Orchestra

Peninsula Symphony Pops

Michael Zwiebach - June 23, 2009
Nothing says summer like an outdoor pops concert, especially if its free. The Peninsula Symphony scores big on all three counts, as they present a free concert on the steps of the Redwood City Courthouse Square. Besides great music from three Bs (Berlioz, Bizet, and Bernstein), the fun includes a raffle. Let the kids stay up late, bring a picnic, and enjoy.
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Preview

Music for a Fantasy Video Game

Jessica Balik - June 22, 2009
Anyone who has ever played a video game likely knows that, just as the contours of its control pad can become imprinted on the hand, so too can the game’s musical themes leave lasting impressions on the memory.
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Review

Astonishing S.F. Symphony Premiere

Michelle Dulak Thomson - June 15, 2009
The San Francisco Symphony’s “Dawn to Twilight” festival ended last week with a devastating double bill. Pairing Schubert and Berg might look like the sort of juxtaposition apt to work better on paper than in the event.
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Review

One Love in Common

Jeff Dunn - June 8, 2009

Friday's episode of the San Francisco Symphony's Franz Schubert/Alban Berg festival showed that Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas' abundant love for the two Viennese composers' music, despite commentators' attempts to argue the contrary, was the strongest element they had in common.

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Review

Mass for a Troubled Time

David Bratman - June 8, 2009
Saturday night’s Symphony Silicon Valley concert at the California Theatre in San José was full of interesting resonances and connections. For one thing, it was the anniversary of D-Day. What better time, as the organization’s President Andrew Bales pointed out in his welcoming talk, to hear a Mass, a work ending with the words “Dona nobis pacem” (Grant us peace)?
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Review

Adventures, in Spades

Heuwell Tircuit - June 8, 2009

Musical repertory is full of masterpieces that rarely get programmed. Largely, it’s a matter of either instrumentation or length. On Wednesday, with a full orchestra and a handful of soloists available, Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony concentrated on five of those masterpieces, as part of their “Schubert/Berg Journey.”

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Preview

Gilbert & Sullivan

Anna Carol Dudley - June 3, 2009
When Michael Tilson Thomas programmed the San Francisco Symphony's semistaged production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe for June 18-21, little did he know how au courant it would be.
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Review

Hale and Farewell

Robert P. Commanday - June 2, 2009
The musically merry month of May came to a close on Sunday, traditionally as ever, with concerts conjoined to graduations, two that could not have been more different.
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Review

In Festival Opener, Berg Trumps Schubert

Benjamin Frandzel - June 1, 2009
The San Francisco Symphony's "Dawn to Twilight" festival got off to a more than solid start with its opening run of concerts at Davies Symphony Hall beginning last Wednesday.
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Review

Advancing the Field

Jeff Dunn - May 26, 2009
Michael Tilson Thomas treated San Francisco Symphony patrons Friday to an extraordinary concert of works that advanced the field of classical music — each pushing the envelope in its own direction.A symphony built a monument to regenerative self-defeat, a concerto scaled heights of immediacy and technical difficulty, and a new suite blazed a path toward rapturous acceptance of electronica into the