NCCO to Present Only One Program in Herbst

Many readers probably know by now that the New Century Chamber Orchestra (NCCO) launched its 30th anniversary season this past September. What they may not yet have realized is that only one of this season’s concerts will be taking place in Herbst Theatre, which is the only venue where I have experienced past performances, even if I have only been regularly aware of the venue for a little more than a quarter century. That one performance will take place next month, when NCCO and its Music Director Daniel Hope will present a program entitled Cinematic Escapes.

True to that title, the program will begin with Paul Bateman’s rescoring of the music that Bernard Hermann composed for the film Vertigo. Readers may recall that, when Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg began her NCCO tenure in 2008, one of her earliest program selections was a suite based on the music from another Alfred Hitchcock film, Psycho. Vertigo, on the other hand, is set in San Francisco, making the overall theme of the program “closer to home.” That program will also include further Bateman arrangements of selections from the film scores composed by Ennio Morricone (quite some distance from San Francisco).

Guest pianist Alexey Botvinov (photograph by Nikolay Vdovenko, courtesy of NCCO)

Between these two cinematic offerings, NCCO will perform the double concerto that Tan Dun composed for violin, piano, and string orchestra with percussion. The piano part will be performed by Alexey Botvinov, joining Hope’s violin solo. The final work on the program will be a strings-only arrangement of George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris,” prepared by Clarice Assad, a frequent contributor to the NCCO repertoire during Salerno-Sonnenberg’s tenure.

This program will be performed in Herbst Theatre on Saturday, January 21, beginning at 7:30 p.m. The entrance to Herbst Theatre is the main entrance to the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue, located on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. The venue is excellent for public transportation, since that corner has Muni bus stops for both north-south and east-west travel. Tickets range in price from $30 to $67.50; and they may be purchased through a City Box Office Web page. Single tickets can also be purchased at the door for $10 for students with valid identification and for $15 for patrons under 35.