Reviews

Warhorses at a Trot

Lisa Hirsch - February 5, 2008
Once upon a time, a symphony-goer would regularly find concerts on an orchestra's schedule consisting of an overture, a concerto, and a popular warhorse or two, light programs notable more for their entertainment value than substance.
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Review

Total ImMERCEsion

Janice Berman - January 29, 2008
Predictably, the two versions of Merce Cunningham's eyeSpace seen on consecutive nights of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's engagement at Stanford University last weekend, presented by Stanford Lively Arts, looked so different from each other as to be separate creations. What was less predictable was the difference in their affect, their effect.
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Review

Messiaen, Heaven Sent

Jason Victor Serinus - January 29, 2008
“Was he hitting all the notes?” I asked the highly respected Bay Area pianist who was assiduously following Messiaen’s score in the seat in front of me at UC Berkeley's Hertz Hall. “Hitting all the notes?” he replied with more than a touch of incredulity.
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Review

An Off-Season Oratorio

Joseph Sargent - January 29, 2008
Early music aficionados across the Bay Area would have been wise to circle American Bach Soloists' January performance of J.S. Bach's Weihnachts-Oratorio (Christmas oratorio) on their calendars.
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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.