An Enlightening Rehearsal with NCCO

The New Century Chamber Orchestra is offering a concert entitled Enlighten Me this weekend, and the public were invited to a free rehearsal on Thursday morning at the SF Conservatory of Music. There is something magical about listening to a musical performance being shaped in real time, and the two-hour-plus session was thoroughly absorbing.

The young American violinist Simone Porter is the concert's guest soloist and concertmaster, and the first half of the rehearsal was dedicated to Sabina, an enormously complex composition by Andrew Norman depicting a sunrise inside a Roman church. The 10-minute piece has gone through a number of transformations since its origin as a work for solo cello in 2008. In 2013, he created a solo violin version which you can hear on YouTube in a wonderful performance by Simone Porter.) In 2020, Norman was commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic to write an expanded version for string orchestra and the result is exquisite, starting with a nearly inaudible opening that eventually blooms into a glorious sound. (Pictured above are Simone Porter, Associate Concertmaster Dawn Harms, and violinist Michael Yokas.)

The complexity stems from the fact that each of the 23 players has their own separate music so getting the timing and the accents to work with each other took over an hour, and it was fascinating to hear the new music evolving and improving with each repetition. Because there is no official conductor, various members of the orchestra offered their suggestions when something didn't sound right. Pictured above is the viola section trying to figuere out a tricky section with Simone Porter

Then it was on to Heinrich Biber's eccentric, fabulous Battaglia from 1673. It consists of eight short movements depicting any army readying for war, getting drunk and cacophonous, and going into battle. Pictured above is Simone Porter rehearsing with double bassist Colin Corner in a duet where Corner makes his instrument sound like a marching drum while Porter plays an aria over the beat.

They also practiced foot stomping in another movement, and a stand-and-salute sequence led by principal cellist Evan Kahn.

This concert is also featuring a half-dozen SF Conservatory of Music students joining the ensemble in the Norman and Biber pieces, and a Mozart Divertimento. It was fun watching their energetic blend of excitement and sheer nervousness.

The program also includes short pieces by Heitor Villa-Lobos (Bachianas Brasileiras No. 9), J.S. Bach (Violin Concerto in E Major), Hildegard von Bingen (O virtus sapientiae, and Juhi Bansal (Cathedral of Lightt). The first performance is Friday the 23rd at Stanford's Bing Hall, and the second performance will be at the SF Conservatory of Music on Saturday the 24th. Click here for tickets.