Reviews

Symphony aficionados seldom get a chance to hear two performances of the Brahms Second Piano Concerto so close to each other. Last month it was performed in Oakland.

Saturday's programming for the Gold Coast Chamber Players was so delightful that it brought smiles to the face of many an attendee.

There apparently aren't a lot of moms who enjoy virtuoso chamber music, for although the Legion of Honor was packed for Mother's Day, the festive program of the Avedis Chamber Music Series ensemble downstairs in the Florence Gould Theater drew only half a hall's worth of listeners.

Even before Polish piano virtuoso Rafal Blechacz struck the first chord in his San Francisco debut recital Sunday at Herbst Theatre, the hall was brimming with anticipation. A former student of mine, a Polish-born young woman, came up to me with her mother, who said excitedly, "We are so proud of him!" Polish was spoken everywhere, of course.

The Finnish musician Magnus Lindberg is a man of many talents. He performs professionally as a pianist and as a percussionist. Moreover, he is a decorated composer whose compositional honors include the Prix Italia, the Nordic Music Prize, and the Royal Philharmonic Society Prize.

There's a certain satisfaction to be derived from designing a program that combines a narrow focus with enough variety to work as an actual concert, and I imagine that San Francisco Symphony Associate Conductor James Gaffigan was modestly proud of the one he and the orchestra brought off Thursday afternoon.

Were it not the brainchild of Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson, a festival marking the San Francisco Ballet's 75th anniversary by presenting 10 new ballets in one week (three programs in all) would be regarded as a fool's errand. Some fool. Some errand. It's a success.

Audiences jumped to their feet for standing ovations after performances by the Philharmonia on both Sunday and Monday at Davies Symphony Hall, presented by the San Francisco Symphony. The venerable orchestra was in town for a set of concerts under Christoph von Dohnányi, the ensemble's principal conductor.

Last December, Kent Nagano and Stuart Canin unveiled the Berkeley Akademie Ensemble, a project designed to cultivate "explorations of style" and "develop ensemble technical skills" (as the organization describes its goals).

Another huge feather — Cyrano's famed plume, even — in Berkeley Opera's tiny cap, the double-bill of Béla Bartók's 1918 A Kékszakállú Herceg Vára (Bluebeard's Castle) and Maurice Ravel's 1925 L'Enfant et les sortilèges (The child and the magic spells) opened Saturday night at the Julia Morgan Theatre with a fabulous production and some kind of prestidigitation. Jonathan Khuner's