Contempo Singer/Composer Neuburg Stellar By Paul Hertelendy artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance Week of June 26-July 3, 2016 Vol. 18, No. 75 What impresses me most about Amy X Neuburg is not that she’s an exquisite lyric soprano who can even dip down to the baritone register, nor that she’s always in pitch, nor that she’s a techno whiz, nor that she animates contemporary repertory as though written for her. Not even that…
New Widmann Work at the S.F. Symphony By Paul Hertelendy artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance Week of June 25-July 3, 2016 Vol. 18, No. 74 First there was Superman. There was Batman. And now we have Widmann, flexing muscles reaching for super powers composing for orchestra. Widmann’s 19-minute “Trauermarsch” shows off all the orchestra’s versatility and extremes. The highest notes, the lowest notes. The loudest sounds and the softest sounds, starting the mighty…
Ojai Fest Is the Latest Spotlighting Their Creativity By Paul Hertelendy artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance Week of June 17-24, 2016 Vol. 18, No. 73 BERKELEY—Is this the year of the woman in serious music? The entire Ojai Music Festival program this year is dominated by women’s creativity, inclluding the major opus, Kaija Saariaho’s “The Passion of Simone.” Joana Carneiro will be one of the rare woman conductors at the San Francisco Symphony…
Janacek’s Wrenching Drama at the S.F.O. By Paul Hertelendy artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance Week of June 17-24, 2016 Vol. 18, No. 72 The powerful human drama of old-time village morality “Jenufa” returned to bolster the San Francisco Opera summer season after a 15-year hiatus. The work is sincere and compelling, built around the bigger-than-life role of the morally ambiguous Stepmother, as played by the magnetic star, dramatic soprano Karita Mattila. The…