Classical Music Reviews

Hard times, whether economic, social, or political, can often serve as stimulus to human creativity — “necessity is the mother of invention” and that...

Robert Moody, the first of the seven guest conductors to lead a California Symphony concert this year as part of a search for a new permanent music...

October 2, 2012 Review of the California Symphony, Opening Concert of the 2012-2013 Season(/articles/c-reviews calif symphony 9-30-2012)Bay Area News...

A bit of a shock wave seems to course through a hall at the onset of any recital by Siberian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky. First, there's his very...

When you go to a Berkeley West Edge Opera production, expect the unexpected. Characteristically, the audacious company, from its early decades as...

The "hottest seat" in the Bay Area last Sunday was not a seat, but a podium in the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. Asher Raboy, the guest...

Berkeley Opera's done it again. Its new production, Mozart's Don Giovanni, under the direction its new co-artistic director, Mark Streshinsky, in its...

Armenian-Siberian violinist Mikhail Simonyan strode onto Oakland's Paramount Theatre stage last Friday evening, tucked his violin under his chin, and...

It's clear that the people of Oakland and its outlying areas love their symphony orchestra. The cavernous Paramount Theatre was nearing capacity and...

The sounds coming from the stage during the first piece on the San Francisco Symphony's Wednesday night program at Davies Symphony Hall were like...

Grand Opera doesn't get much grander than it did in the San Francisco Opera's 214th main-stage performance of Puccini's La Boheme at the War Memorial...

--- Opening Night of the 2008-2009 Season of the Oakland East Bay Symphony George Anthiel's A Jazz Symphony"; World Premier of Nathaniel Stookey's...