Reviews

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Review

Nothing But the Music

Janos Gereben - April 26, 2009
Good old Herbst Theatre had a fabulous 24 hours over the weekend. Friday night, it hosted the Philharmonia Baroque's world-class presentation of Handel's Athalia. On Saturday — instead of soloists, chorus, and orchestra squeezed onto the small stage (how do they do that?!) — Herbst showcased Nelson Freire, a solitary artist in recital ...
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Review

Cold Case

Stephanie Friedman - April 23, 2009

As was announced before the concert by Ruth Felt, the gracious president of San Francisco Performances, Magdalena Kožená had been battling a nasty cold for several days, but the mezzo-soprano had decided to go through with her Herbst Theatre recital nevertheless. Red flags went up in my mind. A singer singing with a cold can present a problem for a reviewer: How to evaluate what the ears pick up?

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Review

American Voices

Jason Victor Serinus - April 20, 2009
Covered Wagon

Faster than a buckin’ bronco, the venerable Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe are hitching a ride

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Review

Suite Smell of Success

Steve Osborn - April 20, 2009
Bruno Ferrandis
A ballet suite is not a symphony, but don’t tell that to Bruno Ferrandis.
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Review

Power Play

Michael Zwiebach - April 20, 2009

The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and their indefatigable music director, Nicholas McGegan, were in top form as they tore into Handel’s oratorio Athalia Saturday night. That means that a writer can only cast about for enough synonyms for the word wonderful.

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Review

Rigoletto Meets the Mob

Jason Victor Serinus - April 20, 2009
Twenty minutes after the scheduled beginning of San Francisco Lyric Opera’s matinee performance of Verdi’s Rigoletto, General Manager Bob Scher stepped before the Cowell Theater curtain to speak. Thank God, the delay was due, not to a last-minute indisposition, but to the late, “I’m sure she’ll be here any minute,” arrival of a violinist.
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Review

A Rare Treat From a Treble Duo

Jonathan Rhodes Lee - April 20, 2009
You don't very often encounter ensembles specializing in music of the French salon. Even more rarely do you get to hear a pardessus de viol duo. Put those two conditions together and you've got the Catacoustic Consort, whose debut on the San Francisco Early Music Society's concert series (heard Saturday at St.
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Review

Tepid Carmen

Georgia Rowe - April 20, 2009
Under the right circumstances, Carmen can turn up the heat like no other opera. Opera San José’s serviceable new production keeps it at a steady simmer, but never quite reaches the boiling point.

With opera companies across the country feeling the pinch of the economic downturn, it makes sense to produce bankable hits such as Bizet’s 1875 melodrama.

Mozart's Turn

Heuwell Tircuit - April 20, 2009
This year’s season of the Avedis chamber music concerts has been devoted to small surveys of a given composer and his associates, per program.
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Review

Brave New World: The YouTube Orchestra's Maiden Voyage

George Loomis - April 16, 2009

NEW YORK — The YouTube Symphony Orchestra gave its first — and as far as anyone knows, only — concert last night and a good time was had by all. Isaac Stern Auditorium of Carnegie Hall glowed festively, or at least differently, with atmospheric lighting.