Arts & Events

The husband-and-wife team of Pinchas Zukerman and Amanda Forsyth joined forces with The Jerusalem Quartet for a program of string sextets on Saturday, October 13 at Berkeley’s First Congregational Church. Featured works were Richard Strauss’s String Sextet from Capriccio, Verklärte Nacht by Arnold Schoenberg, and String Sextet in D minor, Souvenir de Florence by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The Jerusalem Quartet consists of Alexander Pavlovsky, violin; Sergei Bresler, violin; Ori Kam, viola; and Kyril Zlotnikov, cello. For this concert, Pinchas Zukerman eschewed the violin and played viola, and Amanda Forsyth played cello. -more-

Worth Noting ** Meetings

Tuesday City Council starts with 4:30 session draft recommendation for reorganizing how Council functions by establishing standing Policy Committees. Of note, Budget items from City Manager would not go to Budget Committee. Regular Council session at 6:00 pm on consent item 11. is another increase for Ghilotti Contractor bringing the total cost of the South Cove Restroom Project to $1,840,072. Council was reluctant to approve the last cost overrun for the Restroom. 14. On consent to approve Ghillotti as the “low bid” on the Shattuck reconfiguration.

Wednesday is a public hearing on community needs.

Thursday is a presentation by Berkeley Police on Policing de-escalation.

Saturday is the BNC forum on Planning. -more-

Until Sunday, October 14, I had never heard Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin perform live. Thus I looked forward with high anticipation to this October 14 recital as part of San Francisco Symphony’s Great Performer Series. I was not disappointed. Kissin lived up to his reputation. Here is a pianist who lets his formidable technique and interpretive sensitivity do all the talking. There is no flair here, little charisma, and none of the demonic element of, say, my current favorite young pianist, Daniil Trifonov. Evgeny Kissin, who at age 47 is twenty years older than Daniil Trifonov, is all business when he sits down at the keyboard and begins to play. -more-

CLICK HERE for a comprehensive calendar of arts and cultural events in Berkeley and beyond, today and in the future. -more-

Think about it. We have just witnessed, in the testimony under oath of Christine Blasey-Ford, allegations that Brett Kavanugh, a man nominated for the position of Supreme Court Justice, allegedly sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school. In Blasey-Ford’s testimony, Kavanaugh and his elite prep school buddy, Mark Judge, pushed her into a bedroom, locked the door, and threw her on a bed, where Kavanaugh climbed atop her and tried to remove her clothes while he held his hand over her mouth to prevent her from calling for help. What is this scenario other than the plot of Puccini’s Tosca, where Baron Scarpia, the Roman chief of police, tries to force himself on Floria Tosca in a vile effort to satisfy his perverse lusts for sex and power? -more-