Choral

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Preview

Vocally Out There

Georgia Rowe - April 28, 2009
Robert Geary
Volti’s motto is “Singing without a net,” and the San Francisco–based vocal ensemble, led by Music Director Robert Geary, does indeed stay on the fore
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Review

Landscapes of War

Jules Langert - April 26, 2009

Long considered to be one of his finest works, Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem of 1962 can be difficult to bring off successfully, even with the most skilled and dedicated professional musicians. All the more reason, then, to cheer UC Berkeley’s stirring and spectacular performance last Wednesday, before a large, enrapt audience in Zellerbach Hall. UC’s Marika Kuzma, who conducted, got it splendidly right.

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Preview

War Requiem

Anna Carol Dudley - April 14, 2009
Chamber Chorus
Benjamin Britten's monumental War Requiem will be heard Wednesday, April 22 at the UC Berkeley campus.
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Preview

Carmina Lures You In

Kathryn Miller - April 13, 2009
Ragnar Bohlin
During a season otherwise filled with the iconic works of Beethoven, Mahler, and Handel, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus under the baton of R
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Review

Approaching Perfection in Pergolesi and Handel

Jason Victor Serinus - April 6, 2009
There are moments when a musical performance is so carefully conceived or so sublimely delivered that all you can do is surrender to the beauty of it and express gratitude for being alive.
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Review

Winges Takes Flight

Jason Victor Serinus - March 30, 2009
Mark Winges, composer for and advisor to the chamber choir Volti, certainly knows how to initiate an intriguing conversation. The proof can be heard on his second CD, But This Is This. Released on the Chicago-based Centaur label, the music on this all-instrumental recording is a bona fide Bay Area effort.
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Review

Honoring Bach

Heuwell Tircuit - March 24, 2009
The San Francisco Bach Choir celebrated the 324th anniversary of Bach's birth on Sunday afternoon in Calvary Presbyterian Church by presenting three of his cantatas and three of his even finer motets. Actually, the concert was a repeat of their Saturday performance, his actual birthday.
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Review

Beauty and Danger, in Song

Georgia Rowe - March 23, 2009
Chanticleer was founded in 1978 to explore the vocal music of the Renaissance, but the ever-questing 12-man chorus makes a regular habit of looking to the future. Last Tuesday, at Berkeley’s First Congregational Church, the San Francisco–based ensemble ushered three newly commissioned works into the repertoire, giving each the kind of vibrant, lustrous performance that has become synonymous with t
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Review

In Praise of Righteousness

Jaime Robles - March 23, 2009
The symphonic chorale of the Oakland-based Cantare Con Vivo paid homage to Felix Mendelssohn on Saturday by performing one of his last compositions, the massive, two-hours-plus oratorio Elijah. Artistic Director David Morales led the excellent chorale and orchestra.
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Review

Truths Out of Time

Jerry Kuderna - March 16, 2009

The pianist Rudolf Serkin took a year off from concertizing to study the Bach Cantatas because, as he said, “They are such beautiful music.” On hearing the American Bach Soloists perform four of them Saturday at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley, and after witnessing the vitality, spirit, and timeless human truths that they contain, I realized it would take a lifetime to fully get to know the wonders of this music.