Rare Debussy

A friend writes:

I've just been listening to the recording of Debussy's Le Martyre de St.-Sébastien by MTT and the London Symphony, with Sylvia McNair and others, and narration by Leslie Caron. It's a hard CD to find--the pared-down orchestral version is easier, though not exactly a warhorse--but it's a gorgeous piece and really ought to be revived, with maximum spectacle as (I gather) the librettist, Gabriele d'Annunzio, had in mind.

Sounds good to me - I'm shallow, so the phrase "maximum spectacle" automatically makes a piece attractive to me. (That's why I have a copy of Granville Bantock's Omar Khhayam at home now.)

Has anyone ever heard Le Martyre live?

Thank Goodness for Small Favors

David Brooks, in conversation with Gail Collins:

First, I can never imagine believing that I am qualified to be president of the United States. 

Rising Sun

Reviewing the San Francisco Symphony. Lindberg, Seht die Sonne; Debussy songs; Beethoven, Seventh Symphony.

Some thoughts that didn't make it into the review:

• I wish they'd programmed Lindberg's Clarinet Concerto to close, not the Beethoven. It would be fun to see Carey Bell break a sweat - and Oramo would have conducted it better.
  
• Right, I hated the Beethoven. And it wasn't just the speed: it was the rigidity and lack of give between and within measures and phrases.
  
• Anu Komsi really does have a lovely voice. She also has a habit of singing soft high notes with the tiniest thread of sound possible. I was very impressed the first couple of times she did this. Around the fourth or fifth time, realized that it's a trick, like those floated pianissimos Caballe could pull out of her hat. Notes sung in that fashion become disconnected from the line of the music.
• Jeff Dunn points out that Einojuhanni Rautavaara has sold more records than the composers I listed put together. I didn't list Rautavaara because I've heard only two works by him, one a part song that I liked very much - Volti sang it on one of their concerts - the other the dreadful Manhattan Trilogy the Symphony played with Ashkenazy conducting.
• The orchestra looked somewhere from studiously neutral to grim during the concert. My companion thought the Lindberg sounded underrehearsed, which could have caused the orchestra to look displeased. 

San Francisco Opera on the Radio

Here's the schedule for the next batch of San Francisco Opera broadcasts on KDFC:

Sunday, July 6 at 8pm – Stravinky’s The Rake’s Progress [Fall 2007]

Tenor William Burden (Tom Rakewell) stars in Stravinsky’s tale of a self-destructive young man who makes a deal with the devil. Also featured in this production are soprano Laura Aikin (Anne Trulove), mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves (Baba the Turk) and bass-baritone James Morris (Nick Shadow). Donald Runnicles, conductor; Robert Lepage, director.

 

Sunday, August 3 at 8pm – Puccini’s Madama Butterfly [Fall 2007]

Puccini’s tragic love story features soprano Patricia Racette (Cio-Cio-San) and mezzo-soprano Zheng Cao (Suzuki) with tenor Brandon Jovanovich (Pinkerton) and baritone Steven Powell (Sharpless). Donald Runnicles, conductor; Kathleen Belcher, director.

 

Sunday, September 7 at 8pm – Wagner’s Das Rheingold [Summer 2008]

The first installment in acclaimed stage director Francesca Zambello’s complete “American” Ring cycle, Das Rheingold features role debuts by baritone Mark Delavan (Wotan), mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore (Fricka) and tenor Stefan Margita (Loge), as well as Richard Paul Fink (Alberich) and mezzo-soprano Jill Grove (Erda). Donald Runnicles, conductor; Francesca Zambello, director.

 

Sunday, October 5 at 8pm - San Francisco Chronicle Presents Opera in the Park

This special broadcast of the beloved San Francisco tradition, San Francisco Chronicle Presents Opera in the Park, features artists from the Company’s 2008–09 Season in concert with members of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. Donald Runnicles, conductor.

 

Sunday, November 2 at 8pm – Handel’s Ariodante [Summer 2008]

Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham (Ariodante) stars in Handel’s rediscovered tale of jealousy, betrayal and ultimate triumph, also featuring soprano Ruth Ann Swenson (Ginevra), soprano Veronica Cangemi (Dalinda), contralto Sonia Prina (Polinesso) in her U.S. debut, tenor Richard Croft (Lurcanio) and bass-baritone Eric Owens (King of Scotland). Patrick Summers, conductor; John Copley, director.

 

Sunday December 7 at 8pm – Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor [Summer 2008]

French coloratura soprano Natalie Dessay (Lucia) stars in Donizetti’s famed saga of a woman driven mad by her arranged marriage. The production also features tenor Giuseppe Filianoti (Edgardo), baritone Gabriele Viviani (Enrico) and bass Oren Gradus (Raimondo). Jean-Yves Ossonce, conductor; Graham Vick, director.

Pamela Z at the Royce Gallery, June 27-29

THE PENDULUM
A new solo multi-media performance work by Pamela Z

Friday- Sunday June 27, 28, and 29, 2008, 8pm
Royce Gallery, 2901 Mariposa Street (between Harrison & Alabama), San Francisco.
Admission is $10
Tickets at the door or through PayPal (http://www.pamelaz.com/pendulum.html)


On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, June 27th through 29th, 2008, at 8pm Pamela Z Productions presents Pamela Z in the San Francisco premiere of The Pendulum, a solo multi-media performance work exploring binaries of “Yes and No” through voice, electronics, projected video and manipulation of objects. Using a minimal set including dangling objects, and two channels of projected video, Ms. Z will perform a series of art songs and text-sound pieces with live voice, real-time processing, sampled voices and sounds and custom MIDI controllers, in the intimate performance space of the Royce Gallery.

About the inspiration for the work, the artist says:
“When I was growing up, my mother often wrote long lists of questions about things that concerned her. She would then dangle a small object -such as a needle, key, or trinket- on a thread and divine yes or no answers from the direction of its swinging - systematically writing the answers next to each question. Now in her advanced years, I have found that she amassed a great deal of documentation of her consultations with the pendulum for answers to questions both monumental and insignificant. A few years ago, while helping her to move, I discovered veritable reams of such pages- hand-written and typed. These papers chronicle a portion family history - albeit through my mother's rather distressed and confused filter.”

Some of the language from these pages finds its way into The Pendulum as a mesh of vocal texture throughout its visually rich and sonically layered segments.

Medici TV at Aspen, and Elsewhere

Medici TV will have webcasts from Aspen this year, as well as Verbier and other festivals!

Lucia Tonight: Free, with Garlic Fries!

San Francisco Opera's ballpark simulcast of Lucia di Lammermoor is tonight. The production, and especially the singing, and especially Natalie Dessay, got great reviews. There's Joshua Kosman in the Chron, and, unusually, columnist Jon Carroll, with a particularly funny take on the piece. 

Tickets are still available: you register and print out your tickets at the Opera web site.

I won't be there. I was supposed to see the Symphony, which is performing the Magnus Lindberg commission, Seht die Sonne, yesterday. I should have checked the schedule, because the performance was a rare Thursday matinee, which I discovered around 5 p.m., long after the concert was over. I'll be at the Symphony tonight, and will catch Lucia another time, or not at all.

Words I Never Thought I'd See Together

"Finnish accordion virtuosos."

Arrangements

On the Concord Ensemble's Berkeley Festival program last week was a number familiar to me, Juan Arañés’s  Chacona, "A la vida, vidita bona." You might know this piece too, if you're a Hesperion XXI fan (and who isn't?), because it's the first track on the wonderful Villancicos y danzas criollas, which Alex Ross once called "Alia Vox's unofficial dance-party CD."

The Concord Ensemble and Hesperion both perform this piece, the catchiest music ever written, with similar verve and joy. But what a difference in arrangements: the Concord Ensemble performed it a capella. On the Hesperion CD, there's a veritable orchestra, including percussion, viols, a plucked instrument (Baroque guitar?), and sackbutts. 

I've certained wondered about the historical information supporting Hesperion's instrumental forces, but the CD's liner notes are useless on this count. Davitt Maroney's program notes for the amazing Striggio mass performed at the Berkeley Festival indicate that in its time, lavish forces would have backed the singers, rendering his choice of sackbutts, cornetts, and pairs of portative organs and harpsichords conservative. But does the same apply to a secular number in a New World style?

Music in the Dark

Review, Le Poème Harmonique at the Berkeley Festival and Exhibition.

Things I Learned This Week

• Going to five performances in six days is a mistake, at least if you also have to go to work. That would be Das Rheingold, the SF Symphony program, and three concerts at the Berkeley early music fest ("Berkeley Festival and Exhibition" - why tell you the subject of the festival, after all?).
• Nonetheless, I'm sorry I couldn't have attended all of the festival concerts, and I'm especially sorry to have missed the Concord Ensemble/Piffaro concert, though I did catch the Concord Ensemble's fabulous program of Spanish music.
• It's a good idea to figure out the questions you need answered to finish your review on a day you can expect Cal Performances' press office to be open.

San Francisco Performances/Advice Sought

I saw the San Francisco Performance press release for next season a couple of months ago, and didn't comment at the time. Now the brochure has dropped into my mailbox, and YUM.

At the top of the must-see list, of course, is the Carter Centenary Celebration, starring the Pacific Quartet, which plays all five of the string quartets, and Ursula Oppens, who plays all of the piano music. The weekend also includes a long talk by Robert Greenberg, a film, and a reception. Okay, well worth missing jujitsu camp for.

But that's not all. A recital by Leif Ove Andsnes and Christian Tetzlaff, a joint recital by the retiring Guarneri Quartet and the Johannes Quartet, sundry other chamber groups and soloists, and an evening I need advice on: a traversal of Philip Glass's Music in Twelve Parts. Should I go? Will it drive me crazy?

Things Do Change

The Boosey & Hawkes email newsletter brings word of a new program, the Boosey & Hawkes Emerging Composers, a new sponsorship program. Here's what they say about the program:

In order to foster and develop the next generation of innovative composers, B&H is providing publishing, promotion, and career support to a select group of emerging composers for a specified cycle. B&H inaugurates the program with artists Oscar Bettison, Anna Clyne, and Du Yun, with future signings to be announced.

Two of the three of the inaugural composers are women.

Pops?

I've got the 2008-09 season press release from New Century Chamber Orchestra, that gem of an ensemble. The upcoming season will be NCCO's first under its new music director, the virtuoso Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg.

Some interesting works appear on the program, but then there's the Christmas concert, with a couple of Brandenburg concertos - could anything be more predictable? Okay, Messiah - and carols and Channukah songs sung by the wonderful Melody Moore. Her last appearance with NCCO was singing Les Illuminations.

There are a couple of interesting-looking commissions from Claudia Assad, but this description gave me pause:

Clarice Assad is the daughter of Sergio Assad, one of the world's preeminent guitarists and composers, and has performed professionally since the age of seven.

Describe a woman in terms of her father, thank you; is he really one of the world's preeminent composers?

The whole season seems top-40-ish:

Nadja Plays Piazzolla: The Sounds of Brazil & Argentina
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin

Thursday, Sept. 11 at 8pm, First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley
Saturday, Sept. 13 at 8pm, Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco
Sunday, Sept. 14 at 5pm, Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, 200 N. San Pedro Road, San Rafael
Tuesday, Sept. 16 at 8pm, First United Methodist Church, 625 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto

Clarice Assad: Impressions, Suite for Chamber Orchestra (NCCO Commission, World Premiere)
Alberto Ginastera: Glosses on Themes by Pablo Casals
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin
Piazzolla (arr. Leonid Desyatnikov): Four Seasons of Buenos Aires
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin
Heitor Villa-Lobos (arr. Clarice Assad): Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5


Celebrate the Holidays
Melody Moore, soprano
Schola Cantorum San Francisco

Thursday, Dec. 11 at 8pm, St. John's Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave., Berkeley
Friday, Dec. 12 at 8pm, First United Methodist Church, 625 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto
Saturday, Dec. 13 at 8pm, Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco
Sunday, Dec. 14 at 5 pm, Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, 200 N. San Pedro Road, San Rafael

Handel: Solomon, Overture and Entrance of the Queen of Sheba
Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major, BWV 1047
Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050
Holiday Songs and Carols (arr. Clarice Assad)
Melody Moore, soprano
Schola Cantorum San Francisco


The Glory of Russia
Anne-Marie McDermott, piano

Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 8pm, Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco
Friday, March 6, 2009 at 8pm, First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley
Saturday, March 7, 2009 at 8 pm, First United Methodist Church, 625 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto
Sunday, March 8, 2009 at 5 pm, Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, 200 North San Pedro Road, San Rafael

Prokofiev (arr. Rudolf Barshai): Visions Fugitives, Op. 22
Anne-Marie McDermott, piano
Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Op. 35
Anne-Marie McDermott, piano
Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence


Shadows and Light
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin

Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 8pm, First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley
Friday, May 15, 2009, at 8pm, First United Methodist Church, 625 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto
Sunday, May 17, 2009 at 5pm, Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, 200 North San Pedro Road, San Rafael
Tuesday, May 19, 2009 at 8 pm, Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco

Mozart: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
Bernard Herrmann: Psycho Suite
Borodin: Nocturne
Clarice Assad: Dreamscape (NCCO Commission, World Premiere)
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin
Strauss (arr. Mats Lidstrom): Die Fledermaus Suite


I'm interested in only two of the four programs; the last and the Christmas, excuse me, holiday concert lack meat (except for the commission). Compare and contrast with 2007-08:

September 2007, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, guest concertmaster

Kreisler (arr. Assad): Praeludium and Allegro
Bach: Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, BWV 1041
Nadja-Salerno Sonnenberg, violin
Mendelssohn: String Symphony No. 10 in B minor
Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings, Op. 48


November 2007, Margaret Batjer, guest concertmaster

Francesco Geminiani: Concerto Grosso No. 1 in D major
Handel: Concerto Grosso in A major, Op. 6, No. 11
J. S. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major, BWV 1049
C. P. E. Bach: String Symphonie in E major Wq 182/6
Haydn: Symphony No. 8 in G major, Le Soir


January 19, 2008, REWIND
Paul Haas, conductor
Anne Akiko Meyers, violin
Raushan Akhmedyarova, violin
Mason Bates, DJ

Schnittke: Concerto Grosso for 2 Violins, Harpsichord, and Strings
Soloists include Anne Akiko Meyers, violin
Raskatov: 5 Minuten aus dem Leben WAM
Anne Akiko Meyers, violin
James MacMillan: As Others See Us (T. S. Eliot)
Stravinsky: Suite from Pulcinella
Villa-Lobos: Bachianas brasileiras No. 4
Stravinsky: Suite for Small Orchestra No. 2
Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht
Mozart: Divertimento K. 136
Corelli (arr Greenstein): Concerto Grosso in C minor, Op. 6, No. 3
Soloists include Anne Akiko Meyers, violin
Biagio Marini: Passacaglio
Purcell: A Bird’s Prelude from A Faerie Queen


April 2008, Stuart Canin, NCCO Founding Music Director, guest concertmaster

Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, K. 219
Stuart Canin, violin
Shostakovich: Chamber Symphony for Strings, Op. 110a
Mendelssohn: Octet for Strings, Op. 20


June 2008, Rachel Barton Pine, guest concertmaster

Saint-Georges: Violin Concerto in A Major
George Walker: Lyric for Strings
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson: Sinfonietta No. 2, Generations
Brahms: Sextet in B-flat Major, Op. 18

A Different Kind of Summer Sing

Mostly Motets is having a combination concert and sing-along, featuring works by Dufay, Desprez, Tallis, Palestrina, Byrd, Victoria, and others, and does it ever sound like fun.

Here's how it works, from the email I received:

Mostly Motets will first perform each piece with the audience listening. Immediately after that, members of the audience who wish to will be welcome to sing the same piece together with the ensemble. Music selections will range from relatively familiar and easy to more unusual and challenging.

Details:

Sunday, June 8, 2008 at 1:30 p.m.

First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley (Channing & Durant; Dana & Durant)

Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 at the door. Call (800) 838-3006 or visit the Mostly Motets web site to buy tickets.

The email also says this:

Auditions for the 2008-2009 season will begin the week after this performance. If you are interested, please visit the Membership part of our web site and contact Steve Moore at smoore@vistaconsulting.com, at (707) 575-7400, or after the concert.

American Music Festival 2

In my previous posting, I called attention to the absence of women from the press release for the 68th Annual American Music Festival. David Bukszpan wrote back with more information, and to say he could see why I was concerned about the press release: the Festival will include music by Mahaia Jackson, Bessie Smith, Billy Holiday, Amy Beach, Margaret Bond, Mary Lou, Barbara Hendricks, Kathleen Battle, Marian Anderson, Gospel Harmonettes, Bernice J. Reagon and Sweet Honey in the Rock.

Update, May 29: Yes, that's Mary Lou Williams. And the playlists for this festival were drawn up late, and the press release thus didn't include everyone.

68th Annual American Music Festival

I've received a press release about the 68th Annual American Music Festival, presented by WNYC. The blurbage starts this way:

The 2008 American Music Festival will explore “America’s Classical Music” by examining it in contrast to the established forms of Western European traditions. Recordings, interviews, and critical commentary will coalesce into an examination of the processes, styles, ensembles, and folk traditions that are uniquely and arguably authentically American. Oratorio will give way to spiritual, Pavarotti to Paul Robeson, string quartet to jazz combo, Beethoven to Ellington, waltz to rag, and bel canto to the blues.

All well and good, but here are all the names mentioned in the press release as participants or composers/performers to be discussed:

Charles Mingus, Paul Robeson, John Fahey, Frank Sinatra, William Bolton, Terrance McKnight, David Garland, William Bolcom, Jason Moran, Gunther Schuller, John Zorn, Grey Reverend (LD Brown), J. J. Johnson, Charles Mingus, George Handy, Duke Ellington, Bill Smith, Joe Venuti, Earl Hines, John Fahey, Glenn Jones, Duke Ellington, Paul Robeson, John Rockwell, Charles Ives, Les Baxter, Lennie Tristano, The Beach Boys, Ornette Coleman, Jerry Goldsmith, The Velvet Underground, John Coltrane, Frank Sinatra, Captain Beefheart, Jimmy Durante "and others."

Guests for one program are TBD.

I sent email in response:

Serious question - does "America's Classical Music" include women in any capacity? If not, why not? If so, why isn't there a single female name in this press release? Will music by American women composers even be mentioned in this festival?

Matthew Sperry Memorial Concerts, Hillside Club, Berkeley

Sixth Annual Matthew Sperry Memorial Concerts

The Berkeley Hillside Club is proud to host the Sixth Annual Matthew Sperry Memorial Concerts. Matthew Sperry was a talented bass player and beloved member of the local avante garde music community who was tragically killed while bicycling in 2003. Since then his friends and fans have gathered annually to honor his memory in music.

Thursday, June 5th at 8:00 pm

John Butcher - saxophone
Solo, duo, trio, and quintet
with special guests John Shiurba - guitar, Tom Djll - trumpet,
Tim Perkis - electronics, and Gino Robair - percussion.


Friday, June 6th at 8:00 pm

Carla Kihlstedt - violin & vocals
Solo songs and duets
with special guests Marika Hughes, Chris Sipe, and Fred Frith

For more info, Matthew Sperry Concerts.

Admission (per performance) $15 ($10 for HSC members and Seniors)
The Berkeley Hillside Club
2286 Cedar Street
Berkeley 94709
Info: (510) 845-1350

Just Another Day in the Death of Classical Music

Alex Ross reports that 62% of the audience members at Fringe, an alternative chamber-music series in Atlanta, were under the age of 40.

I'll take a not-very-wild stab in the dark about why: tickets are $15 ($10 for students). Perhaps high prices at major musical institutions are a major reason the audience is aging at symphony orchestras and opera houses. Older people have the money to pay $225 for the best seats at San Francisco Opera.

Apologies

I owe many of you email about the New Music Box article! I will respond within a few days.

And Roll

Reviewing Stefano Scodanibbio and sfSoundGroup.

Not Quite All Alone

Andrew Patner's review of A Flower Tree calls out some of the same issues I had with the piece.

On the Air

My mailbox brings news of some radio broadcasts:

eighth blackbird will be on Performance Today on Monday, May 19. Check your local listings, or Performance Today's web site, or Public Radio Fan for details.

Los Angeles Opera performances will be broadcast starting today at 10:30 on KUSC and WFMT. There's Internet streaming, yes. Here's the schedule, with cast details, from their press release:

Fidelio
KUSC: Saturday, May 17, 10:30am
WFMT: Saturday, July 5*
Music Director James Conlon conducts; Starring Anja Kampe, Klaus Florian Vogt, Matti Salminen, Eike Wilm Schulte, Oleg Bryjak, Rebekah Camm and Greg Fedderly.

Verdi Requiem
KUSC: Saturday, May 24, 10:30am
IPlácido Domingo conducts the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and Chorus, with soprano Adrianne Pieczonka, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, tenor Arturo Chacón-Cruz and bass René Pape.

Jenufa
KUSC: Saturday, May 31, 10:30am
WFMT: Saturday, July 12*
Conducted by James Conlon, starring Karita Mattila, Eva Urbanová, Kim Begley, Jorma Silvasti, Elizabeth Bishop and Jason Stearns.

Don Giovanni
KUSC: Saturday, June 7, 10:30am
WFMT: Saturday, July 19*
Conducted by Hartmut Haenchen, starring Erwin Schrott, Kyle Ketelsen, Alexandra Deshorties, Maria Kanyova, Charles Castronovo, Lauren McNeese, James Creswell and Kangliang Peng.

La Bohème
KUSC: Saturday, June 14, 10:30am
Giacomo Puccini's beloved opera is conducted by Plácido Domingo, starring Maija Kovalevska, Massimo Giordano, Laquita Mitchell, Luca Salsi, Oren Gradus, Brian Leerhuber and Philip Cokorinos.

Tristan und Isolde
KUSC: Saturday, June 21, 10:30am
WFMT: Saturday, July 26*
James Conlon conducts, with Linda Watson and John Treleaven in the leading roles, joined by Lioba Braun, Juha Uusitalo, Kristinn Sigmundsson, Gregory Warren, Brian Mulligan and Matthew Moore.

Otello
KUSC: Saturday, June 28, 10:30am
WFMT: Saturday, August 2*
Conductor James Conlon leads a cast including Ian Storey, Cristina Gallardo-Domas, Mark Delavan, Derek Taylor, Ning Liang and Eric Halfvarson.

The Broken Jug / The Dwarf
KUSC: Saturday, July 5, 10:30am
WFMT: Saturday, August 9*
James Conlon conducts a cast that includes James Johnson, Rodrick Dixon, Mary Dunleavy, Steven Humes, Bonaventura Bottone, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Bishop, Melody Moore, Jason Stearns and Richard Cox.

Tosca
KUSC: Saturday, July 12, 10:30am
Sir Richard Armstrong conducts a cast that includes Adrianne Pieczonka, Neil Shicoff, Juan Pons and Dale Travis.

La Rondine
KUSC: Saturday, July 19, 10:30am
WFMT: Saturday, August 16*
Keri-Lynn Wilson conducts, and the cast includes Patricia Racette, Marcus Haddock, Amanda Squitieri, Greg Fedderly and David Pittsinger.

Women Composers Today

There hasn't been an addition to the reviews sidebar in months, and that's because I was working on a long article for New Music Box. The article was published today, and Molly Sheridan gave it a most wonderful title: Lend Me a Pick Ax: The Slow Dismantling of the Compositional Gender Divide.

I started working on this article back in early January, and quickly discovered that the current status of women composers is a huge subject. Check Google Scholar and you'll see what I mean. And there's plenty more to be reported.

Deepest thanks to everyone I wrote about in the article, a great group of composers: Linda Dusman, Pamela Z, Caroline Mallonée, Kyle Bartlett, Elaine Fine, Alex Shapiro, Sheila Silver, and Alice Shields. Check out their music!

Brahms Two Ways

San Francisco Symphony is in the midst of a big Brahms Festival, and one of the pieces they're doing is Ein deutsches Requiem, a favorite of choristers and conductors, which contains some of the most beautiful and comforting music ever written. They're pairing it with the Opus 17 Songs for Women's Chorus, Two Horns, and Harp. I sang Op. 17 long ago, and have never even seen the set on a program since then. Go, because you'll never have another chance to hear Op. 17 - and harpist Douglas Rioth is one of the unsung geniuses of the Symphony.

But then again, you should also come see Chora Nova performing the Requiem, with considerably smaller forces, in Brahms's own arrangement for two pianos. You'll also get to hear the short choral work Begraebnisgesang and Vier ernste Gesang (Four Serious Songs) sung by Paul Flight, countertenor and Chora Nova artistic director.

Saturday, May 24, 2008 8:00 p.m.
First Congregational Church of Berkeley, Dana and Durant Streets
Tickets: $18/$15/$10 online or at the door