Local and coastal—a flood of music festivals
From the intimate to the majestic, the Bay Area’s summer music festivals are known for their adventurous spirit. Now in full swing, here’s a look at what’s up.
The Mendocino Music Festival is one of my personal favorites for its audacious variety. One may wonder how locale informs programming, and whether the breathtaking views of the Mendocino coast, its wrinkled lands and winding roads are why one finds such an expansiveness of the spirit. Here one may hear bluegrass and opera, Serbian folk music and string quartet, raucous Zydeco and a Bach Mass that will overflow the concert tent.
This Friday, July 15, will be a fully staged production of Mozart’s beloved opera, Abduction from the Seraglio, directed by Erin Neff and starring Nikki Einfeld as Costanze, and with orchestra conducted by the Festival Artistic Director Allan Pollack. Eight more full days follow, and the public is invited to attend open orchestra rehearsals, along with afternoon lectures and evening concerts.
For Beethoven fans (and who is not?), July 20 will be a red-letter day, with violin virtuoso David McCarroll leading the orchestra in Beethoven’s tender Violin Concerto, followed by the triumphant Eroica.
Along with the many bed-and-breakfasts of this artsy coastal town, one can often find a tent space just two miles away at Van Damme State Park. See mendocinomusic.org for tickets and information.
The South Bay’s Music@Menlo Festival kicks off this weekend with over thirty events, including seven main-stage concert programs, four recitals by some of the best musicians in this country, three multimedia lectures, and many “Prelude Performances” by younger musicians who are on the verge of the professional circuit.
This ambitious and popular festival (many of its events are sold out) was founded by pianist Wu Han and cellist David Finckel, and each year they choose a different theme. This year will be an exploration of Russian chamber repertoire, from Stravinsky’s rebellious rhythms to Shostakovich’s mesmerizing darkness, and all of the fire and ice in between. See musicatmenlo.org for a full program of events.
The Carmel Bach Festival also kicks off this weekend, with the B-Minor Mass performed with period instruments and a full chorus on Sunday, July 17 at 4:00 p.m. at the Sunset Center in Carmel. This two-week long festival is one of the foremost Bach festivals in America,
and the longest running at 78 years. Artistic Director Paul Goodwin enjoys mixing the venerable with the modern, and the opening concert will have both Handel’s elegant Water Music and Eric Whitacre’s 1992 Cloudburst, both themed to celebrate the beauty of our southern coastline.
This town is so charming that one need not crave Bach to enjoy its eateries and galleries. See bachfestival.org for information on events and tickets.
And closer to home, our own West Edge Opera is planning a festival with three operas to be held in Oakland’s abandoned train station, at 17th St and Wood in West Oakland. This valiant opera company, led by Artistic Director Mark Streshinsky and Music Director Jonathon Khuner, transformed itself into a summer festival program two years ago, and has received rave reviews for both years. This year they will offer Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen, Thomas Adès’ Powder Her Nose, and Handel’s Agrippina, and three more different treatments of the human condition would be hard to find. They open on Saturday, July 30 at 8:00 p.m. with Vixen, an edgy 1921 work that joins modernism and Hungarian folk music. The following day, Sunday, July 31 at 3:00 p.m., West Edge stages the 1995 Powder, based on a real-life British scandal, with music performed by the contemporary music group Earplay, and on Saturday, August 6 is Agrippina, played on period instruments. The three productions continue on the following two weekends. If you can manage to see anything this summer, these should be on your list. See westedgeopera.org for tickets and details.
And that brings us to the beginning of August and the inaugural season of the Piedmont Chamber Music Festival. Hosted at the Piedmont Center for the Arts, this festival includes an introductory soiree on August 4 at a private residence and then three concerts, August 5 – 7. On Friday, August 5 at 7:30 a concert titled “Folk Traditions” will feature Bartok’s love of Romania, Schumann’s foray into Gypsy clarinet, and Dvorak’s Bohemian flair.
Then Saturday at 7:30 the seven musicians switch gears into contemporary, with works by John Adams, Jake Heggie, William Bolcom, and Anthony Cheung. The final concert, Sunday Aug. 7 at 3:00 p.m., steeps us in the late Romanticism of Brahms and Chausson and the passionate songs of Viardot.
Conceived by violinist and Piedmont native Wayne Lee and Cincinnati pianist Juliana Han, this festival is meant to fill a void in our own backyard and is destined to grow into a regular event. See piedmontcmf.org for more information and tickets.
—Adam Broner
Photos from top: the Festival Tent on the Mendocino headlands; Emma McNairy in Lulu from West Edge Opera’s 2015 summer festival; and Piedmont Chamber Founders Wayne Lee and Juliana Han.