Orchestra & Chamber Music
Sun, Oct 12, 3pm, Hertz Hall
Praised for its "total commitment" (The Strad) as an ensemble and for "exquisitely unified playing" (Washington Classical Review), the fabulous Isidore Quartet returns with a program that combines beloved repertoire with an exciting recent discovery. Gabriella Smith’s Carrot Revolution mines contrasting musical influences to explore, in her words, "new ways of looking at old things." Haydn’s burnished and brilliant Sunrise quartet represents the height of his mastery, and Dvořák’s joyful penultimate quartet in G major is bursting with color and lyricism.
HAYDN
String Quartet in B-flat major, Sunrise
GABRIELLA SMITH
Carrot Revolution
DVOŘÁK
String Quartet in G major
Patron Sponsor: Anonymous
Sat, Oct 18, 8pm, Zellerbach Hall
GABRIELA ORTIZ
New Work (Bay Area Premiere)
BEETHOVEN
Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor
SIBELIUS
Symphony No. 5
Sun, Oct 19, 3pm, Zellerbach Hall
Finlandia
RAVEL
Piano Concerto in G major
SHOSTAKOVICH
London’s stellar Philharmonia Orchestra returns to Berkeley with Finnish maestro Santtu-Matias Rouvali—one of the most sought-after conductors of his generation—making his Berkeley debut! In two programs featuring 2025–26 season Artist in Residence Víkingur Ólafsson, orchestra, conductor, and soloist take us on a spectacular journey through a sublime collection of works, from Romantic masterpieces to an exciting new commission.
The first concert features Ólafsson in Beethoven’s iconic Emperor concerto, and the Philharmonia plays Sibelius’ majestic Fifth Symphony, which evokes a vast, unfolding Nordic landscape. The program also includes the Bay Area premiere of a new commission by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, a truly original voice in concert music who won three 2025 Grammy awards for a recording of her most recent orchestral works. The second concert matches Ravel’s frolicking, jazz-inflected Piano Concerto in G major with Shostakovich’s emotionally turbulent and engrossing Fifth Symphony.
*Cal Performances debut
Rouvali was always alive to the pictorial detail, matched by the Philharmonia’s alert playing…vivid music-making is one of [his] strengths.
Sat, Jan 17, 8pm, Zellerbach Hall
It’s a match made in heaven: revered conductor Riccardo Muti and his beloved Chicago Symphony Orchestra, reconvening in Berkeley for a program of orchestral gems for one night only. Muti, who turns 84 this year, stepped down as the esteemed ensemble’s music director to assume the role of Music Director Emeritus for Life in 2023, but his close rapport with this group of remarkable musicians continues to enchant. Muti excels at Brahms and here conducts the composer’s majestic Fourth Symphony; Stravinsky’s delightful suite from the ballet The Fairy’s Kiss; and Ravel’s ever-popular Boléro, which, with its sensuously hypnotic theme, builds the concert to a volcanic climax. “Under Muti, the Chicago Symphony is all power and finesse.…He barely had to move for the players to unleash torrents of stupendous, beautifully balanced sound” (The New York Times).
BRAHMS
Symphony No. 4
STRAVINSKY
The Fairy’s Kiss
Boléro
Major Support: Diana Cohen and Bill Falik; Greg Lutz
CAL PERFORMANCES ENSEMBLE DEBUT
Sun, Mar 15, 3pm, Hertz Hall
Among the most nimble ensembles in contemporary music today, the adventurous JACK Quartet visits with a kaleidoscopic program of new and recent works by living composers. The group is known for the fierce commitment and virtuosity it brings to a range of innovative and idiosyncratic repertoire—in a landscape where each piece and each composer challenges the players with novel techniques, sounds, and approaches to their music making. Here, JACK performs commissioned works by American composers Juri Seo and Anthony Cheung, and landmark contemporary music by European luminaries Hans Abrahamsen and Helmut Lachenmann. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear these influential works played by true modern masters!
JURI SEO
Three Imaginary Chansons (California Premiere)
HANS ABRAHAMSEN
String Quartet No. 4
ANTHONY CHEUNG
Twice Removed (California Premiere)
HELMUT LACHENMANN
String Quartet No. 3, Grido
“One of the most eye-opening and exhilarating concerts I’ve heard all season”
Sun, Jan 25, 3pm, Hertz Hall
SCHUBERT
String Quartet in C minor, Quartettsatz
MOZART
String Quintet in G minor String Quintet in C major
Sun, Feb 22, 3pm, Hertz Hall
String Quartet in G minor, Rider
CLARICE ASSAD
String Quartet (Bay Area Premiere, Cal Performances Co-commission)
DEBUSSY
String Quartet
As it enters its 51st season, the renowned Takács Quartet continues to deepen its connections to timeless masterworks and enliven the string quartet repertoire through fresh artistic collaborations.
For its first concert this season, the group is joined by award-winning Jamaican American violist Jordan Bak in his Cal Performances debut for a rare performance of Mozart’s revelatory viola quintets in C major (K. 515) and G minor (K. 516). Bak adds his “haunting lyrical grace” (Gramophone) to the Takács’ telepathic ensemble blend in these works of exceptional melodic beauty and textural clarity. Schubert’s dramatic single-movement Quartettsatz opens the program.
The season’s second Takács visit features the Bay Area premiere of a new work co-commissioned by Cal Performances from polyglot composer and pianist Clarice Assad, one of the most popular Brazilian American concert-music composers of her generation. As the ensemble says about the collaboration, “Clarice’s music inspires interactive spirit and theatrical energy—we feel liberated by her limitless imagination.” The program also includes Haydn’s bold and exuberant Rider quartet and Debussy’s kinetic, colorful sole quartet.
Lead Sponsor: Nadine Tang (1/25)
Sun, Mar 29, 3pm, Hertz Hall
Chamber music visionaries, ambassadors, impresarios, and virtuosos—as co-directors of both Music@Menlo and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han are a ubiquitous presence on both coasts. The energy they bring to their leadership in the arts is matched only by the powerful synergy of their duo performances.
Here, the Cal Performances favorites offer a program spanning more than two-and-a-half centuries, from Bach to John Corigliano, and featuring Debussy’s masterful sonata, Chopin’s last major work, and a rarely performed Britten sonata composed for Mstislav Rostropovich.
BACH
Cello Sonata in D major
Cello Sonata
BRITTEN
JOHN CORIGLIANO
Fancy on a Bach Air for solo cello
CHOPIN
Cello Sonata in G minor
Patron Sponsors: Michael A. Harrison and Susan Graham Harrison
A terrific chamber music experience…exhibiting clarity of vision and tremendous character
Isidore Quartet
Philharmonia Orchestra
Takács Quartet
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
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