Vertavo String Quartet in Palo Alto

  Stellar quartet graces Stanford A less-than-capacity crowd greeted the Vertavo String Quartet at Stanford’s Dinkelspiel Auditorium last Wednesday, January 26. But those that came were rewarded with a rare appearance by one of Norway’s top quartets. This all-female quartet is the winner of Norway’s coveted Grieg Prize, while their CD’s have won France’s Diapason...

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Four-hands piano in Atherton

Music@Menlo winter concert virtuosic and playful If two heads are better than one, than four hands would trump two. Or so Wu Han, Alessio Bax and Anne-Marie McDermott would have us believe, and they made a very good case for that last Sunday, January 16, at the new Menlo-Atherton Center for the Performing Arts. These three renowned pianists played a program entirely consisting of four-hands piano works, alternating players in a blistering display of challenging virtuosity...

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New Century in Marin

Difficult program, dazzling moments The New Century Chamber Orchestra dazzled a full house at San Rafael’s Osher Marin Jewish Community Center last Sunday. But that was after the intermission. On their first half they embarked on a long and arduous mission, Dmitry Sitkovetsky’s chamber orchestra version of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Bach’s...

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Pianist Alice Sara Ott at Davies Hall

Perfection in Liszt… After a fabulous blue-themed gala opening and quick trip to Europe the San Francisco Symphony has settled down to some serious music making, some of it with guest conductors. On Saturday, October 30, a young Spanish conductor was paired with a very young—and accomplished—soloist in a program with memorable moments. The 33-year-old Pablo Heras-Casado conducted and 22-year-old Alice Sara Ott gave a sharply chiseled rendition of Franz...

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Lark Quarte+ on Peninsula

  New York sophistication at Kohl Mansion There is a spectrum from small salon to huge orchestra hall. The Great Hall at Kohl Mansion is so live that it is barely on that scale. At a concert there by the Lark Quarte+ on Sunday, October 24, that magical space, first built by Freddie Kohl for his wife Bessie, was beyond intimate. With eyes closed one could drown in that sound. And open? Well, I was...

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Jeremy Denk at Cal Performances

  From Ligeti’s fiendish fingerings… An eagerly awaited program by pianist Jeremy Denk held revelations and disappointments Sunday October 24 at Hertz Hall on the UC campus. In a last-minute program change Denk substituted Franz Liszt’s Dante Sonata for György Ligeti’s second book of piano...

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