Terry McNeill

Often the repertoire and locale of summer festivals seem, on first glance, a disconcerting mix, as the music we are used to hearing in a formal concert hall setting doesn’t smoothly combine with bucolic surroundings.

A conventional all-Russian program sidetracked the Marin Symphony’s “Salute to the Silver Screen” season theme Jan. 20, but few seemed to miss the cinematic connections. All evening the playing was first rank, and violinist Vadim Gluzman’s interpretation of the Tchaikovsky concerto provided plenty of pyrotechnical sizzle to excite an audience that not quite filled the Marin Veteran’s Auditorium.

Tonal balance and homogeneity of sound, rather than sharply etched lines, seem to be the hallmark of the best of the current string quartets. The estimable Jupiter String Quartet provided three casebook examples of this in its concert last Monday at the Napa Opera House.

From the evidence of the inaugural concerts of its 80th season, conductor Bruno Ferrandis has found a secure home with the Santa Rosa Symphony. Now the third-oldest in the state, this orchestra is playing better than ever for the French maestro, clearly finding his incisive section control and sonic balance to their liking, which was something not always present under predecessor Jeffrey Kahane.

The Marin Symphony launched its 55th season with a nearly impossible task — keep a full house at the Marin Civic Center concentrating on the music from the stage during a simultaneous screening of the famous film The Battleship Potemkin.

Napa Valley's Music in the Vineyards summer festival draws a devoted group of enthusiasts to its 17 concerts, often held in small winery spaces. Friday's concert was no exception. Three disparate works were heard by 65 people in a barrel-aging cave at the Stag's Leap Winery on Silverado Trail. Fanny Mendelssohn's first published work, Songs (Op. 1), got things off well.

Napa Valley's "Music in the Vineyards," now in its 13th season, produced an exciting and eclectic concert on Saturday afternoon in the small hall at the posh Silverado Cellars.