Reviews

Well Within the Box

Steve Osborn - January 27, 2009

Before the Santa Rosa Symphony began its concert Saturday, the public-address announcer said there would be a short presentation on behalf of the Youth Orchestra. A tall, red-headed young woman then rose from the concertmaster's chair and offered an exquisite reading of a brief, unidentified Romantic violin solo.

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Review

Vocal Magnificence

Jason Victor Serinus - January 27, 2009

At baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky's all-Russian recital in Davies Symphony Hall, only the blind could focus on voice and musicianship alone.

Virtuoso Phenom

Heuwell Tircuit - January 27, 2009

While not flawless, pianist Lise de la Salle's Sunday afternoon recital in San Francisco Conservatory's Concert Hall proved that, at all of age 20, she's already a virtuoso of the front rank. A few minor problems turned up along the way, but nothing that could dim an otherwise startling event. Her San Francisco Performances program opened with Mozart's showy Sonata No. 9 in D Major, K.

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Review

Four, And More

Dan Leeson - January 27, 2009

In the second of its three performances on Stanford Lively Arts' 2008-2009 season, the St. Lawrence String Quartet practically tore the house down with the final number of its program. For Sunday's Dinkelspiel recital, the quartet invited back two of its former members. The quartet on its own set itself a tough assignment in the middle of the program, but it was the Dvořák Sextet at concert's end that raised the roof.

Fame to Come

Michelle Dulak Thomson - January 20, 2009
When a young string player reaches the level of fame that can support a recital tour, he or she generally has to cast about for a suitable duo partner.
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Review

Youth Has Its Triumphant Day

Heuwell Tircuit - January 20, 2009
Contrary to my apprehension, Sunday’s festival of youth orchestras went smoothly in Davies Symphony Hall, via a grand display of musical talent around Northern California. Under the banner "Bay of Hope 2009," the concert presented six youth orchestras playing major and often virtuoso music by six composers of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Pedals, Portamentos, and Pianolas

David Bratman - January 20, 2009
The battle of the musicologists broke out on Friday afternoon in Stanford University's Campbell Recital Hall. Joseph Horowitz, noted author of several books on the history of classical music in America, played a 1932 recording of Leopold Stokowski conducting the slow movement of Beethoven's Fifth.
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Review

San Francisco's Symbiosis

William Quillen - January 20, 2009
As the economic crisis imperils arts organizations large and small, it was wonderful to see a near-capacity crowd fill Davies Symphony Hall on Saturday evening for the San Francisco Symphony's performance of works by Tilson Thomas, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich, featuring pianist Garrick Ohlsson as soloist and conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.
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Review

Sweet Suite

Scott Cmiel - January 20, 2009
The young American guitarist Jason Vieaux is an exceptionally communicative artist. On Saturday he presented an interesting, well-shaped program, with expressive playing and friendly, informative spoken introductions, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Concert Hall.
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Review

B Minor Mass in a Major Performance

Janos Gereben - January 20, 2009

In a more perfect world, today's Presidential Inauguration would take place in balmy San Francisco, the event concluding with Dona Nobis Pacem (Give us peace), from J.S. Bach's Mass in B Minor. This majestic and heartrending expression of yearning for peace and the good of all humanity would be performed, in my fantasy concert, by the American Bach Soloists, under the direction of Jeffrey Thomas.