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IN Music News THIS WEEK:
New Home for Music in San Jose
It's Not Too Late for Early Music in Berkeley
Nemmers Prize for John Adams
Job Opening in Hawaii
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By Janos Gereben
Nagano Keeps Berkeley Programs Innovative
Kent Nagano, in his 26th year of leading the Berkeley Symphony, will present a 2004-'05 season very much in the mold of his previous formula: bold premieres, lots of contemporary works, substantial music, no fluff. As a possible harbinger of future logistics, one of the five concerts will be given twice, in Hertz Hall, instead of once in Zellerbach. Many subscribers as well as would-be audiences question the single-concert concept, not having a choice of dates or the opportunity to hear a program again.
Starting with Bach, orchestrated by Schoenberg (Komm, Gott, Schöpfer, heiliger Geist), the opening concert (September 13) will offer the US premiere of Unsuk Chin's Violin Concerto (with Viviane Hagner), George Benjamin's Viola Viola, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. The second program (Hertz Hall, November 30 and Dec. 1) combines Beethoven's Grosse Fuge and Piano Concerto No. 2 (with Mari Kodama) with Berkeley composer David Wessel's Singularities (featuring the University's Center for New Music and Audio Technologies), Bartók's Rhapsody No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra (Stuart Canin), and the US premiere of Jörg Widmann's Chor für Orchester.
Associate Conductor George Thomson will have the first subscription program of his own, on January 26 (back in Zellerbach, as are all the other events), conducting the co-commissioned Symphony Seven by the New York composer, once in-residence with the S.F. Symphony, Charles Wuorinen, Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras No. 9, Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor (with 14-year-old Nigel Armstrong, winner of the orchestra's Young Artist Award), and Carlos Chávez's Symphony No. 2 (Sinfonia India).
Nagano will be back on the podium for the June14 concert, and the world premiere of Manzanar: An American Story, a work about World War II Japanese relocation camps, by Naomi Sekiya, Jean-Pascal Beintus and David Benoit; also on the program: Ives' Unanswered Question, and — perhaps making up for the San Francisco Symphony's recent omission in Fidelio — the Leonore Overture No. 3.
From Orinda to the Met, to sing Brünnhilde in Wagner's Die Walküre, Linda Watson is returning to the East Bay to sing Richard Strauss' Four Last Songs, and excerpts from Tristan und Isolde and Götterdämmerung at the May 10 concert. Nagano will repeat his Berlin and Ojai performances of Schoenberg's Friede auf Erden ("Peace on Earth"), along with Schubert's rarely-performed Symphony No. 2.
There will be two other events: Vance George conducts once again the Symphony's Berkeley Choral Festival benefit concert, on March 2. Highlights include Brahms' Schicksalslied and the Academic Festival Overture. On April 7, Thomson leads the Berkeley Symphony's "Under Construction" program, a combination of open rehearsal and performance for works-in-progress or recently completed compositions by local composers. The Symphony's Website is www.berkeleysymphony.org, but information for the next season may take some time to be posted there.
New Home for Music in San Jose Both Symphony Silicon Valley and Opera San José are packing up, ready to move into the reconstructed California Theater (née California Fox, born in 1927), a 1,100-seat facility with a $75 million facelift. The Opera is doubling seating capacity, leaving the small, inadequate Montgomery Theater. The Symphony will have less than half the size of its former home, the 2,600-seat Center for Performing Arts. In both cases, the change is all to the good, allowing the Opera to have large productions after all the years of performing on a postage stamp, enabling the Symphony to fill the hall, which — one hopes — will sound a lot better than the CPA. Having closed out its 20-year run in the old house with Die Fledermaus, Opera San José, will open what it calls its "debut season" in the California on September 18, with Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. See www.operasj.org. The Symphony, which had its CPA farewell concert on Saturday, opens its run in the new house in October, planning to give 14 subscription concerts, instead of the current season's six. See www.symphonysiliconvalley.org. The Symphony's leisurely search for a music director continues, as guest conductors take their turn. The season-closing concert had Sebrina Maria Alfonso on the podium. The next season features Sergiu Comissiona at the opening gala, then Patrick Flynn for the second series, in October; Thomas Conlin, in December; Paul Polivnick, next January; William Boughton, in February; Singapore Symphony music director Lan Shui, in April; Mallory Thompson, in the season-ending May concerts.
It's Not Too Late for Early Music in Berkeley This year's Berkeley Festival & Exhibition has been cancelled, but early music will still have its day(s) in the city. The Berkeley Fringe Festival is being held June 9-13, at various venues, offering some 40 public events, mostly concerts, but also master classes, a "great recorder play-in," and other attractions. Performers include Chanticleer and members of the Philharmonia Baroque. See www.sfems.org. At the same time and intertwined with Fringe events and artists, Early Music America is holding a national conference in Berkeley, with the intriguing title: "The Future of Early Music in America." It will take place in the Berkeley City Club, June 10-13. For information, see www.earlymusic.org.
Nemmers Prize for John Adams John Adams, 57, is the first recipient of Northwestern University's Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in Musical Composition. The biennial award carries a cash award of $100,000 and honors living composers of widely recognized achievement. It is one of the largest in classical music. As part of his award, Adams will serve a residency at the Northwestern School of Music in Evanston, beginning in the fall. He will teach composition as well as coach his chamber music with student groups. Adams is at work on his third opera, Doctor Atomic, about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the development of the first atomic bomb in 1945. The San Francisco Opera-commissioned work will have its premiere in the War Memorial next year.
Job Opening in Hawaii Honolulu Symphony music director Samuel Wong, 42, will leave the position after the next season. Changes on the podium are frequent around the world — unlike the good (?) old times when Ormandy, Solti, others have spent decades with the same orchestra — but surely, Wong stated reason is unique: as an ophthalmologist, Wong wants to participate in the creation of an Institute of Music and Healing. The Advertiser quotes Honolulu Symphony president Stephen Bloom that when he told the orchestra at the season finale about Wong leaving, "The orchestra reacted with silence." Bloom said, with a measure of optimism, that finding a replacement could take as long as two years.
(Janos Gereben, a regular contributor to www.sfcv.org, is arts editor of the Post Newspaper Group. His e-mail address is janosg@gmail.com)
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