David Bratman

David Bratman is a librarian who lives with his lawfully wedded soprano and a wall full of symphony recordings.

Articles By This Author

Breathless Brahms From the San Francisco Symphony

David Bratman - May 10, 2010

From almost the moment that guest conductor Christoph Eschenbach struck up Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 with the San Francisco Symphony last Wednesday, it was clear that this was going to be a Brahms of the bright colors. It was set against a lovely recent French work by Marc-André Dalbavie.

St. Peter’s Chamber Orchestra Doubles Your Pleasure

David Bratman - May 3, 2010

The St. Peter’s Chamber Orchestra finished off its first season on Saturday, at its namesake church in Redwood City, by highlighting four of its own players as soloists in two rare double concertos, and matching those with two brief standards of the orchestral repertory.

kujawsky2_wide_0.jpg
Review

Rustling Among the Redwoods

David Bratman - April 26, 2010

Eric Kujawsky, music director of the Redwood Symphony, likes sometimes to lead his volunteer musicians into the thorny thickets of Eastern European modernism. This time, on Saturday at the Cañada College Theatre in Redwood City, nobody got seriously lost.

messaien.jpg
Review

Of Time and Turmoil

David Bratman - March 16, 2010
Saturday’s Music at the Mission chamber music concert, at Old Mission San Jose in Fremont, bore the title “Music in the Time of Turmoil: From Conflict to Redemption.” It featured a quartet for the end of time, and another quartet from after the end of time.
orionstring.jpg
Review

Adding K to the Three B’s

David Bratman - March 5, 2010
With pianist Peter Serkin as its guest artist, the Orion String Quartet brought a pantheon of composers to its Stanford Lively Arts concert on Wednesday at Dinkelspiel Auditorium: Bach. Beethoven. Brahms. ...
kingssingers2.jpg
Review

Bewitching Singing From Across the Pond

David Bratman - February 20, 2010
There wasn’t any doubt which piece on their San Francisco Performances program that the King’s Singers had really come to Herbst Theatre to perform on Wednesday.
takacsquartet2_wide_2.jpg
Review

Plumbing Beethoven’s Depths

David Bratman - February 15, 2010
Music-lovers in the South Bay had their calendars marked. The Takács Quartet came to San José’s Le Petit Trianon on Saturday, as part of the concert series of the San José Chamber Music Society.
ives.jpg
Review

Concord Out of Discord

David Bratman - February 7, 2010
The San Francisco Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas paid a mammoth tribute to two American composers, Charles Ives and Henry Brant, last week.
turner_barbaraday_0.jpg
Review

Shaking Hands With the Past

David Bratman - January 12, 2010
Sunday was string quartet night at the San José Chamber Orchestra’s concert, conducted by Barbara Day Turner, at Le Petit Trianon in its namesake city. The Cypress String Quartet played as guest soloists in the premiere of Pablo Furman’s Paso del Fuego, and the SJCO ceded the entire stage to the Cypress foursome for the first half of the concert, which consisted of Beethoven’s Quartet in F, Op.
sano_stephen.jpg
Review

And Now For Something Completely Different ...

David Bratman - November 23, 2009
Tired of the usual run of jolly Christmas choral music? A nearly full house on Friday in Stanford’s spacious Memorial Church welcomed in their holiday season with a Requiem. And not just any Requiem. What the Stanford Symphonic Chorus and Peninsula Symphony Orchestra had gathered to perform under the baton of Stephen M.