Reviews

For Whom the Bell Tolls

David Bratman - February 3, 2009

The San Francisco Chamber Orchestra likes varied and unusual programs. Saturday's free concert at St. Mark's Church in Palo Alto was perhaps a little more unusual than most. The program, led by SFCO Music Director Benjamin Simon, featured two clarinet concertos and a handbell concerto, and the shortest piece was by Gustav Mahler, a composer not noted for brevity.

Review

Terrific Timbres

William Quillen - February 3, 2009

Conductor David Robertson returned to San Francisco last week to lead the San Francisco Symphony in performances of Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, and Scriabin. Robertson once again showed his uncanny ability to summon forth rapturous sounds from this ensemble. I first heard him conduct the SFS in a 2002 performance of Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony, which counts as some of the most glorious — and certainly the loudest — orchestral playing I've ever heard.

Review

Singing of War and Peace

Joseph Sargent - February 3, 2009

"Community" was the watchword of the Oakland Symphony Chorus' 50th-anniversary gala Saturday at the Regent's Theater of Holy Names

Review

All About Time

Kwami Coleman - February 3, 2009

Messiaen and remix don't seem like two words that should go together. Genre hang-ups aside, the phrase remixing Messiaen seems tantamount to rewriting Zola or, even more ghastly, reabstracting Mondrian. After all, remixing that which has already been expertly mixed does what, exactly, to the original product?

Review

Divine Duo

Michelle Dulak Thomson - February 3, 2009

It's not all that easy to maintain an artistic partnership if your primary job is "star." Violinist Christian Tetzlaff, stopping in at Herbst Theatre last Tuesday night under the auspices of San Francisco Performances, had just come from a grueling run of performances of the violin concertos of Beethoven (in Philadelphia, Jan. 8-11), Brahms (Rome, Jan. 17-20), and Berg (Madrid, Jan. 23-25).

Review

In Honor of Lincoln

Dan Leeson - February 3, 2009

The second of four programs designed to celebrate the 10th anniversary season of the Ives Quartet had, as its theme, "With an American Voice." Terrific idea. Imaginative programming! The players, Bettina Mussumeli and Susan Freier, violins, Jodi Levitz, viola, and Stephen Harrison, cello, are a unified force that shows some brilliant playing. While the program, presented at St.

Review

The Kronos Approach

Be'eri Moalem - February 3, 2009

The mention of "new music" still repels many who listen to "classical music" (whatever that label means).

Transported by Sounds

Jonathan Russell - February 3, 2009

Tape music, and the technology behind it, has come a long way since composers first began using and manipulating recorded sounds in the 1940s. This year's annual San Francisco Tape Music Festival made clear just how far it has come, by juxtaposing classic tape pieces from 50 years ago with brand-new works. The festival ran for three nights, Friday through Sunday, at CELLspace in San Francisco.

Review

Seducer on the Loose

Anna Carol Dudley - January 27, 2009

San Francisco Lyric Opera's ambitious production of Mozart's Don Giovanni, heard Sunday afternoon at the Cowell Theater in Fort Mason, owes much to Romania. Two outstanding singers from that country led the accomplished cast of this beloved classic: Eugene Brancoveanu as Don Giovanni and Razvan Georgescu as his sidekick, Leporello.