William Quillen

William Quillen is a Ph.D. candidate in historical musicology at UC Berkeley.

Articles By This Author

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Review

Terrific Timbres

William Quillen - February 10, 2009

Conductor David Robertson returned to San Francisco last week to lead the San Francisco Symphony in performances of Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, and Scriabin. Robertson once again showed his uncanny ability to summon forth rapturous sounds from this ensemble.

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Review

Terrific Timbres

William Quillen - February 3, 2009

Conductor David Robertson returned to San Francisco last week to lead the San Francisco Symphony in performances of Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, and Scriabin. Robertson once again showed his uncanny ability to summon forth rapturous sounds from this ensemble. I first heard him conduct the SFS in a 2002 performance of Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony, which counts as some of the most glorious — and certainly the loudest — orchestral playing I've ever heard.

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Review

San Francisco's Symbiosis

William Quillen - January 20, 2009
As the economic crisis imperils arts organizations large and small, it was wonderful to see a near-capacity crowd fill Davies Symphony Hall on Saturday evening for the San Francisco Symphony's performance of works by Tilson Thomas, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich, featuring pianist Garrick Ohlsson as soloist and conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.
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Review

Stravinsky's Plain Folks

William Quillen - October 28, 2008
The Oakland Opera delighted listeners Saturday with a double bill of Stravinsky's theatrical works, Histoire du Soldat (1918) and Renard (1916).

Blazing Music-making

William Quillen - July 24, 2007
The Napa Valley's second annual Festival del Sole continued last Wednesday with another stellar performance by the Russian National Orchestra in Yountville's Lincoln Theater.

Nagano Rings Down the Curtain

William Quillen - May 15, 2007
Maestro Kent Nagano led the Berkeley Symphony in a rousing season finale on Friday night at First Congregational Church in Berkeley. However exciting it turned out to be, the concert was nevertheless bittersweet, as that evening marked the beginning of the end of Nagano's full-time (and long-time) music directorship of the Symphony.
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Review

Double Trouble

William Quillen - May 1, 2007
On Friday evening, the UC Davis-based Empyrean Ensemble made a guest appearance on San Francisco's respectable Old First Concert series, presenting a reprise of its program "Double Trouble," first performed one month ago at the Mondavi Center in Davis.

Modern Italian Sprezzatura

William Quillen - April 24, 2007
Last Wednesday, violinist Graeme Jennings treated a Berkeley audience to a thrilling performance of unaccompanied violin music from three of the towering figures of Italian music of the second half of the 20th century — Luciano Berio, Franco Donatoni, and Salvatore Sciarrino.