Orchestra

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Review

Astonishing S.F. Symphony Premiere

Michelle Dulak Thomson - June 15, 2009
The San Francisco Symphony’s “Dawn to Twilight” festival ended last week with a devastating double bill. Pairing Schubert and Berg might look like the sort of juxtaposition apt to work better on paper than in the event.
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Review

One Love in Common

Jeff Dunn - June 8, 2009

Friday's episode of the San Francisco Symphony's Franz Schubert/Alban Berg festival showed that Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas' abundant love for the two Viennese composers' music, despite commentators' attempts to argue the contrary, was the strongest element they had in common.

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Review

Mass for a Troubled Time

David Bratman - June 8, 2009
Saturday night’s Symphony Silicon Valley concert at the California Theatre in San José was full of interesting resonances and connections. For one thing, it was the anniversary of D-Day. What better time, as the organization’s President Andrew Bales pointed out in his welcoming talk, to hear a Mass, a work ending with the words “Dona nobis pacem” (Grant us peace)?
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Review

Adventures, in Spades

Heuwell Tircuit - June 8, 2009

Musical repertory is full of masterpieces that rarely get programmed. Largely, it’s a matter of either instrumentation or length. On Wednesday, with a full orchestra and a handful of soloists available, Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony concentrated on five of those masterpieces, as part of their “Schubert/Berg Journey.”

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Preview

Gilbert & Sullivan

Anna Carol Dudley - June 3, 2009
When Michael Tilson Thomas programmed the San Francisco Symphony's semistaged production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe for June 18-21, little did he know how au courant it would be.
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Review

Hale and Farewell

Robert P. Commanday - June 2, 2009
The musically merry month of May came to a close on Sunday, traditionally as ever, with concerts conjoined to graduations, two that could not have been more different.
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Review

In Festival Opener, Berg Trumps Schubert

Benjamin Frandzel - June 1, 2009
The San Francisco Symphony's "Dawn to Twilight" festival got off to a more than solid start with its opening run of concerts at Davies Symphony Hall beginning last Wednesday.
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Review

Advancing the Field

Jeff Dunn - May 26, 2009
Michael Tilson Thomas treated San Francisco Symphony patrons Friday to an extraordinary concert of works that advanced the field of classical music — each pushing the envelope in its own direction.A symphony built a monument to regenerative self-defeat, a concerto scaled heights of immediacy and technical difficulty, and a new suite blazed a path toward rapturous acceptance of electronica into the
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Review

Spot-On Send-Off

Jeff Kaliss - May 21, 2009
“Shadows and Light” was the theme of the final four concerts of the New Century Chamber Orchestra’s current season, with the repertoire selected for references to the night. But what really shone through the five pieces on the variegated program was how wonderfully the music and the players were suited to each other.
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Review

About the Size of It

Jeff Dunn - May 19, 2009
Small fit all at Sunday’s Berkeley Akadamie concert, but medium and large were another story. The opening number, Mozart’s Divertimento in D Major, K. 136, was played by only a string quintet. It was so well done, and the First Congregational Church acoustics were so beneficial, that the five sounded like a full string orchestra.