Reviews Archive

The Kronos Quartet reunited with its former longtime cellist, Joan Jeanrenaud, on Sunday at UC Berkeley's Hertz Hall, for a program of fascinating, if not brilliant, new music. At their Cal Performances recital, the group premiered Vladimir Martynov’s Schubert-Quintet (Unfinished), commissioned by the ensemble. It essentially consists of a few measures lifted from the gorgeous slow second movement of Franz Schubert’s Cello Quintet, Op.

Since Christmas celebrates the birth of the Holy Son, a piece about the death of an earthly girl might seem out of place on a holiday concert. This weekend, though, the Pacific Mozart Ensemble, the Grammy-nominated chorus directed by Lynne Morrow and Richard Grant, delivered a winter concert that revolved around precisely such a piece.

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony has been played repeatedly in Sonoma County during the past decade, beginning with a memorable performance by the Santa Rosa Symphony under Jeffrey Kahane in the aftermath of 9/11. That event was so successful that several other renditions followed, including one in the Sonoma State University gym. The culmination, however, arrived at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday, with a spine-tingling presentation by the Santa Rosa Symphony under Music Director Bruno Ferrandis.

When Christine Lim of San Francisco Performances invited former San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow soprano Ji Young Yang to present a one-hour Salon at the Rex, Yang proposed a pairing with her fellow, former Adlerian, countertenor Gerald Thompson. Thus was born a duo recital that began with early music, then embraced the unexpected.

The duo immediately set the tone on Wednesday night with two works by Purcell.