New Star on the Horizon

Jeff Dunn on September 16, 2008
The New Century Chamber Orchestra (NCCO), with its inspired choice of Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg as its music director, has remade itself in such a way that its biggest problem is one that most musical organizations would be envious to have: too many syllables. The quality of performance is so high, the audience so engaged, the program so engaging within its class, and the charisma so omnipresent that now the only remaining barriers to national celebrity lie in the marketing arena. This team of sorcerers could easily become a household word. Sousa's Band did it 110 years ago. Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops did it 50 years ago. More recently, the Three Tenors (and perhaps the Kronos Quartet, André Rieu, and the Philip Glass Ensemble) have done it or are doing it. "Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and the New Century Chamber Orchestra" may be filling every house soon, but will never make it as house lingo with that name. I'm not asking that they necessarily come up with a new moniker. What I'm trying to say is that they have reached such a distinction that they can, if they so choose, turn a corner onto a path that could easily lead to classical-pop stardom, as evidenced by their performance Thursday at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley. The program began with the premiere of Impressions, by Clarice Assad (b. 1979). Salerno-Sonnenberg is practically a member of her family, having toured as a trio since 2003 with Assad's father, Sérgio, and uncle Odair, both guitarists, and having asked Clarice to write a violin concerto for her that was premiered at the Cabrillo Music Festival in 2004. Continuing the collaboration, Assad has been granted the title of Featured Composer for this NCCO concert year (perhaps meaning "not necessarily in residence").

Gorgeous Premiere

The five-movement Impressions shows off the NCCO in its best light. The first movement is a set of variations, one for each of the five sections of the orchestra. The theme itself is beautiful and bluesy. Unlike in many modern variation sets, the theme is readily discernible in each variation and returns at the conclusion of the work as a welcome round-off to the whole. What particularly struck me was the second variation, a perpetuum mobile, even better than the entire fourth movement that was assigned the title "Precision: Perpetual Motion." Both were played with breathtaking energy and, indeed, precision. But best of all was the lush and evocative third movement ("Affection: Slow Waltz"), which had me thinking of Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman on a moonlit terrace below Rio's Corcovado Hill. While the work is definitely on the light side in terms of audience challenge, and untested as to whether it can sustain repeated hearings, I'd rate it as one of the more enjoyable new works I've heard in recent years. To dispel any notions that the NCCO was going to play softball for the entire evening, the first half of the concert concluded with Alberto Ginastera's 1976 Glosses on Themes of Pablo Casals, a wonderful, dissonant five-movement suite. The first movement was distinguished by Monteverdi-like cadences alternating with all manner of buzzing and shrieking noises, along with scraping effects taken just above and even below the bridge of the instruments. The second movement, Romanç, turns what the program notes call a "tender melody" of Casals into a relationship gone bad, leading to what sounds like a murderous rampage in the third movement, Sardanes. The influence of Bartók is apparent in the concluding movements: night music in the not-very-songlike Cant, and a Miraculous Mandarin–style chase with Psycho shrieks in the Conclusió Delirant. Most memorable of all in the Ginastera, besides the astounding musicianship of the NCCO in perfectly executing an extremely difficult work, was the incredible, eyebrow-singeing chord that opens the fifth movement.

Four Seasons and Baling Wire

After intermission, Salerno-Sonnenberg and her team presented Astor Piazzolla's The Four Seasons of Buenos Aries. Sound-wise, it was basically a combination of the first two pieces: occasional lush romanticism interrupted by harsher sections. Holding the piece together were quotations and semiquotations from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, but these were not enough to integrate what was essentially an overextended catchall of quasirandom musings. To conclude the concert, Assad's arrangement of Heitor Villa-Lobos' masterstroke "Aria (Cantilena)" from the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 graced the nave of the church. The music was beautiful, the arrangement workmanlike and not particularly inspired. More from the cellos should have been heard to keep in the spirit of the original, written for eight cellos and voice. When the tune at last made its way to a solo cello, Michelle Djokic's heartfelt rendition made the earlier de-emphasis of her instrument all the more egregious. Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg was selected unanimously by the orchestra members to be their music director, according to Executive Director Parker Monroe. The unity has stuck, and the NCCO showed in its inaugural concert under the new director that it can now play as a single, unique personality. The personality has its excesses, as covered by SFCV in Salerno-Sonnenberg's first outing with the ensemble (see review). But since that time, the NCCO has perfected its technique, and chosen music that fits the emotional indulgences of Salerno-Sonnenberg's style. While it may not please those who prefer a more patrician approach to classical music, the NCCO will likely continue to hit future audiences slam in the gut. As long as it keeps to its technical excellence at the same time, it will be a force that I'm proud to say I heard reborn on the auspicious date of September 11, 2008.