David Bratman

The San José Chamber Orchestra lured a near-capacity audience to Le Petit Trianon for a season-opening concert of daring lesser-known works to great success.

In San José, Symphony Silicon Valley opens its new season with just plain good music, well played.

The final program in this year’s Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music seemed designed to prove that modernism is not only alive and well, it’s kicking and bawling lustily. 

A rarely heard The Art of the Fugue in its entirety at Music@Menlo offered a delightful, exciting, artistically moving, and enlightening performance.

Kronos Quartet chugs along with a number of inviting new works at the Cabrillo Festival.

The title of a Music@Menlo program, “French Connections,” raises the question: May Bach be held a father of French music as he is of trios and of preludes and fugues?

The Danish String Quartet, Tallis Quartet, Koret Young Performers and Gilles Vonsattel all shine in Music@Menlo’s Sunday serving.

Having spent a Bach-oriented day at the Carmel Bach Festival on Monday, I stayed over on Tuesday for a day with music almost entirely French.

The first day of the Carmel Bach Festival offers plenty of attractions, including an insightful master class, imitation-gut strings, and chats with some of the performers.

Music of genius and imagination illuminates the second Silicon Valley Music Festival program.