Reviews

The American Bach Soloists’ presentation of the 1725 version of Bach’s St.

What does it mean to be an American? This question — provoked by the Oakland East Bay Symphony’s concert Friday — people have been asking in this country from jump, and we have in our collective memory a wide array of answers.

A well-known guitar legend quotes Chopin as saying, “Nothing is more beautiful than a guitar, save perhaps two.” Mark Eden and Christopher Stell, the Eden Stell Guitar Duo, gave evidence on Saturday at the Veterans Building Green Room with their magnificent sound, vivid interpretations, and telepathic ensemble.

For mastery of dynamics, unity of utterance, and sheer tonal beauty, aficionados would be hard-pressed to find a more accomplished a cappella ensemble than the Swedish Radio Choir.

It’s hard to know what to make of Thursday's concert at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts. Was it a classical music event that featured The Dodos? Was it an indie rock concert with the Magik*Magik Orchestra? It was just this ambiguity, this realm that falls somewhere between modern classical and indie rock that was probably the goal of the Magik*Magik Orchestra, and their director, Minna Choi.

At the February 25 San Francisco Symphony matinee, Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt led the orchestra in two polar opposite symphonic masterpieces.

Wander through the meandering roads of San Francisco's Presidio National Park, pass the George Lucas Pavilion, cross the huge parade grounds where cute vehicles parry in jerky zigzags as San Franciscans learn to operate manual transmissions, and veer off on a smaller path before the main road and you will discover an antique, white barrack newly renovated as an open, two-story gallery space for th

Berkeley Opera, undergoing some significant changes, is assuring its audience that all is well, by presenting an engaging production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

Even in a standard-repertoire program, there was something cheeky about the world’s oldest civic orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (est. 1743), putting Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony on Sunday’s opening bill of a two-night stand at Davies Symphony Hall. But by then, after a transportingly good performance of the Chopin Piano Concerto No.

An infrequently mounted masterpiece, bounteous with beautiful and dramatic passages, and delivered by a cast headed by fine principal voices, forms a strong foundation for edifying opera.