Reviews

In praise of Scarlatti, the estimable Voices of Music lament impressively.

The stars were aligned in Piedmont for the fifth and concluding program of the Berkeley Symphony’s season chamber series.

The “Minimalist Jukebox,” a grand exploration of minimalism, is spinning Los Angeles itself. Two days belonged to the man who started it all: Terry Riley.

Switch-ups mark the annual Switchboard Music Festival, with genres from all over the map (and then some) and a lot of radical playing going on.

When he is back in town to solidify his position as the Symphony’s Conductor Laureate, Herbert Blomstedt conducts the repertoire he loves, and that San Francisco audiences most love to hear from him.

Vivaldi’s vocal whirlwinds are as nothing to the massed forces of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorus as they mount the extravagant oratorio Judith triumphans.

Effortlessly parsing Apollonian and Dionysiac aesthetics, Manuel Barrueco’s guitar enlivens arrangements of works by Bach and Scarlatti.

German’s Auryn Quartet (now in its fourth decade of prominence) plays Beethoven to a fare-thee-well in San José.

A San Francisco Ballet program of Caprice, Maelstrom, and Rite of Spring sparkles as the dancers go for all.

A composer’s passing is considered with thoughts of the voice and spirit living on, an idea that was pervasive at the memorial concert for the late Conrad Susa, presented by the S.F. Conservatory of Music.