San Francisco Classical Voice

Berkeley Transitions

Changes have come in droves to Berkeley Symphony lately. Two longtime, much-respected top administrators have left: Executive Director Gary Ginstling, to join the San Francisco Symphony as director of communications and external affairs, and Operations Director Heli Roiha, to take a break before new ventures. (She is staying through July as caretaker.)

The next season consists of only four subscription concerts, each performed once. Among regional orchestras in the Bay Area with a similar annual budget ($1.2 million), that's definitely at the low end — Oakland East Bay Symphony, for example, will have six concerts; Marin Symphony has six pairs. Santa Rosa Symphony (with a larger budget) offers seven programs, each performed three times. Also, only Berkeley's first two concerts will be held in Zellerbach Hall, the other two shifted to a smaller venue, the First Congregational Church.

Then there is the N Factor, the matter of music director Kent Nagano. Both he and the Berkeley Symphony acknowledge that the two are vitally linked. The Symphony's Web site says: "In 1978, a little-known Japanese-American conductor was appointed music director of a community orchestra known for performing standard repertoire in street clothes. This association proved to be the seed of a flourishing artistic endeavor in a community known for risk-taking, innovation, and diversity."

Nagano's own Web site acknowledges that whether he is working in Lyon, Manchester, Berlin or elsewhere, "I made my home in San Francisco, I keep going back to Northern California, one of the most special places on earth. ... And, with my 26 years at the Berkeley Symphony, I've never really left." But 2006 is a pivotal year in Nagano's career. He has relinquished his leadership positions with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin and the Los Angeles Opera, becoming music director of the Montreal Symphony and of the Bavarian State Opera, Munich's 353-year-old opera house, one of the largest, most important in the world (see below).

These changes do not mean that Nagano will quit Berkeley, but it seems inevitable that he will have even less time for the orchestra; his already limited attendance allows for few — if any — rehearsals. He is scheduled to conduct only three concerts next season. And yet, Nagano's imaginative, often daring programming is still apparent, even in that short season, offering more novelties than some of our largest music organizations do.

The first concert, on Dec. 14, features Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 ("Leningrad"), along with Arvo Pärt's Summa, Für Alina, and Arbos. January 13 brings Associate Conductor George Thomson to the podium, with Olly Wilson's Symphony No. 3 ("Hold On"), Stravinsky's Concertino for 12 Instruments, Curtain Tune from Matthew Locke's 1674 The Tempest, and the Sibelius Violin Concerto, with Margot Schwartz as soloist. (Thomson also leads the free "Under Construction" events on Dec. 10 and May 9, with new works by Joowan Kim, Curt Veeneman, Brian Kane, and others.)

Nagano returns on April 19 to conduct George Benjamin's Olicantus, Unsuk Chin's Cantatrix Sopranica, Beethoven's Symphony No. 8, and Berlin Philharmonic principal clarinetist Karl Leister in the Mozart Concerto in A. On May 11, Matt Haimovitz joins Nagano for two world premieres "combining big band and dance-floor sounds" — David Sanford's Scherzo Grosso for cello and orchestra, and Tod Machover's Work for Cello, DJ, Electronics, and Audience; the program closes with Brahms' Symphony No. 4.

Nagano in Munich

Far exceeding the heavy requirements of recent years on Nagano from orchestras and opera companies in Europe, his combined duties of music director and interim general manager of the Bayerische Staatsoper should more or less prevent jetting around the world. This is especially true through 2008, when Klaus Bachler will take over the administrative job now handled by Nagano and the "directorate" of Roland Felber, Ronald H. Adler, and Ulrike Hessler. (Adler is the son of the late S.F. Opera tsar Kurt Herbert Adler.)

How big is the State Opera? Nagano's first season, beginning in September, will present 38 operas in hundreds of performances, in a range from Handel's Alcina and Cavalli's La Calisto to the world premiere of Unsuk Chin's Alice in Wonderland. Nagano will conduct 40 opera performances and four concerts with the opera orchestra. Financial support to the Opera from the Bavarian state alone is in the millions of dollars a year — this on top of revenues and federal and corporate contributions. Bavaria's support for the arts is among the most significant in the world: $217 million to museums, $58 million to private theaters, and — to the point — $117 million to the city's "public theaters," meaning the State Opera, the Bavarian State Theater, and the Gärtnerplatz State Theater.

Musicians Are People, Says eBay

Beethoven Academie, a 40-member Belgian chamber orchestra whose funding for the next three seasons had been eliminated by the Flemish ministry of culture, listed itself for sale on eBay in a desperate attempt to find some money so that it could keep playing, the BBC has reported.

Bids have grown from $10,000 all the way to $130,000, but last week, eBay informed the orchestra that "buying and selling people is against the law." The gambit — which is what it was — partially paid off, drawing worldwide publicity, but apparently, the demise of Beethoven Academie is still likely. Said an orchestra representative, "At this point, we mostly see [the eBay listing] as a way to have gotten attention all over the world. People have heard about us, and if a millionaire is interested, we would love to talk to him or her. But eBay isn't the right way to sell an orchestra."

Our Ariadne Slims Down for Picky Brits

Merolina Deborah Voigt sang sensational performances of the title role in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos in the War Memorial in 2000. Four years later, Voigt made world news, well beyond the confines of opera, when Covent Garden management declared her dress size in excess of the little black dress the Royal Opera Ariadne production specified.

After much discussion of sexism, sizeism, anti-Americanism, and several other explosive topics, Voigt took the hard way out, underwent stomach stapling, and lost, reportedly, 134 pounds. Where is the news? We are getting to it. Last week, the Royal Opera re-engaged the soprano for the role, effective the 2007-2008 season. Her loss is the London audiences' gain.

Voigt's spokesman said, "She had decided on doing this procedure completely based on her health concerns. It was something she had thought about for many, many years, long before the little black dress."

How Many in a Quartet?

No, this is not a "Who is buried in Grant's tomb" kind of question. To follow up on the vexing item in the report on the American Bach Soloists' concert, which presented a C.P.E. Quartet for three musicians, ABS Music Director Jeffrey Thomas told Classical Voice the following:

"The cello part [referred to in the review as "missing"] or rather the indication that one might be used, is editorial. The original scoring is as we presented it: four lines played by keyboard (two lines), viola, and flute. The most proper keyboard instrument for the work, however, might very well be fortepiano. If a fortepiano were used, the balance problem caused by the inclusion of a cello doubling the lowest part (which would now be played by two instruments — keyboard and cello — rather than one — flute, viola, or right hand for the other three voices) could be overcome by simply playing the right-hand part louder.

"But we opted for a harpsichord, and since it's not possible to play one part louder than the other on one harpsichord manual, this further supported our decision to play it as it was composed by C.P.E. — without a cello."

So, when is a quartet not a quartet? More often than you think, if accepting Thomas' argument that "the connotations we derive from the words 'duet,' 'trio,' 'quartet,' etc. — associating a relative number of people with the performance of those works — is a result of 19th century usage. Before then, it was very common for one musician to play a 'duo' (on a keyboard instrument), or a trio sonata (ditto, but probably including pedals), etc."