February 2014 – Repeat Performances

February 26, 2014

Cal Performances brings Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax to Berkeley

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...

Categories: music

February 23, 2014

The Calder Quartet at Hertz Hall

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...

Categories: music

February 22, 2014

Lamplighters’ Die Fledermaus at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Lamplighters go “batty” The Lamplighters, a venerable Bay Area institution adept at the high camp and broad humor of Gilbert and Sullivan, proved last weekend that they could branch out of their comfort zone and put their signature on grand opera. Their production of Die Fledermaus (The Bat), seen last Friday Feb. 22 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, was accessible and tightly executed, largely thanks to a new translation into English by David...

Categories: opera

February 14, 2014

“Elixir of Love” in Palo Alto

West Bay Opera brings home gold Readers may find it tiresome when a reviewer repeatedly gushes, or names some company “the best operatic experience of the Bay Area.” Still, one wonders how Palo Alto’s tiny West Bay Opera can so bespell an audience. In the interest of journalistic balance, I will try for a more severe look sans superlatives. Of course, seeing Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love, which opened last Friday on...

Categories: opera

February 10, 2014

Earplay at ODC Theater

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. ...

Categories: music

February 6, 2014

Samuel Adams violin concerto with Berkeley Symphony

On Thursday, Feb. 6, Joana Carneiro led the Berkeley Symphony in three works that at first glance had little to do with each other. But a deeper look revealed two clever connections: these three composers returned to older forms to make a modern case, and all three did so without the Sturm und drang of so many new dramatic efforts. Pulcinella Suite was written as Stravinsky was transitioning from his primal early works into sophistication, and leaving behind the...

Categories: music