The Opera Tattler

Reviews of Performances and their Audiences

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Category: Concert Review

  • NCCO plays Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky

    * Notes * New Century Chamber Orchestra gave a series of performances featuring Russian composers. The first half of the evening began with Prokofiev’s Visions Fugitives, with soloist Anne-Marie McDermott at the piano. The brief piano pieces were rather romantic and impressionistic, the string orchestra arrangement by Rudolf Barshai worked well. McDermott launched directly into Shostakovich’s Piano…

  • Anne-Sophie Mutter at SFS

    * Notes * Anne-Sophie Mutter gave the US premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina's second violin concerto, In tempus präsens, with San Francisco Symphony, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, yesterday. The piece was played again tonight, and has a shimmering, yet compressive quality, filled with bumblebees and crickets. Mutter played cleanly and with much vigor. The violas,…

  • Kurt Masur at SFS

    * Notes * Yesterday evening Kurt Masur conducted San Francisco Symphony in a program of Gubaidulina and Bruckner. Gubaidulina's The Light of the End conjured up waves and air, there were parts near the beginning that sounded rather insectile, and parts near the end that were more bird-like. The marimba made for a pleasing earthy contrast with…

  • Music in 12 Parts

    * Notes * Yesterday evening the Philip Glass Ensemble played Music in Twelve Parts at Davies Hall. The vocalist, Lisa Bielawa, was unbelievable. The parts without her, 9 and 10, seemed inhuman and overly synthetic. The playing was, with the exception of Mr. Glass', very dexterous. Much stamina must have been required for the performance.…

  • Mendelssohn at PBO

    * Notes * Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra played an all-Mendelssohn program in honor of his 200th birthday last week. The playing was quite clean and détaché, which was fine for the Three Motets, Op. 39, but was perhaps less appropriate for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 21 & 61. The evening began with The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave), Op. 26,…

  • Adler Fellows Gala Concert 2008

      * Notes * The Adler Fellows Gala Concert last night was rather Germanic, there were no arias from Verdi or Puccini at all, though the evening started with the overture from Les vêpres siciliennes. Andrew Bidlack was drowned out by the orchestra during Capriccio's "Verraten hab ich meine Gefühle," though Tamara Wapinsky sang well…

  • Hilary Hahn at SFS

      * Notes * James Gaffigan conducted San Francisco Symphony in a program of Russian music last weekend. The evening began with Tchaikovsky, first his Voyevoda, which was rather incidental, but played well, and then his Violin Concerto. The soloist in the latter was the famed Hilary Hahn, and she could be both ferociously aggressive…

  • Hauschka with The Magik*Magik Orchestra

      * Notes * Hauschka played a prepared piano concert with members of The Magik*Magik Orchestra last night at the Hotel Utah. The sounds produced by prepared piano can be rather harpsichord-like, which has a certain appeal. The accompaniment of two celli, two violins, and two oboes was also pleasing, the playing was strong, particularly on the part of cellist…

  • Mahler’s 8th at SFS

      * Notes * Michael Tilson Thomas and San Francisco Symphony continued their Mahler recording project with Mahler's Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major, the so-called Symphony of a Thousand. The work struck me as a bit strange, the first part being in Latin and rather religious in feel, whereas the second part is in German, and…

  • Paul Haas Conducts Berkeley Symphony

      * Notes * Paul Haas conducted Berkeley Symphony in a program of Penman, Barber, and Tchaikovsky last Thursday at Zellerbach Hall. The California premiere of Songs the Plants Taught Us by Joshua Penman was apropos for Berkeley, though it did veer into kitsch at times. The soloist for Barber's Violin Concerto, Op. 14, Danielle…