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Month: October 2019

Shaw Oratorio Premiere

Shaw Oratorio Premiere

BERKELEY—When it came to commissioning a new piece, Philharmonia Baroque aimed for the stars: composer Caroline Shaw. When it came to carrying it out, Shaw too aimed for the stars with her epic world premiere “Listeners,” now unveiled, played and recorded in several venues. Her uncommon secular “contempo-ratorio” draws in space travel, poetry, the UN and multiple one-world messages touching on eras and galaxies far vaster than our own. We realize we are just humble pixels in the universe’s scheme…

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Concerto Bewails Losing Earth

Concerto Bewails Losing Earth

The new percussion concerto “Losing Earth” lays out before our ears our bigger-than-life environmental predicaments here and now. Composer Adam Schoenberg, 38, spotlighted the diversity of percussion textures—gentle, ferocious, ear-tingling—far beyond the rambunctious noises mostly relegated to the outer fringes at symphony concerts. His world premiere at the San Francisco Symphony was created with the collaboration of concerto soloist Jacob Nissly, who is not only an old friend but also a year-round principal with the ensemble. If the instant standing…

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FIGARO GREAT, ‘MARRIAGE’ LESS SO

FIGARO GREAT, ‘MARRIAGE’ LESS SO

It’s been called the perfect comic opera, “The Marriage of Figaro” or, more accurately, “Figaro’s Wedding.” And the current go-round at the S.F. Opera, while not perfect, catches its humor and dexterity as only Mozart and his librettist Da Ponte could have created. Think about it: In the elegant drawing rooms, intrigue upon intrigue. Assignations in switched identities. Hired help conspiring to outwit the libertine count. The women outwitting the men. Figaro desperately trying to wiggle out of a long-forgotten…

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