‘Canto Ostinato’ casts a musical spell at Cal Performances

A "spectacular performance," a "magnificent account"

Excerpts from review by Lisa Hirsch

For San Francisco Chronicle.

Photo credit: Lawrence Sumulong

"Sandbox Percussion and American Modern Opera Company, aka AMOC*, gave a spectacular performance of “Canto Ostinato” on Sunday, Feb. 22, under the auspices of Cal Performances at Zellerbach Playhouse in Berkeley. The program notes said the work “feels like a long-lost cousin” to certain American minimalist pieces like Steve Reich’s “Music for 18 Musicians” and Terry Riley’s “In C,” and that connection is unmistakable."

"It was a sonically magical combination. Percussion instruments they may be, but together they created a wash of sound that was, paradoxically, both exciting and soothing. The music demanded attention, even as it verged on the hypnotic."

"The musical texture shifted from time to time, with instruments dropping out and coming back in. When all of the instruments played, the sound could pierce you, obliterating thought and leaving only sensation. Sometimes it felt like a great epic was being recited in the distance, the words incomprehensible."

Rear San Francisco Chronicle review in full here.