Reviews

Lisa Hirsch - June 15, 2009
Over the last couple of decades, René Jacobs has assembled a catalog of recordings as a conductor, a major change from his earlier career as a famed countertenor. The bicentennial of Franz Josef Haydn’s death brings a happy pairing of composer and conductor, on a Harmonia Mundi disc featuring the symphonies No. 91 in E-flat Major and No.
Janos Gereben - June 10, 2009

It's a long way from Catfish Row to Walhalla, but my money is on Eric Owens traversing the distance.

Kaneez Munjee - June 9, 2009

To close a season embracing music mostly of the modern era, Chanticleer returned to its founding ideals on Sunday night at San Francisco’s Mission Dolores, with an entirely Renaissance program, sung a cappella.

Anna Carol Dudley - June 8, 2009
The Grace Cathedral Choir is going to Italy, where the singers will experience performing Italian Renaissance and early Baroque music in its original physical and cultural context. On Sunday, the choir — 18 boys on the treble parts and a dozen men singing tenor and bass — offered a dress rehearsal for a large, enthusiastic audience, gathered to wish them a buon viaggio.
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.

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)?
Heuwell Tircuit - June 8, 2009
Prokofiev’s nine piano sonatas form one of the major cycles of the 20th century, and have often been recorded individually. But complete sets in one package are exceedingly rare. So Prokofiev specialist Anne-Marie McDermott’s new set of all nine, in modern sonics, fills an important gap. And her virtuosity and stylish performances are a delight.
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.”

Jessica Balik - June 8, 2009

I left the performance I attended on Thursday with the feeling that I got two concerts for the price of one. In truth, it was just that one musician, cellist Zoë Keating, opened for another, vocalist Amy X Neuburg.

James Keolker - June 3, 2009
Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca has a fabled past at San Francisco Opera, with some 34 highly successful productions in the company’s 86-year history, and starring such imperious Toscas as Renata Tebaldi, Dorothy Kirsten, Leontyne Price, and Montserrat Caballé.