Previews

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Come, See, and Conquer

Michael Zwiebach - February 2, 2010

There are far too many events at the San Francisco Conservatory to mention on SFCV, even if we restricted ourselves to the free ones. But when they do an entire opera for free, there's reason to open a space on your calendar to see it. The performances may not be in the elite professional category, but they're close enough that you won't mind, especially when all you have to pay for is a coffee at intermission.

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New Esterházy and Haydn

Michael Zwiebach - February 2, 2010

The New Esterházy Quartet has just finished a busy two-and-a-half year traversal of the complete quartets of Joseph Haydn. But that doesn't mean that this HIP (as in “historically informed performance”) group is resting on its laurels.

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Czerny’s “Fantasia” a Walk in the Park

Michael Zwiebach - February 1, 2010
The Bay Area is blessed with a cornucopia of chamber music series, most of which seem to be invisible to all but the most serious classical fans.
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Ruehr’s Novel ‘Response’ to Cypress’ ‘Call’

Jeff Kaliss - February 1, 2010
For its “Call & Response” program this year, San Francisco’s Cypress String Quartet is returning to a composer friend whom they’d commissioned earlier in the program’s 11-year history. That’s Elena Ruehr, who came out from Boston last month to work with the ensemble on her String Quartet No. 5, premiering at the end of February at Herbst Theatre.
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Brahms? A Bit Baroque?

Jonathan Rhodes Lee - January 26, 2010
On Valentine’s Day weekend, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra will present an all-Brahms program, featuring the Russian virtuoso violinist Viktoria Mullova in the composer’s great D-major violin concerto. The association of this composer with this orchestra might raise some eyebrows: Doesn’t the B in the orchestra’s name stand for Baroque?

Madrigals and Motets

Steven Winn - January 26, 2010
For anyone who cares about 17th-century music, 2010 is without question a Claudio Monteverdi year.
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Persian Myths and a Polish Romantic

Marianne Lipanovich - January 25, 2010
Music has always had a way of bridging gaps between cultures and bringing people closer together.
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A Schoenberg Multimedia Riot

Janos Gereben - January 25, 2010
 [The sound of Max Bruch’s Kol Nidrei is heard, starting with the full sound of the cello, as Arnold Schoenberg and Theodor Adorno listen.]

Schoenberg: “Stop! Today is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement when Kol Nidre is played. But why always Max Bruch’s? At least up here, on Parnassus, let’s hear my version for a change. Without the cello sentimentality of the Bruch.

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The Klezmer Shul That Transcends Tradition

Jason Victor Serinus - January 25, 2010
How can religious music devoid of language serve as a unifying force in a world divided by doctrine? This question led Veretski Pass, a unique klezmer trio, to create a new body of Jewish religious music titled The Klezmer Shul. Premiering in Jewish venues in Alameda (Feb. 8), Berkeley (Feb. 10), and Palo Alto (Feb.
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It's All in the Genes

Marianne Lipanovich - January 19, 2010
In some ways, the Ying Quartet will be returning to its roots when it plays the “American” String Quartet, Op. 96, by Dvořák at Kohl Mansion in February. Written when the composer was living in rural Iowa, it’s a special piece for the quartet, according to Phillip Ying, who plays viola.