Michelle Dulak Thomson

The new season includes music specialists — those who bring you the earliest music, and those who bring you the latest.

It was well worth the wait, to hear the Pražák Quartet’s fleet take on the Borodin Second Quartet.

A newly unearthed Vivaldi and some other bright little firebombs distinguish La Serenissima’s new disc.

Northern Sinfonia is the first to cut a disc with Hans Gál’s First Symphony: at turns wry, yearning, jesting, or ceaselessly melodic. It’s paired with a “cute and perky” Schubert symphony.

How to play a Haydn minuet? Listen and learn, from Philharmonia Baroque’s terrific disc.

Tanya Tomkins takes her sweet time on a new Bach disc, revealing a wealth of musical wisdom.

In Washington State, the Icicle Creek Piano Trio makes its repertoire sound natural, but almost too easy.

SFCV's longtime expert on all things stringed highlights seven fantastic new recordings by star violinists, including a few surprises.

Composer Gabriela Lena Frank, a master miniaturist, presents colorful chamber works drawn from her Peruvian heritage.

Smaller-scale oratorios that Bach repurposed are sung vibrantly by the Retrospect Ensemble, and wonderfully recorded.