Cal Performances at UC Berkeley announces ‘Cal Performances at Home’, an ambitious performing arts streaming series that features full-length Main Stage performance video streams available beginning October 1, 2020. With in-person events mostly halted by the global pandemic, Cal Performances is expanding its activities beyond the live events it has historically offered to present the arts in a new format, available to stream directly on demand to viewers’ home screens. Recorded on stages all over the world, from renowned venues and recording studios in the locations where the artists are sheltering in place, the series includes programs that were previously scheduled for Cal Performances’ live-event fall season as well as new, additional performances. The mission of Cal Performances is to produce and present performances of the highest artistic quality, enhanced by programs that explore compelling intersections of education and the performing arts. For more information, please have a look at:

Cal Performances

 

01_JANUARY 14, 2021 | JULIA BULLOCK & LAURA POE

Filmed exclusively for Cal Performances at the Konzerthaus Blaibach, Germany on December 10, 2020. Bullock presents one of her characteristically diverse and thoughtfully curated programs:

Hugo Wolf
ITALIENISCHES LIEDERBUCH
Auch kleine Dinge

SPANISCHES LIEDERBUCH
In dem Schatten meiner Locken
Bedeckt mich mit Blumen

Robert Schumann
DICHTERLIEBE, OP. 48
Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne
Wenn ich in deine Augen seh’
Ich grolle nicht
Und wüssten’s die Blumen, die kleinen
Hör’ ich das Liedchen klingen

Kurt Weill
ONE TOUCH OF VENUS
Speak Low

AUFSTIEG UND FALL DER STADT MAHAGONNY
Denn wie man sich bettet, so liegt man
Wie lange noch?

LOST IN THE STARS
Lost in the Stars” from

William Grant Still
The Breath of a Rose

Margaret Bonds
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Winter Moon

John Adams
GIRLS OF THE GOLDEN WEST
Ven esta noche, amado (Josefa)
The Ship Has Reached America (Ah Sing)
Sometimes, I Lounge Forlornly (Dame Shirley)

Richard Rodgers
THE SOUND OF MUSIC
The Sound of Music
The Lonely Goatherd
Something Good
Climb Every Mountain
Edelweiss

Julia Bullock, soprano
Laura Poe, piano

02_MARCH 4, 2021 | MAHAN ESFAHANI PLAYS GOLDBERG VARIATIONS

This recital for Cal Performances at Home, featuring Bach’s beloved ‘Goldberg Variations‘, was filmed at the Bach Archive in Leipzig, the city in which the composer wrote this timeless music. Today, the piece is most-often heard on piano but it was originally composed for Esfahani’s instrument:

“Everyone wants to record Bach’s Goldbergs, but not many show as much piercing insight as harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani. A hugely stimulating account of one of the peaks of western music.” — The Guardian (London)

In the polarized world of classical music, where battles often rage over issues of interpretation and authenticity, Mahan Esfahani is the rare harpsichordist known for mesmerizing performances of both early music and contemporary repertoire. The acclaimed Persian American musician is an unapologetic champion of the harpsichord, devoted to restoring the Baroque mainstay to what he sees as its rightful place at the center of concert music. Esfahani has been praised for his crisp articulation and a thrillingly dynamic style on an instrument that famously resists extremes.

Johann Sebastian Bach
GOLDBERG VARIATIONS, BWV 988

Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord

 

03_OCTOBER 3, 2021 | TESSA LARK RECITAL

Filmed exclusively for Cal Performances at the Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley on October 3, 2021, Grammy-nominated violinist Tessa Lark returns after her “vibrant and often captivating” (San Francisco Chronicle) season-opening Cal Performances at Home online debut last fall, with her in-person Berkeley debut.

She is joined by pianist Amy Yang, who also accompanied Lark on her acclaimed 2019 debut recording, Fantasy. “A performer of both grit and tenderness, with a distinctive string tone that combines meatiness and finesse in equal measure” (San Francisco Chronicle).

Ludwig van Beethoven
Violin Sonata No. 3 in G major, Op. 30

Tessa Lark
Jig and Pop

Michael Torke
Spoon Bread

John Corigliano
STOMP

John Lewis (arr. Sam Reider)
Django

Maurice Ravel
Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major

Maurice Ravel
Tzigane, Rapsodie de concert

04_OCTOBER 10, 2021 | DANISH STRING QUARTET

The breathtaking Danish String Quartet (Frederik Øland and Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen [violins], Asbjørn Nørgaard [viola], Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin [cello]) returns for the first of two Berkeley concerts at Zellerbach Hall this season, pairing a Schubert string quartet with a newly commissioned work as part of its Doppelgänger project, a three-season initiative co-commissioned by Cal Performances. Schubert’s profound, probing final quartet is matched here with its musical “double,” a new quartet by Danish composer Bent Sørensen, a winner of the prestigious 2018 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, whose work explores lush, post-Romantic colors and textures.

“There’s a robust, heady kind of beauty at work in the playing of the Danish String Quartet…this formidable ensemble brings a wondrous blend of precision and full-bodied athleticism” (San Francisco Chronicle).

Franz Schubert
String Quartet No. 15 in G major, D. 887

Bent Sørensen
Doppelgänger (Cal Performances Commission)

Franz Schubert (arr. Danish String Quartet)
Schwanengesang, D.957 – Der Doppelgänger