Back in the 1910s and 1920s, modernism and the cinema brushed up against one another. The surrealists, for example, loved Charlie Chaplin and championed his art. As did the early 20th century American poet Vachel Lindsay, who also had a special affection for Mary Pickford. The French composer Charles Koechlin is well known for his symphonic homages to favorite stars.
The impulse to bring “hi” and “low” together seems to be behind a concert series by the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. The group is in the middle of a five day tour around the Bay Area. And their program includes works by Igor Stravinsky, UC Berkeley professor Cindy Cox, and a screening of the 1921 silent film, Now or Never, starring Harold Lloyd. The Lloyd film is being shown with a new score by instrumentalist and composer Donald Sosin.
This program is built around the unusual instrumentation of Stravinsky’s 1923 Octet, scored for flute, clarinet, two bassoons, two trumpets, and two trombones. Additionally, UC Berkeley professor Cox has composed a new piece for the same octet.
Silent film composer Sosin who recently performed at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival Winter Event at the Castro Theater, has written a new score for Lloyd’s Now or Never, which will be screened during the performance.
The program opens with a late-Renaissance canzona featuring our four brass players. The complete program includes Giovanni Gabrieli’s” Canzona per Sonare #4,” Stravinsky’s “Octet for Wind Instruments” (1923), Cox’s Cañon (2011), and
Sosin’s Now or Never (2011). The latter two works are a San Francisco Chamber Orchestra Commission as well as world premieres.
A couple more dates remain on the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra Bay Area tour. Maestro Ben Simon gives an engaging pre-concert talk 30 minutes before each show.
Thu, Feb 17 @5:30pm
Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission St @4th St, San Francisco
Fri, Feb 18 @8:00pm
Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave @McAllister St, San Francisco
Sat, Feb 19 @8:00pm
St Mark’s Episcopal Church, 600 Colorado Ave @Middlefield Rd, Palo Alto
Sun, Feb 20 @7:00pm
First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way @Dana St, Berkeley
Mon, Feb 21 @8:00pm
Empress Theatre, 330 Virginia St @Sacramento St, Vallejo
For more info: Doors open 45 minutes before show time. Admission is free, but because space is limited, tickets are required (available online or at the door). Members receive priority seating. Additional details on the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra program can be found at http://www.sfchamberorchestra.org/concerts/mainstage/
Thomas Gladysz is an arts journalist and the Director of the Louise Brooks Society, an online archive and international fan club.. Recently, he wrote the introduction to a new “Louise Brooks edition” of Margarete Böhme's classic book, The Diary of a Lost Girl (PandorasBox Press).
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