Robert P. Commanday
Robert P. Commanday, founding editor of San Francisco Classical Voice, was the music critic of The San Francisco Chronicle from 1965 to 1993, and before that a conductor and lecturer at UC Berkeley.
Articles by this Author
Obituary
December 6, 2012
Reah Sadowsky, a pianist once hailed as a San Francisco Wunderkind alongside Isaac Stern, Ruggiero Ricci, and Yehudi Menuhin, who then carved out a uniquely distributed career, died in her Berkeley home at the age of 96.
More "In Memoriam Reah Sadowsky: 1915-2012" »Chamber Orchestra/Orchestra REVIEW
September 30, 2012
The brilliant new Weill Hall starred in the Green Music Center’s gala opening, eclipsing even the playing of the Santa Rosa Symphony and Lang Lang and the work of three conductors.
More »Opera REVIEW
July 27, 2012
“Here’s a how-de-do!” — the Lamplighters lend their storied charm to another bright production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s witty, belovedMikado.
More about Lamplighters Music Theatre »Chamber Orchestra/Orchestra REVIEW
May 6, 2012
The UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, comprising mostly students, plays gallantly in a mixed-bill at Mondavi Center.
More about UC Davis Music Department »Feature Article
October 25, 2011
SFCV’s founder and long-time writer on the S.F. Symphony reviews its new official history and reports for the first time on some of what he witnessed that didn’t quite make it into the book.
More "S.F. Symphony History: Eyewitness Stories Retold" »Opera REVIEW
August 19, 2011
A true-to-the-original production of Gershwin’s masterwork is blessed by four outstanding women singer/actors, but marred by lax baton work.
More »Opera REVIEW
June 5, 2011
As shown in Götterdämmerung, Francesca Zambello believes that the entire Ring drama can shine the light on the women.
More about San Francisco Opera »Choral REVIEW
May 28, 2011
An unknown sacred work by Antonio Vivaldi receives its Bay Area debut, voiced by Chora Nova.
More about Chora Nova »Opera REVIEW
May 29, 2011
Despite some regrettable directorial and production choices, S.F. Opera’s Siegfried still delivers strong characters that are very well sung, backed by first-class playing from the orchestra pit.
More about San Francisco Opera »Choral REVIEW
May 1, 2011
Brahms’ rich choral works rise again, in a fine program by Paul Flight’s California Bach Society; a little Fauré follows, across the street, sung by the UC Alumni Chorus.
More about California Bach Society »
Upcoming Concert
Through April 10
The noted Bay Area composer Andrew Imbrie, who would have turned 90 this year, will be celebrated with a series of concerts, a symposium, and a display of his collected scores and manuscripts.
More about Composers, Inc. »Choral REVIEW
January 8, 2011
Escaping from “lake-effect” snow and winter, the venerable Cornell Glee Club brought a warm mixture of Romantic-inflected music to its Bay Area concerts.
More about San Francisco Conservatory of Music »Obituary
December 7, 2010
Jane Hohfeld Galante, a leading chamber musician and prominent San Franciscan, died at her home in San Francisco Wednesday morning.
More "In Memoriam: Jane Galante 1924-2010" »Opera REVIEW
August 12, 2010
Were there the shadow of a doubt of the continuing and historic power of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde to capture and move its audiences, this summer’s Seattle Opera production dispelled it, two major shortcomings notwithstanding. The leading strength in Thursday’s fourth of seven performances was appropriately the orchestra.
More »Obituary
April 27, 2010
Alan Rich, America’s most outspoken classical music critic, died in his sleep Friday in his home in West Los Angeles at the age of 85. For his entire career, he was as full-out in his enthusiasms and advocacies as he was unsparing and sharp in his assessments, always making a deep impression.
More "In Memoriam: Alan Rich1924-2010" »
Feature Article
February 23, 2010
The dust had not even settled after the Green Music Center’s successful acoustical debut on Feb. 12, when a storm blew up in Sonoma County turning that dust into a gray cloud over the entire project. The storm last Thursday, Feb. 18, was the raid by the FBI and other investigators on Sonoma State University’s administration and finance department and the seizure of computers and boxes of records.
More "Dustup in Sonoma County" »Chamber Orchestra/Orchestra REVIEW
February 13, 2010
While California and its constituent parts sit in a blue mood, Sonoma County on Friday night was celebrating the future and its hopes. At least, 350 of its movers and shakers were doing that, the donors who had raised much of the $96 million toward building the Green Music Center on the Rohnert Park campus of Sonoma State University. In their presence that night, the Santa Rosa Symphony gave the first real test to the auditorium that bids to be the prime symphony hall in Northern California.
More about Santa Rosa Symphony »Obituary
December 29, 2009
Mariedi Anders, a leading American concert manager and the first in San Francisco, died Dec. 26 in the California Pacific Hospital after a short illness. She was 94. She was a major agent on the West Coast, managing her Mariedi Anders Artists Management, Inc., for 50 years, right up to her death. She was noted throughout the industry for her devotion to her artists, her energy, and her determination in the introduction of new artists.
More "In Memoriam: Mariedi Anders1915-2009" »
Chamber Music REVIEW
October 25, 2009
The San Francisco Symphony’s Chamber Music Series, offered most Sunday afternoons, is a dependable bet. There, members of the Symphony emerge as individuals from orchestral submersion and can be heard doing what they most like to do, as best they can. The players, not the Symphony, program it, so there is little or no Russian music, no Mahler, but rather music of fresh interest — as was the case last Sunday in Davies Symphony Hall.
More »Opera REVIEW
August 18, 2009
The Seattle Opera’s Siegfried performed heroically on Wednesday, fighting the lingering effects of an illness more challenging than Fafner the dragon. Stig Andersen’s strategy worked.
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