotional current, with the players cognizant of the themes occurring in each, yet treating each one as a unique entity. It's also the only time I've ever heard it where parts reminded me more than just a little of the late Beethoven quartets.

L to R: Zakarias Grafilo, Frederick Lifsitz, Jake Heggie, Joyce DiDonato, Paul Yarbrough, Sandy Wilson. Photo by Brian Byrne.

While the first half of the concert had been quite good to this point, what followed was truly exceptional. DiDonato and the Alexanders returned, with DiDonato placed in the center of the strings. Camille Claudel: Into the Fire is a song cycle which takes place on the day the title character is taken away to an asylum.  However, it feels much larger than that due to the brilliance of Gene Scheer's lyrics, which manage to convey a complete character arc in just six songs spread over thirty-five minutes (the seven songs include an instrumental). Each song title refers to a sculpture by Claudel (yes, she was a real person) except the last one, which is an epilogue to what's come before.

The devotion to inhabiting the lyrics she exhibited in the Venezia song cycle turned out to be just an appetizer compared to the fully developed character DiDonato brought to Camille Claudel. It made me long to see this work developed into a full-length opera as a vehicle for her.  Beginning with "Rodin," who was Claudel's lover and perhaps artistic rival, Heggie and Scheer have created a portrayal of a woman undone by her lover's abandonment and its subsequent destruction of her mind and soul. "La Valse" and "Shakuntala" carry the narrative forward, the first as lament and the second turning into a mini "mad scene" with an acapella ending which was chilling.

"La Petite Chatelaine" has Claudel turning the anger and rage of "La Valse" upon herself, her own identity cracking under the weight of remorse for the child she aborted at Rodin's request. The song is imbued with conflicted penitence, and while it's impressive on many levels, perhaps its most amazing quality is how the pleas of Claudel over her lost child never become maudlin. Instead, a moment of distinct discomfort is felt through the audience- as if we're complicit in the tragedy by being observers of the result.

Musically, "The Gossips" take the work to a heightened level of intensity as rivulets of notes descend like so many false accusations against Claudel's resigned admissions of "I know. I know." The drops keep falling, and the song closes with a sense of irretrievable loss.

Heggie wisely takes a step back emotionally at this point with an instrumental, "L'age Mur (Maturity)," a fugue begun by the viola, followed by cello, then the violins, evolving into one of the most memorable themes I've heard from a contemporary composer. The theme returns in full at the conclusion of the final song, "Epilogue: Jessie Liscomb visits Camille Claudel, Montevergues Asylum, 1929," which begins with a sprightly dance containing fragments of the theme weaving underneath. The lyrics of the song, and DiDonato's singing of them, are the inevitable conclusion of all that's come before as Claudel, now old and alone, happily receives a visit by an old friend which gives her an opportunity to reminisce, remember, and finally, to regret and submit.

Fantastic. Now can someone please commission an entire opera of this brilliant beginning?

Heggie, DiDonato and the Alexanders returned for an encore of Richard Strauss' "Morgen"- beautifully performed, but also a nice touch given that Heggie noted in the program how he remembered the superb performance of the piece given by this same quartet when he saw them perform for the first time twenty years ago.

An afternoon of epic Shostakovich

Alexander Melnikov. Photo by Mario Borggreve

Russian pianist Alexander Melnikov made his impressive local debut this afternoon in the concert hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with an epic performance of Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues. The ambitious program, rarely performed live, unfolded over three hours that grew more interesting and engaging as it progressed. That's a pretty tough assignment for one man at a piano to pull off, and though I wouldn't say Melnikov didn't break a sweat, his performance projected confidence and mastery from start to finish.

To watch Melnikov perform is to see an artist deeply engaged with their work. Neither flashy nor detached, he just seems fully engaged. At times he would lift a free hand into the air and move it in a fluid motion akin to that of a conductor, though I couldn't tell if he was communicating with the score or the piano (the piano, by the way, seemed to have something wrong with it- strange little sounds emanated from it once in awhile throughout the performance). It wasn't overdone, or dramatic, but appeared an organic part of how he interprets a piece.

The concert was broken into three parts, the first of which were the first twelve preludes and fugues (each piece contains a prelude followed by a fugue based upon it, the model of course being Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier ). The variety Shostakovich brought to these is just short of astonishing, more so given that they were written in a relatively brief time span. These don't sound like mid-20th Century pieces- they hearken back to Bach, Chopin and contain heavy elements of the Romantic, yet they never reek of the museum and only rarely touch down directly on an earlier influence. They sound timeless.

After the second intermission Melnikov sat down at the bench and went straight into the 17th piece, which was the only one to distinctly call to mind another composer's work, and it was Albeniz of all people. By the time he got to the 20th, the herculean nature of the program started to take its toll and Melnikov had to stop for a moment and shake out his limbs before resuming the performance. It was the only time he did so all afternoon. The rest of the time he just bent to the task at hand, giving a special physical flourish to the final piece, the largest and most expansive, which was truly mesmerizing.

It was all so simple in its way, but in that simplicity was easily one of the best performances I've seen this year.

I'd also like to acknowledge the superb program notes by Eric Bromberger, which illuminated each piece with precision and clarity, greatly adding to overall enjoyment of the concert- a comment I heard from more than a few in the audience.

The concert was presented by San Francisco Performances, who will bring him back in May to perform with his regular collaborator Isabelle Faust in a program of Beethoven sonatas including the Kreutzer. Don't miss it.

First Marc-André Hamelin is mugged, then it's my turn

Marc-André Hamelin  Photo by Fran Kaufman

Sometimes things just don't go as planned. Last Wednesday night I walked over to the Herbst Theater, where San Francisco Performances was presenting a recital by Marc-André Hamelin- the pianist and composer has received an enormous amount of positive press during his current tour and I'd never seen perform before. I was a bit surprised the house wasn't full- he's performed here many times and few rival his reputation. Besides that, the program was especially inviting- the Berg and Liszt sonatas, to be followed by five of Hamelin's own compositions: the world premiere of Theme Variations (Cathy's Theme); his take on Variations of a Theme of Paganini, and three Etudes, including one based on Erlkonig, which I was especially interested to hear.

I took my seat inside the sweltering theater just a few minutes before the concert was to begin, in between two elderly ladies who seemed surprised by my arrival. For some reason it took Hamelin some extra time to take the stage and I sensed a slight tension build in the audience while we waited. Hamelin appeared, faced us, and after a curt bow, took to the bench and began the Berg.

Playing the formidable work sans score, I was immediately struck by the cool precision of Hamelin's approach. It's a daunting piece, but you would have never known it watching Hamelin, who worked his way through the development as if it were the most stable music ever written. It was an entirely different approach than the last time I'd heard it performed, when Yefim Bronfman tackled it like a loose, baggy monster. I'll admit to being  puzzled by the approach, unnerved even, but I admired the technical virtuosity of the performance.

Hamelin approached the Liszt in the same manner, ridding the piece of the bombast with which most pianists seem determined to give it and again performed with an almost surgical precision. In the beginning movement I found this fascinating, but soon afterward I was disengaging from the performance- it was as if I was hearing it dissected note-by-note, even during the most furiously fast moments where the piece seems like it's about to explode. There were moments of stark beauty in this and the consistent clarity of Hamelin's playing impressed me greatly, but in the end it felt dispassionate- too intellectualized to my ears- as if the piece had been deliberately bled to within an inch of its life.

At the conclusion something very strange happened. Hamelin held his hand aloft over the keys, to let the final note resonate and someone in the balcony began to applaud loudly, clapping twice, perhaps three times, then suddenly stopped as if they noticed no one else was and they had broken decorum. Hamelin continued to hold his hand over the keyboard and then the person in the balcony started applauding again, very aggressively, as if to confront the pianist. Finally Hamelin dropped his hand and the entire audience began to enthusiastically applaud, but I felt like I had just watched a performer get mugged onstage. I have no other way to explain it, but it was quite disconcerting.

At intermission I stepped outside to get some air and the evening was interrupted by a bomb going off in my hand in the form of a phone call I took while standing there in cool air. Sadly, I never made it back for the second half of the performance, thus marking the night with successive muggings taking place onstage and off. In speaking later with someone who attended the entire performance and greatly enjoyed it (whose opinion I always respect, even when it differs from my own), the second half went very well. I'm sorry to have missed it and am on my way to a full recovery.

A dozen picks from San Francisco Performances' 2011-12 Season

Ute Lemper

San Francisco Performances always brings really interesting performers to town, often in intimate settings. Their Salons at the Rex are generally not-to-be-missed gigs featuring up-and-coming performers and their recital series are rivaled only by Cal Performances. Their upcoming season features an exceptionally strong line-up and when you add theirs to what's going on with the Symphony's Centennial, a very strong schedule at Cal Performances this year, and a great SFJazz line-up for the fall, the 2011-2012 season is pretty daunting. And then there's the Opera to boot.

Nobody can see it all, though I know a couple of people (Brian, Axel) who come pretty close. To help you narrow it down (though I really do this for myself so I don't lose track of all of this), here's the last dozen picks from the major performing arts companies in the Bay Area (YBCA has too much going on all year to include just a dozen). I'll do one more of these posts highlighting other organizations whose schedules or offerings aren't as extensive (Shorenstein, SFO, SFB ACT, etc.). Undoubtedly I'll leave off something that turns out to be phenomenal or ignore a fantastic artist about whom I'm ignorant- that's the downside to living in an area with so much to see and do.

Here's the dozen from SF Performances, though this list could have easily been almost twice as long:

Stephanie Blythe in recital with Warren Jones-   October 13

Here's an opportunity to hear one of the world's leading mezzo-sopranos in recital, accompanied by Warren Jones in a program of American works.

Simon Keenlyside in recital with Malcolm Martineau-   October 27

The baritone will perform songs by Mahler, Strauss, Debussey, Duparc and Butterworth, accompanied by Malcom Martineau.

Marc-André Hamelin-  November 2

Hamelin's recent press on the East Coast has been nothing but raves and I've yet to see him perform. The program will feature his own Études along with sonatas by Berg and Liszt.

Alexander Melnikov-  November 12

Last year a Russian friend of mine asked if I've ever heard of Melnikov. When I replied "No," she said I must see him perform. Well, here he is making his local recital debut in the first of two appearances on SFP's schedule this year in an all-Shostakovitch program. 

Karita Mattila in recital with Martin Katz-  December 6

Mattila's first local recital will feature songs by Poulenc, Debussy, Aulis Sallinen, and Marx. I'll be amazed if this doesn't sell out. She'll be accompanied by Martin Katz.

Alexander String Quartet with Joyce DiDonato and Jake Heggie-  February 4

This program celebrates the 30th anniversary of the quartet with the world premiere of Jake Heggie's Camille Claudel, Into the Fire based on the life of the French sculptor and confidante of Rodin, to be sung by the marvelous Joyce DiDonato; Debussy's string quartet and songs by Fauré and Hahn are also on the program.

Ute Lemper and the Vogler Quartet-  March 31

Lemper may be the most alluring cabaret singer in the world. The program will feature songs by Schuloff, Eisler, Weill, Piaf, Brel, Satie and Piazolla, capturing music from across the spectrum of 1920s Europe. 

Vijay Iver Trio-  April 7

Iver's one of the hottest names in jazz right now, whose recent accolades include a Grammy nomination for his recent album and being named 2010 Musician of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association. The pianist will be accompanied by Stephan Crump on bass and Marcus Gilmore on drums.

Arditti Quartet-  April 12

I've missed previous performances by this well-regarded quartet and the program for this appearance made me certain that this time I wouldn't, with works by Beethoven, Berg, Adés and Bartók. This is is a good year for hearing Adés in the Bay Area, with his works being performed by the San Francisco Symphony and he'll appear with the Calder Quartet this season in a Cal Performance show. It's about time.

Armitage Gone! Dance-  May 18, 19

Every year SF Performances brings great dance programs to the Bay Area so it's hard to decide which one(s) to choose for this list, but the idea of seeing a dance work based on String Theory is just too quirky to pass up.

Stephen Isserlis and Robert Levin-  May 19, 20

Isserlis and Levin will be performing two different all-Beethoven programs, both centered on the cello sonatas and featuring other, less frequently performed pieces alongside of them.

Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov-  May 30

Even more Beethoven, which is never, ever a bad thing, especially in the hands of two highly regarded young artists. Melnikov returns on the piano to accompany Faust in four of the Violin Sonatas, including the Kreutzer. 

Single tickets go on sale August 22. Design-your-own subscriptions can be had now by calling 415.392.2545