Chamber Music

The New Century Chamber Orchestra started off its season with a program that was split between the composer and mostly Russian music.

The young string quartet, the first quartet-in-residence at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, also performed early works by Webern and Beethoven.

The ensemble’s interpretations of Beethoven’s late quartets at The Berkeley Hillside Club were too temperate.

The event, part of Music@Menlo’s Summer Festival, wasn’t exactly like hanging out with Schubert and friends in a Viennese salon in the 1800s, but it was close.

A trio (plus some friends) provided excitement in a party of French chamber music.

Nuances of the performance were lost to the unforgiving acoustics of the Rodin Gallery at the Palace of the Legion of Honor, but the musicians’ camaraderie shone through.

The trio, adjusting to a personnel change for the performance, brought interpretative daring to a performance of Beethoven trios.

The soprano’s performance of Arianna a Naxos lights up the room after an opening plagued with intonation and communication issues.

The world-traveling trio take the "Archduke" Trio and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A Minor at a brisk pace.

Classical Jam, a group adept at blending classical and improvisation, put together an enjoyable program at Kohl Mansion.