ArtsSF

The weekend’s S.F. Symphony programs were downbeat more than upbeat leaving little to cheer about except the robust SFS Chorus under Jenny Wong. Well, maybe not that either. “Yes, they sang in Russian, but you couldn’t understand much of it,” a patron fluent in Russian divulged. This was the masterful oratorio of a Russian celebration by Igor Stravinsky, “Les Noces” (the Wedding), telling his century-old tale in his staunch neoclassical way, with soprano Lauren Snouffer playing the lead role of…

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BERKELEY—-With some 100 groups participating, the California Festival: A Celebration of New Music  sprang to life with a bang as the San Francisco Symphony visited the Berkeley with all-modern music that was well-attended—a daring concert venture indeed. When it came to the world premiere, the students in the house were vociferous in their enthusiasm, perhaps most responsive to the rock-music blended into the orchestra by the black composer Jens Ibsen with his “Drowned in Light.” In his stimulating quarter-hour two-movement…

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It was a night all will recall, dripping with nostalgia and sentiment as the semi-retired MTT returned to conduct Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. With the elderly, ailing podium laureate back, the tributes by the full house were never more pronounced. Yes, a love-in, by any measure. And with not one but two wars raging on the far side of Earth, never were Beethoven’s choral messages of hope, “All men will be brothers,” with the following “Be embraced, ye millions,” more needed….

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The whirlwind known as the Swedish composer Anders Hillborg sprang his world-premiere “MAX” Concerto (No. 2, if you’re keeping count) on the world Oct. 12. It’s a curious piece, just 21 minutes long, in a single movement. By today’s standards, that might be identified as a mini-concerto for piano, offering subsections entitled Toy Piano, Soft Piano, Hard Piano, Ascending Piano, Mists and “Chorales and Echo Chamber,” with quasi-baroque segments. It’s like a salad containing delectable components from all over the…

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In presenting a rare and bold all-contemporary program, the SF Symphony attracted (in addition to a number of empty seats) a noticeably younger clientele, including a tattooed, T-shirted contingent usually encountered at rock concerts. The “sweet and spicy” program led off with the sharp Nordic spice of a world premiere—–a very bold, adventurous “Convergence” violin concerto by the Swede Jesper Nordin, which proved to be a triple-threat achievement involving at least four technicians to control the piece: In addition to…

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Instead of performing Haydn or Handel, the symphony gala this time leaned toward heterogeneity and chutzpah. And yes, even hip-hop made a resounding entry into hallowed Davies Symphony Hall. Unorthodox to say the least. Instead of rows of chaste flowers, the S.F. Symphony this time tried to please everybody: Some classics, some wild-and-woolly rappers, myriad colored lights, and a hugely distracting mid-concert light show. Projected on a giant screen above the orchestra, it offered various French impressionist scenes, fashion models,…

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SANTA CRUZ, CA—The shortest was also the most memorable and newest at this year’s Cabrillo Music Festival: The six-minute world-premiere “Wild Geese” by Anna Clyne as the season-finale number by the orchestra. What I admire most about the petite, soft-spoken English composer is her ability to engage the listener again and again—here, at Cabrillo, Aug. 13, heard for the seventh time (and still being streamed). The current radio-play brings her once again to the forefront. Here she leans in part…

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SANTA CRUZ, CA—–For the last Saturday of the 60-year-old Cabrillo Festival featuring five mainline symphonic concerts overall, Music Director Cristian Macelaru focused on a quartet of living women composers, who have formed an ever greater portion of the festival palette in recent years. The festival remains both newsworthy and rather miraculous, limping along with a tired, ancient (and, I’d assert) unsafe sports palace and still attracting near-SRO audiences with nights of contemporary symphonic music, all of it composed in the…

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One of the most significant conductors of the late 20th century was saved from the gas chambers of Central Europe by the intervention of a Berkeley orchardist. He never got the benevolent attention warranted for his multiple rescues of Budapest musicians in the 1930s. The stellar musician who emerged hale and hearty from the war years was Georg Solti. Repositioned in London, he eventually became a music legend, leading orchestras and opera in performances and recordings and garnering major awards….

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The San Francisco Symphony made its once-a-year venture into theater with the semi-staged opera “Adriana Mater” (2006) by Kaija Saariaho, displaying a brilliant cast with dramatic singing and evocative acting on the confined makeshift stages. The performance of the rabidly antiwar tragedy “Adriana Mater” about the heroine’s travails in a brutal conflict could hardly have been timelier, echoing the on-going Ukraine campaign’s bloodshed. It also serves as a heartfelt memorial to composer Saariaho, who had passed away at age 70…

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