NCCO presents Letters from Russia featuring New Century Chamber Orchestra with special guest, Ailyn Peréz
2015-09-17
First Congregational Church
2345 Channing Way, Berkeley, CA
8:00 PM, Thursday, September 17, 2015

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2015 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2015 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

• Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin “Letter Scene”, featuring Susanna Phillips
• Rachmaninoff: Vocalise, featuring Susanna Phillips
• Shostakovich: Elegy and Polka
• Part: Trisagion
• Jennifer Higdon: Strings from Concerto for Orchestra
• Jennifer Higdon: String Lake from All Things Majestic
• Jennifer Higdon: To the Point

[8:08 PM lights down]

1. [8:09 PM] Arvo Pärt (b. 1935): Trisagion (1992, rev. 1994)
   [work ends 8:22 PM, pause for entrance of Ailyn Peréz]
    
   
2. [8:23 PM] Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943): Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14, (1912, rev. 1915);
   featuring Ailyn Peréz, soprano vox.
   [work ends 8:30 PM, pause for standing ovation, off at 8:32 PM]

Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962): Three Excerpts

1. [8:32 PM] Strings from Concerto for Orchestra (2002)
2. [8:37 PM] String Lake from All Things Majestic (2011)
3. [8:4m PM] To the Point (2003)
   [set ends 8:49 PM; applause for a minute, then off for intermission]

[9:07 PM back in my seat and ready to go!]
[9:11 PM speech by Philip Wilder, Executive Director]

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Elegy and Polka, for String Quartet (1931), arranged for string orchestra by Christian Sikorski & Alexandre Brussilovsky

1. [9:14 PM] Elegy: Adagio (after Katerina's Aria, The foal runs after the filly, from Act 1, Scene 3 of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Op. 29)
2. [9:20 PM] Polka: Allegretto, (from The Golden Age ballet, Op. 22a, No. 3)
   [work ends 9:23 PM, pause for entrance of Ailyn Peréz]

1. [9:24 PM] Piotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893): “Letter Scene” aria from Eugene Onegin (1877-1878), arranged for string orchestra by Clarice Assad;
   featuring Ailyn Peréz, soprano vox.
   [set ends 9:37 PM, pause for standing ovation, off at 9:40 PM]
    
   Encore
2. [9:40 PM] Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998): Polka, for violin and string orchestra (1980), arranged by Sergei Dreznin
   [show ends 9:43 PM, final ovation, all off in a minute]

New Century Chamber Orchestra

• Hrabba Atladottir: second violin;
• Robin Bonnell: cello;
• Jenny Douglass: viola;
• Candace Guirao: principal second violin;
• Dawn Harms: associate concertmaster, violin;
• Robert Howard: cello;
• Anna Kruger: principal viola;
• Meredith Kufchak: viola;
• Anthony Manzo: contrabass;
• Robin Mayforth: first violin;
• Isaac Melamed: acting principal cello;
• Kayo Miki: second violin;
• Deborah Tien Price: second violin;
• Cassandra Lynne Richberg: viola;
• Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg: music director, concertmaster, violin;
• Karen Shinozaki Sor: first violin;
• Iris Stone: first violin;
• Erin Wang: cello;
• Michael Yokas: second violin
  - with special guest vocalist -
• Ailyn Peréz: soprano vox.

Having enjoyed a long break since the final show from last season, I hadn't been feeling super enthusiastic about tonight's show – meh, chamber orchestra, been there, heard that – but as I sat listening to the rapturous harmony conjured by NCCO from Arvo Pärt's amazing Trisagion, my cynicism washed away. “Oh yeah,” I thought to myself, “THIS is why I keep coming back to listen to these folks year after year.” The repertoire may not always appear to be too exciting, especially to a dilettante like myself, who ascertains to know a little about a lot of things (and thereby manages to forget even more), but the NCCO seems to come through with winning performances quite consistently.

The second work on tonight's program, Rachmaninoff's own arrangement of Vocalise for a chamber orchestra, was even more stunning. Ailyn Peréz's wordless vocal was every bit as stunning as modern analogs such as evidenced by Clare Torry on Pink Floyd's classic the Great Gig in the Sky or Merry Clayton's wailing on the Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter. Powerful stuff! And all the better to be sitting there up close in the third row. Way better than heading to the opera and taking a standing room ticket for the back of the floor or top of the balcony!

As it was a bit stuffy inside FCC, I bolted for the portico as soon as the set ended, to sit and sip from my water bottle while making brief notes and taking in the deliciously cool night air for ten or fifteen minutes before heading back inside for the second half.

And while the second set was rather short – hardly more than a half hour long – it certainly made up in quality what it might have lacked in duration. The two Shostakovich trifles that opened the set were excellent. The first, moving and mournful, and the second quite witty and comic.

Without staging, it was a little tough for me to follow the narrative of the Tchaikovsky aria – Ailyn Peréz put her heart into the emotions of the piece, but given that the only Russian I know is “nyet,” it was a struggle to match her singing to the translation presented in the program notes. Entertaining, but not as winning as the earlier tune from Rachmaninoff. Tradition being what it is, the aria was followed with a length standing ovation from the crowd, with many huzzahs and shouts of Brava!, as well as award of a huge bouquet of yellow roses and sunflowers. As Ailyn departed with her bouquet, Nadja asked us if we wanted to hear one more (but of course!) and then told us that the encore would be Schnittke. What fun! Even more prototypically Russian than the Shostakovich Polka, this one had me dancing the kalinka in my head while the melody lines swirled about the stage.

Joshua Kosman posted a complimentary review of tonight's gig on SFGATE, while Georgia Rowe, also in attendance, posted her comments in the SJ Mercury News.

Be'eri Moalem posted a review of the following night's gig in San Francisco for SFCV.

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2015 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2015 event list! ☸ On to the next event!