Reviews

A recital by Baritone Simon Keenlyside offers a handsome voice and an audience that leaves smiling at the lovable character with a rare gift for song.

You probably haven't heard the music on these two CDs, but the high quality of the compositions and the playing will make you sit up and pay attention.

Art at its finest not only engages the mind and heart, but also impels us to sink deeper into the truths of who we are. Desdemona a collaboration by Toni Morrison, Rokia Traoré, and Peter Sellars that runs at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Playhouse through Oct. 29, demands to be seen.

Creative performances and unusual music choices highlight a program of antique Gypsy music.

Alongside Haydn and Schubert, the St. Lawrence Quartet comes up against a Golijov work that’s intriguing but unfinished.

Immaculate playing, with eloquence in all the right places, distinguishes violinist Charlie Siem’s latest CD.

Gustavo Dudamel led his Los Angeles band in an electrifying concert that included a new work with a Big Bang coda.

Chamber concertos and vocal works distinguish BluePrint’s program, inviting cross-comparisons and rewards for the ear.

The Sphinx Virtuosi opened the Stanford Lively Arts' season in a concert that was an exercise in overcoming cultural stereotypes by an orchestra of complete professionalism, winning personality, and a commitment to understanding works by old masters.

James Conlon led a thrilling performance of the Verdi Reqiuem, one of sweeping power, by turns terrifying, tender, and moving; succeeding brilliantly in bringing the performers together and making a musical and dramatic whole out of a work that is all too easy to fumble.