Quaker-led peace activists continue with their nine-years-and-counting, hour-long, noontime Thursday vigil in front of the United States Federal building on Golden Gate Avenue. They are bearing witness to the fact that our government is responsible for war and mayhem all over the globe, and feel strongly this is not the best way for the world to operate.
The U.S. also has a nasty habit of bolstering repressive regimes around the world. In the exploding cases of our allies Tunisia and Egypt, the governments are fatally out of touch with their young, globally connected citizens. Via James Wolcott, here are a few interesting essays on the situation. Click here for Immanuel Wallerstein's take and here for Franklin C. Spinney's essay about Obama raising expectations in the Arab world, only to disappoint them terribly. "In contrast to the euphoria surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Arab Revolt of 2011 leaves one with a disquieting sense that we may be standing on the wrong side of history." Even more detailed is Esam Al-Amin's "The Making of Egypt's Revolution" at Counterpunch.
The New Century Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of violin soloist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg (below), is going on tour this week to Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois before returning next week to roam California from San Diego to Davis. Let's hope they are even able to make it to the Midwest, which is currently being slammed by a blizzard that's equal parts snow and freezing rain, because the touring program they have put together is the best concert I have heard from them.
Nadja, who is a funny, self-deprecating speaker, opened the concert at Herbst Theatre on Saturday with a speech about how "tirelessly" the orchestra has been working in advance of this tour, which turned out to be believable because you could hear it. The opening "Italian Serenade" by Hugo Wolf and "Romanian Folk Dances" by Bartok had been played by the ensemble in recent concerts, but Saturday's performances were in a whole new league in terms of verve and precision. They followed with Piazzolla's "Four Seasons of Buenos Aires," which had been arranged by Leonid Desyatnikov for Gidon Kremer and his Camerata Baltica in the 1990s. The NCCO has already recorded this piece, but again, Saturday's live performance was on a different level, and it was easy to see why Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg is a famous soloist.
The second half of the concert consisted of Tchaikovsky's "Serenade for Strings," with its Mozart-inflected dances and familiar melodies. For a change of taste, the encore was by the forbidding Russian composer Alfred Schnittke. "Don't worry," Nadja wisecracked from the stage, "It's a polka, and it's fun." It was fun, a grotesquely deconstructed polka that kept going in and out of tune. The concert wrapped up with Gershwin's "Bess, You Is My Woman Now" transcribed for string orchestra and soloist. It was lovely.
