Le Poème Harmonique, June 7 and 9

The astonishingly versatile French early music specialists dazzled the crowd at the resurgent Berkeley Festival with two wildly divergent nights: the tranquil tenebrae settings by Michel-Richard de Lalande, sung hypnotically as candles were extinguished one by one in First Congregational Church; and the rollicking musical carnival, complete with acrobatic mischief-makers from Le Centre National des Arts du Cirque, at Zellerbach Playhouse.

Philharmonia Chorale, Dec. 3

The Bay Area is blessed with an abundance of first-rate choruses. The Christmas Oratorio from the Philharmonia Chorale (and the orchestra’s associated instrumentalists, of course) offered the most memorable performance among the dozens of choral concerts I attended in 2006. But two close runners up were concerts by American Bach Choir (formerly the chorus of American Bach Soloists) on Feb. 25 and AVE on Feb. 4. (Journalistic ethics demand that I exclude the fine groups I sang with in 2006, such as Pacific Collegium, UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus in King Arthur, and California Bach Society.)

Magnificat, Jan. 28

The nimble singers and players in Magnificat shone all year long under gifted director Warren Stewart, but especially in Heinrich Schütz’s Symphoniae
Sacrae II.

Thomas Adès, Dec. 9

The English pianist-composer had me spellbound with his exquisite shaping of Janácek's miniature piano works and In the Mist, and of Adès' own Darknesse Visible, based on a John Dowland lute song.

Belcea Quartet, March 5

In a year that threatened to dull even Mozart through sheer overexposure, the Belcea Quartet's zesty, infectiously enthusiastic performances of two of the Birthday Boy's later quartets recaptured, for me, the keen joy of meeting this music for the first time. The Britten Third Quartet, also on the program, showed the Belceas to have terrific coloristic resources, as well as a sharp sense of humor.

Brentano Quartet, April 2

The Brentano Quartet's accounts, with guest violist Hsin-Yun Huang, of three Mozart string quintets bespoke loving preparation, but also fearless (indeed, almost reckless) enjoyment. To some of Mozart's most subtle chamber music, the ensemble brought an uncommon combination of intensity, finesse, and plain high spirits.

Midori, April 15
Midori, April 27

There cannot be many ex-prodigies who have matured so interestingly as Midori. Never quite following the conventional violin wunderkind's path (as I recall it, she played the Alban Berg Concerto at Aspen when she was 13), in maturity she is devoting her keen technique and keener ear to sorting through the best new music for her instrument, understanding it, playing it, and teaching it. Her symposium/master class in mid-April and the recital that followed two weeks later constituted new-music advocacy at its best. The music was fantastically varied, infallibly fascinating; the performances (it goes without saying) were superb; and the musical intelligence behind the whole enterprise was something beyond either.

English Concert, Oct. 29

Andrew Manze's wild, 17th-century-honed musical imagination might be thought an ill fit for Mozart, and indeed his kittenish performance of the Third Violin Concerto with the English Concert was playful almost to a fault. But the band's account of the great G Minor Symphony under Manze's direction was extraordinary: taut, intense, bristling, uncannily large. "Sweetness and light" it was not.

Festival del Sole, July 21

In the July 21 concert of Napa's Festival del Sole, Stéphane Denève deftly elicited an exciting performance from the Russian National Orchestra in music by Ravel, and pianist Piotr Anderszewski wowed patrons with his rendition of Karol Szymanowski’s Symphonie Concertante, Op. 60, a terrific piece that deserves a more prominent place in the repertoire.

Kronos Quartet, Sept. 11

Finally, in terms of ambition, I must acknowledge the contribution of the Kronos Quartet to the body of artistic responses to 9/11. Its "Awakening" concert on Sept. 11, while flawed by its centerpiece, Michael Gordon’s tedious The Sad Park, was nonetheless a remarkable international mix of musics on the evening’s theme. Most notable was a stunning Canadian contribution, Spectre, by John Oswald.

The following week, Conlon’s Verdi Requiem, was as good as it gets — a beautifully shaped and idiomatic performance. Soloists Christine Brewer and Stephanie Blythe sang with breathtaking beauty and control (and plenty of decibels). The Symphony played with a richer, more luminous tone than it usually produces for Michael Tilson Thomas, and the Symphony Chorus was ethereal or thunderous as needed.

San Francisco Opera, Sept. 9
San Francisco Opera, Oct. 5

Meanwhile across the street, the fall season could have been nicknamed “The Two Faces of Donald Runnicles,” with the maestro at the helm of two vastly different operas. His Die Fledermaus bubbled along hilariously, its great timing on stage abetted by the spring and bounce in the pit. Debuting soprano Christine Goerke sang gloriously, charming the entire audience. Runnicles' Tristan und Isolde shimmered, the orchestra transparent and perfectly balanced, overwhelming the listener through sheer beauty rather than mass. Christine Brewer sang a knockout Isolde, with kudos to Jane Irwin, Boaz Daniel, and Kristinn Sigmundsson.

Volti, Nov. 4

In a different sound-world entirely, the chamber chorus Volti sang a stunning, and nearly indescribable, program of recent music from the Baltic region by composers mostly little-known in the States: Arvo Pärt, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Pekka Kostianen, Olli Kortekangas, Veljo Tormis, and Per Nørgård. Robert Geary and his chorus executed the concert brilliantly, from the joyfully yodeling herder-boys of Tormis' Helletused to the almost hallucinatory power of Pärt's ... which was the son of ... to Rautavaara's surprising Lorca settings. It was truly one of those rare performances the audience would have been happy to hear all over again.

Music@Menlo, Aug. 15

It was utter rapture as the stage lights dimmed and Anthony McGill made his deeply felt, improvisatory-sounding way through the solo clarinet movement of Messiaen’s worshipful masterpiece, Quatuor pour la fin du temps. McGill’s colleagues were also riveting. The performance rather put Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, which followed, in the shade, not something that often happens to Mozart.

Symphony Silicon Valley, Sept. 30

This orchestra can be somewhat hit or miss, but they hit with a charming Tchaikovsky Second Symphony under Emil de Cou. I’m still humming it, months later. Other highlights of the year: a dazzlingly fluid Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique under Paul Polivnick in May, and Gary Hoffman’s painfully honest solo in the Shostakovich First Cello Concerto in October.

San Francisco Symphony, Oct. 18

Semyon Bychkov led an epic, massive performance of Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony. He conducted the way MTT conducts Mahler — with all the stops out, grand, wide, and passionate. Jean-Yves Thibaudet was the pianist, and we might never hear again such a strong, solid performance of such a fast, flashy concerto as Saint-Saëns’ Second.

eighth blackbird, Feb. 1

Eighth blackbird's staged performance of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire at San Francisco State, with the players and singer Lucy Shelton all performing from memory and moving about the stage, was also fabulously costumed, along with large puppets.

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, April 21

Philharmonia's performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on Nicholas McGegan Day in San Francisco was the orchestra's audacious and highly successful venture into Davies Hall, playing on Beethoven-era instruments rather than their usual Baroque ones.

American Bach Soloists, May 13

The American Bach Soloists' performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion was a beautifully paced, moving performance by the chorus and many excellent vocal and instrumental soloists, under the direction of Jeffrey Thomas.

Clerestory, Oct. 22

The debut of a new all-male vocal group, Clerestory, featured eight exceptionally gifted singers, singing sacred and secular medieval and Renaissance repertoire in perfect ensemble.

(Mickey Butts is executive director, editor, and publisher of San Francisco Classical Voice. His writing has appeared in Salon, The Nation, Food & Wine, The Financial Times, The Industry Standard, Wired, and The San Francisco Chronicle. Michelle Dulak Thomson is a violinist and violist who has written about music for Strings, Stagebill, Early Music America, and The New York Times. Jeff Dunn is a freelance critic with a B.A. in music and a Ph.D. in geologic education. A composer of piano and vocal music, he is a member of NACUSA and president of Composers Inc. Lisa Hirsch, a technical writer, studied music at Brandeis and SUNY/Stony Brook. David Bratman is a librarian who lives with his lawfully wedded soprano and a wall full of symphony recordings. Anna Carol Dudley is a singer, teacher, member of the faculty of UC Berkeley, San Francisco State University lecturer emerita, and director emerita of the San Francisco Early Music Society's Baroque Music Workshop.)