music

Mozart in the morning The Alexander String Quartet and musicologist Robert Greenberg regularly team up for an always-popular treat, mixing engaging lecture with fine performances. But last Saturday’s lecture/concert at the SFJazz Center had some extra pizzazz. Local legend Sarah Cahill anchored the group in two Mozart piano quartets. As a sought-after concert pianist and a long-time advocate for contemporary music (and many works have been composed for her),...

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Dazzle and polish at Kohl Mansion A number of inspiring quartets have stopped off in the Bay Area this season. The latest of these, the Miró Quartet, has crisscrossed the world for the past fifteen years from their home base in Austin, Texas to perform in prominent concert halls and festivals. These musicians also appreciate the lustrous sound of intimate halls and came to Burlingame’s Kohl Mansion on Sunday, March 9, for an absorbing evening of Haydn,...

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Russian hope and French denial with the San Francisco Symphony Dreams of hope and abstract love were on the menu at Davies Symphony Hall last Saturday, March 8, when Michael Tilson Thomas led the San Francisco Symphony in three works of disquieting originality. Famed German violinist Julia Fischer performed Prokofiev’s optimistic and difficult Violin Concerto No. 1, followed by Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique, a bizarre night-sweat of projection and...

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They still got it. The Bay Area was treated to a tall drink of Brahms on Wednesday, February 26, when Cal Performances brought Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax to Zellerbach Hall for a mostly-Brahms concert. The famed cellist and pianist, often collaborators, conceived a “Brahms and Beyond” series of three concerts that would pair the Romantic Master with contemporary composers. For this second concert, Australian Brett Dean was chosen to represent the heirs of...

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Riding with Death on a Sunday afternoon. At the hands of the sterling Calder Quartet last Sunday, Feb. 23, themes of death and transcendence brought a chill to...

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Finding heart in the abstract “Music begins where poetry leaves off…” was the title and premise of Earplay’s season opening concert, held last Monday, Feb. 10, at San Francisco’s ODC Theater, and their program seemed to bear that out. The five short and thoughtful pieces all quoted past forms, but made it vital and truly personal, just as poets pay homage to lasting truths while looking out of their own window. ...

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Categories: music