Friday Photo

Cormorants

Elkhorn Slough

October, 2025

 

Gautier Capuçon, Gaia

Jérôme Ducros, piano and Gautier Capuçon, cello

Photo: Kristen Loken, courtesy of San Francisco Symphony

 

Let me start these comments on Gautier Capuçon's Gaïa concert, held on Sunday, November 18, with a quizz: how many times do my notes for the program, which included 17 works (16 programmed, one encore), say "too many arpeggios" or "hmmm, scales", or something like that? *

The concert was more varied than the question might imply, and of course, if you've got a string instrument to compose for, with those four tempting strings, it's an obvious strategy. The concert was not like being stuck in phone booth with Philip Glass and a cello, but a surprising number of the composers took advantage of this particular strategy.

Would I have liked more variety? Yes. Not only were there too many arpeggios in total, but every one of the works was in a kind of anodyne tonality, with only a couple of composers pushing the harmonic envelope in any way. Reader, what I really longed for was something by Carter or someone like him: spikey, angular, atonal, to break the sense that the programming looked at just one part of a vast harmonic universe.

With this recital, Capuçon launched the publication of his eponymous new recital CD, which consists of commissioned works inspired by nature and humanity's relationship with the planet. The program started with a slightly terrifying video of the cellist playing in various hazardous locations in the French alps. I mean....I wonder about the size of the crew it took to get him and his cello and the belaying equipment and cameras up there, even though you see him hiking through snow with his cello case strapped to his back. I'm also wondering which instrument he took up there with him. I kinda hope it was a carbon-fiber cello, not one of his precious wooden instruments.

The video accompanied the first work on the recital, Max Richter's Sequence for Gaïa. You can see it here. (Be sure to read Joshua Kosman's take on the program, which is um shorter than this.)

One other thing I would have liked to be different: the program started at 7 and had no intermission. I figured it would last 90 minutes, tops. But Capuçon introduced each group of two or three works from the stage. The intros were remarkably similar! [Composer] is my great friend and s/he cares so much about nature and the planet! I estimate that this added 20 to 25 minutes to the program, and nope. Just don't do this. Thank everyone at the start and leave it at that.

A few of the pieces stood out: composer/pianist Gabriela Montero's Sur le lac du Bourget sounded like a jazzy 20s song. Olivia Belli's Tàmâr Méthüshelä had a lovely piano part (let me here praise pianist Jérôme Ducros, whose quiet virtuosity made him a superb recital partner). I liked works by Abel Selaocoe and Ayanna Witter-Johnson, who came on stage to play a cello duet with Capuçon and wrote him a beautiful cello line. The young cellist Quenton Blache had a standout work as well.

Kudos to the group of cellist from the SFS Youth Orchestra and especially principal Melissa Lam, who also played a duet with Capuçon. But this recital was too much of a muchness. 

• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle
• Colin Ziegler, SFCV and SF Chronicle
• Jeff Kaliss, SFCV (artist spotlight)

* Looks like six, to my surprise. Sure felt like more at the time.

San Francisco Opera Premieres The Monkey King

 

Kang Wang as the title role in The Monkey King

Members of the San Francisco Opera Chorus

Puppetry designed by Basil Twist

Photo: Cory Weaver, courtesy of SF Opera

The Monkey King opened last week at San Francisco Opera, and hoo boy, we have a series of well-earned raves by everybody who was there. My friend Rob remarked afterward that he wasn't sure whether it was a great opera, but it is certainly a great show. I think the music is excellent, but there is so much going on visually that the music isn't the first thing you'll remember about it.

The run of performances is completely sold out; I've been checking multiple times a day, and there are maybe five tickets total available right now. This is astounding; it's too bad that SFO has no record of adding performances, not, at least, since the first run of Dead Man Walking 25 years ago.

You can, however, catch the livestream for $25 on Tuesday, Nov. 18 or watch the stream on demand from Sunday, Nov. 23 at 10 a.m. to Tuesday, Nov. 25 at 10 a.m.

• Joshua Kosman, SF Chronicle
• Joshua Barone, NY Times 
• Heidi Waleson, WSJ (includes a review of Parsifal)
• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV
• Gabe Meline, KQED
• Thomas May, Opera Now
• Caroline Crawford, Local News Matters
• Charlise Tiee, Opera Tattler
• Yoshi Kato, preview, SFCV and SF Chronicle

Museum Mondays

Annunciation

Giovanni dal Ponte 

(Giovanni di Marco)

c. 1425

 

Friday Photo

Pelican

Elkhorn Slough, CA

October, 2025

(Click to enlarge)

 

Poiesis Quartet

Poiesis Quartet

Photo by Eden Davis

Before the pandemic, my friend DB had twice gone to Banff, in Canada, to attend the Banff International String Quartet Competition. BISQC, as its known, has taken place every three years since 1986, and a number of prominent quartets have won or placed in the competition, including the Hagen, Lark, St. Louis, Ying, Miró, Belcea, and Castalian.

I'd considered attending, but it wasn't going to be possible this year for either myself or DB. But the BISQC conveniently livestreams all of the competition rounds and then archives the performances, making it possible to sort of attend from afar. It is true that even with a good sound system or smart TV, it's not really the same; you won't hear the sound that's in the concert hall or feel the energy there.

So I proposed that DB and my friend BH watch what we could and compare notes over Zoom when we could. This worked out extremely well. DB and I are in the Bay Area, while BH is in Philadelphia; it wasn't too onerous to figure out meeting times, and we could watch the livestream or archived performances. (If you want to see any of the performances, start here.)

There were nine generally excellent string quartets in the competition; a tenth withdrew before the competition. (From that quartet's web site, it looks as though they might have disbanded or been faced with a major problem of some sort.) The competition is held in multiple rounds, as follows:

• 21st century and Haydn round. Playing Haydn is a real test of any performer's ability to catch the composer's grace and wit, whether the performer is a pianist, conductor, or string quartet.
• Romantic round
• Canadian commission round. Every quartet plays the same work, having received the music at the same time and given the opportunity to work with / consult with the composer. This year's commission was Kati Agócs's very beautiful Rapprochement.
• Beethoven/Schubert + 21st c. round
• Finals. Each quartet performs a program of its own choosing.

There was really no doubting the skill and musicianship of these groups, though I confess that I did not much like the artistic choices made by the Quatuor Magenta.

So, to make a long story short, the Poiesis Quartet, formed at Oberlin and currently studying at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, won the competition as a whole and also won the Canadian Commission Prize for their performance of Rapprochement. 

Where the Poiesis obviously stood out was in their performances of 20th and 21st c. music, but they also played a magnificent Brahms Op. 67, the only Brahms heard in the entire competition,  if I'm remembering this correctly. DB said it was the best single performance of a Brahms quartet in his experience.

Where this is all leading to: the Poiesis made their San Francisco debut this past Sunday, at Noe Music, a great venue for chamber music. Their program included several works from their final round:

• Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, Pisachi
• Brian Raphael Nabors, String Quartet
• Kevin Lau, String Quartet No. 7
• Sky Macklay, Many, Many Cadences
• Sergei Prokofiev, String Quartet No. 2

What can I say? The Poiesis plays a lot of intense music, with astonishing focus and intensity, filling the smallish venue with full-bodied sound. Their focus came across in the livestreams, but the sheer intensity of their playing didn't.

Their sheer confidence, in themselves and each other, astounded me; their unanimity of thought and execution is amazing. Are they mind-readers?

Each of the pieces on their program, except the Prokofiev, is from the 21st century; Kevin Lau's 7th is a Poiesis commission. The works cover a wide range of styles and take both technique and wit to play.

Sky Macklay's Many, Many Cadences is just what it says, a nearly unending series of cadential phrases covering the full range of each instrument in the quartet and mostly going at a breakneck speed. It definitely takes a sense of humor, as well as great timing, to play well. It is funny, too, if you understand what's going on, plus there's a funny moment built in.

Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate's Pisachi incorporates music from a Pueblo Buffalo Dance, a Hopi Buffalo Dance, and a Hopi Elk Dance. It is lovely, delicate, transparent by turns, elsewhere more intense (everything Poiesis plays isn't totally balls-to-the-wall). Tate himself is Chickasaw and his program note say that it's his "intent to honor his Southwest Indian cousins through classical repertoire."

I'm in fact not going to be able to characterize each of the works, so I will mention that you can hear the Poiesis Quartet at Stanford Live in May. The program is similar to this, but swapping Haydn for Nabors.

Elsewhere:

• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle
• DB at Kalimac's Corner

San Francisco Opera: Der Ring des Nibelungen Returns in 2028

 

Brandon Jovanovich (Siegmund) and Karita Mattila (Sieglinde)

Act 1, Die Walküre

June, 2018

Photo: Cory Weaver, courtesy of San Francisco Opera

Yesterday, San Francisco Opera announced the return of Francesco Zambello's production of Wagner's epic Der Ring des Nibelungen, for its third bring up. It'll be on stage at the War Memorial Opera House for three cycles in June, 2028, under the baton of music director Eun Sun Kim.

The company also announced casting for the three biggest roles:

• Baritone Brian Mulligan sings Wotan
• Soprano Tamara Wilson sings Brünnhilde
• Tenor Simon O'Neill sings Siegfried

Prior to 2028, there will be performances of Das Rheingold in the summer of 2027 and Die Walküre in fall, 2027. Those are subscription performances. There will also be single performances of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung in the late spring of 2028, just before the full stagings. Why? Well, at that point it will have been a decade since the previous production, and getting this monster on stage is complicated. There's been lots of turnover in the critical production crews (lighting, stagehands, costume, wig, makeup, etc.) and in the orchestra and chorus. The extra performances ensure that the full cycles will be at their best. 

Ticket prices haven't been announced yet. They'll go on sale to certain donor levels in October, 2026, then to other donor levels and the general public in 2027. 

Read all about the Ring at the San Francisco Opera web site.

Reporting:

• Joshua Kosman, S.F. Chronicle
• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV

San Francisco Opera: 2026 Adler Fellows

 

War Memorial Opera House

San Francisco Opera has announced its 2026 Adler Fellows. I saw the big Merola concert in August and hoo boy, it must have been tough to decide on which singers to admit to the Adler program. Congratulations to these talented young singers.

First-year fellows:

• Sadie Cheslak, mezzo
• Brian Cho, pianist
• Alexa Frankian, soprano
• Sophia Gotch, soprano
• Gabriel Natal-Báez, baritone

Second-year fellows:

• Mary Hoskins, soprano
• Ji Youn Lee, pianist
• Olivier Zerouali, baritone

Third-year fellow:

• Thomas Kinch, tenor

SFS New Principal Horn

Diego Incertis Sánchez

Spanish horn player Diego Incertis Sánchez has been appointed principal horn of the San Francisco Symphony. He'll join the orchestra in January, two years after Robert Ward retired following 43 years with the orchestra, 16 of them as principal horn.

Incertis Sánchez, 28, is currently the principal horn of the London Symphony Orchestra and previously held the same position with the Philharmonia Orchestra. (I can't tell if he held that position when a certain Esa-Pekka Salonen was chief conductor of the Philharmonia.) This is Salonen's last hire from his all-too-brief tenure as music director of SFS, where he hired many new musicians, including the new principal and associate principal flutes, principal cello, associate and assistant principal clarinets, associate principal concertmaster, and more.

Joshua Kosman's article on the appointment discusses the reasons Incertis Sánchez is relocating. I would like to add that while London and San Francisco are both very expensive cities, orchestral musicians in London are paid much less than their peers in the major U.S. orchestras.

This appointment leaves three openings in the horn section: associate principal (formerly held by Mark Almond, now the principal horn of the CSO), assistant principal (formerly held by Bruce Roberts, who retired), and utility horn (formerly held by Daniel Hawkins, now the principal horn of the Dallas Symphony). 

Tom Jacobs has also written about this appointment.

 

Museum Monday

St. Anthony of Padu

Pau Vargas, 15th c.

Philadelphia Museum of Art

April, 2025

 

Hansel und Gretel at Opera Orlando: Two Free Performances on Nov. 8

 

Opera Orlando Hansel und Gretel

(photographer not credited)

Gingerbread on stage? Must be Englebert Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel, one of my favorite operas (I love it pretty much unreservedly), though honestly it is terrifying and very much reflects widespread hunger in Germany at the time it was composed.

Regardless, Opera Orlando is offering two free performances tomorrow, Nov. 8. Here are the details:

FREE performances of family-friendly Hansel & Gretel

WHEN: Saturday | November 8, 2025 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

WHERE: Grand Avenue Neighborhood Center

800 Grand Street | Orlando, FL 32805

TICKETS: Email Info@OperaOrlando.org

Sung in English.

Maybe it's been cut ("reimagined") as only four characters are mentioned in the press release. (Hard to believe they're omitting the Sandman and Dew Fairy, but what do I know?) Regardless, here's the cast, which includes a mezzo witch! I have seen it only with a male witch:

• Alexandra Kzeski as Gretel 
• Mezzo-soprano Ruoxi Bian as Hansel
• Mezzo-soprano and education director Sarah Purser as the Witch
• Baritone Logan Tarwater as the Father

Friday Photo

Cherry Blossoms

Washington, DC

April, 2025

 

Still More Music Director Updates

Apparently I started this in late July, then managed to forget all about it. Here we go. There's some big news here.

• Jakub Hrůša will succeed Semyon Bychkov at the Czech Philharmonic. Bychkov's tenure there concludes in 2028.
• Australian conductor Ingrid Martin will become assistant conductor of the Detroit Symphony in September, 2025.
• Pola Benke becomes assistant conductor of the Pacific Symphony on August 1, 2025.
• Leonard Slatkin will be artistic advisor to the Nashville Symphony for three years, as they search for a new music director.
• Patrick Summers to step down from Houston Grand Opera at the end of this season (2025-26), after 27 years as their music director.
• James Gaffigan to succeed Patrick Summers at Houston Grand Opera. He'll be music director designate for 2026-27, then becomes music director in 2027-28.

New updates (major thanks to reader Geo. for most of these!):

Open positions:

• San Francisco Symphony, with the departure of Esa-Pekka Salonen
• Orchestre Philharmonique of Monte-Carlo, in August, 2026 , when Kazuki Yamada leaves
• National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada, in 2026 when Alexander Shelley leaves.
• Symphony Tacoma when Sara Ionnides leaves in 2026
• Boston Baroque, when Martin Pearlman leaves.
• Berkeley Symphony, when Joseph Young leaves.
• Milwaukee Symphony
• New Jersey Symphony, when Xian Zhang leaves at the end of the 2027-28 season.
• Ulster Orchestra, when Daniele Rustioni leaves
• Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, when Daniel Harding leaves
• Oslo Philharmonic, when Klaus Mäkelä moves on in 2027
• Orchestre de Paris, when Klaus Mäkelä moves on in 2027
• Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, when Santu-Matias Rouvali leaves in 2025
• Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra because of the departure of Lorenzo Viotti in 2025
• Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, because of the departure of Lorenzo Viotti in 2025
• Dutch National Opera, because of the departure of Lorenzo Viotti in 2025
• Bergen Philharmonic
• Phoenix Symphony
• Cleveland Orchestra, as of June, 2027
• Lahti Symphony, when Dalia Stasevka leaves.
• Antwerp Symphony, with the departure of Elim Chan.
• Paris Opera is currently without a music director.
• Nashville Symphony, when Giancarlo Guerrero leaves.
• Deutsche Oper Berlin, when Donald Runnicles leaves.
• Rottedam Philharmonic, when Lahav Shani leaves.
• Los Angeles Philharmonic, at the start` of the 2026-27 season, when Gustavo Dudamel leaves for NY.
• Teatro Regio Turin: Open now with departure of Gianandrea Noseda. The Teatro Regio has not named a new music director.
• Marin Symphony
• Vienna Staatsoper, when Philippe Jordan leaves at the end of 2025.

Conductors looking for jobs (that is, as of the near future, or now, they do not have a posting). The big mystery, to me, is why an orchestra hasn't snapped up Susanna Mälkki. Slightly lesser mystery: Henrik Nanasi, whose superb Cosi fan tutte is still lingering in my ears.

• Ken-David Masur
• Joseph Young
• Kirill Karabits
• Marc Albrecht
• Markus Stenz
• Esa-Pekka Salonen, if he wants such a position again
• James Conlon, if he wants such a position again.
• Dalia Stasevska (though her contract at Lahti has been extended by a year)
• Elim Chan
• Kirill Karabits
• Tito Muñoz 
• Andrey Boreyko
• Osmo Vänskä
• Susanna Mälkki, who left the Helsinki Philharmonic at the end of 2022-23.
• MGT (apparently does not want a full-time job, as of early 2022)
• Miguel Harth-Bedoya (seems settled in at Baylor)
• Sian Edwards
• Ingo Metzmacher
• Jac van Steen
• Ilan Volkov
• Aleksandr Markovic
• Lothar Koenigs
• Henrik Nanasi
• Philippe Jordan, eventually
• Franz Welser-Möst, if he wants such a job

And closed:

• Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra appoints conductor, harpsichordist, solo bassoonist, and Olivier Award winner Peter Whelan, as of the 2026-27 season
• English National Opera: Andre de Ridder becomes music director in 2027
• Antwerp Symphony: Marc Albrecht becomes chief conductor in 2026
• Teatro Regio Turin: Andrea Battistoni became music director this past January
• Residentie Orchestra, The Hague: Jun Markl is now chief conductor, after Anja Bihlmaier finished her 4 years there
• Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra: Andre de Ridder will leave in 2027 to go to ENO
• Teatro alla Scala: Riccardo Chailly leaves at the end of 2026. Myung-Whun Chung begins at the start of 2027
• Norwegian Radio Orchestra: Holly Hyun Choe becomes principal conductor in January 2026
• Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie: Marzena Diakun becomes chief conductor in 2026
• Delaware Symphony Orchestra: Michelle Di Russo becomes music director this fall
• Korean National Symphony Orchestra: Roberto Abbado becomes music director in January 2026
• Domingo Hindoyan will be the next music director of L.A. Opera
• Iván López Reynoso is the new music director of the Atlanta Opera
• Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, with the appointment of Markus Poschner
• Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España, with the appointment of Kent Nagano
• Eugene (OR), with the appointment of Alex Prior
• Utah Symphony, with the appointment of Markus Poschner.
• Bournemouth Symphony appoints Mark Wigglesworth as Chief Conductor (some time ago).
• Colorado Symphony appoints Peter Oundjian, effective with the 2025-26 season.
• Pacific Symphony appoints Alexander Shelley to succeed Carl St. Clair, starting with the 2026-27 season.
• Milwaukee Symphony, when Ken-David Masur leaves at the end of 2025-26.
• Seattle Symphony, with the appointment of Xian Zhang as of the 2025-26 season.
• Edward Gardner starts as music director of Norwegian National Opera this season,
• Sarasota Orchestra: Giancarlo Guerrero has been named music director, as of 2025.
• Hong Kong Philharmonic: Tarmo Peltokoski becomes music director in 2026.

Older closed appointments

Hello, Star at Opera Parallèle

 

Hello, Star

Chorus; Aniyjah Garrett as Young Celeste; Aisha Campbell as Celeste's Mother

Photo by Stefan Cohen, courtesy of Opera Parallèle

A few weeks ago, both SFCV and The Chronicle had previews of Opera Parallèle's newest Hands-On-Opera, a community opera based on Stephanie S. V. Lucianovic and Vashti Harrison's beautiful children's book Hello, Star. You can read them here:

• Victoria Looseleaf, SFCV 
• Lisa Hirsch, SF Chronicle

I saw the last of three performances of Hello, Star and I was charmed and delighted by the work and the performance. Jarrod Lee created a wonderful libretto from a very short picture book and Carla Lucero's score was just about perfect: beautiful and so suggestive of the cosmos. Between the two of them, the opera is singable, absorbing, suitable for the young singer performing the role of Celeste, with lovely choral writing.

Lucero and Lee did a brilliant job with a small ensemble, an amateur chorus, a child singer in a major role, and a short length. The opera has all the wonder of the book.

The singers were all terrific; the chamber ensemble sounded bigger than it was. And L. Peter Callender's direction was great, working on a tiny stage and making every look, every gesture, every movement count. The costumes, by Alia Brown, were lovely; Giulio Cesare Perrone's two-side set was clever and also charming. 

Here's the cast:

• Christabel Nunoo, Adult Celeste
• Aniyjah Garrett, Young Celeste
• Aisha Campbell, Mother/Trainer
• Bradley Kynard, Big Star

Congrats to all; I wish I could have seen this more than once, and I hope that Hello, Star will receive many more performances.

Museum Mondays

Virgin and Child Under a Canopy

From the Chapel of the Château Pagny

Made near Dijon, France

16th c.

Philadelphia Art Museum

April, 2025

 

San Francisco Opera Parsifal Streaming, Starting Sunday, November 2, 2025

Temple of the Grail

Act 1

Photo: Cory Weaver, courtesy of San Francisco Opera

Tomorrow, Sunday, November 2, is the livestream of the San Francisco Opera "Parsifal," an extraordinary

production in every way. It's a matinee starting at 1 p. m. Pacific time. and it's available on demand from Monday, Nov. 3 at 10 a.m. PT to Wednesday, Nov. 5 at 10 a.m. PT. 

 

To buy tickets, go here. It's a bargain at $25, cheaper than any ticket other than standing room, and you don't need to spend all of a weekend afternoon attending or watching this monster, which is roughly five hours long. If you haven't yet experienced SFO music director Eun Sun Kim's Wagner, run, don't walk. Her three Wagner outings have all been superb.

 

Friday Photo

Stephenson Memorial 

(Memorial to the Grand Army of the Republic)

Washington, DC

April, 2025

The Grand Army of the Republic was a fraternal organization of Civil War veterans from the different Union military branches.

 

Pure Foolishness

Parsifal, Act 2

Photo: Cory Weaver / courtesy of San Francisco Opera

I've got many thoughts that aren't in my review, but I also have a cold. Watch for updates to this post.

• Joshua Kosman, SF Chronicle
• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle: Hard to parse 
• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV (Review updated on 10/30)
• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV: Eun Sun Kim Profile
• Thomas May, Opera Now 
• Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box 
• Charlise Tiee, Opera Tattler; Charlies Tiee 2nd Parsifal
• Michael Strickland, S.F Civic Center
• Patrick Vaz, The Reverberate Hills
• Richard Ginelle, Classical Voice North America
• Harvey Steiman, Seen & Heard International
• Caroline Crawford, Bay City News
• Gary Kamiya, Substack: "Parsifal": When Christian-pagan acid trips go wrong
• James Ambroff-Tahan, Examiner (preview) 
• Matthew Travisano, Parterre Box, interview with Matthew Ozawa
• Parterre Box, "Change My Mind About Parsifal"
• Tony Bravo, SF Chronicle, feature about Matthew Shilvock

Museum Mondays

Painting seen through a doorway

Philadelphia Museum of Art

April, 2025

Friday Photo

The Mall

Washington, DC

April, 2025

 

Several Items Make a Post

Some not-random notes:

• SFS Chorus Director Jenny Wong has extended her contract with the orchestra through the 2028-29 season.
• San Francisco Girls Chorus has appointed Nicolás Lell Benavides as their 2025-26 composer in residence. (He is the composer of Dolores, which was a big hit at West Edge Opera this past summer.)
• Genevieve Graves is the new executive director of Volti (as of August; yes, I'm a little behind!). The press release noted that "She holds a Ph.D. from Santa Cruz University and a B.A. from Harvard University in Astrophysics, and brings over a decade of leadership experience across tech startups and data science consulting. She is an alumna of the Piedmont East Bay Children's Choir and played a significant role as that organization rose to a level of national and international prominence. She went on to found a chamber choir at Harvard and to sing with additional choirs in Boston, the Bay Area and Santa Cruz."
• Are you a French horn fan? Jesse Clevenger, who played with SFS for two seasons, is playing a couple of pieces of interest with the Vallejo Symphony this Sunday: the world premiere of John Williams's Serenade for Horn and Strings and Benjamin Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, the latter with Salvatore Atti. The Britten is a great masterwork. Also on the program are works by C.P.E. Bach and Stravinsky. October 26 at 3 p.m. and I'd go if I didn't have a conflict.