Reviews

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Review

The Perfect Score

Dan Leeson - May 9, 2009

Some orchestral programs are naturally perfect — the compositions are linked by friendly key relationships, similar temperaments, and compatible styles.

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Review

Spaced-Out Mussorgsky

Jeff Dunn - May 7, 2009

Another milestone in the history of American showmanship hit Walnut Creek’s Hofmann Theater last Sunday and Tuesday: California Symphony's claim to the world’s first presentation of a 3-D video to accompany — or rather, subordinate — a live performance of a symphonic work. The plea for more funding that followed was justified by the quality of the previous numbers on the program.

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Review

Putting on English Ayres and Rants

Anna Carol Dudley - May 5, 2009
Folks who showed up at Berkeley’s Music Sources Sunday evening, expecting to be transported to the Dorset Garden Theatre in 17th-century London, found that the Theatre’s advertised program had undergone some changes. Since a couple of key players in the Galileo Project had transported themselves back to Estonia, said Project had withdrawn from the program.
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Review

Byzantium in Rome

David Bratman - May 5, 2009
Stanford University’s Memorial Church turned into a Byzantine abbey for two hours on Sunday evening, with a concert of medieval Byzantine chant performed by the vocal group Cappella Romana, from Portland, Oregon.
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Review

Joel Fan's Music of the Americas

Jason Victor Serinus - May 5, 2009
Pianist Joel Fan, a longtime member of Yo-Yo Ma’s genre-busting Silk Road Ensemble, has just released West of the Sun: Music of the Americas.
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Review

Beating Expectations

Be'eri Moalem - May 4, 2009

On Thursday the Ives Quartet ended a season of high-quality playing with interesting programming, all in a friendly atmosphere at St. Mark’s Church in midtown Palo Alto. An intriguing new work by Dan Becker provided food for thought.

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Review

Raising a Joyful Song

Jaime Robles - May 4, 2009
In a very local and personal interpretation of its mission to perform “newly commissioned works of promising composers,” the vibrant young choral group International Orange Chorale sang a program on Friday of diverse and original work by contemporary California composers.
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Review

Passion and Absence

Jeff Dunn - April 29, 2009

The interaction of passion and absence at Monday's Laurel Ensemble concert made for a memorable and at times frustrating evening at Temple Emanu-El's Martin Meyer Sanctuary.

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Review

Playing B's From the A-List

Jerry Kuderna - April 28, 2009

After two staggering performances of Bach and Beethoven at Krystian Zimerman’s recital Friday, sponsored by Cal Performances at Zellerbach Hall, the familiar thought came to mind: “How can you follow that?”

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Review

Young Genius in a Hurry

Janos Gereben - April 28, 2009
Among the many astonishing things about Yuja Wang is her relationship to time. At 22, already a leading pianist in the world, she not only made her first appearance — as a virtual unknown — only three years ago in San Francisco at a Chinese New Year Concert matinee, but a mere eight years ago she was still studying at the Beijing Conservatory, where Western music meant the time before Brahms.