Arts & Events

After critical successes of their first two shows of the season, 'Waiting for Godot' (a collaboration with Inferno Theatre) and 'Death of a Salesman,' Ubuntu Theater Project is staging the West Coast premiere of Lisa Ramirez's 'To the Bone,' which follows five undocumented immigrant women working in an East Coast poultry factory. -more-

In the second of two concerts given at Davies Hall March 19-20 by Russia’s oldest symphonic ensemble, the St. Petersburg Symphony, which dates from 1882, two works were offered: Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 in D minor and Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor. The latter featured pianist Garrick Ohlsson, a perennial favorite of local audiences. St. Petersburg Symphony’s Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Yuri Temirkanov led the orchestra. Conducting without a baton, Temirkanov employed a deceptively low-keyed approach, eschewing the grand gestures and physically demonstrative pyrotechnics of some conductors. However, Temirkanov has been at his post with St. Petersburg Symphony since 1988, and I’m sure he has conducted this orchestra innumerable times in both the Shostakovich 5^th Symphony and the Brahms First Piano Concerto. Thus one gets the impression that his musicians know him and the music so well he simply doesn’t need to lead them in any overtly demonstrative way. With a simple wave of the hand or a brief jabbing gesture, Temirkanov magically elicits great playing from his orchestra. It’s almost a conjuring trick, so effortless does it seem. -more-