AN EVOLVING STYLE, AN ELITE STRING ORCHESTRA
                        Led by a Star Violinist     
                                              By Paul Hertelendy 
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of May 20-27, 2011
                                                                  Vol. 13, No. 101
          BERKELEY---The evolution of the New Century Chamber Orchestra has been amazing under its third-year leader, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. It has evolved into an elite ensemble, invigorating the music with its red-blooded style, winning plaudits on fronts only dreamt about in the past. Its sinewy virtuosic bowing is pulse-quickening, complementing the style of its leader.
            Salerno-Sonnenberg suppresses her well-known flamboyance of her many violin-concerto guest appearances elsewhere in  integrating into the 19-member string ensemble here, shaping it into an S-S image marked by vigorous play, excellent intonation and broadening repertoire.
            The concert program heard here May 19 was capped by an adroit world premiere composition by Mark O’Connor, best known as an instrumental colleague of Yo-Yo Ma. In contrast with his trademark  Appalachian music, O’Connor’s new “Elevations” is a vital, assertive piece in dense counterpoint, with divisi strings providing extra richness as themes are tossed about all up and down the line, right down to the cellos and bass. His first movement, portraying the open spaces of America, is thematically driven, while the second, a more dissonant, joyous hoedown, is rhythmically driven, portraying the cultures of the nation via the Europeans, the Native Americans and the African-Americans. It’s a piece that’s eminently accessible and certainly worth rehearing. The composer, who turns 50 this year, annotated the work and took bows afterward at the acoustically inviting First Congregational Church.
            The concluding dessert course featured a wild, “flip-your-wig” entertainment  from the late Russian Alfred Schnittke. His highly theatrical “Moz-art à la Haydn” farce had the musicians marching about in various formations while the two violin soloists (Iris Stone, Candace Guirao) dueled it out up front in a manner sometimes 18th century, sometimes other-planet. The increasingly insane scene featured crouching, spinning about,  playing in the dark, and finally abandoning the maestro conductor (the accomplished Dawn Harms), who gesticulated ever more frantically in growing abandonment and ultimately ripped up her baton in  frustration. 
            Salerno-Sonnenberg happily took a back stand in all this, letting colleagues take the spotlight and run with the ball. 
            Any one of these works alone was worth the price of admission. They were however further supplemented with serious opuses of the past from Britain. The two pieces by Elgar, and one of Frank Bridge, reflected abundant exuberance where even the lighter music associated with Elgar took on a Wagnerian cast.
            NCCO NOTES---The ensemble, composed of 14 women and only five men, this season toured as far east as Cleveland and Chocago---a signal first.... It also draws players from a broad circle, including New York City and Berlin....The forthcoming season will be the Bay Area-based NCCO's 20th.
             New Century Chamber Orchestra plays O'Connor (world premiere), Schnittke, Elgar, Bridge, through May 22, also at Palo Alto, San Francisco, San Rafael. For info: (415) 357-1111, or go online. 

          ©Paul Hertelendy 2011

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           Paul Hertelendy has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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