Big names and big plans…
Clever programming and a veritable parade of great violinists mark this as a watershed year for Bay Area symphonies.
Joana Carneiro will lead the Berkeley Symphony in four promising programs, beginning with the season opener on Thursday, October 2 at 7:00 p.m. when famed violinist Jennifer Koh will be featured in Sibelius’ Violin Concerto. From tremulous to searing, this concerto paints a landscape of lean lines and unexpected richness, paired with Elgar’s Enigma Variations and the World Premiere of Oscar Bettison’s Sea Shaped.
Their second program is equally enticing, combining Tchaikovsky’s stirring Symphony No. 6 and contemporary composer Thomas Adès’ powerfully modern Asyla.
Then in February they balance a world premiere by Jake Heggie with Brahms’ Symphony No. 4. One of the heights of the repertoire, Brahms’ amalgam of bitter sweet yearning and passionate certainty is sure to be heard long after our civilization lies in ruins. Combined with that, Heggie’s new song cycle, Camille Claudel: Into the Fire, features Sasha Cooke, one of the great mezzos of our time.
Their season ends April 30 with the work Mozart died trying to finish, his immortal Requiem, paired with choral works from John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer. Here, the Berkeley Symphony will join ranks with the UC Chorus for a stirring season finale.
All of these concerts deserve to sell out, and probably will.
In partnership with the Berkeley Symphony, the Piedmont Center of the Arts will again host “Berkeley Symphony and Friends,” a new chamber music series that filled the hall at each of the four concerts last year. They start out with a bang on Sunday, September 21 at 5:00 p.m. with two legendary musicians, violinist Stuart Canin and pianist Sarah Cahill, in a program of Adès and Beethoven. Canin, the former concertmaster of the SF Symphony and LA Opera, performs with depth and sonority, while Cahill is such an extraordinary pianist and advocate of contemporary music that many composers have written works for her.
At the Nov. 9 concert, Berkeley Symphony concertmaster Franklyn D’Antonio performs works of Adams, Bartók and Brahms with clarinetist Roman Fukshansky, cellist Eric Gaenslen and pianist Miles Graber. Then Berkeley Symphony Executive Director Rene Mandel will appear Feb. 8 with SF Symphony cellist Peter Wyrick and pianist Markus Pawlik for some Mozart and Tchaikovsky, a trio that came together last year for a concert that garnered high praise (including lots from me!).
The San Francisco Symphony, in their 20th year with conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, has never sounded better.
Among many treats, this is a year of great violinists playing great concertos. Isabelle Faust, Janine Jansen and Anne-Sophie Mutter will each appear this fall (which begs a question: why do world-class violinists always look so good?), along with the great Joshua Bell and Gil Shaham. Faust performs Britten’s blistering Violin Concerto on Oct. 15 – 18, with “passion, grit and electricity” according to a New York Times review. The Feb 26 – March 1 concerts pair John Luther Adams’ glacial meditations from Alaska with a peak of German Romanticism, Brahms’ definitive Violin Concerto, starring another peak of German art forms, the lovely Anne-Sophie Mutter.
In April Joshua Bell infuses Beethoven’s mastery with nearly unbearable sweetness in a program that also includes Schoenberg’s groundbreaking Chamber Symphony and John Adams’ modern response. And the young and talented Jensen takes on Mendelssohn’s violin masterpiece May 14 – 15.
And between salvos of star violinists, the SF Symphony will supply a veritable phalanx of fine programs, with September and October crammed. Seriously, you can go any weekend and be glad of it, including an opportunity to hear the visiting London Philharmonic or see the Wizard of Oz with live orchestra!
The Oakland East Bay Symphony rolls in on Friday, Nov. 7 at 8:00 p.m. with conductor Michael Morgan’s wicked penchant for adventure. Their season starts with Tchaikovsky’s powerhouse Symphony No. 5 along with Brothers in Arts, a brand new work for jazz quintet and orchestra featuring artist/composers Chris Brubeck and Guillaume Saint-James.
Each of the other four concerts in this season is similarly rousing, with pairings of Gershwin and Shostakovich, and Haydn and Mads Tolling. Morgan’s 25th year at the helm is going to be memorable!
Donato Cabrera leads the California Symphony in a rousing opening in Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts on Sunday, Sept. 21 at 4:00 p.m., full of satisfying “big moments,” from Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite to Ravel’s Bolero. Then on January 18, in a program titled Whimsy and Virtuosity, they showcase 16-year-old violin phenomenon Alina Ming Kobialka in Saint-Saens’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, a blistering work that many young violinists attempt, but few will be as eye-opening as Kobialka.
This will be the year to go out and catch some strings.
—Adam Broner
Photos, from top: Jennifer Koh solos in Sibelius’ Violin Concerto with the Berkeley Symphony Oct. 2 at Zellerbach Hall; Sarah Cahill performs at the Piedmont Center for the Arts Sept. 21 at 5:00 p.m., photo by Marianne LaRochelle; Anne-Sophie Mutter will perform the Brahms’ Violin Concerto with the SF Symphony Feb. 26 – March 1; Joshua Bell appears with the SF Symphony April 9 – 12 in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, photo by Timothy White; Janine Jansen performs Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the SF Symphony May 14 – 15.