The Rehearsal Studio

Photograph by Fritz Luckhardt of Johannes Brahms, probably taken around 1885 (public domain, from Wikimedia Commons) Next month will see the beginning of the concert season for the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) Youth Orchestra (SFSYO), which continues to be

Last night Davies Symphony Hall saw the return to the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) podium by Elim Chan.

Poster design for the performance being discussed In a little less than a month’s time, the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony (BARS) will present the second of the four concerts it has prepared for the 2026–2027 season.

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (artist and date unknown, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain) As I wrote yesterday, in the Bruno Walter: Complete Warner Classics Remastered Edition release, the last of the three CDs of compositions by Gustav Mahler is…

Photograph of Gustav Mahler (from Wikimedia Commons, public domain) Given the seven-CD box set of performances conducted by Bruno Walter devoted entirely to compositions by Gustav Mahler released by Sony at the beginning of 2012, the Warner Classics relea…

I find it interesting that, in the Bruno Walter: Complete Warner Classics Remastered Edition, the CDs of compositions by Joseph Haydn should follow the Brahms albums, rather than “chronologically” preceding them.

Some readers may recall that last week concluded with an article about two performances taking place next month on Saturday, November 14.

1899 Portrait of Johannes Brahms (from his biography written by C.

After a relatively busy month, October will conclude with only two events this week.

In going through my news feeds in my “Arts and Letters” category for The Old Reader, I encountered a story by Marina Dunbar about training Artificial Intelligence (AI) models with Elvis Presley songs.

Rafael Payare leading the Orchestra Symphonique de Montréal (from the SFS Web page for this event) Yesterday afternoon the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) Great Performers Series hosted a visit in Davies Symphony Hall from the Orchestre Symphonique de Montré…

While the first two of the twenty CDs in the Bruno Walter: Complete Warner Classics Remastered Edition provided an informative account of the conductor’s early approaches to performing music by Ludwig van Beethoven, it would be fair to say that the third…

Poster design for next month’s SFCS performance (from the Web page for this season’s concerts) For those that do not yet know, the “season” of the San Francisco Choral Society (SFCS), led by Artistic Director Robert Geary, aligns with the calendar year, r…

Berta Rojas and Paquito D’Rivera (from the SFP Web page for their duo performance) Last night in Herbst Theatre, San Francisco Performances (SFP) began its series of guitar recitals with a performance by guitarist Berta Rojas.

The Alonzo King LINES Ballet last performed on the stage of Davies Symphony Hall with the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) in June of 2024.

Some readers may recall that, a little over six years ago, I wrote a series of articles about Bruno Walter: The Complete Columbia Album Collection, which concluded with the conductor’s interpretations of symphonic music by Anton Bruckner and Gustav Mahler.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio (screenshot from a NewsFeed video released this morning) It was only a little over a month ago that I found myself again invoking George Santayana’s best-known aphorism, “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.”

Some readers may have to make a choice when it comes to attending a concert at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 14.

Last night in Herbst Theatre, San Francisco Performances began its Art of Song series with a recital by tenor Nicholas Phan, accompanied at the piano by Myra Huang.

Banner design for next month’s PBO performance Next month Peter Whelan will continue his first season as Music Director of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale (PBO) with the United States premiere of the 1742 Dublin version of George Frideric Han…

Robert Geary with members of the Volti vocal ensemble The Volti vocal ensemble will begin its 48th season with a return to Knuth Hall, which is in the Creative Arts Building on the campus of San Francisco State University.

Pianist and vocalist Shuo Zhai prepared a program entitled Musical Chairs on Willard Street for the afternoon of Saturday, October 24.

Cover of the Warner Classics album of Thaïs Some readers may recall that this month began with my venture into the CDs collected in Lorin Maazel: The Complete Warner Edition.

Last week’s Bleeding Edge was decidedly limited compared to what will be coming this week.

Album cover of the recording of Carmen available through Amazon.com The second of the three operas in the Lorin Maazel: The Complete Warner Edition is probably the most popular, Georges Bizet’s Carmen.

Yesterday afternoon my wife and I returned to the War Memorial Opera House to use the next round in our San Francisco Opera (SFO) subscription tickets.

Pianist Hélène Grimaud (from the San Francisco Symphony Web page for her recital) Hélène Grimaud is an impressively diverse pianist.

Yesterday evening saw the second live-stream performance by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra to be presented the month.

I must confess that my knowledge of tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan has been limited to his acquaintance with Charles Mingus.

Violinist Mads Tolling and pianist Ian Scarfe (from the Groupmuse Web page for next month’s recital) As was the case last year, next month will see the return to the Century Club of California by the duo of pianist Ian Scarfe and violinist Mads Tolling.

Last night in Davies Symphony Hall, Xian Zhang returned to the podium of the San Francisco Symphony, having made her debut with the ensemble in February of 2018.

The “final stretch” in the CDs in the Lorin Maazel: The Complete Warner Edition involves complete opera recordings.

Drawing of Richard Strauss from the Web page for the performance being discussed As in the past, the fall season of the San Francisco Opera (SFO) includes a concert performed by the SFO Orchestra under the baton of Caroline H.

When Fox News complains about the competence of the new White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia with Election Day less than a month in the future, Republicans probably know by now that they are in trouble: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/1…

Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet (from the SFS Web page for last night’s performance) Last night Davies Symphony Hall hosted a trio of musicians, all of whom had previously performed as solo artists with the San Francisco Symphony (SFS).

Many readers probably know by now that violinist Owen Dalby is Co-Artistic Director of Noe Music.

Composer John Adams (uploaded on January 5, 2008, by Macror from English Wikipedia, from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license) The last of the CDs of orchestral performances in the Lorin Maaze…

When I announced the coming Dynamite Guitars series for 2026–2027, I wrote that the season would begin this Saturday, October 17, in St.

In the CD collection Lorin Maazel: The Complete Warner Edition, conductor Maazel shows decidedly more interest in the nineteenth century than he does in the twentieth.

Photograph of George Szell on the cover of the album being discussed (presumably taken during his tenure in New York) Through my connection to Naxos B2B, I have had the good fortune to receive announcements of recordings on other labels, some of which have

About a week ago, InterMusic SF announced the date for this year’s SF Music Day.

Interior of Old First Church, the venue for Old First Concerts This week the number of events that have already been reported outnumber the new ones.

Late yesterday afternoon St.

The PARTCH Ensemble performing the diversity of instruments required for the tracks on the album being discussed I have not written about the Bridge Records’ Music of Harry Partch series since June of 2019.

Next month there will be only two Old First Concerts (O1C) events taking place at Old First Presbyterian Church.

Yesterday evening, my wife and I settled down with dinner to watch the latest YouTube livestream of a performance by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

In a little less than a month’s time, Ars Minerva will present its latest production.

It was somewhat less than a year ago that Karina Canellakis made her last visit to the podium of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS).

Having given special attention to Anton Bruckner in writing about the CDs collected in Lorin Maazel: The Complete Warner Edition, I can now shift attention to nineteenth-century composers more familiar to many (if not most) readers.

This will be a relatively quiet month at the Center for New Music (C4NM).