Sunday, May 03, 2009

Time of the Season

For season announcements, of course. 

The Cal Performances 2009-10 season has many continuing favorites, including Mark Morris, Merce Cunningham, Wynton Marsalis, the Takacs Quartet, and the Tallis Scholars. My favorite programs include the Swedish Radio Choir (really), led by guest conductor Ragnar Bohlin, the Swede currently making beautiful music with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus; the program includes Martin's Mass for Double Choir and works by Mahler, Bach, and Rorem and Hesperion XXI, led by Jordi Savall.

San Francisco Performances has quite a few bang-up programs scheduled as well. Thomas Ades is back, playing Brahms, Beethoven, Janacek, and Prokofiev; also on the piano series are Angela Hewitt, Richard Goode, Marc-Andrew Hamelin, and Yuja Wang. The Alexander Quartet repeats their Mendelssohn cycle in Berkeley and plays a Dvorak series at Herbst. The Kuss and Juilliard Quartets are on the schedule too.  The vocal series is especially tasty: Nathan Gunn, Joyce DiDonato, Alice Coote, and Thomas Hampson in recital. Bartione Eugene Brancoveaunu is on the Young Master series. Mario Formenti plays two incredible piano recitals; one of them is Messiaen's Vingt Regards, so if you missed Christopher Taylor's performances....And that's not all: did I mention the King's Singers and Anonymous Four?

Stanford Lively Arts has similarly got a great lineup. Anonymous Four performs a completely different program from the one presented by San Francisco Performances; Joseph Horowitz curates a Prokofiev series; the Kronos, Emerson, Orion, and St. Lawrence quartets make appearances; there's plenty of dance and theater.

The Merola Opera Program presents L'Amico Fritz and Cosi fan tutte.

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