Arts & Events

Around & About Music: Berkeley Symphony; Strata at Berkeley Chamber Performances

By Ken Bullock
Thursday January 24, 2013 - 05:14:00 PM

—Joana Carneiro will conduct Berkeley Symphony in The Illuminators, including the world premiere of Portuguese composer Andreia Pinto-Correia's Alfama, with Lutoslowki's Cello Concerto (performed by Lynn Harrell) and Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, Opus 45, 8 p.m. Thursday, February 7, at Zellerbach Hall, UC campus. 

Pinto-Correia's music is inspired by Lusitanian folk and literary traditions. The Lutoslawski Concerto was composed for Mstislav Rostropovich in 1970. It's in pre-modernist concerto form, but has John Cage-inspired passages that can be played ad-lib, though in a specified time frame, as well as folk music motifs. Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances (1940) is his last work, a nostalgic glimpse of pre-Revolutionary Russia, with themes from Russian sacred chant and quotations from the composer's earlier work. 

Zellerbach Hall, UC campus, near Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue. $15-$68. 841-2800; berkeleysymphony.org 


—Strata, the trio of Audrey Andrist (piano), James Stern (violin/viola) and Nathan Williams (clarinet), will play for Berkeley Chamber Concerts this Tuesday, January 29, at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club. 

The trio will play.selections from William Bolcom's Afternoon Cakewalk (including his arrangement of Scott Joplin's The Easy Winners); selections from Max Bruch's Eight Pieces, Opus 83, for clarinet, viola and piano; and Mozart's Trio in E flat, K. 498, for the same complement (supposedly composed while Mozart was playing skittles—so, the Kegelstatt or Bowling Trio)—and Contrasts, by Bela Bartok, originally commissioned by Benny Goodman, rooted in Hungarian gypsy music. 

A complimentary wine and cheese reception will follow with the artists present. 

3215 Durant Avenue, between Dana & Ellsworth. $25 general, students through high school free, post-secondary school students $12.50. 848-7800; berkeleychamberperform.org