The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Category: Concert Review
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* Notes * Lucerne Festival opened its Jubiläumsjahr yesterday with Claudio Abbado and Orchestra Mozart Bologna (pictured left, photograph by Marco Caselli Nirmal). The early evening performance began with a vibrant rendition of Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3. The woodwinds played with particular exuberance. Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 followed with Martha Argerich, who missed her…
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* Notes * This week Michael Tilson Thomas conducts San Francisco Symphony in a multimedia production (actor Ben Huber as Peer Gynt and dancer Janice Lancaster Larsen as Ingrid pictured left, photograph by Kristen Loken) of Peer Gynt. The score included music by Edvard Grieg, Alfred Schnittke, and Robin Holloway. Holloway’s Ocean Voyage was used in…
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* Notes * Gustavo Dudamel and the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar (pictured left, photograph by Scott Grieder) played the first of two concerts at Cal Performances last night. The program the orchestra is touring right now is entitled "¡MUSICA! A Celebration of Music from Latin America," thus featuring, in this instance, Carlos Chávez, Julián Orbón, and…
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* Notes * Last night Joyce DiDonato (pictured left, photograph by Josef Fischnaller) performed with Il Complesso Barocco at the Green Music Center in Sonoma County. The performance is part of DiDonato’s “Drama Queens” tour, which involves a program of Baroque arias in Italian. Beginning with Antonio Cesti’s “Intorno all’idol mio” from Orontea, it was evident…
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* Notes * Last night Michael Tilson Thomas conducted San Francisco Symphony (pictured left, photograph by Bill Swerbenski) in the first of three performances of Drift and Providence by Samuel Carl Adams and Symphony No. 5 by Mahler. The Adams piece marks a West Coast premiere. The 20 minute work is scored for many instruments,…
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* Notes * Semyon Bychkov (pictured left, photograph by Thomas Brill) conducts San Francisco Symphony in Schubert's Unfinished and Shostakovich's 11th this week. The Schubert that started last night's proceedings was elegant. The pianissimo of the strings with oboe and clarinet in the first movement was simply beautiful. The sound was verdant and fresh. In the…
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* Notes * Ojai North! at Cal Performances ended with two performances on Thursday. Program 5 began with two contemporary pieces, Hafliði Hallgrímsson’s Poemi and Bent Sørensen’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Both were played by the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra (Det Norske Kammerorkester), featuring violinist Terje Tønnesen in the first work, and Music Director of the Ojai…
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* Notes * Cal Performances hosted Nicola Luisotti and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra (pictured left, photograph by Cory Weaver) on Sunday afternoon, their second this season in Berkeley. The concert began with Prokofiev's First Symphony, and the orchestra sounded best in the graceful, dancing third movement. The woodwinds were clear, as was the brass. The…
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* Notes * David Robertson (pictured left, photograph by Michael Tammaro) conducts San Francisco Symphony in Rossini, Chopin, and Dvořák this week. The overture to L'italiana in Algeri that opened yesterday's performance sounded neat and precise. Chopin's Concerto No. 2 in F minor for Piano and Orchestra, Opus 21 also was together and clean. The soloist,…
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* Notes * Last night Alan Gilbert and New York Philharmonic (pictured left) played a second performance at San Francisco Symphony. The evening began with a very cheerful Le Corsaire Overture by Berlioz. Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 1 was sober in contrast, and soloist Glenn Dicterow played elegantly, with long lines. Dicterow listened carefully to the…
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