Kent Nagano returns to Berkeley to kick off the 2004-05 season with the highly anticipated US premiere of Unsuk Chin's spectacular Violin Concerto, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, and more...
Monday, September 13, 2004, 8 p.m., Zellerbach Hall
Unsuk Chin made her mark on the symphonic word when her Violin Concerto won the $200,000 Grawemeyer Award for composition in 2004, following its world premiere in 2002 with the Deutches Symphonie Orchester - Berlin (where it received eight curtain calls!). Soloist Viviane Hagner performed the world premiere and now joins us in Berkeley for the U.S. premiere.
The virtuosic program continues with the music of George Benjamin. Soloists Ellen Ruth Rose and Kurt Rohde, who recently performed together at the 2004 Ojai Music Festival, will present Benjamin's Viola Viola, a work for two solo violas.
The evening commences with one of Schoenberg's most personal and important orchestrations of another composer's work: Bach's chorale prelude Komm, Gott, Schöpfer, heiliger Geist, and closes with a continuation of Maestro Nagano's presentation of the recent Urtext editions of Beethoven's symphonies - arguably the most recognized one of all - the Fifth Symphony.