Posts by Ken Herman
Smart Contemporary Chamber Music at La Jolla SummerFest
In his opening remarks to Sunday’s La Jolla SummerFest concert, composer David Lang explained that he chose the evening’s program to demonstrate how certain contemporary composers were showing their respect for music’s past. He gave us a helpful insight to Caroline Shaw’s 2011 work “Entre’acte,” noting that the composer set to work on this piece…
Read MoreRare Francesco Cavalli Opera Sighted on Stage in the Golden Triangle
Opera NEO’s last offering of its 2019 Summer Festival, Francesco Cavalli’s 1651 “La Calisto,” opened in a smart production Friday at the Four Flowers Theater at La Jolla Country Day School.
Read MoreOpera NEO’s Compelling ‘Eugene Onegin’ Soars in the Golden Triangle
Opera NEO’s production of Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” at La Jolla Country Day School’s Four Flowers Theater revealed consistently polished singing coupled with a compelling, well-focused dramatic arc.
Read MoreEncountering Jazz with Cécile McLorin Salvant at La Jolla SummerFest
Can jazz and classical music co-habit congenially on the same stage? La Jolla SummerFest Music Director Inon Barnatan set out to answer that question in the affirmative in Wednesday’s (August 7) concert, the opening salvo in Barnatan’s new Synergy Series. Combining disciplines and art forms provides the mainspring to this series, and upcoming programs in…
Read MoreSummerFest’s Sublime Spiritual Journey
Saturday’s La Jolla SummerFest program, “Songs of Heaven and Earth,” clustered major sacred works by J.S. Bach, Olivier Messaien and Gustav Mahler, a combination of composers I cannot recall appearing together on a previous SummerFest program, Both the musical progression and the spiritual journey proved unusually compelling.
Read MoreSummerFest Boldly Mixes George Crumb and Maurice Ravel with Rachmaninoff on Sunday’s Program
Sunday afternoon, SummerFest Music Director Inon Barnatan matched Claude Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s virtuoso, arch-Romantic Sonata in G Minor for Piano and Cello, Op. 19, with George Crumb’s rarely performed 1971 “Vox Balaenae” (“Voice of the Whale”) for amplified flute, cello and piano, and Maurice Ravel’s “Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé.”
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