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8/16/2023 - POTENT SCRIABIN INTERPRETATIONS AT SPRING LAKE VILLAGE RECITAL - Terry McNeill
Spring Lake Village Classical Music Series / Dmitry Rachmanov, piano
Returning to Santa Rosa Aug. 16 after seven years, Los Angeles-based pianist Dmitry Rachmanov performed an eclectic program before a full-house of residents in the Spring Lake Village retirement home’s concert series. The opening three works, two of Beethoven’s late Bagatelles (Op. 126, G Major and...

7/30/2023 - VOM FESTIVAL'S CLOSING CONCERT A CELEBRATION FOR STRINGS - Terry McNeill
Valley of the Moon Music Festival / Festival apprentices TBA
At the closing concert of most music festivals there is a tinge is sadness, with attendees knowing it will be a whole year before again the delights of semi-alfresco music and social camaraderie highlight the summer. It was that way with the last Valley of the Moon Music Festival July 30 at Sonoma ...

7/29/2023 - RITE OF SPRING FOR 88 KEYS AT VOM FESTIVAL - Pamela Hick Gailey
Valley of the Moon Music Festival / Musicians TBA
A fan of Stravinsky’s epic symphonic ballet The Rite of Spring (1913) since childhood via Disney’s classic 1940 film Fantasia, I was eagerly anticipating hearing July 29 the four-hands version for the first time. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon at the Hanna Center, warm but not too hot. The ...

7/15/2023 - VOM PLAYERS STRIP DOWN A SYMPHONY - Abby Wasserman
Valley of the Moon Music Festival / Kier GoGwilt and Ravenna Lipchik, violin; Elizabeth Blumenstock, viola; Elizabeth Reed and Tanya Tomkins, cello; Axel Tyrolese and Eric Zivian, piano
From its beginning nine years ago, Valley of the Moon Music Festival has presented treasures from the Classical to early Romantic periods to educate and delight their audiences. Every year they bring together seasoned professionals and five talented apprentices specializing in performance on origina...

6/17/2023 - ECHO'S PROGRESSIVE MUSICAL FEAST - Abby Wasserman
ECHO Chamber Orchestra / Daniel Canosa, conductor Doug Morton, trumpet (pictured) Brooke Aird, violin Joel Cohen, cello Margot Golding, oboe Steven Braunstein, bassoon
A progressive dinner is where each course of a meal is served at a different venue—appetizers one place, entrée the next. A stroll allows time to relish each offering. So it was with ECHO Chamber Orchestra’s progressive “Musical Promenade” June 17. The appetizers (for horns, flutes, and clarinets) w...

4/2/2023 - A JOURNEY THROUGH MUSICAL TIME - Abby Wasserman
Chamber Music Marin / Telegraph String Quartet. Students from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music TBA
The Telegraph Quartet, resident quartet at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, created a “Journey for the String Quartet” for Chamber Music Marin April 2 that put the expressive versatility of the form on full display. Compositions by Haydn, Mendelssohn and Gabriela Frank were played with muc...

3/12/2023 - SAKURA AND THE MUSICAL ART OF ARRANGEMENT - Abby Wasserman
SAKURA / SAKURA. Stella Cho, Michael Kaufman, Yoshika Masuda, Peter Myers, Nathan Chan, cello
In Japanese, sakura means the five-petaled cherry blossom, and members of SAKURA Cello Quintet treated their Chamber Music Marin audience March 12 to a rare musical flowering. All but one of the eleven selections in the program were arrangements, not surprising because until SAKURA formed, f...

3/12/2023 - WEIGHTY RUSSIAN SONATAS IN MALOFEEV'S 222 GALLERY RECITAL - Terry McNeill
The 222 / Alexander Malofeev, piano
Russian pianists on American tours often play blockbuster programs, so it was no surprise that Alexander Malofeev’s s recital in Healdsburg’s posh 222 Gallery had Rachmaninoff’s monumental B Flat Sonata as the capstone. The 21-minute work in the 1931 version received a thunderous reading that favor...

3/9/2023 - ARRON-PARK DUO IN CAPTIVATING OAKMONT RECITAL - Terry McNeill
Music at Oakmont / Edward Arron, cello; Jeewon Park, piano
The chance of having two virtuoso cello recitals in the North Bay in less than 30 days was not good. The sensational Steven Isserliss Napa recital Feb. 14 simply couldn’t be bettered, but Edward Arron’s Music at Oakmont recital March 9 came close. Very close. With pianist Jeewon Park Mr. Arron ma...

2/14/2023 - EXALTED ISSERLIS VALENTINES DAY GIFT IN STELLAR NAPA RECITAL - Terry McNeill
Chamber Music in Napa Valley / Steven Isserlis, cello; Connie Shih, piano
There were no real surprises in cellist Steven Isserlis’ Napa recital on Valentine Day, and perhaps none was expected. After all, he is among the elite of the world’s cellists, and in the crescent-shaped First United Methodist Church the full-house audience knew well the elevated musical experience...

2/12/2023 - A TRIO WITH BRIO AT CHAMBER MUSIC MARIN! - Abby Wasserman
Chamber Music Marin / Trio Con Brio Copenhagen. Soo-Kyung Hong, cello; Soo-Jin Hong, violin; Jens Elvekjaer, piano
Per Nørgård scored one of my favorite films, “Babette’s Feast,” but on Feb. 12 I got to know Nørgård better. In a Chamber Music Marin concert the Trio con Brio Copenhagen played the Danish composer’s mesmerizing 1973 composition Spell, 18 minutes of an astral journey that could have been modeled o...

2/4/2023 - ECHO CHAMBER ORCHESTRA CREATES A BUZZ - Abby Wasserman
ECHO Chamber Orchestra / Daniel Canosa, Conductor
Composer Matthew Rupert’s Cicadas, Op. 7, opening ECHO Chamber Orchestra’s “The Creation of the World” February 4 program at San Anselmo’s First Presbyterian Church, started so modestly that many in the half-full audience were unaware the concert had begun. It certainly did, with a swelling buzz, ...

1/29/2023 - TURINA PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS SSU FACULTY CONCERT - Terry McNeill
Department of Music Facuty Concert / Gail Hernández Rosa, violin; Jill Rachuy Brindel, cello; Marilyn Thompson, piano
Music Faculty members used to be obligated to play a formal recital each year, at least in conservatories. But fortunately Sonoma State’s most frequent faculty performers, pianist Marilyn Thompson and cellist Jill Brindel, perform around here regularly and were joined Jan. 28 by violinist Gail Hern...

1/22/2023 - ROMANTIC FERVOR IN FRISSON ENSEMBLE'S RAC CONCERT - Terry McNeill
Redwood Arts Council / Frisson Ensemble
New York’s Frisson Ensemble mounted an eclectic program at the Redwood Arts Council’s Jan. 22 concert that was long on informality and high on convincing artistry. Eighty attended in the Occidental Center for the Arts. Britten’s Phantasy Quartet from 1933 opened the formal program featuring oboist...