Reviews

Jason Victor Serinus - November 20, 2007
Who can resist a birthday celebration where everyone receives a musical treat? That's exactly what happened Sunday afternoon in Hertz Hall, when Cal Performances celebrated composer and music professor Jorge Liderman's 50th birthday.
Alexander Kahn - November 20, 2007
When I picked up my tickets at Davies Symphony Hall on Friday, the words "Mendelssohn Violin Concerto" were written in boldface across them. The San Francisco Symphony had wisely chosen to market the concert on the name recognition of the Mendelssohn chestnut and on the appeal of its interpreter, rising star Sergey Khachatryan.
Michelle Dulak Thomson - November 20, 2007
The New Century Chamber Orchestra's search for a new music director has had the side benefit of allowing its audiences to hear not just a slew of interesting violinist/leaders, but also the diversity of the orchestra’s musical personality. Last Wednesday at San Rafael's Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, the leader-of-the-month was the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra's Margaret Batjer.
Joseph Sargent - November 20, 2007
The best chamber music performances often convey the impression of a conversation among friends. Sometimes one party commands the discussion, at other times someone else takes charge, but everyone seems fully engaged no matter who has the floor. Hearing the Baroque chamber ensemble La Monica in performance Saturday at Berkeley's St.
Beverly Wilcox - November 20, 2007
Chora Nova, which celebrates its first anniversary this month, continued its quest to present rarely performed works with Saturday's "Homage to St. Nicholas" concert at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley. The program consisted of an early Haydn work, Missa Sancti Nicolai, and Benjamin Britten's cantata Saint Nicholas.
Michael McDonagh - November 20, 2007
The business of art is to communicate. If it doesn't, what's the point? And though modernist music has sometimes adopted a "high art" indifference to its audiences, as with Schoeberg's Society for Private Musical Performances, which forbade vocal expressions either pro or con and critics as well, it has paid a high price. Most people like music that connects with them on a deeply personal level.
Jonathan Wilkes - November 20, 2007
A piano exhibits grand qualities: a sizable range, effortless intonation, and an immense harmonic palette. Yet the instrument has always been impaired by a tragic flaw — for all the discrete steps of its glorious black and white facade, it cannot produce sounds that glide smoothly and sweetly between any two of its 88 tempered tones.
Janice Berman - November 13, 2007
American Ballet Theatre, fresh from its fall season in New York City, brought two programs of mixed repertory to Zellerbach Hall last week, presented by Cal Performances. This was in itself reason for celebration. That the ballets were set to richly varied music proved to be the icing on the cake.
Michelle Dulak Thomson - November 13, 2007
Playing string quartets once was no one's full-time job. The professional string quartet whose players spend essentially all their professional time concertizing, recording, or teaching as a quartet is a historically recent development.
James Keolker - November 13, 2007
San Francisco Opera has described this as “A Season of Glamour,” and that boast was certainly fulfilled with the company's new and exuberant production of Puccini’s La Rondine. It was long overdue, the last having been in the War Memorial Opera House House in 1934, with Lucrezia Bori and Dino Borgioli in the leading roles and S.F.