Cornelius Hirsch News
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2024-04-25
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2024-02-07 00:24:00
Raehann Bryce-Davis in Recital
Raehann Bryce-Davis | Credit: Isamar Chabot Mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis gave a spectacular recital about ten days ago at Herbst. My review is on the formal side and missed out in one area: I'd actually wanted to mention what she and pianistJeanne-Minette Cilliers were wearing after the intermission, because Bryce-Davis's fiancé Allen Virgo designed both outfits and they were spectacular. But, I also didn't manage to grab a curtain call photo. The only disappointing thing about the recital was the turnout; the audience was tiny. This might have been because of Michael Tilson Thomas's valedictory Mahler 5 down the block, but I know there are plenty of opera folks who didn't turn out for this wonderful recital.Lisa Hirsch, SFCVPatrick Vaz, The Reverberate Hills
2024-01-23 03:25:00
Dalia Stasevska at SFS
Dalia StasevskaPhoto by Veikko Kähkönen, courtesy of San Francisco SymphonyDalia Stasevska took over last week's SFS program, one of two that Michael Tilson withdrew from. (Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the other, which is in a couple of weeks.) I was extremely enthusiastic about her, and like pianist Seong-Jin Cho a lot. Reviews:Joshua Kosman, SF Chronicle. Total agreement about looking forward to hearing how many strings she has in her bow. Lisa Hirsch, SFCV. I really should have mentioned that this was also the third recent go-round for the Beethoven: Yefim Bronfman with Salonen season before last (I think) on the program with the Kongsberg Variations and Bruce Liu, subbing for Hillary Hahn on Rafael Payare's program last year. Liu played it like late Mozart, a defensible approach; Bronfman with great depth and profundity, looking forward.DB at Kalimac's corner
2023-11-21 06:05:00
Smith and Stravinsky at San Francisco Symphony
Davies Symphony HallPhoto by Lisa HirschReviews of From the Edge, the second San Francisco Symphony installment in the California Festival.Joshua Kosman, S.F. ChronicleLisa Hirsch, SFCVJoshua Kosman and I are on the same page about both Breathing Forests (fabulous) and Les Noces (dubious about the Stucky orchestral arrangement). Here I can mention a line that I didn't manage to squeeze into the review, in response to Smith saying that an organ is a forest of pipes: The wood-clad pipes of the Rosales organ in Walt Disney Concert Hall look a lot more like a forest than the austere white pipes of the Ruffatti organ in Davies.I am more bluntly critical about the arrangement and the godawful videos accompanying Les Noces, a choral work that I know as well as anything that I've never actually sung. It is among my favorite works by Stravinsky, and in college I was lucky enough to turn pages for […]
2023-11-08 04:50:00
San Francisco Opera: Omar
Jamez McCorckle and members of the San Francisco Opera ChorusOmar, Act 2Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco OperaI filed my Omar review early this morning, after wrestling with it quite a bit: I have two different saved version of it, and when I filed, I was somewhat unhappy with it. My editors tightened it up, but I realized I was more equivocal about it than my review conveyed. So I added a bit to make that clearer. Still, the length of my review kept it less focussed than it could have been.Joshua Kosman, S.F. Chronicle. I can't argue with any of the points he makes about the opera's weaknesses or strengths.Lisa Hirsch, SFCV. The headline was up before my addition and isn't what I would have chosen. The second act really has problems. I do think Omar will be a hit, though, for its beauty and the excellence of the performers.Opera Tattler.
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