Cal Performances 2013-14 season: a dozen picks

Mitsuko Uchida.

As usual, it is extremely difficult to choose among the bounty of riches offered by Cal Performances this coming season. My original list still numbered 20 shows and the only way I whittled it down was to first remove performers one had a chance to see elsewhere, including such favorites as Yefim Bronfman, Stephanie Blythe, YoYo Ma, and Joshua Redman. That still left a lot on the table, so in the end I went with the rare, the exotic, and the too good to pass up. However, I encourage you to check their entire schedule to see what I left out, which is a diverse lot of performers well worth seeing. Below are the twelve I wouldn't want to miss, listed in chronological order. Since many of these are performers I haven't seen, in some cases I've used Cal's description of the event.

Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette. Oct 4.
The most formidable living jazz trio, now performing together for 30 years, returns. Who knows what they'll play? It doesn't really matter. Guaranteed to sell out.

Nederlands Dans Theater. Oct 23, 24
From Cal: The highly influential and stylistically innovative Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) has boasted some of the most daring choreography, conceptually compelling drama, and technically dazzling movement in modern dance history. NDT's 2011 groundbreaking Berkeley visit featured unforgettable work by the company's resident choreographer team of Paul Lightfoot and Sol León. Now, the company returns with more of Lightfoot and León's signature magic with two West Coast premieres. Sehnsuchttakes place in a surreal revolving cube, set to the music of Beethoven. Clever and hilarious, Schmetterling finds dancers revealing their personalities against a score by the Magnetic Fields. "They are the world's most magnificent dancers, a retina-shredding spectacle of passion and power" (Sunday Herald, Glasgow). 

Mariza Oct. 30
If you've heard Ana Moura perform, then you know the sensuous appeal of the fado singer. I've never seen Mariza, but I'm pleased more of this music is making its way here. From Cal: No living singer conveys the achingly beautiful, nostalgic, ecstatic music of Portuguese fado with more style and passion than superstar fadista Mariza. Dubbed "the Sade of fado" by the New York Times, Mariza is a regal and alluring presence onstage, able to make a large hall feel as intimate as a tavern, with "a voice schooled in fado's depths" (The Independent, London). Mariza refreshes classics of the genre and adds modern repertoire from Brazil, Cuba, and beyond, backed by a band that effortlessly weaves the music's African roots with contemporary styles.

Union Tanguera: Niut Blanche. Nov. 17
Tango time. From Cal: Combining the sensuality and intimacy of social dance with the formal expressivity of grand theater, Unión Tanguera's latest work features a cast of virtuoso tango dancers and musicians in a story set in a nightclub over the course of a single sleepless night, or nuit blanche. The French Argentinian ensemble is co-directed by Claudia Codega and Esteban Moreneo, who studied with the greatest tango maestros of the 1980s and 1990s, and who now represent a new generation of tango choreographers whose work "intelligently reinterprets the vocabulary of pure tango" (Danseur). The company visits on its first American tour, with an ensemble of first-call Buenos Aires musicians and a production "perfect in rhythm and spirit" (Ballet 2000).

Wu Man.  Jan 26
I first saw Wu Man perform with Kronos a couple of years ago. I never wrote about it, but it was one of the best performances I saw that year. Man, who plays the pipa, is a musician of stunning dexterity and imagination. She lit a fire under Kronos and in the audience with her contagious enthusiasm. I'm really looking forward to seeing her in this solo recital.

Calder Quartet.  Feb 23
The more I see these musicians the more they intrigue me with their virtuosity and repertoire selections- they perform with a heady mix of talent and intellect. From Cal: The Calder Quartet is at the vanguard of an exhilarating new generation of American string quartets breathing renewed life into classic repertoire and forging new paths forward through close relationships with living composers. The Los Angeles-based ensemble, fresh off its post as the Juilliard Graduate Resident String Quartet, returns to Cal Performances for Schubert's masterful rumination on mortality, the Death and the Maiden quartet; and a rarely performed Schoenberg quartet featuring soprano. "These four players exuded a kind of rapture in which they were very much in tune with not only the pulse on the page or the score's moody melodies and richly somber harmonies, but also of each other" (Los Angeles Times). 

The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.  Mar. 7-9
A truly special event. Three performances, each with a different program and conductor, to hear one of the world's best orchestras. I would choose the Sunday concert led by Franz Welser-Möst, but I doubt one would one be any less great than the others. From Cal:

 No other musical ensemble is more closely associated with the history and tradition of European classical music than the Vienna Philharmonic. Over a formidable 170-year history, the musicians of this orchestra have maintained a tradition of beauty and excellence in music-making—enjoying close associations with many of the most influential composers—Wagner, Verdi, Bruckner, Brahms, Liszt, Strauss, Mahler—and conductors—Richter, Furtwängler, von Karajan, Bernstein—in the history of music. The Vienna Philharmonic visits Berkeley for a three-concert residency with repertoire shining a light on the orchestra's deep connection to its famous musical legacy. 

Highlights include Italian conductor Daniele Gatti, a renowned Mahler interpreter, in a program including Mahler's 4th Symphony; Brahms's Third Symphony (premiered by the Vienna Philharmonic in 1883) conducted by stellar Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons—"the next big thing among young conductors" (New York Times); and an exploration of enduring scores by influential Viennese composers (and a contemporary work from a composer who is creating in Vienna today), conducted by Franz Welser-Möst—a rare chance to experience his magnificent music-making beyond Cleveland where he is music director of The Cleveland Orchestra. 
The Vienna Philharmonic's residency will also include extensive activities in the community and with UC Berkeley students, including master classes, chamber music, and a special symposium focusing on the history of the orchestra.

Trey McIntyre Project. Mar. 21 &22
Based on what I've heard over the past couple of years I'm beginning to feel I'm really missing out on something for not having seen this company perform on their last visit. Time to change that, with this program featuring the music of Henry Cowell. From Cal: Choreographer Trey McIntyre creates innovative, fun, and technically daring contemporary ballet that speaks uniquely of the American moment. With more than 90 works to his credit, McIntyre's choreography has been praised for its "singular connection between movement and spirit" (Los Angeles Times), an athletic style that is both winningly clever and earnestly soulful. McIntyre's works reflect on timeless human themes like loss, wonder, and innocence, and he has been inspired by topics as far-ranging as Shakespearean tragedy, the 1970s children's record Free to Be...You and Me, and post-Katrina New Orleans. The company returns after its warmly received Cal Performances debut two seasons ago, with McIntyre's (serious), a gripping work that explores emotional alienation and social tension. 

Mitsuko Uchida. Mar 25
Finally, a chance to see this legendary pianist, and in the smaller, more intimate Hertz Hall. She'll be performing Beethoven's Diabelli Variations and Schubert's Sonata in G major, Op. 78. Not to be missed, but the tickets start at $100 (!) ... so if that's a bit pricey, also on the same night there's Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (from Cal): "The extraordinary skill of the Trocks proves that to undo ballet, one must first be able to do ballet" (The Telegraph, London). The all-male drag ballet company, affectionately known as the Trocks, specializes in a loving critique of the conventions and traditions of ballet: campy and hysterical, but informed and beautifully executed. The company has become an international dance phenomenon, performing canonical works alongside more obscure ballets, dolled up in fabulous costumes, thick makeup, and sporting Ken-doll wigs—all en pointe. The fact that men dance all the parts—heavy bodies delicately balancing on toes as swans, nymphs, princesses—enhances, rather than mocks, the spirit of dance as an art form, delighting knowledgeable ballet audiences and novices alike. 

Kronos Quartet with Combat Paper Project: A Meditation on the Great War. April 6
A new collaboration project from Kronos, which is constantly pushing the boundaries. This looks very promising. From Cal: A Meditation on the Great War, a collaboration with Iraq war veteran-turned-visual artist Drew Cameron of the Combat Paper Project, commemorates the centennial of the outbreak of World War I with a new multimedia work exploring history and its haunting of the present: a newly commissioned score by composer Aleksandra Vrebalov inspired by anti-war narratives of that era, and new film by Bill Morrison that draws from archival WWI footage. Kronos, now celebrating its 40th anniversary, is an incubator of ideas, always ready to ask us to reflect on our role in world events, and the history we are all creating. 

Christianne Stotijn, Rick Stotijn & Joseph Breini.  April 13.
From Cal: One of the great mezzos of our day, blazing a trail in Europe and more recently in the U.S., mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn joins forces with double bassist Rick Stotijn and longtime collaborator, pianist Joseph Breinl, for a program of intimate solo, duo, and trio works embracing lush Romanticism, cabaret humor, charming folk song, and unbridled virtuosity. Christianne, a charismatic and passionate interpreter of art songs, has earned an international reputation for her performances of Mahler in particular—she is "that artist in a thousand whose personality shines through everything she does" (BBC Music Magazine). Rick, celebrated for his performances of Bottesini's bass repertoire, is principal bassist with Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. The recital includes arrangements of Ravel, Bolcom, and Glinka, plus two works composed especially for the trio: Ned Rorem's song cycle based on Shakespeare's sonnets, and a new piece by Dutch composer Michel van der Aa. 

Mark Morris Dance Group and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale: Acis and Galatea.  April 25-27
You don't want to miss this. From Cal:  Cal Performances, Mark Morris Dance Group, and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra present their latest joint undertaking, the world premiere of a production featuring Mozart's brilliant arrangement of a Handel score. An epic love story from Ovid's Metamorphoses set along the pastoral banks of the Mediterranean, Acis and Galateais performed in English by four vocalists and the Mark Morris Dance Group, joined by the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale. Handel finished the opera in 1739 and Mozart later arranged it in the classical style, expanding the instrumental colors of the score and adding his signature clarity of orchestration. A feast for the eyes as well as the ears, the new production features sets and costumes by Adrianne Lobel and Isaac Mizrahi, previous collaborators with Morris on King Arthur and Platée. 

Don't forget Cal Performances begins every season with their free, family-friendly, and day long celebration of the performing arts, Free For All, which takes place all over the Berkeley campus on Sunday, Sept. 29. Also, leave room on your calendars for next year's Ojai North! festival, which takes place in mid-June and will be curated by pianist/writer Jeremy Denk.

Tickets for all performances are now on sale. Design-Your-Own and other subscriptions are available and include a discount of up to 25%. You can order online, by phone (510) 642-9988, or in person. The Ticket Office is located at the northeast corner of Zellerbach Hall on the UC Berkeley campus. Ticket Office hours are: Tue - Fri, 12 - 5:30 pm; Sat & Sun, 1 pm - 5 pm, and approximately one hour prior to curtain. (Holiday and University break hours may vary; please call for updates before visiting the Ticket Office).  $20 rush tickets are often available ($10 for Cal students), announced three hours before the concert and notification seems to go up first on their Facebook page. Cal Performances is easily accessible via BART (Downtown Berkeley exit), with plenty of dining options nearby, book and record stores to browse in beforehand, and the weather often makes me question why I don't move back to Berkeley.