[From www.sfcv.org, 6/8/04]
Kent Nagano, in his 26th year of leading the Berkeley Symphony, will
present a 2004-'05 season very much in the mold of his previous formula:
bold premieres, lots of contemporary works, substantial music, no fluff.
As a possible harbinger of future logistics, one of the five concerts
will be given twice, in Hertz Hall, instead of once in Zellerbach.  Many
subscribers as well as would-be audiences question the single-concert
concept, not having a choice of dates or the opportunity to hear a program
again.

Starting with Bach, orchestrated by Schoenberg ("Komm, Gott, Schopfer,
heiliger Geist"), the opening concert (Sept.  13) will offer the US
premiere of Unsuk Chin's Violin Concerto (with Viviane Hagner), George
Benjamin's "Viola Viola," and Beethoven's Symphony No.  5.  The second
program (Hertz Hall, Nov.  30 and Dec.  1) combines Beethoven's Grosse
Fuge and Piano Concerto No.  2 (with Mari Kodama) with Berkeley composer
David Wessel's "Singularities" (featuring the University's Center for
New Music and Audio Technologies), Bartok's Rhapsody No.  1 for Violin
and Orchestra (Stuart Canin), and the US premiere of Jorg Widmann's "Chor
fur Orchester."

Associate Conductor George Thomson will have the first subscription
program of his own, on Jan.  26 (back in Zellerbach, as are all the other
events), conducting the co-commissioned Symphony Seven by the New York
composer, once in-residence with the S.F.  Symphony, Charles Wuorinen,
Villa-Lobos' "Bachianas Brasileiras" No.  9, Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto
in E minor (with 14-year-old Nigel Armstrong, winner of the orchestra's
Young Artist Award), and Carlos Chavez's Symphony No.  2 ("Sinfonia
India").

Nagano will be back on the podium for the May 10 concert, and the world
premiere of "Manzanar: An American Story," a work about World War II
Japanese relocation camps, by Naomi Sekiya, Jean-Pascal Beintus and David
Benoit; also on the program: Ives' Unanswered Question, and - perhaps
making up for the San Francisco Symphony's recent omission in Fidelio -
the Leonore Overture No.  3.

 From Orinda to the Met, to sing Brunnhilde in Wagner's "Die Walkure,"
Linda Watson is returning to the East Bay to sing Richard Strauss' "Four
Last Songs," and excerpts from "Tristan und Isolde" and "Gotterdammerung"
at the May 10 concert.  Nagano will repeat his Berlin and Ojai performances
of Schoenberg's "Friede auf Erden" ("Peace on Earth"), along with
Schubert's rarely-performed Symphony No.  2.

There will be two other events: Vance George conducts once again the
Symphony's Berkeley Choral Festival benefit concert, on March 2.  Highlights
include Brahms' "Schicksalslied" and the "Academic Festival" Overture.
On April 7, Thomson leads the Berkeley Symphony's "Under Construction"
program, a combination of open rehearsal and performance for works-in-progress
or recently completed compositions by local composers.  The Symphony's
Website is www.berkeleysymphony.org, but information for the next season
may take some time to be posted there.

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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