Road Report

San Francisco might seem like an unlikely place for a Mahler tradition to take root. Mahler’s epic, heaven shaking symphonies don’t exactly match up seamlessly with the casual atmosphere of the Bay Area, its progressive politics, and foggy, clement summer days. But, that is exactly what has happened in San Francisco since Michael Tilson Thomas [...]

One of the loudest splashes at this year’s Mostly Mozart Festival (now in its 43rd year) was made with “A Flowering Tree,” an opera written by John Adams as a commission in 2006 by Lincoln Center for the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. Originally premiered at the New Crowned Hope festival in Vienna, Austria, this [...]

After a long wait, the audience again took their seats in Bass Hall to hear the who the winners of the Van Cliburn Competition are. So, here are the jury’s decisions: Gold: Haochen Zhang, Nobuyuki Tsujii Silver: Yeol Eum Son Crystal: not awarded Steven De Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance(s) of Chamber Music: [...]

For those of us who wanted to hear how quietly a pianist can play in a concert hall, Di Wu answered our prayers. The Chinese pianist used the softest, lightest, most delicate touch in her performance of Bach’s Toccata in F-sharp minor, BWV 910. Her playing forced the audience to listen so intently that no [...]

After the concert on Friday, I went the press room and then went around Bass Hall on the way to my hotel. Just at that moment, Van Cliburn was leaving the hall. Stanislav Ioudenitch, the 2001 Gold Medal winner and his daughter are next to Van Cliburn. I understand that Ioudenitch’s daughter is a fine [...]