Each Contemporary Insights event focuses on a single piece from the following evening’s concert. Composers and musicians talk about the piece, and the musicians demonstrate parts of it. After performing the work in its entirety, the musicians elicit reactions, answer questions, and talk with the audience. The audience is invited to stay for wine and hors d’oeuvres afterward.

Program:
Beat... [read more]

Each Contemporary Insights event focuses on a single piece from the following evening’s concert. Composers and musicians talk about the piece, and the musicians demonstrate parts of it. After performing the work in its entirety, the musicians elicit reactions, answer questions, and talk with the audience. The audience is invited to stay for wine and hors d’oeuvres afterward.

Program:
Beat Furrer, "Spur" (1998) for piano quintet
Graeme Jennings and Susan Freier, violins; Nanci Severance, viola;
Stephen Harrison, cello; Keisuke Nakagoshi, piano
Guest conductor & moderator: Sara Jobin

Beat Furrer has a gift for bringing audiences to the edge of their seats. In "Spur", repetitive figures layer over one another, starting and stopping abruptly in a virtuosic flurry of extended techniques. Suspenseful, frenetic, delicate, and almost psychedelic at times, the music builds and releases, dropping us when we least expect it. The Swiss-born Furrer, founder of the influential ensemble Klangforum Wien, is one of the great compositional voices in Europe today.

$10 general, $5 students/seniors.
Tickets are available with a subscription or at the door. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Questions? Call 415-278-9566 or email info@sfcmp.org.

Funded in part by: Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council; the Consulate General of Switzerland in San Francisco; the Ross McKee Foundation.