Reviews

Everyone knows organists play their instrument with their feet as well as their hands. Pedals have long been a hallmark of the organ's sound and of the organist's skill — so much so that on most organs nowadays, a recital of music with little or no pedal could sound at best unimpressive, at worst a poor reflection on the performer.

Musicality, discipline, and good programming were much in evidence Friday evening as the San Francisco Girls Chorus presented "Music Fit for a Queen," consisting entirely of music from the British Isles, all sung from memory. The first half was devoted to rarely heard music, the second half to more familiar works.

Liturgical reconstructions usually do not make for successful concerts. So it has been a relief to see this trend in early music performance diminish over the past two decades. The main problems, as performers learned through experience, are length and entertainment value. Polyphonic music was often reserved for the most important feasts of the year, which could last an ungodly number of hours.

I first discovered the Russian Patriarchate Choir of Moscow through a series of recordings released on the early music label Opus 111 in the 1990s. It may be surprising to associate a Russian religious choir with early music, but in this case, the label is apt.

Two extraordinary treble choirs joined forces in a concert Monday at Holy Names University: Carmina Slovenica, from Slovenia, and the Piedmont Choir Ensemble from the Bay Area.

We in the Bay Area have had a remarkable number of opportunities to hear the young violinist Hilary Hahn, whose more-or-less-yearly performances here stretch all the way back to her Brahms Concerto with the Santa Rosa Symphony in 1999.

A number of fine Czech string quartets have graced Bay Area concert venues in recent years, but Sunday night marked the first appearance of one of the most venerable, the Talich Quartet, established in Prague in 1964.

When the ghost of Jacob Marley first appears in Dickens' A Christmas Carol, practical, level-headed Ebenezer Scrooge suspects "an undigested bit of beef" at work, rather than a supernatural knocking at the door.

For most choral aficionados, the words English anthem call to mind the rich repertoire of English-texted music for the Anglican liturgy.

For its opening concert of the season last Tuesday, Composers Inc. presented an often intriguing mix of pieces, including two piano solos, a couple of unusual duos, a trio, and a quartet finale. Pianist Eliane Lust began the program with a crisp, dynamic rendition of Three Pieces for Piano, by Jeffrey Miller (2007).