Steven Winn

Benjamin Britten’s moody Turn of the Screw, based on the Henry James novella, compels and produces shudders at the same time.

Full-on piano artistry from all hands (and there were many) marks Music@Menlo’s initial outing in its summer series.

The Marin Symphony, with pianist Joyce Yang, provides an illuminating session of compare-and-contrast of Debussy’s La Mer, along with some delicious Ravel.

The Australian Chamber Orchestra, superb and often startling performs in what anything but an ordinary night of music-making.

A recital by Nathan Gunn, which figured to be a choice evening, fell considerably short of expectations, mired in a murky middle ground.

Baritone Thomas Hampson’s artistry guarantees a memorable evening of art songs, by Schumann, Barber, and Michael Hersch.

Richard Danielpour’s A Woman’s Life, an ardent and varied setting of seven poems by Maya Angelou, is an expansive an enchanting highlight on the OEBS program.

The American Bach Soloists presented the Messiah to great effect; the music took advantage of the striking atmospheric advantages in San Francisco’s grandest sacred space, and met the challenge of connecting — personally —  to the listener in such a large, reverberant canyon.

In Lost and Sound, an emotional new documentary film, we are invited to share the experience of hearing impaired musicians as they find new paths to music and testify to music’s transformative power.

British actress Imogen Poots’ latest film A Late Quartet set her and her fellow actors the task of learning to play string instruments so as to capture the intimacy of a string quartet.