Younis Raza

Cal Performances brings out heavy ammunition The Russian National Orchestra hit the Bay Area last Friday while touring the West Coast, and gave us a taste of how Russians do Russian masterpieces. Muscle and musicianship their watchwords, they played a chilling and incisive version of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9 and accompanied Stefan Jackiw for a dynamic rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. Mikhail Pletnev founded the Russian...

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Carneiro delivers the goods with Berkeley Symphony The Berkeley Symphony came out of the box at full gallop Thursday night at Zellerbach Hall, in the second of three concerts for this season. Joana Carneiro conducted with infectious energy, inspiring the musicians to a sustained high that carried them through two difficult contemporary pieces and Beethoven’s 3rd Symphony, the Eroica. Carneiro spoke beforehand of the program’s unifying themes. “Clarity of colors,...

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Of love and re-birth Earplay entered their 25th season on Monday, Feb. 9, at Herbst Theater with a warm and witty program titled “Ear and There.” Conductor Mary Chun, in remarks before the concert, described the season as one “highlighting the rich, new-music community and the tremendous amount of innovation in the Bay Area.” This group of excellent musicians, despite parlous times, has achieved venerable status, and the program included a list of over 250 modern...

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Exploring contemporary music—five composers, five directions On Sunday, Jan. 31, famed violinist Midori held an all-day workshop in anticipation of her concert next Saturday, Feb. 6 at Herbst Theater. The symposium included panels and a master class, and started with a lecture/demonstration, a...

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Violinist Simonyan delivers the goods The Oakland East Bay Symphony rewarded the faithful Friday night at the Paramount Theater with an exhilarating performance by Mikhail Simonyan. The 23-year-old violinist blistered the air (if not the hairs of his bow) in...

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Exotic birds fill Davies Symphony Hall The San Francisco Symphony held a two-week mini-festival to honor George Benjamin, this year’s British composer-in-residence. He personally conducted the second of three programs, held Jan 14 -16, interspersing an early success and a recent piece of his own between Ravel and Messiaen, composers who shaped his work. It was informative to hear a composer amid his influences, drawing our ear to musical lineage and strands of harmonic...

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Categories: music