Thursday, September 24, 2015

Saariaho at Berkeley Symphony

Berkeley Symphony opens its season on Wednesday (not the usual Thursday!), October 14, 2015, with a luscious program:
  • Berlioz, Les Nuit d'été, for those of you still longing to see Les Troyens again; Simone Osborne is the soloist.
  • Saariaho, Lanterna Magica. She has fans around here, despite the impression you might get from some Bay Area reviewers. 
  • Ravel, Bolero
Lanterna Magica was done at the Proms in 2012 and a video is posted on YouTube. Here it is, complete with a brief interview with Saariaho.




October 14 happens to be Saariaho's birthday, so perhaps you should be prepared to sing a song recently declared to be in the public domain.

5 comments:

Tod Brody said...

There's going to be a LOT of Saariaho in the Bay Area this fall. She's represented on programs of Eco Ensemble (Oct.23 @ Hertz Hall, The Tempest Songbook for soprano and ensemble (with soprano Jennifer Zetlan) and Notes on Light for cello and ensemble with cellist Anssi Kartunen and also on the Oct.24 program by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, with Six Japanese Gardens for percussion with electronics and NoaNoa for flute with electronics. Cellist Kartunen will also present a recital at UC Davis on October 26 featuring two other Saariaho works. Ms. Saariaho will be on hand for all of these concerts, and will also be doing various residency activities at Cal Berkeley. There seem to be a great many people who find her work worthy of attention!

Lisa Hirsch said...

And I'm one of them! She's a great composer. I've seen Adriana Mater and I would be so happy if L'Amour de Loin were produced locally. (Ahem. :)

I've heard both Six Japanese Gardens (with Steven Schick, in fact, whom I presume is playing the work at the SFCMP program) and NoaNoa, on the same Green Umbrella program in LA in the fall of 2007. I hope you're playing NoaNoa this time around, Tod.

Henry Holland said...

As you know Lisa, I love her first two operas, I'll always be grateful that you helped me see the light about Adriana Mater. One of the big disappointments in my opera going career was having a ticket to see a production of her glorious L'amour de Loin in Toronto and not being able to go because of money woes. :-(

Lisa Hirsch said...

I've managed to miss it three times now. Perhaps at the Met, although it seems a better fit for a smaller space.

Tod Brody said...

Working on NoaNoa just this morning, and very much looking forward to playing it next month. I'll also be part of the Eco performance of The Temple Songbook. I've played a handful of her pieces before, and think very highly of her.

Thanks for the opera recommendation -- although repertoire choice is not my bailiwick at OP, I am definitely in the conversation, and Saariaho's name has come up.