Reviews

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Review

Making a Case For the Unusual

Kwami Coleman - November 25, 2008
Two groups with like-minded ideals visited Stanford University last week. Imani Winds and Miami String Quartet compelled their modest-sized audience in Dinkelspiel Auditorium to join them on a spirited and inspired, if unfamiliar, musical journey. From the first to the last sounding notes both ensembles played brilliantly, with vigor, dedication, and flair.
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Review

A Sound to Shake Heaven

Janos Gereben - November 25, 2008
Mahler's 1910 Eighth Symphony, called by some (but surely not by high-minded musicologists) "Symphony of a Thousand," is among the most massive works in all of music.
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Review

Puccini Perfection

James Keolker - November 18, 2008

Opera is a demanding art, requiring large forces dedicated to music, drama, and scenic design. And while it is often futile to expect all of these to be equally aligned, the theater gods seemed to be smiling Sunday afternoon for the current San Francisco Opera production of Puccini's La Bohème. In a word, it was perfection.

Glee, Times Three

Michelle Dulak Thomson - November 18, 2008
Music Director Nicholas McGegan began Sunday night's Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra concert at Berkeley's First Congregational Church with a theatricality that, for longtime PBO fans, now seems paradoxically "homey." He crept to the podium and put his finger to his lips, urging silence. He didn't quite get it, but went ahead anyway with the opening of Beethoven's Op.
Review

A Norwegian Tour de Force

Chelsea Nicole Spangler - November 18, 2008
I walked into Herbst Theatre on Sunday evening expecting the Scandinavian ensemble Trio Mediæval to instantly transport me from sunny San Francisco to twilit Norway, where winter has already begun.

Proving the Pleasure Principle

Georgia Rowe - November 18, 2008
The San Francisco Symphony gave its audience an evening of pastoral pleasures Thursday at Davies Symphony Hall. The splendor wasn't limited to Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 in F Major, "Pastoral," though Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas revived the beloved score in a reading that was remarkably rich in sensuous allure.

Divine Delights

Anna Carol Dudley - November 18, 2008
The Pacific Collegium presented a splendid concert Saturday night at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. For this performance of French Baroque music, the Collegium consisted of three superb singers plus continuo.
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Review

Messiaen in Context

Heuwell Tircuit - November 18, 2008

Jumping the gun a bit, ChamberBridge presented three programs of music by Olivier Messiaen, his associates, and major family members Saturday in Old First Church. The programs were set up to honor Messiaen's centennial — which actually occurs on the 10th of next month. The survey was most unusual, as festivals go, since relatively little of the composer's actual works appeared amid the programs, set forward under the rubric of "Messiaen Illuminated."

Breaking Down Walls

Jessica Balik - November 18, 2008
By definition, contemporaneity is an integral component of new music. But contemporary circumstances obviously engulf more than musical concerns: From war to the environment to the financial crisis, there are plenty of present-day issues that have nothing to do with music.
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Review

Beauty All Around

Be'eri Moalem - November 18, 2008
Most of Stanford Lively Arts' concert presentations avoid Memorial Church, perhaps because its acoustics are a bit too lively. But cellist Christopher Costanza finds the church's atmosphere "absolutely perfect ...