MORE DRILL TEAMS THAN MAGIC FIRE

MORE DRILL TEAMS THAN MAGIC FIRE

I went for the ballet. Instead came a brief but intense light show of swirling dots, somewhere between microscopic cell colonies and the birth of planets in the cosmos, all operating on speed. The new Tamara Rojo era of the S.F. Ballet was kicked off with Aszure Barton’s splashy “Mere Mortals,” a 70-minute avant-garde socio-political critique with massive cast masquerading as an evening-length ballet. An incredible lithe, pliable dancer (Jennifer Stahl on Jan.27) does showstopping solos and pairings on stage,…

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MTT/GUSTAV: AN ENDEARING LOVE FEST

MTT/GUSTAV: AN ENDEARING LOVE FEST

     The end of an era, it was, but a very sweet one, with well-wishing from countless admirers and nosegays you could almost smell in an inordinately long round of plaudits.           This was a sendoff (at least from subscription concerts) for beloved maestro Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor laureate, leading the San Francisco Symphony in a signature work, Gustav Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 5.            By the end, with the 6-minute standing ovation, there were not many dry eyes…

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FLIGHT OF FANCY, WITH CHARISMA

FLIGHT OF FANCY, WITH CHARISMA

The New Century Chamber Orchestra scored twice over with a multi-media environmental musical package plus Palo-Alto-born guest leader named Alexi Kenney, who is a bona fide inspirational presence. In the Kenney format, forget the old-style spartan stage of such ensembles. His program adds naturalist projections covering every inch of wall and ceiling to supplement recent works by Gabriella Smith, Aaron Jay Kernis and Angelica Negron. The impact was formidable, a true eye-and-ear opener for chamber-orchestra patrons who are usually served…

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MUSIC INSPIRED BY WARTIME

MUSIC INSPIRED BY WARTIME

BERKELEY—-Enterprising local forces brought together a far-reaching program of “Voices of War,” including a trudging Tippett oratorio and a world premiere by the Australian Sam Wu. The ambitious concert under Ming Luke spotlighted the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra, with more than 100 (off-campus) singers and a full instrumental ensemble. The highlight was BCCO competition winner Wu’s “the wind blows full of sand,” a sensitive 12-minute outpouring with poetry of Li Po. If the latter sounds familiar, the eighth-century Chinese…

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GOING TO BAT FOR BARTOK  

GOING TO BAT FOR BARTOK  

What were the outstanding orchestral works reacting with eloquence to tragedy or major losses of life in the 20thcentury? Berkeley composer John Adams cited several of them in writing for New Yorker magazine (dated Dec. 11), pieces written by Shostakovich, Schoenberg, Britten and Richard Strauss, in reaction to massive losses of life in world wars. He also emphasized his own turning down a commission to write a 9/11 piece, saying it was too immediate for New York City itself, with…

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THE CHRIST CHILD, WITH LATINO PERSPECTIVES

THE CHRIST CHILD, WITH LATINO PERSPECTIVES

STANFORD, CA—A touring concert version of John Adams’ Christmas oratorio showed both strengths and weaknesses as presented here by AMOC, alias the Julia-Christian show. The touring version, “El Niño: Nativity Reconsidered” had to be streamlined, deleting the original film supplement to “El Niño,” along with some of its impact portraying the plight of today’s migrating Latinos as seen through the lens of the Bible. It is a close-to-the-vest neoclassical piece crying out loudly for a choral component. Adams’ closest “relative”…

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CHORUS: DOZENS UPON DOZENS

CHORUS: DOZENS UPON DOZENS

MILL VALLEY, CA—Singing on pitch with no instrumental guidance is the trademark of the all-male Chanticleer ensemble, back home in Northern California for some dozen holiday concerts by these dozen male virtuosos of the ever-changing “Chanticleer Christmas” program. The wondrous group is offering holiday pieces written at the time of Columbus’ journeys right up to living composers and modern spirituals, spanning at least seven nations and three languages. The very breadth of the repertory changing every year is mind-boggling. The…

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HYBRIDIZING ‘DIDO AND AENEAS’

HYBRIDIZING ‘DIDO AND AENEAS’

SAN FRANCISCO—The imposing early English opera “Dido and Aneas” by Purcell came to us with an incomplete score for string orchestra. In an important U.S. premiere, the latest completion comes to us via Errollyn Wallen’s “Dido’s Ghost,” unveiled by Philharmonia Baroque at the Herbst Theatre in a semi-staged version. It turns a torso into an engrossing masque-opera of great vitality running nearly two hours in length, assuming you can follow the complex interweave of characters. Purcell’s 17th-century drama, based on…

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FIRES, FORESTS AND CRINGE-WORTHY EXERCISES  

FIRES, FORESTS AND CRINGE-WORTHY EXERCISES  

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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RADICAL INVENTIVENESS IN STRING FOURSOMES

RADICAL INVENTIVENESS IN STRING FOURSOMES

BERKELEY—Striking enough were the unruly progressive touches in the Beethoven E Minor (“Razumovsky”) string quartet. On top of that came another four-movement string quartet, “Flow,” by Nokuthula Endo Ngwenyama, 47, breaking traditional bounds and expanding sonic boundaries with her world premiere. All this was poured out by the veterans of the Takács Quartet before a sizable audience at Hertz Hall on the UC campus Nov. 12, with the premiere composer in attendance. Enigmatic music is the new composer’s hallmark, giving…

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