Adesso

Works by Bob Becker, John Cage, Michael Gandolfi, Howard Hersh, David Meckler and Astor Piazzolla.The remarkably innovative, idiosyncratic and delightful Adesso is, to begin with, perhaps the only chamber music ensemble whose percussionists almost outnumber the rest of the musicians. Beyond that, it is an extraordinary compilation of talent that was formed in 1997 by members of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in order to stretch artistically, perform during the opera off-season and experiment with presentations of musical pieces they themselves find most interesting and challenging. In the process, they bring an unusually large measure of pure joy to classical performances.