December 2009 – Repeat Performances

December 19, 2009

New York Philharmonic at the Metropolitan Museum

Four fragile views of the future—new music in New York On Saturday, Dec. 19, the New York Philharmonic extended their music making in two ways: they performed a concert of four World premieres by younger composers outside the mainstream. And they held it at the Metropolitan Museum, stepping outside their classy quarters for a more direct experience. Appropriately, the new-music series is titled “Contact!” Mongolian fugue, French plainchant, Brazilian mythology and...

Categories: music

December 14, 2009

Ran Dank at New York’s Merkin Hall

A fine pianist in an excellent hall Acoustics is curious—half art and half science. Actually, even the word is curious, as the plural can be singular, indeterminate as the wave phenomena it describes. Theoretically one can design a hall to match the instrument, or at least the size of the ensemble and its range. But theory and engineering seldom meet. On Dec 14 young Israeli Ran Dank gave a piano recital at Merkin Concert Hall in mid-town Manhattan. Recently renovated...

Categories: music

December 12, 2009

San Francisco Performances presents Marino Formenti

Messiaen's Vingt Regards sur L'Enfant-Jesus For the past two weeks San Francisco Performances has presented pianist Marino Formenti in a two-part odyssey into “Aspects of the Divine.” The first concert, on December 5, was...

Categories: music

December 6, 2009

Renee Fleming at Cal Performances’ Zellerbach Hall

Loving the light In her introduction, Renee Fleming, elegantly gowned in turquoise green on the stage of Cal Performances’ Zellerbach Hall last Sunday, remarked that now seemed to be the time for Olivier...

Categories: opera

December 5, 2009

Alexander String Quartet

Back to school in morning lecture—then a dreamy performance Robert Greenberg and the Alexander String Quartet worked their magic again this year in a lecture/performance Saturday morning at Berkeley’s St John’s Presbyterian Church. Collaborating to investigate the early Felix Mendelssohn, the musicians were swelled by the Hausmann quartet for Mendelssohn’s unique Octet in E-flat. Written when he was only 17, the Octet goes beyond promise: fully...

Categories: music

December 3, 2009

Berkeley Symphony performs Stucky

Imaginative programming adds zest to Berkeley Symphony A program of coloristic brilliance lit up Zellerbach Hall on Thursday, Dec 3, as the Berkeley Symphony, led by new artistic director Joana Carneiro, traded woodsy warbling with shimmering strings. Living composer Steven Stucky was...

Categories: music