In an SF Performances recital on Saturday night, violinist Hilary Hahn and her accompanist Valentina Lisitsa put together a set of pieces that had nothing in common, except for the mastery of the performance. It was a grab bag of music, a mix-and-match of periods and styles, as if to better display the full range of the performers. And across the different genres, the pair consistently delivered. more ›

This week in Classical: Juho Pohjonen with SF Performances, Avner Dorman's Uriah with the SF Symphony, and accounting for the SF Opera more ›

Berkeley composer John Adams's oratorio El Niño had its US premiere at Davies Symphony Hall ten years ago next month. The reviews were unanimously enthusiastic. El Niño, like Handel's Messiah, is a musical setting of the Nativity. Sellars and Adams compiled the texts from some more eclectic sources though, adding South American poetry and apocryphal gospels to the mix, and we'll let Adams himself tell the story. The man composes wicked music, and the man blogs. more ›

Pianist Adam Tendler will perform John Cage's Sonatas and Interlude, a set of music for prepared piano. John Cage was an avant-garde music composer who pushed the boundaries of music. In 1952, inspired by the white paintings of Rauschenberg, he composed 4'33", a piece (and its expected duration) where the pianist sits at the keys, opens the lid, and then: silence. more ›

A few concerts for the week-end: Stanford Lively Arts presents the West Coast premiere of Uri Caine's The Othello Syndrome, based upon Verdi's opera Othello. We have tried to get into Uri's reinterpretation of Gustav Mahler, and we admit we struggled. But we're sure it's better live, and we appreciate effort to bring in new life and new audiences to Verdi. And when your singers are named Josefine and Bunny, it can't go wrong. more ›

The Fall music season has been launched in orbit with a glitzy gala at the Symphony. This week continues with classical music galore: the other heavy hitter, the SF Opera introduces his new music director, Nicola Luisotti, in Verdi's Il Trovatore, tonight. The all-star cast includes Dmitri Hvorostovksy, Sondra Radvanovsky and the comparatively simple to spell Stephanie Blythe in a story that makes Harry Potter look realistic. We don't go to the opera to watch reality tv, and the arias are sublime. You can check for yourself, for free, at a live simulcast of the War Memorial Opera House performance on a giant screen at the AT&T ballpark on Saturday, September 19th. Also, you can get the pupu platter sampler of the upcoming season, also for free, zilch, zero, nada, with the traditional Opera in the Park concert. Please arrive early, it gets really crowded on the Sharon Meadows lawn, and you don't want to miss SF Chronicle's editor-at-large Phil Bronstein's unintentionally hilarious attempts at a stand up comedy routine, if he's MCing again this year. more ›

Hey, Star Wars fans! Listen up. Yet another way for you to enjoy that sci-fi story about Princess Leia and those adorable Ewoks is coming. A touring production of George Lucas' famous and much-loved films (all six of them!), featuring a symphony orchestra and choir performing John WIlliams' scores, will kick off in Anaheim, CA on October 1. The concert, according to , will also feature "Anthony Daniels, who played C-3P0 in the films, [narrating] alongside a three-story-tall HD screen that will display footage from the movies." The orchestra and choir will be conducted under the direction of Belgian conductor Dirk Brosse. Fun! "We've taken the key themes from the music and cut together all the images that fit with each theme, so you can really get a sense of how the music played into the images," Lucas said in a statement. The concert, which will run a little over two hours, will makes stops in "cities from Phoenix to Oklahoma City." Performances at HP Pavilion will happen at 2 and 7 p.m. on Oct. 11. Tickets go from $35 to $75. more ›

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, take a turn at Brahms, another at Wagner, when you reach Bruckner, go straight until Mahler, make a sharp left there, when you see Schoenberg, you'll have reached Berg. Not exactly a straight line, and not an obvious connection. more ›

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 unveiling of the 2009-2010 season: it's an all-workhorse selection of operas by Verdi, Puccini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, and for good measure, Riccardo Straussecco and Wolfganino Mozartini. The silver lining can be found in the all star casts assembled to sing those chestnuts. The production has been canned as planned, and their were rumors of a possible apparition of Janacek's Makropoulos Case, which faded away as fast as a 401(k). more ›

We interviewed Leonard Nimoy the other day: he will narrate Peter and the Wolf this weekend, a holiday tradition! And the pointy-eared one had a, well, lapse of his dignified Vulcan composure. But in a good way. (Really, this man can do no harm.) Hear him sing Prokofiev and quack like a duck. Nimoy is a wildly charming man. more ›

"'Classical' music does not need gimmicks OR marketers/managers," hrumphs an SFGate commenter. more ›

We were biking down Duboce this at around nine this evening on our way to Classical Revolution; we stopped at Valencia upon hearing sirens. A gray sporty car (we think it was a Mustang, but wouldn't swear to it) cranked right from Valencia, then burned rubber (literally) down Duboce under the freeway. An undercover SFPD car followed a few seconds later. Anyone else see this? We've never seen a high speed chase before. more ›

more ›

turned 50 last year, and Leonard Bernstein would have turned 90 next August. Classical music is giving Hallmark a run for its money as an anniversary-driven industry. more ›

This past Wednesday was New-Yorker night in Civic Center: the classical music critic, Alex Ross was promoting his new book at Herbst theater, and we attended the production of the Magic Flute designed by Gerald Scarfe, who regularly illustrates the magazine. Scarfe toned down his usually acidic satirical pen (see the sample from his website that we put after the jump) to cook up sets that are humorous, and respectful of Mozart’s intent. more ›

We were super-excited when we got the chance to talk with Alex Ross, the New Yorker's resident classical music critic (and blogger). Ross's writing has profoundly affected the way we think about music and music writing in all its genres and forms, and his twin enthusiasm for new classical music of the 21st century along with his deep love of the profoundly musical Icelandic pixie that is Björk always liven up our weekly periodicals reading list. (Thanks for helping set it up, M.C-!) more ›

Someone told us a story of a famous pianist who believed in bringing culture to the people, and went to a factory in Italy to give a lecture in front of a piano. He started to talk about Schoenberg, and after a few minutes, a voice rose from the audience: "Shut up, and play!" Ok, he said, and sat down at the piano, playing the Schoenberg piece. The voice rose again: "Rather, talk!" more ›

Last week's winner, the San Jose Metro. Alas! They haven't updated their site for this week yet, and we didn't manage to snag a hard copy of the paper, so they'll have to forfeit in the Weekly of the Week contest for the week. more ›

more ›

A photo of San Francisco's new bandshell under construction in Golden Gate Park. more ›

more ›

--Killer squirrels on the attack! A menacing critter stomped into an open classroom in a South San Jose school and bit a first-grader on the finger and two adults in the classroom. They called 911, but when animal control arrived, the squirrel had fled -- or in their words, "He it outta there." Har! The school took pains to say that they don't usually have a problem with vicious rodents, unlike those other attack squirrels in the Mountain View park. more ›

Last Wednesday, we told you our quick take on Juno Baby's line of educational entertainment products for kids (the long and short: cute, cool, and engaging). Adam Adleman, one of the founders of Juno Baby, took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to answer some questions: more ›

The death of classical music is dead. We see evidence of it right here in the challenging, modern programing of the SF Symphony which fills Davies nightly. MTT opens yet another world premiere next month with Robin Holloway's Fourth Concerto for Orchestra and we are getting ready for the US premiere of John Adams A Flowering Tree, his follow-up opera to the hugely successful Dr Atomic. We see proof of it in the downloads of music over the internets, where classical music share doubles what it is in the music stores. Classical music is modern and hip. more ›

Since SFist Ced's taking a little break from concerts, we're now on classical music duty around these parts. And we're very excited to say that our first Philistine classical concert review's going to be for violinist (and friend of Nicolas Cage) Hilary Hahn, who'll be performing the Korngold concerto this upcoming Wednesday through Friday with the SF Symphony. more ›

We're pretty excited about the Berlin & Beyond Film Festival, which opens tonight at the Castro. Featuring a great lineup of new films from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, the festival runs until Wednesday, the 18th. more ›

Big ups to SFist Eve for this week's Wednesdays post title! Wednesday: Get all in the Wednesday SFist Reads mood with a cavalcade of options: Barbara Ehrenreich at Clean Well-Lighted (7:00), a Dr. Atomic discussion at City Lights (7 p.m.), Caroline Kennedy at Grace Cathedral via Books Inc. (7:30, $25 tickets at Books Inc.), Terry Pratchett at Cody's on Telegraph (7:30), and Salman Rushdie at the Herbst Theater (8:00, buy tickets here). Thursday: our biggest local purveyors of hip classical music, the Kronos Quartet, kick off the first of two shows to support their new album of Bollywood standards at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The divine Asha Bhosle will be singing, and classical Chinese pipa-ist (that's the new Gothamist site, we know it!) Wu Man will play as well. Friday: You're going to our Webzine kickoff party, right? Right? SFist's hosting Webzine 2005's kickoff party at Cafe Du Nord, from 8-10 p.m.. Everyone's invited, even if you're not going to Webzine itself. Come by, check out our cool DJs, meet your favorite staffer, and see what SFist-themed toys we can scrounge up by then! (Contrary to rumors, we will not have a cardboard picture of Chris Daly for you to take pictures with. We will have Mrs. Chris Daly shirts for sale, though! Well, maybe we'll have them for sale. Hey, can we borrow your car to drive the Mrs. Chris Daly t-shirts over to Cafe Du Nord on Friday night?) Got an event you want to tell us about? Go right ahead! more ›

Last week's winner, the cybersquatting Metro! The only thing that looks more obscene than the term "Sfist" is "Sjist" -- we'll leave it at that. Meet the San Jose State contemporary classical music faculty. San Jose City Tow. Cover: The Metro continues to celebrate its 20th anniversary all year! A collection of essays about San Jose and the Valley throughout the years. A variety of arts events around SJSU. And the Straight Dope: does alcohol affect your period? (maybe). Next up: The SF Weekly! A dizzying array of political gossip from Matt Smith (Fifi Ma, SEIU, and Clint Reilly). Infiltrator protests for animals. (We totally saw that "Korea: Stop Killing Man's Best Friend" protestor the other week! Maybe the guy with her was Harmon!). Asian gang gets barber licenses. A play called "I'd Kill For a Parking Space" (heads up, Standing Room!). The Weekly's at the SFIFF, just like us. Cover article: New Order. And Savage Love: tips for 16 year old straight girls. The East Bay Express, the Guardian, and the pick of the week, after the jump. more ›

MUNI's bad enough -- people laden with bags moshing their way onto teeny-tiny trolley cars, a mother holding an infant and frantically clutching at your head and jacket sleeves as she attempts to cling onto a small metal bar welded to the side of a seat as the bus banks sharply left, people dying of consumption and coughing in your face -- so you think, Fine, I'll drive. Gas prices are going down, MUNI passes are going up, save yourself the stress. Well, maybe not. In the continuing saga of Newsom's "you didn't vote for my tax increases" I-Told-You-Sos, the always-beloved DPT has proposed hefty fee hikes in an attempt to balance its budget. So meters will go up by 50 cents an hour (so $1.50-2.50, depending on where you are), garages will go up by 50 cents an hour too, all parking tickets will go up by $5 (so it'll be $40 if you forget to move your car on street-cleaning day). The biggest hike: parking in a red zone or blocking an intersection goes up 200%, from $25 to $75. That operatic shriek you hear in the background is from San Francisco's parking/classical music blogger, The Standing Room. We have to say, while we're not thrilled about this, it seems only fair that, given that we're not paying higher city taxes, to share the pain equally between public transportation takers and car drivers. But we also almost never park on the street anymore either. We predict an upsurge in social activities along the BART axis as a result -- meet you guys in Glen Park! more ›

We get cultured by Monsieur C- of The Standing Room. more ›