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IN Music News THIS WEEK:
Seattle's 'Great New Ring' for 2005
Belated Thanksgiving to Opera Founders
Pacific Mozart Postcard from Berlin
The Music of the Ballet
New Additions to Santa Rosa Orchestra
Napa Opera Season
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By Janos Gereben
Classical Grammy Nominations
Recording Academy nominations in classical categories for 2003 include several Bay Area artists and organizations. Results are to be announced on February 8, 2004, at the 46th Grammy Awards ceremony, to be telecast on CBS.
In the Best Classical Album category, Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony are nominated for their recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 3 and Kindertotenlieder, along with mezzo Michelle DeYoung, Vance George and the SFS Chorus, the Pacific Boychoir, and the San Francisco Girls Chorus. The competition: another Mahler No. 3 recording, by Pierre Boulez and the Vienna Philharmonic; Rorem's three symphonies, by José Serebrier and the Bournemouth Symphony; the four Schumann symphonies, by Wolfgang Sawallisch and the Philadelphia Orchestra; Britten's Violin Concerto and Walton's Viola Concerto, with Mstislav Rostropovich and the London Symphony Orchestra, Maxim Vengerov soloist on violin and viola.
In Best Chamber Music Performance, the Kronos Quartet is nominated twice, for its recording of Berg's Lyric Suite with soprano Dawn Upshaw, and of Vasks' String Quartet No. 4, both for Nonesuch. These go up against recordings of Bliss works by the Maggini Quartet; Carter's Oboe Quartet by the Speculum Musicae; and piano quintets of Shostakovich and Schnittke by pianist Boris Berman and the Vermeer Quartet. (The Kronos has yet another nomination, for the Best Classical Crossover Album award for The Gorey End, with the Tiger Lillies. Chanticleer is in competition with them there, with its Our American Journey.)
Alameda's Frederica von Stade is a double nominee in the Best Classical Vocal Performance and Best Classical Contemporary Composition categories, for her recording of Argento's Casa Guidi, with Eiji Oue and the Minnesota Orchestra. Others in the vocal contest: Ian Bostridge, David Daniels and Chrisopher Maltman in the Britten Canticles; Barbara Bonney's operetta album, Im Chambre Séparée; Thomas Quasthoff and Anne Sofie von Otter for Schubert Lieder with Claudio Abbado and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe; Montserrat Caballé for Songs Of The Spanish Renaissance, Vol. 1.
Pianists have a clean sweep of the Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestra) category, with the nomination of András Schiff, Piotr Anderszewski, Petronel Malan, Evgeny Kissin, and Emanuel Ax.
Seattle's 'Great New Ring' for 2005 Releasing information on Thursday about the company's 2005 Ring cycle, Seattle Opera general director Speight Jenkins recalled his promise made a couple of years ago that "Stephen Wadsworth would direct a great new Ring and that he and the designers would return in 2005 not to revive the Ring but to recreate it. The same sets, costumes, and lights will not have changed drastically," Jenkins said, "but the direction of each singer will again be attuned to the artist performing the part. Though this seems obvious, it's not always done. Each time this Ring is performed, it will be newly minted." A headline of the announcement is the casting of Ewa Podles as Erda. The Polish contralto has had a cult following in the US for decades, but few appearances with prominent opera companies. The conductor will be Atlanta Symphony music director Robert Spano, in his first Ring. Soprano Jane Eaglen and Canadian tenor Alan Woodrow return as Brünnhilde and Siegfried. (Woodrow was injured in a gym accident before the 2001 opening, sang the first cycle from the side of the stage, and withdrew from the remaining two cycles.) English tenor Richard Berkeley-Steele, who took over for Woodrow in 2001, will now take on the role of Siegmund. Also returning are baritone Richard Paul Fink as Alberich, soprano Margaret Jane Wray as Sieglinde, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe as Fricka, and bass Stephen Milling as Fasolt and Hunding. Although the Wagner cycle has been a feature of the Seattle season for more than three decades, this will be the first time this most demanding of opera spectacles is to be presented in an appropriate setting. The opening of Seattle's Marion Oliver McCaw Hall last June assures the company of the right venue for the Ring.
The dates of the performances are:
Belated Thanksgiving to Opera Founders
Last week's quiz about memorial tablets in the lobby of the War Memorial Opera House had a hidden agenda. You were asked to name those honored by the nine plaques, and here they are:
As lectures by Robert Commanday over the years have documented, opera was alive in San Francisco for 71 years before the 1922 creation of the company here, and there were small opera houses from the middle of the 19th century, see www.sfmuseum.org. (Incidentally, there is a similar story in "nearby" Hawaii: www.OperaHawaiiHistory.htm.) But it was a $10,000 fund, raised by a group of Italian-American businessmen from North Beach, that made the birth of the San Francisco Opera possible.
The participants, acknowledged on the plaque, were Guglielmo Torchia, Giuseppe Brucia, Antonio Farina, Giulio Stradi, Alfonso and Amadeo Napolitano, Milano Milani, V. Frevola, Amadeo, Amalio and Anacleto Paoni. It was with their contributions and pledges that Merola was able to give the first San Francisco Opera performances on June 3, 7 and 16, 1922, in the Stanford University stadium. These men were motivated by their love for opera alone — not one of them bothered to have his name added to board or occupy any office with the emerging organization.
Pacific Mozart Postcard from Berlin Among San Franciscans visiting Berlin last week was Richard Grant's Pacific Mozart Ensemble. No ordinary tourists they, the 55 PME singers took center stage in the Berlin Philharmonie along with Kent Nagano's Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, and Rundfunkchor Berlin, for two sold-out performances of Leonard Bernstein's Mass. PME took the role of the Mass' "street chorus" as well as providing the soloists to fill some 20 roles, including jazz, blues, rock and pop singers. All the while the permanent tenant Berlin Philharmonic were visiting Davies Hall on a US tour. A report from chorus member (and board president) Kathie Longinotti: "The Philharmonie audience of 3,000 was seated, the 250 orchestra and chorus members had filed on stage and gotten settled, and Kent Nagano walked to the podium to enthusiastic applause. As the hall became quiet, one voice was heard from high up in the balcony, singing `Happy Birthday'. It was only moments into the tune before everyone in the house and on stage had joined in to sing their birthday wishes to Maestro Nagano." (He was born in Berkeley on November 22, 1951, and that makes him contemporary with much of the Mass' music, although the work wasn't performed until the opening of Kennedy Center in 1971.) Jerry Hadley sang the Celebrant on Friday, but was apparently indisposed, for he was replaced on Saturday by John Cashmore. Longinotti reports that Cashmore's "only rehearsal with the rest of the cast and the orchestra was Saturday morning . . . (but) the evening's performance was a stunning success." and with understandable pride and enthusiasm wrote, "It was an exhilarating experience for those on stage and seems to have been for the audience, too. They were on their feet for three standing ovations." The adventurous Mozarteans have now teamed up with the Aurora Theater (www.auroratheatre.org) to perform The Play of Daniel all this week at Berkeley's St. Mark Episcopal Church.
The Music of the Ballet Music at the San Francisco Ballet is more important than at most dance companies. Sure, there are those imperishable composers Minkus and Adam, but there are also bold, pioneering choices, getting away from the safe and pleasant standards of what used to be known as "ballet music." Most importantly, in this age of creeping tape accompaniment, the Ballet has its impressive orchestra, and "live music" whenever possible. Choreographers such as William Forsythe, Mark Morris, Val Caniparoli, Julia Adam take their music selection very seriously, following in the footsteps of George Balanchine, who — among his other great virtues — helped to put Stravinsky "on the map." This is what SFB's new season looks like, from the viewpoint of music, organized by the Ballet's newly-appointed music director, Andrew Mogrelia: Minkus, Don Quixote (February 3-14). Ravel, Piano Concerto in G; Scriabin solo piano works; Vivaldi, The Four Seasons (February 5-15). Matthew Pierce, imaginal disc; Geminiani, Concerto Grosso La Follia; Beethoven, Grosse Fuge and Cavatina from String Quartet No. 13; Martinu, Sinfonietta la Jolla (February 24-March 6). Minkus, Paquita; Bach, Harpsichord concertos; Saint-Sa”ns, Carnival of the Animals (February 26-March 7). Tchaikovsky, Serenade for Strings, Stravinsky, Apollon Musagéte, Hindemith, Theme and Variations (March 19-April 4). Vivaldi, Concerti Grossi; Corelli, Suite for String Orchestra; Stravinsky, Violin Concerto; Songs by George Gershwin (March 20-April 3). Satie, Gnossiennes, Gymnopédies; Massenet, Meditation from Thaïs; Franck, Symphonic Variations; Scott Joplin pieces (April 13-18). Delibes, Sylvia (April 30-May 9). For a more traditional listing, including even choreographers, see www.sfballet.org.
New Additions to Santa Rosa Orchestra Five new members have been added to the Santa Rosa Symphony for the 2003-2004 season. Susanna Drake Manzo, from the New England Conservatory and with orchestra experience on both costs, has been named principal French horn. Amy Danielle Bowers, a USC graduate and now on the faculty there, was appointed second trombone. Raushan Akhmedyarova, from the Moscow Conservatory and recently concertmaster of Michael Tilson Thomas' New World Symphony, is now in Santa Rosa's first violin section. Thomas Yee and Emanuela Nikiforova have been hired for one-year positions in the first violin section. The orchestra's next concerts, Dec. 6-8, conducted by Jeffrey Kahane, include the MacDowell Piano Concerto No. 2, with Norman Krieger, and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 9. See www.santarosasymphony.com.
Napa Opera Season Young artists seem to be making a beeline for the newly rebuilt Napa Valley Opera House. The Spring 2004 season includes collaboration with the American Conservatory Theater's Master of Fine Arts program (Of Thee I Sing), with the San Francisco Opera Center, Donald Pippin's Pocket Opera (The Marriage of Figaro), and others. See www.napavalleyoperahouse.org.
(Janos Gereben, a regular contributor to www.sfcv.org, is arts editor of the
Post Newspaper Group. His e-mail address is janos451@earthlink.net.)
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