Chamber

Beginning the fall chamber music season August 12 in Oakmont, Chicago’s Lincoln Trio played a disparate and demanding program with consummate artistry before 200 in Berger Auditorium. But it was not the previously announced program, as the group, in their third appearance on the Oakmont Concert Seri...

Recital

San Francisco pianists Paul Hersh and Teresa Yu presented a Mendocino Music Festival program July 20 titled “Reflections and Variations.” Mr. Hersh is known at the Festival for his professorial introductions to a performance of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (Book 1) and in 2011 he will perform Book 2...

Substituting for the announced soloist, Jade Simmons, American pianist Spencer Myer played a convincing recital in the Mendocino Music Festival’s Piano Series July 16 before in Mendocino’s breezy Preston Hall Mr. Myer, a recent competitor and prize winner in national competitions, began his concert...

Recital

British pianist Paul Roberts played a recital in two disparate parts July 11 in Mendocino Music Festival’s piano series in Preston Hall. Before 65 people Mr. Roberts planned the initial part around music of Ravel and Liszt, each with extensive descriptive titles. The pieces were preceded by a l...

Symphony

In a high-energy program of Russian music, conductor Allan Pollack and his Festival Orchestra opened the 24th Mendocino Music Festival season in grand style July 11 in the massive white tent on the Mendocino headlands bluff. Even before the downbeat for the Shostakovich “Festival Overture,” Op. 96,...

At last, an old fashioned pianist! Eighty persons attended Frank Glazer’s recital July 1 which, to this perpetual piano student, was worth twenty piano lessons. Asked why he does not retire, Mr. Glazer pointed out he is beginning to like the sound he creates on his instrument, and he is now 95. ...

Recital

The June 11 evening recital by organist Douglas DeForeest at the Church of the Incarnation in Santa Rosa featured six meditative selections from the compositions of Richard Purvis (1913-1994), the organist of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco from 1947 to 1971. DeForeest, dean of the Redwood Empire ...

Ukrainian pianist Elena Ulyanova made her Sonoma County debut June 10 in an Oakmont Concert Series recital that was conventional in repertoire but quite agitating in performance. The pieces played were nearly a reprise of her November, 2008 recital in Tiburon’s St. Hilary Church, sans the big Rachm...

Opera

Cinnabar Theater continues to excel in the Northern California music world. This small company has once again raised the musical and theatrical bar in their terrific production of Tobias Picker’s 1996 opera “Emmeline” that opened a West Coast premiere May 28 to a boisterous full house in their smal...

In a pair of concerts closing the 30th season, the Ukiah Symphony performed March 15 and 16 just two works with the programmatic theme “A Close Friendship.” And it was altogether a cordial event as 20-year veteran conductor Les Pfutzenreuter led strong performances of works of Brahms and Dvorak. Sa...

In a recital sponsored by the Sonoma County Bach Society organist Charles Rus played an elegant and provocative concert May 14 in Santa Rosa’s Church of the Incarnation. Mr. Rus responded to the Casavant organ with deft registrations and powerful interpretations, drawing a number of North Bay organ...

For nearly 25 years the Alexander String Quartet has been the preeminent chamber music group in Northern California, but despite many invitations they have never appeared on the popular Oakmont Concert Series season. Schedule conflicts with the SRJC Chamber Series and the Quartet’s far-flung travel...

Symphony

Patrons returning for the second half of Monday night’s Santa Rosa Symphony concert witnessed the unusual sight of five microphones: one to the left of the conductor’s podium, next to a black stool, and four to the right, with accompanying chairs. The stool and chairs were soon occupied, respectivel...

Recital

Spring thunder from sunny Italy was the order of the day April 18 when Sicilian pianist Sandro Russo closed the seventh Concerts Grand season with a dramatic recital at Santa Rosa Junior College. In an 80-minute program before a Newman Auditorium audience of 120 Mr. Russo disdained the usual openin...

Chamber

For its program at Santa Rosa’s Newman Auditorium on April 16, the Amelia Trio opted for three unknown piano trios by known composers: Debussy, Bernstein and Chopin. All three trios are the works of teenagers, composed around the ages of 18 (Debussy), 19 (Bernstein) and 18 (Chopin). Although they al...

Choral and Vocal

The American Bach Soloists performed their final concert in the current series April 16 at St. Stephen’s Church in Belvedere, and the large audience was treated to glorious works by Bach, Handel and Vivaldi. Each piece showcased a soloist who performed with members of the ABS orchestra. Rather than ...

Recital

Pianist Elenor Barcsak has consistently been in the forefront of Marin musical life as a teacher, MTA branch President, supporter of manifold causes and a chamber music player, but seldom finds time to mount a solo recital. April 15 found her accepting the soloist’s role in Terra Linda’s Christ Pre...

Symphony

In a finale to a year of literature-based programs (“Season of the Scribe’) the Marin Symphony April 13 presented a curious mix of compositions that purported to have a common romantic theme. Preceding the sonic splendor of Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll and the “Prelude and Liebestod” from Tri...

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CHARLES RUS PLAYS ORGAN RECITAL AT CHURCH OF THE INCARNATION by Carolyn Wiester

In a recital sponsored by the Sonoma County Bach Society organist Charles Rus played an elegant and provocative concert May 14 in Santa Rosa’s Church of the Incarnation. Mr. Rus responded to the Casavant organ with deft registrations and powerful interpretations, drawing a number of North Bay organ... read full text

This is NOT the final AGO recital of the season. In fact, it was not sponsored by AGO but by the Sonoma County Bach Society!! The final mini-recital for the season will be Friday, June 11, at Church of the Incarnation. Doug DeForeest, our new Dean-elect, will play compositions of Richard Purvis. Carolyn Wiester