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Author: D. Rane Danubian

A DYNAMO OF A CELLIST

A DYNAMO OF A CELLIST

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Alisa Weilerstein Shares Stage with Heras-Casado Stemming from a distinguished musical family, Alisa Weilerstein seems determined to be the dynamo of the younger performing generation. Last week back east she squeezed two recitals into one, playing all six unaccompanied Bach suites for cello in one intensive three-hour swoop, a feat that could leave both audience and performer in a sweat-drenched tingle. With the San Francisco Symphony in a more subdued mode, she played the Schumann cello Concerto in A Minor…

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REVIVAL OF AN ANCIENT TALE IN DANCE AND SONG

REVIVAL OF AN ANCIENT TALE IN DANCE AND SONG

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Via Mark Morris’ Surprising Middle Eastern Foray BERKELEY—Over the past four decades in  Iran, dancing has been either prohibited or frowned upon by the governing powers. In dramatizing a tragedy in timeless Persian song and dance, Mark Morris and his dance group are injecting new life into an endangered species from halfway around the world. In his world premiere here, Morris co-created a 50-minute-long Persian-Azerbaijani work of song, music and dance, “Layla and Majnun,” based on one of the oldest…

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A PROMISING RISING SPANISH MAESTRO

A PROMISING RISING SPANISH MAESTRO

And a New Take on Shostakovich/s Ninth Music-lovers, hyphens have surrounded the orchestral podium. Cleveland has had the Austrian Welser-Moest as its leader for years. Philadelphia has  Yannick Nézet-Séguin. And now, stand back for the youngest comer, the Spaniard Pablo Heras-Casado, 38, a fast-riser already named conductor of the year by Musical America two years ago. Podium guests come and go at the S.F. Symphony with regularity; but a multi-week stint, like his currently,  means that musicians and management both…

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MODERNS INSPIRED BY BEETHOVEN

MODERNS INSPIRED BY BEETHOVEN

Jennifer Koh Scores in Old-New Juxtapositions Beethoven and the Moderns—a new look. The San Francisco Performances concert series collaborated with stellar violinist Koh to create and perform a bold four-night ”Bridge to Beethoven” series. It’s Beethoven sonatas cum new and recent musical reflections on the latter, as created by active composers from both sides of the Atlantic. In recognition of this and other innovative recital enterprises, Chicagoan Koh was named the 2016 Instrumentalist of the Year by the publication Musical…

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BEETHOVEN TAKES A BACK SEAT WITH TAO DRIVING

BEETHOVEN TAKES A BACK SEAT WITH TAO DRIVING

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But Half a program Saved by Emergency Conductor BERKELEY—A podium substitute saved the day for the Berkeley Symphony when Lisbon-based Joana Carneiro had to cancel on doctor’s orders. Though the music director is still well short of the big four-oh birthday, her health remains a question mark. Management was tight-lipped about when the popular conductor might return to action here. The surprise emergency guest was New Yorker Tito Muñoz, music director of the Phoenix Symphony, making his local debut. His…

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A DANCE-TILL-YOU-DROP PREMIERE

A DANCE-TILL-YOU-DROP PREMIERE

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By D. Rane Danubian artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance Week of Jan. 29-Feb. 5, 2016 Vol. 18, No. 42 The new Forsythe ballet is like a 1,800-second group max-out-workout regimen at the gym, to see which dancer would drop first. No one did, happily. Only that at the end I left my Row N seat feeling totally exhausted. Modernist William Forsythe, an expat who has enjoyed a huge career in Europe, is presenting…

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IN OAKLAND, THE DEAD COME BACK TO LIFE

IN OAKLAND, THE DEAD COME BACK TO LIFE

Via Asian Operas New and Old OAKLAND—Festival Opera pulled off a double surprise, venturing to Oakland with a pair of unfamiliar Asian-themed one-act operas. The precarious east-west blending of the music came off better than expected, the western tuning pairing up with traditional Indian sitar and its myriad microtones. The execution of the works on stage however left a lot to be desired when heard Nov. 14, apart from the foundation-shaking bass of the veteran Philip Skinner playing Death. That…

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SALOME MEETS THE OFFICE WORKER

SALOME MEETS THE OFFICE WORKER

Strange Updates to Biblical Sizzler SANTA FE, NM—Current-day producers love to revise scenarios of traditional operas, apparently to fascinate the regulars who have seen it 20 times already. Take Richard Strauss’ powerful one-act “Salome,” already performed here at the Santa Fe Opera in 10 previous seasons. The story may be Biblical, but that doesn’t mean it’s sacred. For the current Santa Fe Opera production, in the famous Salome Dance of the Seven Veils, not a single veil is thrown off….

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