Reviews

A ground-breaking new-music ensemble is still epically cool, releasing its first CD set in four years.

The S.F. Symphony's concert entirely devoted to Bruckner’s massive Fifth Symphony, offered a time-bending experience for those utterly engaged by the work.

Scott Joplin’s historically significant ragtime opera is reconstructed and heard anew, if not in an ideal performance.

Composite rhythms in a challenging program highlight a string quartet’s recital in an intimate art gallery.

Massive choral forces perform a 16th-century Italian Mass, to splendid effect.

In a stunning performance, a new song cycle is born, capturing episodes from the life of a French sculptor.

The strong-fingered, highly rhythmic, and coolly emotional pianist Joyce Yang chooses a crafty program for her debut disc.

If you ever wondered how today’s symphonies contrast with those of a century ago, a trip to the Marin Symphony to hear Alasdair Neal conduct the orchestra would have been enlightening.

Long Beach Opera’s politicized version of Astor Piazzolla’s surreal “tango operita,” Maria de Buenos Aires treads a fine line.

A magnificent, fantastically controlled string quartet marches up the mountain with four Shostakovich quartets, plus a heartfelt bonus work.