Jeff Dunn

Charles Amirkhanian, artistic director, Other Minds Festival: "How important is it for you to write something that’s never been heard before?" Keeril Makan, assistant professor of music, MIT: "Nothing’s been heard before."

To this reviewer, however, everything at the third and final concert of the 13th Other Minds Festival at the

When does 180 miles equal light-years? When you hear Sibelius’ Seventh Symphony and Shostakovich’s Ninth on the same concert, and realize that the composers’ hometowns (Järvenpää and Leningrad) are that far apart from each other. The symphonies are profound, and profoundly different.

The guest conductors’ parade began last Thursday.

Ed Sullivan, it is said, had a surefire method for putting together a successful show: Open big, schedule a good comedy act, put in something for children, and keep it clean. If only planning a symphony season were that easy.

An ominous postcard greeted San Francisco Symphony subscribers a month ago.

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.

Last Wednesday's San Francisco Symphony concert presented a strong contrast in luster. The second half had it; the first lacked it. First, there was a fairly opaque opening number, Oliver Knussen's Symphony No.

As we begin the new year, San Francisco Classical Voice takes a look back at the performances of 2007 that some of our reviewers most enjoyed. As with any such list, the choices are entirely subjective.

Contemporary composers are like presidential candidates: A few front-runners get all the attention while others languish at the margins of recognition. And then there are the two major "parties," the American and the European. How does a composer from Latin America stand a chance? Armando Castellano founded Quinteto Latino to provide such chances, having grown up in a U.S.

The music is necessarily colored by the life. —Edward Elgar

Conductor Leonard Slatkin and the San Francisco Symphony had multiple personalities to deal with in last week's concert program: the trickster in Franz Josef Haydn (Symphony No. 67), the troubled craftsman in Samuel Barber (his Piano Concerto), and the elusive alluder in Edward Elgar (Enigma Variations).