Chamber Music

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Review

To Heaven, By Way of Earth

Anna Carol Dudley - June 2, 2009

The Sanford Dole Ensemble performed a program called "Heaven and Earth" Saturday night at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. They were a month late for the celebration of Earth Day, but exactly on time for the anniversary of the premiere (on May 30, 1992) of Libby Larsen's Missa Gaia: Mass for the Earth. An additional touch of serendipity for me was that I attended that debut. It was good to hear the work again.

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Review

Nimbly Nuanced

Jules Langert - May 25, 2009
Sheer inventiveness and originality were at the forefront of Earplay’s final concert of the season on Wednesday. This adventurous and enterprising group, which presents some of the best and most interesting contemporary music heard in the Bay Area, ended its 24th season with a fascinating, unusual program that looked both backward and forward from 1949 to the present.
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Preview

Lynn Harrell and Friends

David Bratman - May 18, 2009
Lynn Harrell

Lynn Harrell is a very fine, light-toned cellist who’s played concertos in the Bay Area and is capable of outshining his conductors.

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Review

Saved From Drowning, by The Trout

Jeff Dunn - May 13, 2009

Radical contrast was the name of the game at Monday’s Left Coast Chamber Ensemble concert. A pair of impressive but gloomy premieres weighed listeners down during the first half. Then the sun came out for the second half: Franz Schubert’s “Trout” quintet restored faith in the future, from deep in the past.

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Preview

A Numbers Game

Jessica Balik - May 13, 2009
The idea that numerical properties underlie music has interested people since at least the Middle Ages.
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Review

Grandmotherly Inspiration

Be'eri Moalem - May 10, 2009
The Presidio is a dark corner of the City by the Bay, surrounded by thick forest, ancient military architecture, and a memorial cemetery. It’s one of the few places on San Francisco’s map where the relentless grid of straight roads gives bending way to some of the steep hills.
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Preview

Salons at the Rex

Michael Zwiebach - May 5, 2009
Jennifer Kloetzel
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Preview

Brandenburgs For Mother's Day

Michael Zwiebach - May 5, 2009
On Mother’s Day, as on most holidays, concertgoing opportunities will be limited, as presenters fear loss of their audience to other activities, such as the
Judith Linsenberg
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Review

Putting on English Ayres and Rants

Anna Carol Dudley - May 5, 2009
Folks who showed up at Berkeley’s Music Sources Sunday evening, expecting to be transported to the Dorset Garden Theatre in 17th-century London, found that the Theatre’s advertised program had undergone some changes. Since a couple of key players in the Galileo Project had transported themselves back to Estonia, said Project had withdrawn from the program.
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Review

Beating Expectations

Be'eri Moalem - May 4, 2009

On Thursday the Ives Quartet ended a season of high-quality playing with interesting programming, all in a friendly atmosphere at St. Mark’s Church in midtown Palo Alto. An intriguing new work by Dan Becker provided food for thought.