Reviews

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Review

Velvet Hands

Heuwell Tircuit - January 29, 2008

For tasteful, technically assured virtuosity and highly expressive musicality, you won’t find many toppers to Valentin Surif’s piano recital on Friday evening in San Francisco’s Old First Church. That plus excellent programming made for a special evening for those of us who braved the awful weather to hear him.

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Review

Highs From the Low Country

David Bratman - January 29, 2008
The Dutch language is closely related to Low German, but for at least the past two centuries the Netherlands' cultural relations have been as close with France as with any other country.
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Review

Rock and Dmitri, Transfigured

Jonathan Russell - January 29, 2008
What do a Stalin-era Russian composer and a contemporary British rock band have in common? That was the intriguing question posed by Christopher O’Riley in a piano recital last Wednesday at Stanford’s Dinkelspiel Auditorium in Palo Alto. Part of the Stanford Lively Arts series, the program consisted solely of preludes and fugues from the Op.

Not Enough of a Good Thing

Jeff Dunn - January 29, 2008
A fairly standard lineup: Wagner, Bach, Mendelssohn, and a new work having its first West Coast performance. A predictable response: moderate applause for the Wagner, a loyal standing ovation for the concertmaster soloist in the Bach, an enthusiastic reception for the Mendelssohn — and a tepid "So what?" for the new piece.
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Review

A Satisfying Requiem in Oakland

Michael Zwiebach - January 29, 2008
It’s always worth braving the elements to hear Verdi’s Requiem Mass, a score that is equally elemental and multifaceted.
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Review

Sounds Like This

Jules Langert - January 29, 2008

In spite of wet weather, a large and enthusiastically youthful audience gathered at Mills College's Lisser Hall on Saturday to hear the music of Helmut Lachenmann, an admired German avant-gardist, and currently the school's composer in residence. Born in 1935, he studied with Luigi Nono and Karlheinz Stockhausen in the late 1950s, attracted by the experimentalism of the times, which has deeply influenced his own work.

Memory Lapse

Alexander Kahn - January 29, 2008
Last week the San Francisco Symphony offered up two quite different versions of what the ascent to heaven sounds like. Under the direction of guest conductor Myung-Whun Chung, the orchestra performed an innovative program that featured Olivier Messiaen's L'Ascension and Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 1 ("Titan").

Cool and Bloodless

Stephanie Friedman - January 29, 2008
In a recital by tenor Ian Bostridge and pianist Julius Drake devoted entirely to Schubert songs, it was, strangely, the piano that shone.

Classical Music Unwound

Jessica Balik - January 22, 2008
Is it possible to move in two directions simultaneously? Generally, you move either forward or backward.

Rare Finds in Deft Hands

Michelle Dulak Thomson - January 22, 2008
It's one of the quirks of the music business that star players tend to get locked into playing and recording only the most familiar repertoire, at least early in stardom. Look at the trajectory of any young violinist signed by a major label (if, that is, you can find one).