33rd Annual Concert Series 2009-2010

Les grâces

Jennifer Paulino, soprano; Annette Bauer, recorders; Rebekah Ahrendt, viola da gamba; Jonathan Rhodes Lee, harpsichord

—Les grâces françoises—
Graceful Music from France

Explore the elegant world of French Baroque music with young Bay Area ensemble Les grâces. From the chic airs de cour and the dramatic cantata Ariane et Bachus by Montéclair, to intimate chamber music by Marais and Couperin, this program reflects the bon goût so prized at the time. Yet the French were not always so refined; they also dabbled in the silly, as revealed in Bernier's charming coffee cantata.

Friday, September 25, First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto, 8:00

Saturday, September 26, St. John's Presbyterian Church, Berkeley, 7:30

Sunday, September 27, St. Mark's Lutheran Church, 1111 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco, 4:00

Strings of The Streicher Trio with guest artist Elizabeth Blumenstock

Katherine Kyme, violin; Joanna Blendulf, cello; and guest artist Elizabeth Blumenstock, violin and viola

—Rare Masterpieces for String Trio by the Giants of the Classical Era—

Compared to the enormously popular string quartet, the string trio was relatively rare in the classical era. Mozart only completed one example and Beethoven wrote five. Only Haydn contributed a large number of trios to the repertoire. Elizabeth Blumenstock, who is widely admired as a performer of interpretive eloquence and technical sparkle, joins the string players of the Streicher Trio to perform music by Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn.

Friday, October 23, First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto, 8:00

Saturday, October 24, St. John's Presbyterian Church, Berkeley, 7:30

Sunday, October 25, St. Mark's Lutheran Church, 1111 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco, 4:00

La Monica

Phoebe Jevtovic, soprano; Susan Feldman & Tekla Cunningham, violin; Ondine Young, viola; William Skeen, viola da gamba & violoncello; Avi Stein, organ & harpsichord

—Out of the Depths—
The Birth of a German Style

Following the wars of the early seventeenth century, a creative flowering in Germany produced music characterized by cosmopolitan tastes and a flowing exchange of ideas over political boundaries. German musicians traveled to France and Italy, and foreign musicians were imported to German-speaking lands. The sheer beauty and depth of emotion of this music was the soundworld that led directly—through composers such as Rosenmüller, Buxtehude, Erlebach—to Bach.

Friday, October 30, First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto, 8:00

Saturday, October 31, St. John's Presbyterian Church, Berkeley, 7:30

Sunday, November 1, St. Mark's Lutheran Church, 1111 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco, 4:00

Passamezzo Moderno & Duo Solace

Passamezzo Moderno: Jonathan Davis, harpsichord & organ; David Granger, dulcian; Edwin Huizinga, violin Duo Solace: Linda Tsatsanis, soprano; John Lenti, lute

—Across the Alps—
The Italian Baroque Moves North

Joined by Seattle's Duo Solace, Passamezzo Moderno musically illustrates the influence of Italian composers on northern lands in the early Baroque. The powerful model of Monteverdi and his contemporaries Castello and Marini inspired a generation of German musicians, including Schein, Schütz, and Scheidt. This colorful and virtuosic program will feature works by both the southern innovators and their great, northern successors—innovators in their own right.

Friday, November 20, First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto, 8:00

Saturday, November 21, St. John's Presbyterian Church, Berkeley, 7:30

Sunday, November 22, St. Mark's Lutheran Church, 1111 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco, 4:00

Schola Cantorum San Francisco

Paul Flight, artistic director

—ˇNoe, Noe! Canciones para Navidad—
A Renaissance Choral Celebration

Iberia is the source for this year's holiday concert. Schola Cantorum's program showcases both the ethereal beauty and vital rhythmic energy that characterize Hispanic music from the 15th–17th centuries. Works by Guerrero, Morales, Esquivel, Heredia, Cristo, Lobo, and Cererols embody the Peninsula's serene, Flemish-inspired polyphony as well as its unique tradition of sacred villancicos, light-hearted, often earthy pieces on sacred themes, set to rollicking, singable, and danceable tunes.

Friday, December 11, First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto, 8:00

Saturday, December 12, First Congregational Church, Berkeley, 7:30

Sunday, December 13, St. Mark's Lutheran Church, 1111 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco, 4:00

The New Esterházy Quartet

Kati Kyme & Lisa Weiss, violins; Anthony Martin, viola; William Skeen, cello, with Elisabeth Le Guin, cello

—Boccherini's Back!—
Quintetti e Quintettini by the Master

Renowned cellist and UCLA professor Elisabeth Le Guin returns to the Bay Area to join the New Esterházy Quartet in music dear to both her heart and mind, as revealed in her recent ground-breaking book, Boccherini's Body: An Essay in Carnal Musicology. Of Boccherini's more than one hundred quintets with two cellos, half are grande (three or four movements) and half are piccole (two or three movements). From this treasure trove you will hear quintets big and small to usher in the new decade.

Friday, January 8, First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto, 8:00

Saturday, January 9, St. John's Presbyterian Church, Berkeley, 7:30

Sunday, January 10, St. Mark's Lutheran Church, 1111 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco, 4:00

Cappella Artemisia

Elena Biscuola, Anna Simboli, Candace Smith, Silvia Vajente, voices; Maria Christina Cleary, baroque harp; Miranda Aureli, organ

—My Sister, My Spouse—
The Song of Songs in the Convents

The beautifully sensual texts of the Canticum canticorum were often set to music in the seventeenth century, both outside and inside the convent walls. The nuns, eternally married to Christ—with or without their consent—identified strongly with the florid imagery of the bride and her beloved. Bologna-based Cappella Artemisia presents this wonderful and little-known music, composed both by and for these cloistered musicians.

Friday, February 19, First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto, 8:00

Saturday, February 20, St. John's Presbyterian Church, Berkeley, 7:30

Sunday, February 21, St. Mark's Lutheran Church, 1111 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco, 4:00

LIBER : Ensemble for Early Music

Melanie Germond, soprano; William Hudson, tenor, with guest artists Carrie Henneman Shaw, soprano, and Jordan Sramek, tenor

—Crowned with Laurels—
Poetry and Music in Trecento Italy

The award-winning ensemble LIBER (formerly Liber unUsualis) explores the elegant beauty and fiery emotions of fourteenth century Italian music. They pay tribute to the revered fathers of Humanism—Francesco Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, and Franco Sacchetti—through musical settings of their poems by Jacopo da Bologna, Niccolò da Perugia, and the poet-composer Francesco Landini, who was honored by King Peter of Cyprus with a crown of laurels.

Friday, March 26, First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto, 8:00

Saturday, March 27, St. John's Presbyterian Church, Berkeley, 7:30

Sunday, March 28, St. Mark's Lutheran Church, 1111 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco, 4:00

To order tickets and for further information, contact SFEMS:

• Telephone: 510-528-1725
• Mail: P.O. Box 27495, San Francisco, CA 94127-0495
• E-mail: sfems@sfems.org

Advance tickets are no longer available, but tickets will be available at the door at each venue 30 minutes before the performance.