BFX 2012 Opens Today
This year’s Berkeley Festival and Exhibition opens today and proving to be a truly remarkable collaborative effort.
In addition to the 10 programs featured on the BFX MAIN STAGE and the Early Music America (EMA) YOUNG PERFORMERS FESTIVAL, there are dozens of FRINGE events to choose from.
BFX WEBSITE >>
VIEW THE COMPREHENSIVE BFX CALENDAR >>
Main Stage Calendar
Sunday, June 3, 2012
NICHOLAS McGEGAN AND DOMINIQUE LABELLE IN RECITAL
Beethoven Songs and Haydn Trios
Philharmonia Baroque presents Music Director Nicholas McGegan and Soprano Dominique Labelle in
an evening of spirited folksongs and melancholy airs, saved from obscurity by Ludwig van Beethoven’s superb arrangements for voice and piano trio. The program will also include delightful piano trios by Joseph Haydn.
Nicholas McGegan, fortepiano; Dominique Labelle, soprano; Elizabeth Blumenstock, violin; Phoebe Carrai, violoncello
8 PM, FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, $50/37/25
View Program >>
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Monday, June 4, 2012
No Main-stage performances. Check the Fringe calendar for concert listings.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
No Main-stage performances. Check the Fringe calendar for concert listings.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
EARLY MUSIC AMERICA (EMA) YOUNG PERFORMERS FESTIVAL
San Francisco Conservatory of Music Baroque Ensemble, co-directed by Corey Jamason and Elisabeth Reed
From Renaissance to Baroque
The SF Conservatory program will include music for viols and voice by Byrd, Morley, Holborne, and Gibbons, as well as virtuoso chamber music by Castello, Marini.
11:00AM, ST. MARK’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH. Tickets available at the door for a donation (No advance sales.)
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EARLY MUSIC AMERICA (EMA) YOUNG PERFORMERS FESTIVAL
University of California at Berkeley Baroque Ensemble, coached by Davitt Moroney
An Exploration of Baroque Music Across Europe
The UC Berkeley program will include music for cello by Domenico Gabrielli, music for recorder by Georg Philipp Telemann and George Frideric Handel, soprano arias from 17th-century Italian and French operas and cantatas, and music for harpsichord by Girolamo Frescobaldi, Johann Jacob Froberger, and Louis Couperin.
2:30PM, ST. MARK’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH. Tickets available at the door for a donation (No advance sales.)
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CHANTICLEER LOUIS A. BOTTO (LAB) CHOIR, Ben Johns, director
Music of New Spain:
Exploring California’s Missions and Mexico’s Cathedrals
The rich musical legacy of colonial Mexico and Alta California is preserved in the libraries of our cathedrals and missions. Their archives are troves of great and sometimes unique music from the 16th through the early 19th centuries, from refined Spanish polyphony to rollicking villancicos, with many excellent works written here in the New World. Enjoy a small sample from this musical cornucopia.
CHANTICLEER LAB 6:
Gordon Allen, Lila Atchison, Patrick Atchison, Avi Ballo, Kilian Benson, Elias Berezin (violin), Shannon Brumley, Nicole Chin, Claire Coleman, Toran Davenport (tambourine), Ana Dimapilis, Lily Friedman (violin), Erin Hajre-Chapman, Felix Herbst (violin), Lauren Jacobs (clarinet), Johann Joson, Sarah Ma, Katie Pass, Peter John Reinman, Christian Ricco, Steven Salka, Danielle Schickele, Camille Sherman (flute), Levi Soler, Juliana Woolums
5 PM, ST. MARK’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, $15
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MUSICA PACIFICA
300 Years On:
A Dance Collection from the Reign of Louis XIV
Instrumentalists of Musica Pacifica and dancers led by Baroque dance specialist Linda Tomko join forces to bring to the stage choreographies and their music from the 1712/13 Nouveau Recüeil de Dance de Bal et celle de Ballet. This dazzling collection is remarkable for the sheer number of dances it makes available and the range of music it offers, performed in musical theatre works, such as Campra’s Les Fêtes Vénitiennes, Marais’ Sémélée, and Destouches’ Issé, and at court during the final decades of Louis XIV’s reign. Celebrating the 300th anniversary of the Nouveau Recüeil, the program showcases instrumental music of other contemporary French Baroque composers and one of Telemann’s delightful “Paris” Quartets.
MUSICA PACIFICA:
Judith Linsenberg, recorder; Elizabeth Blumenstock, violin; Debra Nagy, oboe; Josh Lee, viola da gamba; Charles Sherman, harpsichord; John Loose, percussion; Linda Tomko, Ken Pierce, Olsi Gjeci, Jennifer Thorp, dance
8 PM, FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, $45/35/25
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Thursday, June 7, 2012
EARLY MUSIC AMERICA (EMA) YOUNG PERFORMERS FESTIVAL
University of North Texas Collegium Singers, directed by Richard Sparks
Victoria Requiem
The UNT program will feature the Requiem Mass of Tomas Luis de Victoria, published in1605. In common with other settings of the time, Victoria did not confine his setting to the Mass alone, but also included items from the Office of the Dead and the Great Absolution. The four-part Taedet animam meamcomes from the Offices of Lauds and Matins. The setting of the Mass is scored for six-part choir.
11 AM, ST. MARK’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH. Tickets available at the door for a donation (No advance sales.)
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EARLY MUSIC AMERICA (EMA) YOUNG PERFORMERS FESTIVAL
Stanford University Baroque Ensemble, directed by Marie-Louise Catsalis
Alessandro Scarlatti and his circle: cantatas and serenatas
The Stanford program includes works newly edited by the students from primary sources (manuscripts in Munich, Montecassino, and Berkeley). Cantatas by Alessandro Scarlatti; Serenata by Severo de Luca; duet by Innocenzo Fede.
2:30 PM, ST. MARK’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH. Tickets available at the door for a donation (No advance sales.)
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AGAVE BAROQUE
The Otherworldly Fiddler: the sacred and the profane meet at Heinrich Biber’s musical table
Perhaps the greatest violin virtuoso of the 17th century, Bohemian fiddler Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber crafted his compositions in a style that might be described as a dinner party of disparate sound worlds. His scrumptious Mensa Sonora, seu Musica instrumentalis, is “civilized” Biber, for mealtime and after dinner entertainment. His virtuosic Harmonia artificioso-ariosa employs a rustic folk-fiddle style and demands alternate tunings and techniques. Agave Baroque performs selections from these fascinating collections, as well as works that fearlessly explore the nexus of sacred and profane: Biber’s 1682 masterpiece Fidicinium sacro-profanum, and Johann Heinrich Schmelzer’s stunning Sacro-profanus concentus musicus.
AGAVE BAROQUE:
Aaron Westman, violin and viola; Shirley Hunt, viola da gamba, violoncello; Kevin Cooper, Baroque guitar; JungHae Kim, harpsichord, organ; David Wilson, violin; Josh Lee, viola da gamba, violone; Daniel Zuluaga, theorbo
5:00 PM ST. MARK’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, $28
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BLUE HERON, Scott Metcalfe, director
Song of Songs/Songs of Love
The poem known as the “Song of Songs” was written down in the 3rd century BCE and was admitted to the canon of Hebrew Scripture long after the Torah and the Prophets, probably towards the end of the first century CE. The poem is plainly about earthly love, but its sensuous language and imagery have been traditionally interpreted by Jewish and Christian religious exegetes as allegory. This program sets the sensuous verses of “Song of Songs” (translated from the original Hebrew into Latin by St Jerome) beside love songs in Spanish, inviting the listener to consider the many meanings and varieties of love and the complex relationship of the divine and the human, now and in the past. Music from 16th-century Spain by Francisco Guerrero, Tomás Luis de Victoria, Sebastián de Vivanco, Juan Vásquez, Nicolas Gombert, and others.
BLUE HERON:
Cameron Beauchamp, Pamela Dellal, Paul Guttry, Owen McIntosh, Jason McStoots, Martin Near, Aaron Sheehan, Mark Sprinkle, Sumner Thompson, Daniela Tosic, Shari Wilson, Zachary Wilder, voices; Marilyn Boenau, bajón
8 PM, FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, $45/35/25
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Friday, June 8, 2012
EARLY MUSIC AMERICA (EMA) YOUNG PERFORMERS FESTIVAL
Case Western Reserve University Baroque Ensemble and Collegium Musicum, coached by Julie Andrijeski and Debra Nagy
Milk and Honey: Sumptuous Music of the Seventeenth Century
The Case Collegium and Baroque Ensemble present sensuous love songs, erotic sacred texts and twisted lullabies full of quixotic blends of sweetness, anxiety, optimism, and even violence—what could be more enticing? Both well-known and newly rediscovered works for instruments and voices from the seventeenth century by Tarquinio Merula, Heinrich Biber, Giovanni Sances, Claudio Monteverdi, and more.
11 AM, ST. MARK’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH. Tickets available at the door for a donation (No advance sales.)
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EARLY MUSIC AMERICA (EMA) YOUNG PERFORMERS FESTIVAL
University of Southern California Thornton Baroque Sinfonia, directed by Adam Gilbert
Ars longa, vita brevis or Only the Good Die Young: Music from the Thirty Years War
The USC program features works by composers affected by the disastrous circumstances surrounding the Thirty Years War. It includes compositions by Johannes Vierdanck, Giovanni Antonio Rigatti, and Dario Castello, whose lives were cut short by fever during the mid-seventeenth century. Performers include eight singers, continuo, three violins and winds. As interludes, instruments will perform improvisations on grounds in seventeenth-century style.
2:30 PM, ST. MARK’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH. Tickets available at the door for a donation (No advance sales.)
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APPRECIATING GUSTAV LEONHARDT (1928-2012)
The Western Early Keyboard Association (WEKA) and MusicSources in collaboration with the Berkeley Festival and The San Francisco Early Music Society present a special tribute to one of Early Music’s greatest pioneers. This event will be hosted by Lisa Goode Crawford and will feature prominent American disciples of Gustav Leonhardt in solo harpsichord performances and a special performance of the Trio Sonata from the Musical Offering.
Reception to follow.
ARTISTS BIOS: Linda Burman-Hall, Lisa Goode Crawford, Jillon Stoppels Dupree, Elaine Funaro, JungHae Kim, Tamara Loring, Lenora McCroskey, Charlotte Mattax Moersch, Elaine Thornburgh, Webb Wiggins, Elisabeth Wright, harpsichord; with Stephen Schultz, flute; Anthony Martin, violin; Joshua Lee, viola da gamba
2:00PM, VENETIAN BALLROOM, BERKELEY CITY CLUB
$15-$25
510-528-1685, www.musicsources.org or www.wekaweb.org for advance ticket sales
View Program >>
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THE NEW ESTERHÁZY QUARTET
Haydn in America—The Moravian Heritage
The Moravian Brotherhood, persecuted descendants of 15th-century Czech religious dissidents, brought a rich musical culture to pre-Revolutionary America. The Moravian Music Foundation archive in Bethlehem and Winston-Salem catalogue thousands of musical works, for use in religious services and also for playing at home and in the Collegia Musica that were part of the settlements’ social life into the 19th century. Some of this music was composed by Moravian musicians themselves and some collected or copied from European sources. This program highlights Haydn Quartets performed from copies of handwritten parts or early editions brought by Moravian musicians to America in the 18th century. A talk and an exhibition on the history and influence of the Moravian communities in America accompany the concert.
THE NEW ESTERHÁZY QUARTET:
Kati Kyme & Lisa Weiss, violins; Anthony Martin, viola; William Skeen, cello
5 PM, ST. MARK’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, $28
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AMERICAN BACH SOLOISTS, Jeffrey Thomas, music director
A Tribute to Laurette Goldberg
An evening of works featuring J.S. Bach’s Trauerode: Laβ, Fürstin, laβ noch einen Strahl; a musical ode written at the request of the Leipzig University and dedicated to Christiane Eberhardine, Electress of Saxony and a personal friend of Bach himself. The concert also includes Bach’s most engaging double-chorus motets, Singet dem Herrn and Fürchte dich nicht; large-scale motets of this type were regularly composed to honor and memorialize the lives of significant and important individuals.
8 PM, FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, $50/35/20
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Saturday, June 9, 2012
VOICES OF MUSIC, Hanneke van Proosdij and David Tayler, directors
Roman Holiday
Voices of Music presents a dazzling program of Baroque concertos and Handel’s Roman masterpiece, the Gloria. Each concerto highlights a different combination of instruments and players in a variety of affects, colors and virtuoso playing.
VOICES OF MUSIC:
Laura Heimes, soprano; Carla Moore, Maxine Nemerovski, Sara Usher, baroque violins; David Daniel Bowes, Maria Caswell, Katherine Kyme, baroque violin & viola; Elisabeth Reed, William Skeen & Tanya Tomkins, baroque cellos; Farley Pearce, violone; Hanneke van Proosdij, harpsichord, recorder; Katherine Heater, organ and David Tayler, archlute.
5 PM, FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, $36/28/23
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JORDI SAVALL, REBEC, BOWED LYRE AND REBAB
A Dialogue of Souls: Orient-Occident
A peerless musician and conductor as well as an impeccable scholar, Jordi Savall is a “performer of genius,” says The New Yorker. He returns with a fascinating musical journey in time and space, devised on a dialogue of Arabo-Andalusian, Jewish, and Christian music from medieval Spain and around the Mediterranean. This program features music from ancient Spain and the Ottoman Empire, medieval Italy, Persian Afghanistan, and more.
Jordi Savall with Dimitri Psonis, santur & moorish guitar; David Mayoral, percussion
8 PM, FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, $60
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Sunday, June 10, 2012
JORDI SAVALL, REBEC, BOWED LYRE AND REBAB
A Dialogue of Souls: Istanbul
A peerless musician and conductor as well as an impeccable scholar, Jordi Savall is a “performer of genius,” says The New Yorker. He returns with a fascinating musical journey in time and space, devised on a dialogue of Arabo-Andalusian, Jewish, and Christian music from medieval Spain and around the Mediterranean. This program features Sefardic, Armenian, and Turkish music showcased in Moldavian prince Dimitrie Cantemir’s The Book of Science and Music, published in 1710 after he spent many years in Istanbul.
Jordi Savall with Dimitri Psonis, santur & moorish guitar; David Mayoral, percussion
3 PM, FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, $60
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THE 2012 BERKELEY FESTIVAL & EXHIBITION, PRESENTED BY
THE SAN FRANCISCO EARLY MUSIC SOCIETY, CAL PERFORMANCES, AND EARLY MUSIC AMERICA IN ASSOCIATION WITH, AMERICAN BACH SOLOISTS, AGAVE BAROQUE, CHANTICLEER, MUSICA PACIFICA, NEW ESTERHÁZY QUARTET,
PHILHARMONIA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA AND VOICES OF MUSIC