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Author: Paul Hertelendy

GETTING IN THE SWIM WITH CABRILLO’S MODERNS

GETTING IN THE SWIM WITH CABRILLO’S MODERNS

SANTA CRUZ, CA—A crazy idea back in the 1960s, starting up a symphonic  music festival studded with living composers not yet household names. But while many arts-center orchestras shy away from music less than a century old, the Cabrillo Festival has thrived on the unlikely formula, filling most of the 900 seats every August for  contemporary fare. The ink of the scores may not have dried complete yet, but they offer the listener discovery—like a bracing swim in the chilly…

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TOP-FLIGHT CHAMBER MUSIC, AND MCGILL TOO

TOP-FLIGHT CHAMBER MUSIC, AND MCGILL TOO

        SANTA FE, NM—Now in its 46th season, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival remains a monumental achievement, assembling elite players from all over in repertoire both neglected and beloved. Take the recent Mozart-Chausson program, for starters. Much as in the Brandenburg concertos by Bach, Ernest Chausson revived a concerto-grosso practice and  created a rare late-19th-century work with a duo doubling as  both soloists and ensemble members. Modern artists like Emanuel Ax rave about playing it, even though the piano…

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ATOMS, THUNDERSTORMS SHAKING UP OPERA WORLD

ATOMS, THUNDERSTORMS SHAKING UP OPERA WORLD

SANTA FE, NM—The Santa Fe Opera’s fascination with 21st-century works came to a head with “Doctor Atomic,” which sold out all six performances up to a month ahead, to the wonderment of all. The box office tsunami for the historical opera about creating The Bomb was partly because of the hot John Adams-Peter Sellars creative team, and partly because its development under Robert Oppenheimer occurred right up the road in Los Alamos during World War Two. As one local put…

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ORCHESTRAL MUSIC, ON TODAY’S FRONT LINES

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC, ON TODAY’S FRONT LINES

SANTA CRUZ, CA—The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, founded in 1963, continues strong here, with 16 of its (living!!) composers on hand in person over the two weekends. The opening concert featured new music emphasizing folk elements. The quartet of new pieces had Music Director Cristian Macelaru striving strenuously to bring off very unfamiliar works with an orchestra of some 65. The players impressed me the most, this youthful band in which less than 10 % showed any gray hair….

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MIRACLES IN MENLO, BY WAY OF THE DANUBE

MIRACLES IN MENLO, BY WAY OF THE DANUBE

MENLO PARK, CA—The Menlo miracle is that for three weeks every summer, a dozen or so musicians turn out on any given date and play repertory well into the night, despite the summer doldrums all over. Instead of repeating the overplayed potboilers, it’s about  presenting unfamiliar chamber works by name composers of the 20th century in very  creative programming indeed. The July 31 foray to Budapest by Music@Menlo featured the crack Calidore String Quartet as well as Anthony McGill, clarinet…

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THE UNLIKELIEST STAR RECITAL’S MUSICAL FIREWORKS

THE UNLIKELIEST STAR RECITAL’S MUSICAL FIREWORKS

In the evening you poke through the Tenderloin, S.F.’s counterpart to NYC’s Bowery, past the homeless, jobless, hustlers, panhandlers and addicts. And encroaching couples clutch arms uncertainly, side-stepping litter on darkening sidewalks. Paying at the door, you get no ticket, nor printed program, and you enter the 30-seat hall. A flyer lists several composers (all female) and the night’s violinist (male). Wearing blue jeans, he walks in bearing his instrument, with no accompanist anywhere on the horizon; he might as…

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RUSSIANS’ NEW MUSICAL PERMUTATIONS

RUSSIANS’ NEW MUSICAL PERMUTATIONS

MENLO PARK, CA—With the chamber concert focused on 19th-century St. Petersburg, Russia, you expected Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Instead, the focus was on lesser names having great ideas, especially in innovative instrumental combinations. Glinka, Balakirev and Arensky. Not exactly household names—more likely, a Russian law firm. Their style and textures offered few surprises, but their instruments were innovative. How about Anton Arensky’s string quartet, with the second violin replaced by a second cello, immediately placing the spotlight on low notes? And…

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ANTON WEBERN: DOING IT HIS WAY

ANTON WEBERN: DOING IT HIS WAY

ATHERTON, CA—The Music@Menlo chamber-music festival  fills a major summer void in concerts with players from all over who are downright virtuosic. The three-week cornucopia of performances, now in its 16th  season, draws robust crowds to intimate venues, some more suitable acoustically  than others. This year’s format for the (mostly) 18th and 19th century  music has each concert focusing on a single European arts capital. Vienna got the call on July 19, with works of Webern, Haydn and a master named…

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VIRTUAL TRIP TO A VERY DIFFERENT SPACE

VIRTUAL TRIP TO A VERY DIFFERENT SPACE

Let yourself go, depart from traffic-choked urban reality, and immerse yourself in a nebulous world of modern art and sound. It’s Audium, the Shaff family’s Other-Galaxy experience, going strong over nearly half a century, mostly 100 times a year. On the surface, Audium is an hour-long sonic foray into a latter-day musique concrète , first created by the Frenchman Pierre Schaeffer in the mid-20th century—a combination of found sounds and electronic ones. But it’s delivered in total darkness, with all smartphones switched off….

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MUSIC TO RECALL PAST DETENTIONS

MUSIC TO RECALL PAST DETENTIONS

The Old First Church in San Francisco provides an intimate but intense concert series with low-price tickets, and some real surprises—like world premieres. On July 1 the timely new work was a hard-to-define, 23-minute multi-media opus, with music, theater, dance, narration, and pre-recorded percussion tracks having considerable political-historical significance. “Gateway—Stories from Angel Island” is the most unorthodox performance piece I’ve run across in years, cutting across  many disciplines and cultures. It recalls the isle in S.F. Bay serving for decades…

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