Reviews

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Review

The Kronos Approach

Be'eri Moalem - February 3, 2009
The mention of "new music" still repels many who listen to "classical music" (whatever that label means).

Transported by Sounds

Jonathan Russell - February 3, 2009
Tape music, and the technology behind it, has come a long way since composers first began using and manipulating recorded sounds in the 1940s. This year's annual San Francisco Tape Music Festival made clear just how far it has come, by juxtaposing classic tape pieces from 50 years ago with brand-new works. The festival ran for three nights, Friday through Sunday, at CELLspace in San Francisco.
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Review

Seducer on the Loose

Anna Carol Dudley - January 27, 2009
San Francisco Lyric Opera's ambitious production of Mozart's Don Giovanni, heard Sunday afternoon at the Cowell Theater in Fort Mason, owes much to Romania. Two outstanding singers from that country led the accomplished cast of this beloved classic: Eugene Brancoveanu as Don Giovanni and Razvan Georgescu as his sidekick, Leporello.
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Review

Wistful Sweetness

Michelle Dulak Thomson - January 27, 2009
As a theme for a recital, "the spread of an infectious Italian Baroque style" has maybe a little too much going for it to be genuinely helpful.
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Review

First Contact

Benjamin Frandzel - January 27, 2009

Like the amazing week that preceded it, the Oakland East Bay Symphony's concert last Friday night at the Paramount Theatre was all about moving forward through history. Conductor Michael Morgan surprised by reversing the typical program order, placing the ballet and concerto in the second half and opening with the weightiest piece, Brahms' Symphony No. 3.

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Review

CMASH Shows Promise

Jeff Dunn - January 27, 2009

You know a new group is serious about what it does when its concert program includes a mission statement, a vision statement, and five "beliefs." The "new-music repertory group" and acronym called CMASH (Chamber Music Art-Song Hybrid, pronounced "smash") hit the boards of the San Francisco Conservatory's recital hall Saturday with five song cycles and an Ave Maria by six composers, including Jake Heggie, the late John Thow, and four CMASH composers.

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Review

Playing a Sweeter Music

Lisa Hirsch - January 27, 2009

Piano recitals don't often come with a title, beyond the ubiquitous "Famous Pianist Plays Chopin and Brahms." Sarah Cahill took the name of her recital, and her commissioning project, from the lecture Martin Luther King Jr. gave on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize: "We must see that peace represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody, that is far superior to the discords of war."

Well Within the Box

Steve Osborn - January 27, 2009

Before the Santa Rosa Symphony began its concert Saturday, the public-address announcer said there would be a short presentation on behalf of the Youth Orchestra. A tall, red-headed young woman then rose from the concertmaster's chair and offered an exquisite reading of a brief, unidentified Romantic violin solo.

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Review

Vocal Magnificence

Jason Victor Serinus - January 27, 2009

At baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky's all-Russian recital in Davies Symphony Hall, only the blind could focus on voice and musicianship alone.

Virtuoso Phenom

Heuwell Tircuit - January 27, 2009

While not flawless, pianist Lise de la Salle's Sunday afternoon recital in San Francisco Conservatory's Concert Hall proved that, at all of age 20, she's already a virtuoso of the front rank. A few minor problems turned up along the way, but nothing that could dim an otherwise startling event. Her San Francisco Performances program opened with Mozart's showy Sonata No. 9 in D Major, K.