Reviews

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Review

Embracing Abandon at the S.F. Opera

Olivia Stapp - June 15, 2009

The San Francisco Opera’s new Traviata is a dazzling affair.

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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

Hearing Haydn

Lisa Hirsch - June 15, 2009
Over the last couple of decades, René Jacobs has assembled a catalog of recordings as a conductor, a major change from his earlier career as a famed countertenor. The bicentennial of Franz Josef Haydn’s death brings a happy pairing of composer and conductor, on a Harmonia Mundi disc featuring the symphonies No. 91 in E-flat Major and No.
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Review

On the Way to Heaven

Janos Gereben - June 10, 2009

It's a long way from Catfish Row to Walhalla, but my money is on Eric Owens traversing the distance.

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Review

Renaissance Pleas for Mercy

Kaneez Munjee - June 9, 2009

To close a season embracing music mostly of the modern era, Chanticleer returned to its founding ideals on Sunday night at San Francisco’s Mission Dolores, with an entirely Renaissance program, sung a cappella.

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Review

Concerto Buon Viaggio

Anna Carol Dudley - June 8, 2009
The Grace Cathedral Choir is going to Italy, where the singers will experience performing Italian Renaissance and early Baroque music in its original physical and cultural context. On Sunday, the choir — 18 boys on the treble parts and a dozen men singing tenor and bass — offered a dress rehearsal for a large, enthusiastic audience, gathered to wish them a buon viaggio.
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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

Prokofiev in Full

Heuwell Tircuit - June 8, 2009
Prokofiev’s nine piano sonatas form one of the major cycles of the 20th century, and have often been recorded individually. But complete sets in one package are exceedingly rare. So Prokofiev specialist Anne-Marie McDermott’s new set of all nine, in modern sonics, fills an important gap. And her virtuosity and stylish performances are a delight.
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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.”