Eugene Villanueva, Peter Grünberg team for Lieder Alive
Baritone Eugene Villanueva, pianist Peter Grunberg , team on a concert touching on Schubert and Paolo Tosti, presented by Lieder Alive.
San Francisco native, baritone Eugene Villanueva has sung principal opera roles including Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin and the title role of “The Barber of Seville.” Pianist Peter Grünberg has appeared as piano soloist with the San Francisco Symphony and performed at the Aix-en-Provence Salzburg, and Tanglewood festivals. Together, these two accomplished artists appear in a duo recital this weekend to perform music by Franz Schubert and Italian song composer Paolo Tosti.
Presented by Lieder Alive!, the San Francisco company devoted to the song repertoire, each half of the program begins with selections from Schubert lieder and solo piano works. But concert songs by Tosti, who died in 1916, are the main event. Villanueva, the first American ever to receive the Tosti Song Prize from the , will perform the composer’s dazzling song cycle on love and death, “Quatro Canzoni d’Amaranta” (Four songs of Amaranta.) Songs by Richard Strauss are also on the program. Audience members are invited to linger afterward to meet the artists at a post-performance reception.
Details: 5 p.m. March 24, Noe Valley Ministry, San Francisco; $20-$75; 415-561-0100, liederalive.org.