Received today, not a surprise:
BERKELEY, CA (March 23, 2017) – Guest conductor Christian Reif will lead Berkeley Symphony in Shostakovich's evening-long, epic Symphony No. 13, “Babi Yar,” on Thursday, May 4 at 8 pm at Zellerbach Hall. The Orchestra is joined for the Berkeley Symphony’s season finale performance by bass Denis Sedov and a men’s chorus comprised of alumni of the UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus, the Pacific Boychoir Academy, and members of the St. John of San Francisco Russian Orthodox Chorale, led by chorusmaster Marika Kuzma. Reif is stepping in for Berkeley Symphony Music Director Joana Carneiro, who recently gave birth to triplets.
Tickets for the Berkeley Symphony concert on May 4 start at $15 and are available at www.berkeleysymphony.org or by phone at (510) 841-2800, ext. 1.
Shostakovich 13 is a wonderful piece, performed not nearly as frequently as it deserves. I suppose that the chorus presents obstacles to performance outside of Russia and its cultural orbit: it's written for a large (100+) unison baritone chorus, with a very long and wordy Russian text. It takes a lot of work for non-Russian-speaking singers to get comfortable with the text (I speak from experience).
ReplyDeleteSo don't miss it, you won't have frequent opportunities.
I'm surprised that this is the only piece on the program -- the symphony is only a hair over an hour long, definitely shorter than Beethoven 9, so you'd think there would be a curtain raiser.
I would love to see this, but I teach jujitsu T & Th from 7:30 to 9 and I have no backup instructor. My deal with my students is that I can miss class once a season for a musical event, but I am about to take my second vacation in just a few months, so....
ReplyDelete