I say - even if nobody else does - that it's time for my second monthly list of concerts I'm not going to be able to attend because they're canceled. (Is there a word meaning "monthly" the way that "annual" means "yearly"? Yes, but it's "menstrual," so nobody uses it.)
April 2-4: Scor String Camp, St Stephen's Church, El Dorado Hills
The biggest cancellation of the month is not mine, but B's. She attended this annual educational session last year and enjoyed it so much she was going to go back. It's a small gathering for individualized and small-group instruction mostly geared at enthusiastic amateurs. B. was one of the more advanced students. The proprietors travel around the country doing these all over on a regular annual schedule, and the timing for this one (near Sacramento) just turned out to be wrong this year.
Friday, April 3: Bang on a Can All-Stars, Bing Studio, Stanford
Bing Studio is the little cubical box in the concert hall basement where they do weird stuff that wouldn't fill the big hall. "Bang on a Can," for some reason unknown to me, is the name of a notable sponsor of new-music concerts on the east coast. That they were coming in and bringing music by the likes of Anna Clyne and Michael Gordon sounded really good to me.
Saturday, April 4: Mission Chamber Orchestra, Hammer Theatre, San Jose
Despite the acoustically horrible venue, I was going to go hear them do Britten's Simple Symphony and attempt Beethoven's Eroica, along with a bassoon concerto newly written for local hero Rufus Olivier.
Sunday, April 5: Fauré Piano Quartet, Kohl Mansion, Burlingame
I was scheduled to review this. Works for piano, violin, viola, and cello by their namesake composer, Brahms, and Mahler. Yes, Mahler. I've heard all these pieces before and was looking forward to hearing them again.
Thursday, April 16: San Francisco Symphony, Davies
On my subscription. Tchaikovsky's Fifth, something new by the unavoidable Mason Bates, and a curtain-raiser in the form of one of Sam Barber's gnarly Essays.
Saturday, April 18: Redwood Symphony, Cañada College
My second review of the month. Sibelius's Third, my (obscure) favorite of his symphonies - Redwood has covered a lot of the tougher Sibelius symphonies - and, ta da, the estimable Anna Clyne. Also Brahms's Violin Concerto completes an attractive evening.
Friday, April 24: Volcano Theatre, Palo Alto HS
My third review of the month. I don't know who Volcano Theatre is, but I certainly know about the opera they were going to be producing: Treemonisha by Scott Joplin, magnum opus of the great ragtime pianist/composer. This was a new conception, adaptation, and orchestration, so they were marketing this already-rare piece as a premiere. I've never heard it even in an old version, so for me this was the enticing discovery of the month.
Sunday, April 26: Ensemble San Francisco, SJSU concert hall
My fourth review of the month. The great thing about an assorted ensemble is that they can play assorted things: everything from a cello-and-piano sonata by Beethoven to a piano quartet by Dvorak, by way of quartets for oboe and strings by Mozart and Britten.
Thursday, April 30: San Francisco Symphony, Davies
This was originally going to be MGT's concert (Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, a name I cannot spell and can only cut and paste in from somewhere else) until she canceled - again (maternity leave) - and it wasn't on my series, but I was thinking of going, for her and the Vaynberg Violin Concerto, but what really made me sign up in a hurry was the substitute: Michael Morgan of the Oakland Symphony, who's never conducted SFS before, would be bringing the gem he played at home a couple years ago, the Symphony No. 3 by Florence Price, the great but (up until recently) nearly forgotten mid-20C African-American woman composer. Fantastically miscellaneous other pieces, too: an obscure symphonic poem by Franck, Brahms's Alto Rhapsody with Melody Wilson, and a new piece evoking Pentecostal church services.
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