ArtsSF

BERKELEY, CA—-The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra has been a thriving outfit for some 59 years despite two burdens that most orchestras work hard to avoid, fearing unpalatable ticket sales: Lack of a conductor/music director, and the title  word “chamber” in place of “symphony.” Further playing down any star power, the group dons black no-necktie outfits, and it has two violinists alternating in the concertmaster’s seat. The saving grace comes on two fronts: an excellent ensemble, containing close to one-half women,…

Read More Read More

BERKELEY, CA—The music director’s pregnancy again brings guests to the local symphony podium—a declaration that you probably never once heard back in the 20th century. But we’re in another era. And Berkeley Symphony’s Joana Carneiro, who last year had triplets, is expecting again and forced to cancel, all of it making her among the most prolific conductors in all music history. This is a double positive, both for her and others, giving up-and-coming conductors too often mired in the “assistant”…

Read More Read More

Going a big step beyond, the visiting St. Louis Symphony gives its concert, then spends a day interacting with music students to foster the inspiration for the future. This rare interaction made for a double-barreled impact at the University of California here, some 70 miles east of San Francisco. As if it were needed, the orchestra and its leader David Robertson showed their  mettle in unfamiliar 20th-century repertory created by precocious composers not even 30 years old. There’s a certain…

Read More Read More

A brave guest conductor indeed, the visitor who introduces Bartok with a 12-minute illustrated lecture. But the English conductor Graeme Jenkins got away with it and had the Santa Rosa Symphony crowd firmly in his corner for a modern masterpiece, Bartok’s “Concerto for Orchestra” (1943). Along the way, putting away his baton, he had led articulate readings of Haydn and Mozart. The evening as a whole was rousing—far more an experience than a concert. Clearly the night’s focus Jan. 13…

Read More Read More

It was the Manny-and-Michael Show, on a high musical plane, tackling a sharply contrasting set of works at the San Francisco Symphony. You love picaresque puckishness? Richard Strauss’ “Til Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks,” and you’re welcome. You yearn to discover the unknown crannies of Mozart? You had his Piano Concerto No. 14, written in his 20s. How about a generous dose of operatic drama? The “Leonore Overture No. 3” of Beethoven, arguably the most skillful quarter-hour condensation of an opera ever….

Read More Read More