(Yes, I posted this on November 3. This is just a reminder! Plus a bit more at the end ….)

I am planning on attending a performance of New Century Chamber Orchestra this November. I do hope any local oboists will do the same. The program looks great. Laura Griffiths will be soloing on Bolcom’s Serenata Notturna for oboe and strings. Also on the program are Three Rags for String Quartet, again by Bolcom, and Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen.

You have four chances to go, too! Here are the dates and locations:

* Thu, Nov. 19, 2009 at 8pm, First Congregational Church, Berkeley
* Fri, Nov. 20, 2009, at 8pm, First United Methodist Church, Palo Alto
* Sat, Nov. 21, 2009 at 8pm, Herbst Theatre, San Francisco
* Sun, Nov. 22, 2009 at 5pm, Osher Marin JCC, San Rafael

Serenata Notturna was conceived as an oboe quintet and written for the Guarneri String Quartet and Philadelphia Principal oboist Richard Woodhams in 2005. Of the Serenata Notturna, Bolcom has written: “The piece is not ‘about’ anything but its own self. It is not a ‘profound’ piece—i.e. pompously preachy, as I find a number of recent pieces end up being in their search for depth—or an ‘exploratory’ piece, in that it is mostly tonal, not full of harmonic thorniness. Serenata Notturna is rather serenade-y, definitely ‘night music,’ with night’s delights and terrors. I meant it to be a pleasure for the players—it is intentionally ‘light,” as a serenade should be, with darker patches that are there to remind you of ‘real life.’” Bolcom’s “nocturnal serenade” is in a classical four-movement form, and performed by a quartet of the New Century Chamber Orchestra’s musicians, with guest oboist Laura Griffiths.