[From www.sfcv.org]

What do Kent Nagano, Sophia Loren, Mikhail Gorbachev and Bill Clinton
have in common? Music. Russian winter. Vodka toasts. Caring about the
environment. Philanthropic contributions. And, offering a welcome relief
from news about Iraq, North Korea and the US economy.

In recording sessions from Geneva to Moscow since mid-December, the odd
quartet has just completed a CD of Jean-Pascal Beintus's "The Wolf and
Peter," with the Russian National Orchestra. Nagano, slightly jetlagged
from conducting assignments in Los Angeles, Berkeley and Berlin, flew
from Quebec to Moscow, while the Bavarian State Opera announced his
appointment as the Munich company's next general music director.

The recording, soon to be released on the PentaTone Classics label, will
benefit the celebrity soloists' favorite charities. Clinton is donating
to the International AIDS Trust (whose advisory committee he co-chairs
with Nelson Mandela), Loren to the Magic of Music, an arts therapy program
for youth sponsored by the RNO, and Gorbachev to Green Cross International,
which he founded 10 years ago.

The strange story began, as most such tales do, in San Francisco. It was
at last summer's Stern Grove Festival that Nagano organized and conducted
the world premiere of Beintus' ecologically correct take on Prokofiev's
work, which examines the man vs. wolf conflict from Peter's anthropocentric
point of view, rather than considering the wolf's plight. The August
concert, combining the Russian orchestra and members of Nagano's Berkeley
Symphony, presented a work "emphasizing sensitivity to the environment
and the need for balance between man and nature," to quote from the
program notes.

The Nagano-Beintus connection goes all the way back to Nagano's days in
Lyon, when he was music director of the Opera and Beintus was the
orchestra's double bass principal. While there, Nagano also recorded the
retro version of "Peter and the Wolf" with Opera de Lyon, Patrick Stewart
serving as the narrator. The new work's text is by Walt Kraemer, winner
of a dozen Clio Awards for radio programs and commercials. Kraemer created
the first Colonel Sanders TV commercials, so it's possible that he will
yet come up with a work on the theme of "The Chicken and the Colonel."
For a visual proof of all this, click on <<"The Wolf and Peter" recording
session>> at http://home.earthlink.net/~janos451/.

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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