Recital

Isaac Albéniz, the Spanish Catalan pianist and composer is well-known for his 12 “impressions” of Iberia, considered the greatest of Spanish piano works. Pianist Robert Schwartz will perform this magnus opus May 7 to honor the anniversary of the composer's birth 150 years ago.

It has become a cliche to refer to classical musicians as being “phenomenal” or even geniuses at their instruments. If a performer can get to the heart of the music, that’s enough for me. Still, in a profession in which it’s expected that as a teenager you have already learned and performed the summits of the keyboard, it has become increasingly difficult to grab the attention of the public as, say, Vladimir Horowitz did when he raced Sir Thomas to the finish line of the Tchaikovsky First.

After two staggering performances of Bach and Beethoven at Krystian Zimerman’s recital Friday, sponsored by Cal Performances at Zellerbach Hall, the familiar thought came to mind: “How can you follow that?”

Paul Jacobs is the first organist in several generations who, by the sheer breadth of his accomplishments alone, has managed to restore the public perception of the organ as a viable concert instrument.

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?