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Author: Paul Hertelendy

UNRAVELING RAVEL’S SPANISH VEIN

UNRAVELING RAVEL’S SPANISH VEIN

And SFS Tackling de Falla, Lethargically If you love classical music of Spain, you rush to the French composers. Enamored of the Iberian Peninsula, they gave us “Iberia,” “El Cid,” “Carmen,” “Bolero,” “Tzigane,” “Don Quichotte,” “España,” and myriad titles containing the word “espagnol.” The quasi-Spanish vein however has never been a strong repertory point of the S.F. Symphony, which took another crack at it this week under Charles Dutoit but served up merely a watered-down gazpacho. Two alluring works which…

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FLOCKING JOYOUS BIRDS FROM ITALY

FLOCKING JOYOUS BIRDS FROM ITALY

And Schubert’s Morbid Romanticism The New Century Chamber Orchestra is an elite string ensemble having an unabashedly emotional approach to music. Such is the guiding philosophy of Nadja Salerno-Sonnenburg, its music director as well as lead violinist. And she never shies away from arrangements that permit borrowing from a broader repertoire. The keystone of the season finale was the effusive “Death and the Maiden” opus by Schubert as arranged by Gustav Mahler. This is an extraordinary passionate work of depth…

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STUNNING SYMPHONIC NIGHT

STUNNING SYMPHONIC NIGHT

SFS’ Sensitive, Soulful Bartok & Mozart They put it all together, with inspiring sensitivity as never before. Pairing two repertory staples plus a new curtain-raiser is hardly news. But with the expert performances, the pindrop silence, and the sense of awe, this one proved one of the great symphony concerts of recent years. It was the San Francisco Symphony taking on one of the great 20th-century works, written by a dying man driven far from home by war: Bartok’s Concerto…

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REQUIEM FOR A CHAMBER-CONCERT SERIES

REQUIEM FOR A CHAMBER-CONCERT SERIES

LOS GATOS, CA—-In affluent Silicon Valley, of all places, a salient chamber-music series in a beautiful intimate church just bit the dust after 16 years. The church bells in the steeple should have tolled on the hillsides when the Sunset Concerts at St. Luke’s Church played the grand finale May 22. With just a 150-seat capacity, despite people hanging from the rafters, the ticket income could not close the gap, and volunteers to keep running the program were in short…

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OAKLAND BALLET’S EFFUSIVE GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY

OAKLAND BALLET’S EFFUSIVE GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY

14 Ballets Mark the 50th’s Ambitious Concert Program OAKLAND—The classic bedtime story has a young girl beset by all manner of hardships having the perfect dream. The Oakland Ballet had its perfect dream with its gala 50th-anniversary performance at the Paramount Theatre May 23. The troupe laboriously put together a program to top all pot-pourri ballet programs, spotlighting 15 snippets of its ballets new and old showing off a smart, and thoroughly integrated ensemble. Included were six (!) short world…

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BERNSTEIN’S ‘CANDIDE,’ A HIT IN CONCERT

BERNSTEIN’S ‘CANDIDE,’ A HIT IN CONCERT

It’s a Cynical Ill Wind, Blowing Very Well OAKLAND—Pulling off an enhanced concert version of Bernstein’s sprawling stage work “Candide” was a fitting season-ending achievement for the Oakland East Bay Symphony, with 11 solo singers plus chorus supplementing the orchestra. It marked the fitting cherry atop the 25-year OEBS stint of Music Director Michael Morgan, who had been a protégé of Bernstein himself more than 30 years ago. A large and enthusiastic crowd saluted this chameleon of a work, unlike…

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UNIQUE AQUATIC CREATION AT S.F. BALLET

UNIQUE AQUATIC CREATION AT S.F. BALLET

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But Will It Have Legs (or Fins?) to Endure Vol. 17, No. 52 Computer animation in live ballet took a quantum leap with the premiere work “Swimmer,” at the S.F. Ballet through April 21. Techno-enhanced ballet will never again be the same. The blending of projections with live dancers was so well done (by Kate Duhamel, the trompe-l’oeil video designer) that you were never quite sure where one ended, the other began. Live strap-hangers peopled a projected commuter bus. Dancer…

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RATMANSKY’S TRIUMPHAL BALLET NIGHT

RATMANSKY’S TRIUMPHAL BALLET NIGHT

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The brilliance and imagination of choreographer Alexei Ratmansky flows abundantly over the stage, where the San Francisco Ballet performed his arresting “Shostakovich Trilogy,” honoring the composer through a trio of works co-produced with the American Ballet Theatre. Whether it’s the feathery-light steps of the dancers giving the illusion of floating, or the corps’ arms undulating overhead in unison like willows in the wind, Ratmansky takes dance to a new level quite different from Balanchine (though both emerged from St. Petersburg,…

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DUSTED OFF, FROM THE TOP SHELF

DUSTED OFF, FROM THE TOP SHELF

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And an Operatic 1st: a ‘Sex-and-a-half-Tet’ SAN JOSE, CA—Score one with staging Mark Lanz Weiser’s 1998 work “Where Angels Fear to Tread” at Opera San Jose. This was the last of many admirable judgments by OSJ founder (and former mezzo great) Irene Dalis, who pushed mounting the work despite the 31-year record of chancey audience response to new works at OSJ. 15 years had passed since the troupe had mounted any premiere. This may well be judged her crowning production…

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