Reviews

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Review

First Contact

Benjamin Frandzel - January 27, 2009

Like the amazing week that preceded it, the Oakland East Bay Symphony's concert last Friday night at the Paramount Theatre was all about moving forward through history. Conductor Michael Morgan surprised by reversing the typical program order, placing the ballet and concerto in the second half and opening with the weightiest piece, Brahms' Symphony No. 3.

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Review

CMASH Shows Promise

Jeff Dunn - January 27, 2009

You know a new group is serious about what it does when its concert program includes a mission statement, a vision statement, and five "beliefs." The "new-music repertory group" and acronym called CMASH (Chamber Music Art-Song Hybrid, pronounced "smash") hit the boards of the San Francisco Conservatory's recital hall Saturday with five song cycles and an Ave Maria by six composers, including Jake Heggie, the late John Thow, and four CMASH composers.

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Review

Playing a Sweeter Music

Lisa Hirsch - January 27, 2009

Piano recitals don't often come with a title, beyond the ubiquitous "Famous Pianist Plays Chopin and Brahms." Sarah Cahill took the name of her recital, and her commissioning project, from the lecture Martin Luther King Jr. gave on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize: "We must see that peace represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody, that is far superior to the discords of war."

Well Within the Box

Steve Osborn - January 27, 2009

Before the Santa Rosa Symphony began its concert Saturday, the public-address announcer said there would be a short presentation on behalf of the Youth Orchestra. A tall, red-headed young woman then rose from the concertmaster's chair and offered an exquisite reading of a brief, unidentified Romantic violin solo.

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Review

Vocal Magnificence

Jason Victor Serinus - January 27, 2009

At baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky's all-Russian recital in Davies Symphony Hall, only the blind could focus on voice and musicianship alone.

Virtuoso Phenom

Heuwell Tircuit - January 27, 2009

While not flawless, pianist Lise de la Salle's Sunday afternoon recital in San Francisco Conservatory's Concert Hall proved that, at all of age 20, she's already a virtuoso of the front rank. A few minor problems turned up along the way, but nothing that could dim an otherwise startling event. Her San Francisco Performances program opened with Mozart's showy Sonata No. 9 in D Major, K.

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Review

Four, And More

Dan Leeson - January 27, 2009

In the second of its three performances on Stanford Lively Arts' 2008-2009 season, the St. Lawrence String Quartet practically tore the house down with the final number of its program. For Sunday's Dinkelspiel recital, the quartet invited back two of its former members. The quartet on its own set itself a tough assignment in the middle of the program, but it was the Dvořák Sextet at concert's end that raised the roof.

Fame to Come

Michelle Dulak Thomson - January 20, 2009
When a young string player reaches the level of fame that can support a recital tour, he or she generally has to cast about for a suitable duo partner.
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Review

Youth Has Its Triumphant Day

Heuwell Tircuit - January 20, 2009
Contrary to my apprehension, Sunday’s festival of youth orchestras went smoothly in Davies Symphony Hall, via a grand display of musical talent around Northern California. Under the banner "Bay of Hope 2009," the concert presented six youth orchestras playing major and often virtuoso music by six composers of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Pedals, Portamentos, and Pianolas

David Bratman - January 20, 2009
The battle of the musicologists broke out on Friday afternoon in Stanford University's Campbell Recital Hall. Joseph Horowitz, noted author of several books on the history of classical music in America, played a 1932 recording of Leopold Stokowski conducting the slow movement of Beethoven's Fifth.