Lynn Harrell is one vital man. In the middle of an extended phone conversation about his forthcoming S.F. Jazz gig — he plays J.S. Bach’s complete Suites for Solo Cello this Thursday and Friday night in Grace Cathedral — the voice of a child punctuates the proceedings.
It’s fitting that Ruth Ann Swenson should celebrate the 25th anniversary of her operatic debut with a return to San Francisco Opera. The soprano’s illustrious career, which has taken her to opera houses around the world, got its start here with the company she calls “home.”
This month, the company plans to honor Swenson in style. In a special ceremony on July 6, S.F.
Leif Ove Andsnes is a pianist with an enormous repertory, ranging from classics to many contemporary composers, so you might presume that performing the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major Op.
Kate Royal is on the move. The soprano, who comes to Cal Performances April 13 as part of her first U.S. recital tour, is getting a serious taste of life on the road. Our first attempt at a phone interview hits a glitch — due to a scheduling change.
When András Schiff comes to San Francisco Performances to present another pair of concerts in his traversal of Beethoven’s complete piano sonatas, he'll be in good company. Sooner or later, pianists are drawn to the mountain and they have to climb it, some more than once.
Like freelancers in other fields — journalism comes to mind — Laura Jackson, one of the six finalists in the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra’s search for a music director to succeed Kent Nagano, flies in, forges bonds, does her job, and moves on.
Editor’s note: Opera and the Morbidity of Music, the collected commentaries for The New York Review of Books by noted critic and UC Berkeley music professor emeritus Joseph Kerman, will be published next month. This appreciation appeared in The Review in 1981, four years after the death of Maria Callas.
