David Bratman

The Vienna Philharmonic began its Berkeley residency Friday with a concert that showed off its versatility. The three composers, all from within Vienna’s cultural orbit, were aesthetically different from each other: high Classicism from Franz Schubert, wallowing Romanticism from Richard Wagner, and violent modernism from Béla Bartók.

Rhythmic vitality ruled Saturday at the Redwood Symphony concert, led by guest conductor Joyce Johnson-Hamilton, in a program designed to warm the hearts of music lovers who prefer the just slightly unusual.

The celebrated Vienna Philharmonic is coming to Berkeley. David Bratman looks beyond the mystique at what lies at the core of the Philharmonic's style

A concert of small pleasures from the Vertavo Quartet combined a collection of tentative works that came off as quietly riveting. 

The Miró Quartet offered more than a chance to test a theory on "late style" on Sunday in Burlingame, played divergent works with the utmost dedication and coordination, enveloping without overwhelming the intimate space of Kohl Mansion’s hall.

In Music@Menlo's latest concert in this year’s winter series, festivals co-director and pianist Wu Han, Alessio Bax, and Anne-Marie McDermott performed fairly indulgent music from the turn of the 20th century, all of it written for two pianos.

The San José Chamber Orchestra celebrated Johann Sebastian Bach on Sunday and the evening began with a bang.

In a S.F. Symphony performance of John Adams' El Niño, conducted by the composer, revealed itself to be an oratorio for the turn of the new century in a concert of warm Christmas music that was, rightfully, warmly received.

The Peninsula Symphony Orchestra and Stanford Symphonic Chorus can reliably be depended on to present an engaging holiday concert. This year’s was particularly interdisciplinary, offering instrumental works that had no explicit connection to the season but that proved to be cheerfully appropriate nonetheless.

You have probably heard Carl Orff's Carmina Burana before. If you're like me, you've heard it many times. Even so, I have never heard it the way the S.F. Symphony played it on Wednesday.