Cedric

Gil Shaham The SF Symphony journey from Schubert to Berg is coming to an end this week, with a final program combining Berg's Violin Concerto with Schubert's Mass in E flat major. We believe that the whole exercise was only a pretext to make Berg more palatable to the... continue reading on SFist

Anna Netrebko No one can sell out the War Memorial Opera House faster than Anna Netrebko. Just try and get a ticket for Saturday night's La Traviata, if you want to see why for yourself. The Russian soprano is the biggest draw in opera nowadays: she's the rare bird... continue reading on SFist

Eric Owens, during dress rehearsal of Porgy and Bess. Picture by Terrence McCarthy/SF Opera. The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess opens tonight at SF Opera. It used to be dismissed, if you will, as a musical, but has now moved up to be considered one of the best American operas... continue reading on SFist

Julia Fischer, by Kass Kara The SF Symphony journey from Schubert to Berg continued on Wednesday with an intimate exploration of some lieder and chamber music, as well as the Lulu suite. The directions for the voyage (which continues tonight, tomorrow and next week) go like, start from Schubert,... continue reading on SFist

Adrianne Pieczonka and Lado Ataneli, by Cory Weaver/SF Opera. The last Tosca here was in 2004. Considering that Tosca is The Show That Build SFOpera, with 12 runs over in the first 18 years of the company, and since only twice in history has a Tosca black-out lasted more... continue reading on SFist

We learned yesterday that star soprano Patricia Racette had to withdraw from singing today in the Verdi Requiem at the SF Opera house, and will be replaced by Adler fellow Heidi Melton. Racette, a recent hit in Madame Butterfly, was to sing the Requiem for the first time. No... continue reading on SFist

Michelle DeYoung, by Christian Steiner. The SF Symphony kicks off its Schubert and Berg journey with a mix-and-match of the Viennese composers. Tonight, and repeating through Saturday (the last show in Cupertino), we hear Berg's Seven Early songs, and Three Pieces for Orchestra, teamed up with Schubert's Rosamunde Overture... continue reading on SFist

Yuja Wang will dazzle us this week at Davies Symphony Hall, playing the dastardly difficult Prokofiev piano concerto #2 with MTT. Here she plays the concerto's scherzo with the YouTube symphony orchestra. She is all of twenty-two, but already acclaimed as the future of classical music. She has performed... continue reading on SFist

Stephanie Blythe We're not too sure what to think of this lede: Some singers travel with their pets, a poodle or a dachshund, perhaps. Stephanie Blythe, one of the hottest properties in opera today, is luckier. She gets to travel with her husband, professional wrestler-turned-actor David Smith-Larsen... Huh? What... continue reading on SFist

Jennifer Higdon. Picture by Candace DiCarlo Jennifer Higdon's blue cathedral will make its first appearance tonight on the program of the SF Symphony (at Flint in Cupertino, tomorrow through Saturday at Davies Symphony hall, along with a Mozart piano concerto and Debussy's Iberia); which comes at a surprise to... continue reading on SFist

Photo credit: J. Henry Fair We heard of Leila Josefowicz for the first time after she won a MacArthur Genius Grant in 2008. "Out of blue, $500,000, no strings," declares the fellowship's page. But! Some strings were attached, because Leila received the prize for playing the violin. (Har.) Which... continue reading on SFist

Switchboard Music Festival, Sunday 3/29, 2pm-10pm, $10.00 - $35.00 More music from composers that are not dead: the Switchboard festival at the Dance Mission Theater puts together the best contemporary music the Bay Area has to offer. Between 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. this Sunday, you get performances by... continue reading on SFist

The Composer Is Dead You have to enjoy the irony of a composer whose most widely played piece is titled The Composer Is Dead. Indeed, it's so popular that it got turned into the cutest, funnest children's book, complete with an accompanying CD. Said composer? Our own Nathaniel Stookey,... continue reading on SFist

Anne Sophie Mutter, photo credit: Deutsche Grammophon The Sofia Gubaidulina residency with the SF Symphony continues tonight and tomorrow with the US premiere of her Violin Concerto No. 2, In tempus präsens, with the magnificent Anne-Sophie Mutter as the soloist, for whom the piece was written. Anne-Sophie also plays... continue reading on SFist

Sofia Gubaidulina, by Jessica Mitchell/Philadelphia orchestra. We came to chat music with Sofia Gubaidulina, and ended up with a physics lesson. Sofia is the Phyllis Wattis Composer in Residence with the SF Symphony, which means she's around to see her works performed by the orchestra, talk to audiences and... continue reading on SFist

Lisa Bielawa, by Liz Linder Philip Glass's Music in Twelve Parts has never been performed live in SF, despite its iconic status as one of the milestones of contemporary music. We find it strange, considering the embracing welcome of Glass's latest performances here. Then again, it's four hours of... continue reading on SFist

On a program featuring a McArthur genius/blogger and the promise of ecstasy, it's the unassuming Finnish symphonic tone poem which proved to be the wonderful surprise of the evening. David Robertson, aka. Mr Orli Shaham, returned to conduct the SF Symphony in Tchaikovsky second piano concerto (this program repeats... continue reading on SFist

Carolyn Kuan Considering the weather lately, you might want to do your Chinese New Year celebration indoors. Always attentive to your needs, the SF Symphony is hosting a concert this Sunday at 4pm inside the warm confines of Davies Symphony Hall. How thoughtful. It's a festive family concert with... continue reading on SFist

In a gloomy economic projection, the SF Opera seemed skeptical about the impact of the economic recovery package being discussed right now in Congress. SF Opera announced yesterday that the New Great Depression would not end for another two years -- at least, that's what we take from the... continue reading on SFist

We're lucky to welcome Christian Tetzlaff, the latest in a string of young-ish super-talented violinists to grace a SF stage. He'll be at Herbst theater tomorrow night, with SFist interviewee and ace pianist Leif-Ove Andsnes as part of SF Performances concert series, in a program of violin sonatas by... continue reading on SFist