Previews

Itzhak Perlman and the San Francisco Symphony

Michael Zwiebach - October 7, 2009
You may not have heard Edward Elgar's Introduction and Allegro for String Orchestra, Op. 47, which opens Itzhak Perlman's concert with the San Francisco Symphony next week. But its neo-Baroque form and polyphonic wizardry make an interesting counterpoint with the following work on the program, Bach's Violin Concerto No. 2.

Earplay

Michael Zwiebach - October 7, 2009

It's not hard to imagine a small organization like Earplay having a "now what?" moment in the wake of the economic devastation that dried up foundation grants, donations, and other sources of arts funding. But the determined new-music group came up with a winner of a fundraiser.

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Preview

Anonymous 4 Reveals Sacred Secrets

Lisa Petrie - October 5, 2009

If vocal chant is the most pure, devotional form of music (as was thought in the Middle Ages), then Anonymous 4 is its guardian angel.

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Preview

Those Sensitive Salzburgians

Rebecca Liao - October 5, 2009
On most weekdays, you can probably hear a collective groan on Interstate 80 from commuters traveling to and from the Sacramento area.

BluePrint Festival of New Music

Michael Zwiebach - September 29, 2009

The BluePrint Festival is the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's ongoing 20th century/ new music series, and it takes advantage of the Conservatory students' technical prowess and their fearlessness in approaching unusual music.

This season Music Director Nicole Paiement organizes several concerts for mixed forces, including artists from other disciplines.

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Preview

A Family Affair:Katona Twins With Nomura

Brian Gleeson - September 29, 2009
For families with young children, deciding whether to enjoy live music together is usually a matter of priorities. Weekends scheduled with wall-to-wall soccer matches, birthday parties, and assorted play dates can seem like a frenetic sprint to Monday morning.

Add to that mix the sometimes-daunting challenge of discovering an appropriate live classical music performance for children.

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Preview

Berkeley Symphony Vivifies the Immigrant Experience

Jeff Dunn - September 29, 2009
You’re stuffed into a car trunk with three people for so many hours that, when you’re let out into the dark night, your eyes don’t work at first. To your horror, you discover you’ve been dumped off in a cemetery in a foreign country. To the sound of ghostly church bells, bizarre yellow dots flash before your eyes.
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Preview

Philharmonia Baroque, In the Thick of Friendship and Fighting

Joseph Sargent - September 28, 2009
Elizabeth Wallfisch
Amid the glamour and glitz of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra’s’s 2009-2010 season, the ensemble’s October concert set “The Concerto: An Adversar
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Preview

Perahia's Welcome Return

Marianne Lipanovich - September 28, 2009
Murray Perahia

Internationally renowned pianist Murray Perahia returns to San Francisco to open the 2009–2010 season of the San Francisco Symphony’s Great Per

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Preview

Taking a Fresh Look at Otello

Jeff Kaliss - September 28, 2009
The title of the piece opening Stanford Lively Arts’ 2009-2010 season, aside from its references to Shakespeare’s play of four centuries ago and Verdi’s adaptation (as Otello) to the operatic stage in 1887, denotes a psychopathological rage based on suspected spousal infidelity. There’s a threat, with The Othello Syndrome, that lovers of classical literature and music might be driven into a simila