Reviews

Songs That Serenade, Scintillate, and Provoke

Jason Victor Serinus - May 12, 2009

Jake Heggie. There are few contemporary composers so loved and adored, yet so controversial. When he’s on, his music can be touching, endearing, entertaining, hilarious, and/or heart-shakingly profound by turns. As a person, he’s handsome, delightful, and admirably out about his gayness.

Review

Alive Recording

Jonathan Rhodes Lee - May 11, 2009

When Baroque Nouveau’s new disc of Jean Philippe Rameau’s Pièces de clavecin en concert first came across my desk, a cursory glance down the playlist raised a perplexing question: Why did the group present the pieces out of order? There are five concerts in this collection, and the group orders them 4, 5, 1, 2, 3. Listening to the disc dispels any qualms with the arrangement.

Review

Masters Without Apology

David Bratman - May 11, 2009

“Spring Symphonies” is the title that Symphony Silicon Valley gave to its May program, which I heard Saturday at the California Theatre in San José. Sure, it’s adequately descriptive for a concert performed in the spring. Yet neither of the symphonies on the program had Spring or Pastoral in their titles, or any other obvious programmatic connection with the season.

Ambrose Field and John Potter Being Dufay

Review

Early Music Meetsthe Electronic Age

Jason Victor Serinus - May 11, 2009

This is a remarkable CD. At first glance, its pairing of Ambrose Field’s live and studio electronics with the voice of former Hilliard Ensemble tenor John Potter singing the music of Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474) may seem like an update of Officium, the best-selling ECM early music recording from 1994 that partnered Jan Garbarek’s distinctive saxophone with the voices of the Hilliard Ensemble.

Review

Grandmotherly Inspiration

Be'eri Moalem - May 10, 2009

The Presidio is a dark corner of the City by the Bay, surrounded by thick forest, ancient military architecture, and a memorial cemetery. It’s one of the few places on San Francisco’s map where the relentless grid of straight roads gives bending way to some of the steep hills.

Review

The Perfect Score

Dan Leeson - May 9, 2009

Some orchestral programs are naturally perfect — the compositions are linked by friendly key relationships, similar temperaments, and compatible styles.

Review

Spaced-Out Mussorgsky

Jeff Dunn - May 7, 2009

Another milestone in the history of American showmanship hit Walnut Creek’s Hofmann Theater last Sunday and Tuesday: California Symphony's claim to the world’s first presentation of a 3-D video to accompany — or rather, subordinate — a live performance of a symphonic work. The plea for more funding that followed was justified by the quality of the previous numbers on the program.

Review

Putting on English Ayres and Rants

Anna Carol Dudley - May 5, 2009

Folks who showed up at Berkeley’s Music Sources Sunday evening, expecting to be transported to the Dorset Garden Theatre in 17th-century London, found that the Theatre’s advertised program had undergone some changes. Since a couple of key players in the Galileo Project had transported themselves back to Estonia, said Project had withdrawn from the program.

Review

Byzantium in Rome

David Bratman - May 5, 2009

Stanford University’s Memorial Church turned into a Byzantine abbey for two hours on Sunday evening, with a concert of medieval Byzantine chant performed by the vocal group Cappella Romana, from Portland, Oregon.