As New Century Chamber Orchestra is leaving on another national tour, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg's exceptional band is repeating a kick-off concert tonight in Atherton's Center for Performing Arts.
I heard the first concert in Herbst Theatre Sunday afternoon, when program and performances combined into the kind of event music lovers should not miss — and fortunately don't have to. If not tonight, maybe on the tour (check the schedule below), or hear the KDFC broadcast of the Herbst concert (8 p.m., Jan. 27, on 90.3 FM in San Francisco, and other frequencies elsewhere in the Bay Area).
As Salerno-Sonnenberg said on Sunday (after congratulating the 49ers on their victory the day before), the program represents "our greatest music moments in five years," from Mendelssohn's lovely String Symphony No. 10, to William Bolcom's gripping, virtuoso Romanza, to Clarice Assad's arrangement of Villa-Lobos' Aria from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 6, to what the music director called the "single greatest music written for chamber orchestra," Richard Strauss' Metamorphosen for 23 Solo Strings.
If you cannot make it to Atherton, make a note of the KDFC broadcast of the concert at 8 p.m., Jan. 27, on 90.3 FM in San Francisco and other frequencies elsewhere in the Bay Area.
As for violist-composer-grant accummulator Kurt Rohde, he is very much part of the ensemble, but cannot join a tour, completing his fellowship at Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and adding to his grand oeuvre and recent compositions.
Last year's New Century tour was captured on a great DVD, "The Journey of Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and the New Century Chamber Orchestra." The 2013 tour will be recorded on video, to be shown in this very publication, and I promise to provide specific information about it, just as soon as I get it.
The tour schedule:
Jan. 18, 8 p.m.: Norton Center for the Arts, Centre College, Danville, KY
Jan. 19, 7:30 p.m.: University of the South, Sewanee, TN
Jan. 22, 7:30 p.m.: Peace Center for the Performing Arts, Greenville, SC
Jan. 24, 8 p.m.: Wright Auditorium, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC
Jan. 25, 8 p.m.: Page Auditorium, Duke University, Durham, NC
Jan. 27, 7:30 p.m.: Armstrong Concert Hall, Shenandoah University, Winchester, VA
Jan. 30, 8 p.m.: The Music Center at Strathmore, Bethesda, MD
Jan. 31, 7:30 p.m.: Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Feb. 2, 8 p.m.: Rackham Auditorium, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI