music

Local composers having fun Mark Alburger, a local composer of note, has long cut a colorful figure in the Bay Area’s music and opera scene. In his latest experiment, The Opus Project, he takes a decidedly different format than his usual, or from most concerts for that matter.  Rather than pose a concert around a genre or theme, Alburger decided to create a series of monthly concerts around opus numbers, focusing on twentieth century and...

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Cello artistry and mugging… Finding the sweet spot in a program that mixed nostalgia with bitter cynicism would tax most conductors, but Joana Carneiro energetically led the Berkeley Symphony through that confusing vale last Thursday, Feb. 7 at Zellerbach Auditorium.  What they achieved was luminously coloristic. They eased into those back-and-forth emotional demands with the world premiere of Alfama by Andreia Pinto-Correia, the...

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Bridging the divide between classical music and the dockside brothels of Buenos Aires, bandoneon player and composer Astor Piazzolla first used popular counter rhythms, sharp whips, and an accordion’s sonority alongside traditional string instruments, to create a new slant on older European musical canons. He and other composers thus redefined Tango as a form of demanding musicality and development, but celebrating its arch sensuality....

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Riffs on a theme Emboldened by the success of last year’s Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, which involved massive editing and multiple media, Michael Tilson...

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A lifetime of joy and grief—and humor—on a Saturday morning  “And then a most bizarre chord—the Neapolitan. Don’t worry, it won’t be on the test,” quipped lecturer Robert Greenberg, as he described the development of Franz Schubert’s final string quintet. School was back in session at St. John’s Presbyterian Church of Berkeley with a near-capacity audience surprisingly attentive for an early morning...

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Exploring music of the night. On Sunday, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble explored “Night Music,” shuttling between the present and Schoenberg’s last fling with nineteenth century Romanticism. Held in Mill Valley’s cozy 142 Throckmorton Theatre, that concert was an absolute treat. Artistic Director and violinist Anna Presler created a varied program with a twist, works that spoke of the moods and magic of the night, from open-eyed dreaming to...

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Categories: music