A Busy Weekend of Concerts

There’s an abundance of performances happening this weekend… with seasons continuing and starting, there are options for concerts in a variety of sizes and genres. While by no means exhaustive, this quick roundup of concerts might give you some ideas if you want to see and hear music in person.

There are a couple of solo performances, with Jason Vieaux giving a recital at Herbst Theatre Saturday night as a part of the San Francisco Performances guitar series. His programming is expected to include works by Bach, Scarlatti, Barrios, Frank Martin, as well as Antonio Carlos Jobim and his own arrangement of Duke Ellington. Anna Dmytrenko gives a Steinway Society recital in San Jose on Sunday afternoon, with Rachmaninoff in the first half, and Beethoven after intermission. It’s Beethoven’s 5th that San Francisco Chamber Orchestra is describing with their season-opening program called “The Most Famous Symphony Ever Written” – pairing it with the Emilie Mayer Faust Overture. They’ll give three free concerts, at Herbst, in Palo Alto, and Berkeley over the weekend. A new double concerto for violin and cello called Partners by David Amram is on the Symphony Silicon Valley programs, with JoAnn Falletta guest conducting, plus the Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances. Alasdair Neale and the Marin Symphony launch their Masterworks Series with Vadim Gluzman soloing in the Beethoven Violin Concerto, and organist Jonathan Dimmock with Saint-Saens’ Symphony No. 3, the ‘Organ’ Symphony. This Sunday afternoon, Gamelan Sekar Jaya celebrates its 40th anniversary as an organization playing and dancing Balinese traditional music, and new music inspired by those traditions. They’ll be performing (along with many alumni of the group) at the recently opened Presidio Theatre. And Redwood Symphony celebrates Halloween a little early with their annual Concert in Costume… Eric Kujawsky will lead the ensemble in music by Kodaly, Copland, Mason Bates, and more, and lucky raffle-winning children will have a chance to lead the orchestra in a performance of John Philip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever.