Reviews

About the Size of It

Jeff Dunn - May 19, 2009

Small fit all at Sunday’s Berkeley Akadamie concert, but medium and large were another story. The opening number, Mozart’s Divertimento in D Major, K. 136, was played by only a string quintet. It was so well done, and the First Congregational Church acoustics were so beneficial, that the five sounded like a full string orchestra.

Review

The Joy of Ma

John Lutterman - May 19, 2009

Best known in recent years for his willingness to explore a broad variety of postmodern musical styles and cultures, on Thursday night Yo-Yo Ma graced the stage of the Mondavi Center at UC Davis with a program of J.S. Bach’s unaccompanied cello suites, a return to the repertoire that he cut his teeth on.

Review

Fiery Performances

Heuwell Tircuit - May 18, 2009

The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra featured two first symphonies in excellent performances in their concert at Davies Symphony Hall on Sunday. Conductor Benjamin Shwartz had clearly prepared his charges well as the orchestra outdid even their usual high standards. And there was a minor scare thrown in for good measure.

Review

Boat Taking on Water

Jason Victor Serinus - May 18, 2009

When it came to the soloists, the “Show Boat in Concert/From the Jerome Kern Songbook,” this season’s American Masterworks Series installment from the Oakland East Bay Symphony, scored a well-deserved 10.

Review

Netrebko and GarančaSing Rare Bellini

Jason Victor Serinus - May 18, 2009

Why Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montagues) is so infrequently staged becomes apparent once you hear Deutsche Grammophon’s new recording.

Review

For Mahler, 'Lenny Was the One'

Janos Gereben - May 18, 2009

For most American music fans in the middle of the last century, Gustav Mahler meant Leonard Bernstein. He was widely regarded as the single source of the Mahler revival or, for most listeners, their first experience.

Review

Turanga-lite

Steve Osborn - May 18, 2009

Olivier Messiaen’s 10-movement Turangalîla-Symphonie is rarely performed because of its length (about an hour and a quarter) and its unusual instrumentation (the score calls for ondes martenot, vibraphone, and glockenspiel, among many other instruments). The double whammy makes performances of this 20th-century masterpiece hard to find — and fund.

Review

Medium-Rare Roasted Swan

David Bratman - May 18, 2009

Everybody knows Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. Each century has its standard, default large-scale choral work (Messiah, Verdi’s Requiem), and, like it or not, Carmina Burana fills that role for the 20th.

Review

Saved From Drowning, by The Trout

Jeff Dunn - May 13, 2009

Radical contrast was the name of the game at Monday’s Left Coast Chamber Ensemble concert. A pair of impressive but gloomy premieres weighed listeners down during the first half. Then the sun came out for the second half: Franz Schubert’s “Trout” quintet restored faith in the future, from deep in the past.

Review

Songs That Serenade, Scintillate, and Provoke

Jason Victor Serinus - May 12, 2009

Jake Heggie. There are few contemporary composers so loved and adored, yet so controversial. When he’s on, his music can be touching, endearing, entertaining, hilarious, and/or heart-shakingly profound by turns. As a person, he’s handsome, delightful, and admirably out about his gayness.