The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Category: Berkeley Symphony Orchestra
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* Notes *The Joffrey Ballet's Anna Karenina was presented by Cal Performances last night at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley for the first of three performances. The 2019 ballet with music by Ilya Demutsky was played live by Berkeley Symphony and conducted by Scott Speck. The music is eerie and busy, there is a lot going…
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* Notes * Last night Berkeley Symphony played a program of Steven Stucky, Sibelius, and Stravinsky. The program was quite coherent, the pieces all hung together well, each having a certain ethereality. The orchestra shimmered under Joana Carneiro, though perhaps lacking precision, the musicians did produce a lovely, hazy sound. Stucky's Radical Light started off almost…
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* Notes * The Berkeley Akademie Ensemble gave a concert of Bach, Ives, and Beethoven last Sunday at the First Congregational Church. The evening began with a rather strange version of Bach's Concerto in the Italian style for solo harpsichord in F Major, BMV 971 arranged for chamber orchestra by Joachim F. W. Schneider. The first movement…
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October 15 2009: John Adams, The Chairman Dances Gabriela Lena Frank, Peregrinos (West Coast premiere)Béla Bartók, Concerto for Orchestra December 3 2009: Steven Stucky, Radical Light Jean Sibelius, Symphony No. 7 Steven Stucky, "Lament" from the oratorio August 4, 1964 (West Coast premiere) Igor Stravinsky, The Firebird Suite (1919 version) February 11 2010: Paul Dresher, Cornucopia…
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Joana Carneiro will be the next music director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, starting in October 2009. Press Release [PDF] | Official Site
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* Notes * Paul Haas conducted Berkeley Symphony in a program of Penman, Barber, and Tchaikovsky last Thursday at Zellerbach Hall. The California premiere of Songs the Plants Taught Us by Joshua Penman was apropos for Berkeley, though it did veer into kitsch at times. The soloist for Barber's Violin Concerto, Op. 14, Danielle…
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* Notes * Last Thursday William Eddins conducted the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra in a program that included three short pieces written between the years 1910-1921 by French composers, an American premiere of contemporary music, and Martinů's first symphony. The evening began with the frilly Valse des dépêches by Germaine Tailleferre. The piece sounded suitable for an…
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* Notes * Kent Nagano's 30th season as music director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra will be his last, and the search for his replacement is on. Over this season and the next there will be a total of six guest conductors, one of which may emerge as the next music director. The first of…
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