MUSIC REVIEWS
Industrial Toccatas in the Barrio
“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture,” a remark usually ascribed to the late rock music guru Frank Zappa, is a warning to that came to mind listening to the highly charged improvisations by keyboardist Thollem McDonas and percussionist Alex Cline at Fresh Sound in Barrio Logan . . .
Read MoreStunning Duo Recital Opens a Revived San Diego Opera
The audience streaming into the Balboa Theatre Friday night (September 5) may have been drawn to the duo recital presented by San Diego Opera because of soprano Ailyn Pérez and tenor Stephen Costello, but this musical event also marked the rebirth of a major U.S. opera company . . .
Read MoreGreat Tchaikovsky Extravaganza even without the Obligatory Fireworks
Nothing in San Diego’s performing arts arena confirms the end of summer like the San Diego Symphony’s Summer Pops all-Tchaikovsky extravaganza under the baton of Principal Summer Pops Conductor Matthew Garbutt . . .
Read MoreSummerFest Chamber Orchestra in Smart Finale
Violinist Cho-Liang Lin turned what is usually a pleasant journey through the rococo traceries of Mozart’s Second Violin Concerto on Friday’s SummerFest Finale Concert into a profound spiritual journey. . .
Read MoreThe Assad Brothers: Getting Along with Lots of Help from Friends
Classical guitarists Sérgio and Odair Assad returned to SummerFest 2014 bringing a cache of Latin American music, a Charlie Chaplin medley and Chick Corea’s jazzy “No Mystery” . . .
Read MoreHaydn and Humor Invade La Jolla
Art—so the proverb goes—flourishes on limitations. While most of Franz Joseph Haydn’s musical contemporaries, notably Mozart and Beethoven, flocked to Europe’s 18th-century cultural capital Vienna to expand their musical horizons, poor Haydn worked and composed for the princely Esterházy family on their remote rural estates. Tuesday’s (August 19) SummerFest concert offered a collage of Haydn…
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