Reviews

Inspired Guitar

Scott Cmiel - October 19, 2009

Pixinguinha is a name revered in Brazil but relatively unknown elsewhere. Alfredo da Rocha Vianna Filho, better known as Pixinguinha, was the first and most influential musician in Brazilian popular music.

Review

Schubert, and Nothing But

Anna Carol Dudley - October 19, 2009

Michael Schade makes a strong case for singing nothing but Franz Schubert, as he did Sunday afternoon in Berkeley’s Hertz Hall, presented by Cal Performances. The German-born Canadian tenor combines his fluency in Schubert’s language with Mozart’s Italian sensibilities.

Review

The Demented and the Divine

Jason Victor Serinus - October 19, 2009

“The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death,” sings Salome, the eponymous central character in Richard Strauss’ 1905 opera.

Review

An Intimate Bohème From West Bay Opera

Jeff Kaliss - October 19, 2009

Giacomo Puccini often chose settings that brought opera up close and personal, and he thus worked vital changes on the form and made it ready for the 20th century.

Review

Launching the S.S. Berkeley

Jeff Dunn - October 19, 2009

Awesome was the recaptained ship, the Symphony Season Berkeley, as it slipped into the October-audience channel. The Symphony’s new skipper, Music Director Joana Carneiro, brought on board high hopes, boundless energy, charismatic facial expressions, and two newish pumping systems in the engine room: works by John Adams and Gabriela Lena Frank.

Review

A Grand Night For Singing

John Bender - October 16, 2009

The Daughter of the Regiment (La Fille du Régiment) by Gaetano Donizetti is about singing as a direct route to the hearts both of characters and audiences. The opera’s apparent naiveté and, at times, blatant absurdity belie its perfection.

Review

Adding Leafy Branches to the Takács Tree

Michelle Dulak Thomson - October 13, 2009

Four years have passed since ex–San Francisco Symphony Principal Violist Geraldine Walther became the newest member of the Takács Quartet, and by now the ensemble sounds as though it’s been together forever. In the first of this season’s two Cal Performances recitals (happily, the two-concert-a-year rhythm looks to be an established pattern), there were a few untidy moments.

Review

New Baton Whipping Up the Parade

Jeff Dunn - October 13, 2009

As I stood in the deserted Civic Center station with only three others from the full house that had vociferously cheered the Saturday concert of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and its 28-year-old new music-director, Gustavo Dudamel, I reflected on L.A.’s love for the automobile. Is Dudamel the city’s new Ferrari, or is he just the winning float in the Rose Bowl parade, bestowed with colorful petals and dancing girls who obscure the true vehicle underneath, be it Corvette, Scion, or Edsel?

Review

Wild Ride Through Brooklyn

Jeff Kaliss - October 13, 2009

The music of this CD/DVD is easier on the ear than the concept is easy on the mind. But that doesn’t obviate the importance of, and the potential pleasure in, embracing the full intent of the creator, Sufjan Stevens.