Reviews

Monday night’s concert at the odd sanctuary of San Francisco’s St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church by the chorus Volti, under the direction of Bob Geary, offered an intriguing evening of new choral works. The first half of the concert was largely given over to a performance from conductor Geary’s Piedmont Children's Choirs.

Performing Mozart is easy, but also terribly difficult because the transparency of his compositions offers nowhere to hide. It’s like being naked on stage. A nigh-flawless performance is a rare occurrence, but when all the elements are in place, as they were Friday night for the San Francisco Symphony's all-Mozart concert under conductor Herbert Blomstedt, the results are awe-inspiring.

Even Cal Performances' starrier guests don't routinely sell out Zellerbach Hall. But more than two decades into his high-profile career, Joshua Bell's name still deservedly wields an uncommon pull, and it was to a capacity audience that he and pianist Jeremy Denk played on Sunday afternoon.

The guest conductors’ parade began last Thursday.

History reserves an important place for composers who have left a monumental legacy. Bach’s cantata cycles and Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelungs are good examples. Among Renaissance composers, both William Byrd and Heinrich Isaac fit that bill well.

Lucas Meachem sauntered onto the stage of Temple Emanu-El's Martin Meyer Sanctuary on Sunday as though walkin' into the High G Saloon. Swinging open wide the doors that separated him from everyone seated in the joint, he declared, "I'm Lucas. I'm from North Carolina, and I'm going to be singing some great songs tonight.

Perhaps it's just me, but I possess a stereotypical image of a brass quintet. It is an image of gray-haired men who chiefly play Renaissance and Baroque music, with the occasional Christmas album thrown into the mix to shake things up a bit. Regardless of whether my image might ring true for others, the Meridian Arts Ensemble certainly does not fit that stereotype.

To most Americans, Christopher Columbus is known as the "discoverer" of our part of the world.

West Bay Opera's current production of Così fan tutte stands tall on the twin ramparts of Barbara Day Turner's rock-solid conducting of a fair-to-middling orchestra, and Douglas Nagel's vital, if risky, staging.