Reviews

delsolqtet2_wide.jpg
Review

Joyous Eclecticism

Michelle Dulak Thomson - February 5, 2008
In a Bay Area music scene crammed full of resolute, relentless eclectics, the Del Sol Quartet stands out less for packing bewilderingly various elements into its programs than for doing it with such ease and stylishness.
zephryoswinds_wide.jpg
Review

Fierce Winds

Mark Wardlaw - February 5, 2008

Chamber Music is alive and well in Mill Valley — even on Super Bowl Sunday. Even during the Super Bowl. Improbable as this may seem, a near-capacity audience eschewed the day’s customary revelries in favor of a highly polished and at times wildly exhilarating performance by the superb Zephyros Winds.

Ralph Vaughan Williams
Review

Honoring Vaughan Williams

Heuwell Tircuit - February 5, 2008

For the 11th Basically British program Friday evening in Old First Church, the series’ founder, John Parr, chose to honor the memory of Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). Parr is head of the San Francisco Opera’s music staff, so he invited the young tenor Thomas Glenn, recently of the company’s Adler Fellowship program, to sing.

Graced by a Lotus

Benjamin Frandzel - February 5, 2008
The Berkeley Symphony's Zellerbach Hall season opened last Thursday with Kent Nagano, departing music director, at the helm for his only performance with the full orchestra this year.

Warhorses at a Trot

Lisa Hirsch - February 5, 2008
Once upon a time, a symphony-goer would regularly find concerts on an orchestra's schedule consisting of an overture, a concerto, and a popular warhorse or two, light programs notable more for their entertainment value than substance.
eyespacefeature_wide.jpg
Review

Total ImMERCEsion

Janice Berman - January 29, 2008
Predictably, the two versions of Merce Cunningham's eyeSpace seen on consecutive nights of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's engagement at Stanford University last weekend, presented by Stanford Lively Arts, looked so different from each other as to be separate creations. What was less predictable was the difference in their affect, their effect.
taylor.christopher_wide.jpg
Review

Messiaen, Heaven Sent

Jason Victor Serinus - January 29, 2008
“Was he hitting all the notes?” I asked the highly respected Bay Area pianist who was assiduously following Messiaen’s score in the seat in front of me at UC Berkeley's Hertz Hall. “Hitting all the notes?” he replied with more than a touch of incredulity.
thomas.jeffrey4_wide.jpg
Review

An Off-Season Oratorio

Joseph Sargent - January 29, 2008
Early music aficionados across the Bay Area would have been wise to circle American Bach Soloists' January performance of J.S. Bach's Weihnachts-Oratorio (Christmas oratorio) on their calendars.
surif.valentin_wide.jpg
Review

Velvet Hands

Heuwell Tircuit - January 29, 2008

For tasteful, technically assured virtuosity and highly expressive musicality, you won’t find many toppers to Valentin Surif’s piano recital on Friday evening in San Francisco’s Old First Church. That plus excellent programming made for a special evening for those of us who braved the awful weather to hear him.

jansons.mariss_wide.jpg
Review

Highs From the Low Country

David Bratman - January 29, 2008
The Dutch language is closely related to Low German, but for at least the past two centuries the Netherlands' cultural relations have been as close with France as with any other country.