[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 [log in to unmask]