Mountain View Cemetery Association, a historic Olmsted designed cemetery located in the foothills of Oakland and Piedmont, is pleased to announce the opening of Piedmont Funeral Services. We are now able to provide all funeral, cremation and celebratory services for our families and our community at our 223 acre historic location. For our families and friends, the single site combination of services makes the difficult process of making funeral arrangements a little easier. We’re able to provide every facet of service at our single location. We are also pleased to announce plans to open our new chapel and reception facility – the Water Pavilion in 2016. Situated between a landscaped garden and an expansive reflection pond, the Water Pavilion will be perfect for all celebrations and ceremonies. Features will include beautiful kitchen services, private and semi-private scalable rooms, garden and water views, sunlit spaces and artful details. The Water Pavilion is designed for you to create and fulfill your memorial service, wedding ceremony, lecture or other gatherings of friends and family. Soon, we will be accepting pre-planning arrangements. For more information, please telephone us at 510-658-2588 or visit us at mountainviewcemetery.org. Berkeley Symphony 2015/16 Season 5 Message from the Music Director 7 Message from the Board President 9 Message from the Executive Director 11 Board of Directors & Advisory Council 12 Orchestra 14 Season Sponsors 17 Producers’ Circle Sponsorship Gifts 19 Berkeley Symphony Legacy Society 21 Program 25 Program Notes 41 Music Director: Joana Carneiro 45 Artists’ Biographies 50 Berkeley Symphony 53 Music in the Schools 55 2015/16 Membership Benefits 57 Annual Membership Support 58 Broadcast Dates Mountain View Cemetery Association, a historic Olmsted designed cemetery located in the foothills of 65 Contact Oakland and Piedmont, is pleased to announce the opening of Piedmont Funeral Services. We are now 66 Advertiser Index able to provide all funeral, cremation and celebratory services for our families and our community at our 223 acre historic location. For our families and friends, the single site combination of services makes the Media Sponsor difficult process of making funeral arrangements a little easier. We’re able to provide every facet of service at our single location. We are also pleased to announce plans to open our new chapel and reception facility – the Water Pavilion in 2016. Situated between a landscaped garden and an expansive reflection pond, the Water Pavilion will be perfect for all celebrations and ceremonies. Features will include beautiful kitchen Official Wine Sponsor services, private and semi-private scalable rooms, garden and water views, sunlit spaces and artful details. The Water Pavilion is designed for you to create and fulfill your memorial service, wedding ceremony, lecture or other gatherings of friends and family. Soon, we will be accepting pre-planning arrangements. For more information, please telephone us at 510-658-2588 or visit us at mountainviewcemetery.org. Presentation bouquets are graciously provided by Jutta’s Flowers, the official florist of Berkeley Symphony. Berkeley Symphony is a member of the League of American Orchestras and the Association of California Symphony Orchestras. No photographs or recordings of any part of tonight’s performance may be made without the written consent of the management of Berkeley Symphony. Program subject to change. December 3, 2015 3 4 December 3, 2015 Message from the Music Director Dear Friends, Welcome to the second concert of our 15/16 season. I am quite certain that tonight’s concert will be memorable for many reasons. photo by Rodrigo de Souza For most of us, it will be our first encounter with the bayan, a very unusual concertante instrument. Developed in Russia in the early 20th century and named after the 11th-century bard Boyan, the bayan is a type of chromatic button accordion. It has a much greater right-hand range than accordions with a piano keyboard—greater than five octaves! We are quite fortunate to have as our soloist tonight, Geir Draugsvoll, an internationally recognized bayan virtuoso. Sofia Gubaidulina, whom I truly believe is one of the most important composers of our time, has been a champion of the bayan and wrote Fachwerk specifically for Mr. Draugsvoll. The work had its world premiere in Amsterdam in 2009 with the Trondheim Symphony. Tonight’s performance marks its U.S. premiere, and it is a true honor to present this work in Berkeley. To me, Fachwerk is a perfect balance of virtuosic writing, expressive writing, formal perfection (which can be easily connected to its title), spirituality, and somehow, an homage to the music of the past. This could be a way to describe Gubaidulina’s work in general, which I so much admire. We open the concert with two late 16th-century works by Giovanni Gabrieli, featuring members of our spectacular brass section. Then the orchestra is again at the epicenter, as we conclude the evening with Mussorgsky’s magnificent Pictures at an Exhibition, orchestrated by Maurice Ravel. Ten movements of greatness, a journey through the works of Viktor Hartmann, themselves portraits of the artist’s travels. We are delighted to be your guide through this wonderful music. As always, we thank you for your continued support and for always believing in us. Warm regards, Joana Carneiro December 3, 2015 5 6 December 3, 2015 Message from the Board President After our “Magical” opening night concert, we now proceed to “Mystical” and the opening of our senses to the sound of a new-to-most- of-us instrument—the bayan. I am sure that you share my excitement to hear the photo © Margaretta K. Mitchell Orchestra perform the United States premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Fachwerk, featuring this intriguing instrument. With Gabrieli and Mussorsky, tonight’s program is right in keeping with YOUR Berkeley Symphony’s tradition and mission of mixing the old with the new. Whether it’s familiar works or new musical experiences, the gifted musicians on stage love playing for you. And they particularly love playing for you when we have a full house! To that end, I encourage you to bring your friends and neighbors, a student or two, and children and grandchildren. We are extremely fortunate to have this internationally-recognized orchestra right in our back yard, as our own LOCAL symphony! Plus, there are no bridges to negotiate, much easier parking than across the Bay, and an opportunity to gather pre-performance with fellow music lovers at Café Zellerbach. There is little that I love more than to see and greet young children at our concerts—they are our vital future. Our award-winning Music in the Schools program reaches out to over 4,600 school children in the Berkeley Unified School District each year! Help us introduce them to the magic and mystery of live symphonic music. Help us to build our audiences and keep YOUR musicians playing. Your support and presence keep Berkeley Symphony energized and vibrant, continually pushing past new and exciting boundaries. Together we can ensure the vitality of live symphonic music for many generations to come. Thank you for being here! Tricia Swift December 3, 2015 7 8 December 3, 2015 Message from the Executive Director Welcome! We are so pleased that you have chosen to spend this evening with us and we are proud to be introducing you to yet another U.S. premiere— photo by Marshall Berman Sofia Gubaidulina’s Fachwerk, with the incredible bayan soloist Geir Draugsvoll. Fachwerk is the twenty-eighth U.S. premiere performed by Berkeley Symphony since 1980, a 35-year period during which the Orchestra also introduced 64 world premieres and 21 West Coast premieres. We continue our commitment to new works on our final concert of the season next May, when Joana and the Orchestra perform the West Coast premiere of Mark Grey’s Frankenstein Symphony, which we co-commissioned with the Atlanta Symphony. Nearly half of the music performed by the Orchestra in the last 15 seasons was written by living or recently active composers. We are proud of Berkeley Symphony’s leadership in commissioning and performing new music, which has been acknowledged with the prestigious ASCAP Adventurous Programming Award in 10 of the past 12 seasons. It is through the kind and generous contributions from our patrons that we have been able to premiere these inspiring new works and introduce you to the next generation of gifted composers and performers. We appreciate your past support and hope that we can continue to count on you to make evenings such as tonight possible. As we enter this annual season of gift giving, we ask that you continue to support Berkeley Symphony at the highest giving level possible and ensure that this amazing Orchestra can be enjoyed by many generations to come! I wish all of you a healthy, joyous and prosperous holiday season! René Mandel December 3, 2015 9 10 December 3, 2015 Board of Directors & Advisory Council Board of Directors Executive Committee Tricia Swift, President Kathleen G. Henschel, Vice President for Governance Jan McCutcheon, Vice President for Development Gertrude Allen, Vice President for Community Engagement John W. Dewes, Treasurer Thomas Z. Reicher, Secretary René Mandel, Executive Director Directors Advisory Council (continued) Susan Acquistapace Gary Glaser & Christine Miller Ellen Hahn Reeve Gould Brian James Bereket Haregot William Knuttel Buzz & Lisa Hines Janet Maestre Susan Hone Peter Mandell Jennifer Howard & Anthony J. Cascardi