Reviews

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Review

Together? And How!

Jason Victor Serinus - July 27, 2009
Those of us who attended violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg’s opening concert as music director and concertmaster of the New Century Chamber Orchestra (NCCO) can hardly forget her bracing and authoritative playing.
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Review

Betting on My Friend Fritz

Georgia Rowe - July 27, 2009
L’amico Fritz is one of opera’s neglected gems. As the follow-up to his hugely acclaimed Cavalleria rusticana, Pietro Mascagni’s 1891 commedia lirica never quite achieved the popularity of its predecessor. These days, with arts funding at a new low, productions of it are as rare as hen’s teeth.
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Review

Menlo Does a Must-Play Mendelssohn

David Bratman - July 27, 2009
In an ideal musical world, there would be a law: Whenever two string quartet ensembles collaborate on a concert, they must perform Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet for Strings in E-flat, Op. 20. It’s that good a work. The St.
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Review

Bach as a Springboard in Carmel

Scott MacClelland - July 27, 2009
Festival namesake Johann Sebastian Bach constitutes roughly 18 percent of the current Carmel Bach Festival’s total programs, now spanning just over two weeks, down from three weeks over the last several years.
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Review

Pianistic Pictures Trump Diva in Napa

Janos Gereben - July 27, 2009

The Festival del Sole concert Thursday in Napa’s Castello di Amorosa was an exception to the conventional structure of a concert. It consisted of two unrelated sections, each featuring a big star, and felt like two separate musical events. The two featured performers could not have been more different, not that there is anything wrong with that, but the concert was indeed unusual.

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Review

Schubert and Mozart Supplant Bach in Carmel

Dan Leeson - July 24, 2009

In two programs Wednesday at the Carmel Bach Festival, Schubert and Mozart came to the fore. In the first concert, an afternoon performance at the Church of the Wayfarer in downtown Carmel, baritone Sanford Sylvan and fortepianist David Breitman presented a program of Schubertiana, consisting of three lieder and two impromptus for piano.

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Review

San Frantastic Symphony

Jeff Dunn - July 21, 2009
“What have you been smoking?” you say. But I saw the following with my own eyes at last Saturday’s San Francisco Symphony concert:
  • A sold-out Davies Symphony Hall where I could find only four people over 50 who were not employees or ushers. Almost everyone was under 35.
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Review

Sunstruck at Festival del Sole

Georgia Rowe - July 20, 2009
With its feast-for-the-senses blend of performance, art, and culinary events, Festival del Sole has become an attractive summer destination for music lovers throughout the Bay Area and beyond. The annual Napa Valley extravaganza, a spinoff of Italy’s Tuscan Sun festival, has also turned out to be a great place to experience the work of up-and-coming conductors.
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Review

Tasty Feast From sfSound

Jessica Balik - July 20, 2009
The contemporary chamber music concert that I attended Sunday evening was refreshingly free of gimmickry. For example, it took place in the ODC Dance Commons in San Francisco’s Mission District: a humble, but also accommodating, performance space. The program, by sfSound, also did not boast any flashy title or unifying theme.
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Review

Carmel Bach, Trotting Through Paradise

Scott MacClelland - July 20, 2009

The search for a new Carmel Bach Festival music director is already under way, even while Bruno Weil has one last Festival to lead in 2010. One local wag lately suggested in a letter to the Monterey County Herald that Weil might give serious thought to a mostly-Bach program next year.