Radiant Rhythm with the New Century Chamber Orchestra

Due to an unspecified physical accident, Music Director Daniel Hope wasn't able to finish out the 2025-2026 New Century Chamber Orchestra season last week, so a last-minute replacement had to be found. The ensemble got very lucky, however, when the 32-year-old Canadian violinist Blake Pouliot jumped in to the rescue with only two days' notice. He proved to be sensationally good, and so was the entire concert.

The Saturday afternoon concert at The Presidio was entitled Radiance in Rhythm, and most of the compositions played around with Latin rhythms, not in a simplistic El Salón México manner, but in a more complex way. The opener was the 1968 Fuga y misterio by Astor Piazzolla from his tango opera, Maria de Buenos Aires. The music was exactly what the title stated, a fugue on a tango theme with a mysterious section in the middle, brilliantly performed by Pouliot and the string ensemble.

This was followed by a world premiere commission, Blues Variations, by the 38-year-old composer/conductor Henry Dorn. Born in Arkansas, where the radio played All-Blues Saturday all day long, he now teaches in St. Olaf, Minnesota. The ten-minute work was a set of 12 variations on a theme by blues singer Peetie Wheatstraw (1902-1941) that started conventionally but then ventured into all kinds of strange, interesting places before returning to the main theme. It was a really good piece.

The guest soloist for the concert was the Spanish classical guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas who looked like a matinee idol and played like one too. He tackled Michael Daugherty's 2006 Bay of Pigs, a concerto for guitar and strings evoking pre-and post-revolutionary Cuba in three distinct movements, filled with tricky rhythms and startling dramatic effects.

After intermission, the string ensemble played the 1923 Primera Suite Uno by Alberto Williams (1862-1952), one of Argentina's founding classical music composers who I had never heard of before. It was a short, agreeable, four-movement work that made one want to hear other music by him.

The final work was Joaquin Rodrigo's 1939 Concierto de Aranjuez, the most popular classical guitar concerto in the world. Sáinz Villegas returned as soloist and gave a lovely description of the work, explaining that the first movement is flamenco dance with feet planted on the ground while the third movement is courtly dance where feet "jump off the ground." The long, poignant second movement Adagio stems from the sadness Rodrigo was feeling over the stillborn death of his daughter.

Even though the Concierto de Aranjuez is a classical pops concert staple and played incessantly on classical radio stations, I had somehow gone through life without hearing a live version, and it was worth the wait. It was a gorgeous performance, highlighted by Sáinz Villegas's soulful, delicate playing that was completely integrated with the ensemble around him.

The all-string chamber orchestra was augmented by 12 pick-up musicians on woodwinds and brass, and they were flawless in very exposed music. Pablo even dragged oboist Jesse Barrett out for a solo bow for his contribution, and he deserved it.

Monet and Venice at the de Young Museum

My late friend Jerry Morgan once described Venice, Italy as "the greatest tourist trap in the world, perfected over centuries." (Pictured is Canaletto's 1745 painting, The Bucintoro at the Molo on Ascension Day.)

Evidently, the French Impressionist painter Claude Monet was not interested in visiting such a well-trod location, but was finally cajoled into a visit by his second wife Alice Hoschedé in 1908, when he was 68 years old.

In an exhibit organized by the Brooklyn Museum and the de Young, nineteen paintings by Monet join a collection of Venetian views by other artists, including the 1881 Venice, the Doge's Palace by Renoir.

The impetus for the Autumn 1908 visit was an invitation by British socialite Mary Hunter to join her at her seasonal rental, the Palazzo Barbaro, which seemingly hosted every artist of the late 19th century, from Henry James to John Singer Sargent, who painted the 1899 An Interior in Venice there.

Alice and Claude were only scheduled to stay for two weeks, but were so enchanted by Venice that they moved into a hotel and stayed for another three months. Setting out on a gondola each day, Monet would paint the same locations repeatedly in varying light. (Pictured is The Grand Canal, Venice.)

Of the 37 paintings from this series, 19 have been reunited for this traveling exhibit.

After the Venetian sojourn, Monet exhibited these paintings for the public two years later, then retired to his home in Giverny where he was soon a grieving widower after Alice died in 1911.

Monet spent the next two decades working on his series of Water Lilies at home in Giverny, including this 1914-17 canvas owned by the SF Fine Arts Museums. The add-on price for the exhibit is exorbitant, but if you buy a reasonably priced annual membership to the museum, it's a bargain and you can go as often as you desire.

French Music at the SF Symphony

Last week's all-French San Francisco Symphony program on Thursday afternoon did not start promisingly. Just as the 51-year-old Swiss conductor Philippe Jordan was waiting for audience silence before the quiet opening of Debussy's 1894 Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, a cell phone rang. After another pause, somebody emitted an explosive sneeze and the audience started giggling. There were two more cell phone alerts before Jordan finally gave up and embarked on an exquisitely transparent performance of the Prelude.

Rebecca Wishnia at the San Francisco Classical Voice website gave the concert a dismissive review, but I had a different experience and thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon. Part of the reason was that I bought a last-minute rush ticket and was seated in the second row of the orchestra section, smack dab in front of the fabulous French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, complete with sparkly jacket.

He was the soloist in the 1896 Piano Concerto No. 5, "Egyptian" by Camille Saint-Saëns, with its evocative slow movement depicting a journey on the Nile. The concerto has been derided as kitsch over the years, but I loved every minute of it, and Thibaudet gave an awesome performance, modulating his dynamics from delicate to forceful throughout.

For an encore Thibaudet was joined by conductor Jordan for the final movement from Ravel's 1910 Mother Goose Suite, entitled Le jardin féerique: Lent et grave (The Fairy Garden). It could not have been more charming.

After intermission, Jordan led an exciting account of Berlioz's 1830 Symphonie Fantastique. The five-movement work filled with famous tunes is completely eccentric. I heard Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the Symphonie Fantastique a couple of times over the decades, and it was always unsatisfying because he tended to smooth out the strangeness of the work, but that was not the case with Jordan. The concluding two movements, March to the Scaffold and Dream of a Witches' Sabbath were thrilling and weird, just as they should be.

Don Quixote at the SF Ballet

San Francisco Ballet's lavish production of Don Quixote, an 1869 Russian extravaganza that premiered at the Bolshoi, just finished up a successful two-week revival. Nathaniel Remez and Pascal Molat played Don Quixote and Sancho Panza respectively as they bumbled their way through Barcelona, a gypsy camp, a tavern, and a fairy dreamscape. (All production photos are by Lindsay Rallo.)

In truth, the Don and his servant are not the main characters of the narrative, which revolves around a young couple trying to marry while being thwarted by a father wanting a wealthier match for his daughter. The opening night cast featured Sasha de Sola and Francesco Gabriele Frola as Kitri and Basilio, who I did not see, but according to Steven Winn and Rachel Howard, they were fabulous.

Unfortunately, ballet is as strenuous and injury-prone as any professional sport, and the new Italian principal dancer Francesco Gabriele Frola injured himself in the last minutes of the long, three-act ballet, limping off the stage with no word on when or if he would return to action.

On the following Friday, we saw the young Australian dancer Joshua Jack Price in the role of Basilio, and he was pretty fabulous himself. Also worthy of praise is the entire production, particularly the exquisitely colorful costumes by Martin Pakledinaz.

The highlight for me was seeing the Swedish dancer Nikisha Fogo in the major role of Kitri.

Fogo tends to stand out in any performance, with her combination of musicality, speed and angular gestures that are sharper than everyone around her. It was a joy to witness her taking on such an extended, difficult role.

No Kings 3 in San Francisco

The most poignant moment I saw at the No Kings 3 march up Market Street on Saturday afternoon was a lone man holding a sign with a picture of Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis intensive care nurse murdered by federal ICE agents.

Most of the other thousands of Unpaid Protestors were either expressing rage or dark humor or both.

I ran into Jan Adams, my favorite political blogger, and after a hug we shrugged our aged shoulders together in a gesture meaning, "Well, here we are back on Market Street for the umpteenth time."

One of my favorite marchers was the gentleman above who had rigged up a portable sound system playing upbeat music ranging from Aretha Franklin's Respect to Queen and Davie Bowie singing Under Pressure.

There was lots of anger being expressed...

...at having a credibly accused pedophile rapist blowing up the world.

In a nod to conservation, Austin was recycling his homemade sign for the third straight No Kings march.

At the end of the march, many forewent the speeches in Civic Center and went to Hayes Valley for al fresco food and drink, where I spotted the signage, "IF KAMALA HAD WON WE'D BE AT BRUNCH RIGHT NOW".

Clara Bow as IT at The Castro

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival finally returned to its ancestral home at the Castro Theater last Sunday with a showing of the 1927 movie IT.

The huge theater was sold out and the line started forming along the sidewalk two hours before the screening.

There were many objections to Another Planet Entertainment transforming the 1922 Spanish Baroque masterpiece by architect Timothy Pflueger from a seated movie theater to a live pop concert hall, but the multi-year, $41 million makeover has turned out well. The compromise between temporary tiered seating for film showings and a flat dance floor for concerts has become a happy surprise.

Among the many improvements, the old basement bathrooms have now become gender-free and have plenty of stalls so the women's restroom line no longer stretches forever.

The real wonder is the interior restoration, an obvious labor of love, where decades of grime and cigarette smoke were scraped away and the brown ceiling has returned to its original red color with all its baroque illustrations gleaming.

IT was an entertaining bit of fluff comedy where Clara Bow as a shopgirl sets her sights on snagging the handsome young owner of the department store where she works.

Bow plays the personification of the 1920s flapper "IT" Girl who has ineffable sex appeal that can slay anyone, including the handsome Antonio Moreno, a Spaniard who was one of the first Latin lovers of American silent films.

The film was accompanied by a beefed-up Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, a music ensemble from Colorado that specializes in silent movies.

They will also be accompanying films, along with a roster of other musical artists, at the upcoming San Francisco Silent Film Festival, which will be returning to the Castro from May 6 to 10. There's no place like home.

Mozart and Dvorak at the SF Symphony

After conducting the San Francisco Symphony on Saturday evening in a zippy rendition of Carl Maria von Weber's 1823 Overture to Euryanthe, Andrés Orozco-Estrada grabbed a microphone and gave an antic lecture about the musical program and the excellence of San Francisco's symphony. The 48-year-old Colombia-born, Austria-based conductor was filling time while a grand piano was slowly wheeled onstage from the wings because the basement elevator which usually transports the instrument is currently broken.

The piano was for a performance of Mozart's 1777 Piano Concerto No. 9, his first adult masterpiece in the genre. The soloist was the 30-year-old Canadian Jan Lisiecki, who was signed to a recording contract as a young phenom at age 15 with Deutsche Grammophon.

He seems to have been performing around the world ever since, and if his Facebook page is any indication, his schedule looks something like The Amazing Race. (The photo above is Lisiecki enjoying San Francisco's Ocean Beach during last week's heat wave.)

Lisiecki is a technical wizard, and the first movement of the Mozart concerto was thrilling, but in the gorgeous andante middle movement, he reminded me of Víkingur Ólafsson's eccentric rendition of Mozart and Haydn, making the music sound Romantic and effortful rather than Classical and effortless. Still, there was nothing dry or dreary about the performance, and it was a pleasure to encounter Liesecki for the first time, including his encore featuring a wildly idiosyncratic rendition of Brahms's Waltz in A flat major.

We had prime orchestra seats but a pair of young women arrived at the last minute next to us and one of them promptly started recording the concert on her phone. After gently waving a finger at her to stop, she proceeded to spend the rest of the concert scrolling through her social media. Instead of making a scene or committing murder, we repaired to a top tier balcony for the second half of the program for Dvořák's 1885 Symphony No. 7.

By the composer's usual standards, it's a dark piece and one I had never heard live before. Orozco-Estrada has made a specialty of the work with many of the orchestras he's conducted over the years, recording it with Houston and videotaping it with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, which you can see on YouTube. The San Francisco Symphony, particularly the heavily featured woodwind section, shone in a wonderful performance.