Chamber

Violinist Axel Strauss brought four of his favorite chamber musician friends Dec. 11 to Oakmont’s Berger Auditorium in for the final concert of the 18th season. The program opened with Anton Arensky’s Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 35, No. 2, for violin, viola and two cellos, and concluded with Fran...

Symphony

Maestro Bruno Ferrandis, the Santa Rosa Symphony, the symphony’s Honor Choir and four vocal soloists served a hugely rewarding feast of hearty fare for our holiday delight this past weekend. Haydn’s Symphony No. 94, nicknamed “Surprise,” opened the varied program, and its elegant structure and imagi...

Choral and Vocal

On the final stretch of Venice’s Grand Canal, over the water from St. Mark’s, stands the gleaming white church of Santa Maria della Salute. On Nov. 21 every year, special masses are held at the familiar landmark church to remember the city’s deliverance from the plague of 1630, and a temporary votiv...

Chamber

Many components go into a fine piano recital — the artist’s technique, rhythmic control, range of tonal colors, choice of repertoire, and even stamina. All can combine to make a first-rate performance. But in recent local recitals, a key part for listeners — the aspect of being thrilled — has gone m...

Chamber

Cellist Hai-Ye Ni, who grew up in Marin and attended San Anselmo’s San Domenico School, returned here Nov. 16 with pianist Lin Hong to perform in the Mill Valley Chamber Music Society Series. Held at the Mount Tamalpais Methodist Church, a venue with near perfect acoustics, Ni proved quickly why sh...

Chamber

In the annual Randolph Newman recital at SRJC Nov. 21, pianist Barbara Nissman played a long and intensive concert with two monumental sonatas at the core, Prokofiev’s Sixth and the Liszt B Minor. Everything else on the program, heard by an almost full house in Newman Auditorium, seemed a little be...

Chamber

A pianist planning a West Coast debut recital in front of a fashionable and cosmopolitan audience faces a daunting prospect, especially when playing virtuoso works familiar to all. Ukrainian pianist Elena Ulyanova surmounted most of these obstacles Nov. 14 with formidable energy at Tiburon’s St. Hil...

What happens when a child prodigy grows up? A fortunate Marin audience found out Nov. 16 when pianist Hélène Wickett, who spent much of her childhood performing throughout Europe, took center stage at the Pt. Reyes Dance Palace Community Center. Substituting at the last minute for Marin pianist Je...

Trio Navarro, Sonoma State’s resident ensemble, played the second of their season’s four concerts on Nov. 9 in Ives Hall, juxtaposing three rarely heard works of disparate length and impact. The concert began with Rachmaninoff’s early G Minor Trio (“Elegiaque”), composed in 1892, long before the mo...

Symphony

In the publicity photo for his solo appearances with the Santa Rosa Symphony, violinist Gilles Apap is shown holding his instrument sideways, with the F-holes facing out and his goateed chin resting on the bottom edge, far from the actual chin rest. One assumes that the photo captures him in a momen...