United States Aspen Music Festival (4): Emerson Quartet wields powerful Shostakovich; Hamelin hammers and caresses the piano; Hope and Kahane mesh smoothly especially in Walton and Schulhoff; and a strange and wonderful program of Crumb and Mendelssohn. 10-12.7.2012 (HS)
Harvey Steiman
Aspen III: Kick-starting Mahler and a Luminous Verklärte Nacht
United States Aspen Music Festival (3): Feltsman wrestles with Beethoven’s “Emperor” and Glover mesmerizes with Mozart; a luminous Verklärte Nacht; Daniel Hope tackles Prokofiev, Søndergård kick-starts Mahler 1. 9.7.2012 (HS)
Aspen II: Modern Baroque and Original Copland
United States Aspen Music Festival (2): David Finckel-Wu Han program explores audience responses, Anton Nel plays MacDowell concerto, McGegan leads Baroque with modern instruments, and Copland’s Quiet City impresses in its original instrumentation. 6.7.2012 (HS)
Aspen I: Spano, McGegan and a Parade of Pianists
United States Aspen Music Festival 2012 (1): On opening weekend, Spano leads energetic Gershwin and Bartók, McGegan makes Beethoven and Mendelssohn dance, and a series of pianists take on Gershwin, Mendelssohn, Wyner, Lutoslawski, Bolcom and, finally, Rachmaninoff. 1.7.2012 (HS)
San Francisco Symphony Unleashes a Terrifying “Bluebeard”
United StatesLiszt, Bartók: Jeremy Denk (piano), Michelle DeYoung (mezzo-soprano), Alan Held (bass-baritone), San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas (conductor), Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco. 21.6.2012 (HS)
Yuja Wang Scales the Peaks of the “Rach Three”
United States Faure, Sibelius, Rachmaninoff: Yuja Wang (piano), San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas (conductor), Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco. 15.6.2012 (HS)
“Nixon in China” Gets Its Due from San Francisco Opera
United States John Adams, Nixon in China: Soloists, chorus and orchestra of San Francisco Opera, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco. 13.6.2012 (HS)
New San Francisco “Flute”: Sketchy, Colloquial, Rewarding
United States Mozart, The Magic Flute: Soloists, chorus and orchestra of San Francisco Opera, Rory MacDonald (conductor), War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco. 13.6.2012 (HS)