There are recitals, there are great recitals, and then there’s Yuja Wang. In an extraordinary scene Sunday in Herbst Theatre, after hearing her play the audience appeared both exhausted and elated. My hands hurt not merely from applauding, but also from an apparent case of couvade syndrome (men’s sympathy pain at childbirth) on listening to two hours of devilishly difficult Scriabin and Prokofiev played with ease and astonishing clarity.
When Sir Charles Mackerras died last week, at age 84, there was an international outpouring of sorrow from Sydney to Edinburgh to Prague to San Francisco.
Charles Amirkhanian's brave and excellent 
