MUSIC REVIEWS
Chamber Musicians from Lincoln Center Visit La Jolla
The highly respected Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is known for its commitment to artistic excellence and expanding the chamber music repertoire. The first half of that sterling reputation was upheld by five players from Lincoln Center in Friday’s (Nov. 8) program of Schumann, Brahms and Dvorak for the La Jolla Music Society at Sherwood Auditorium.
Read MoreNew York Polyphony Brings the “Missa Charles Darwin” to La Jolla
Friday’s La Jolla Athenaeum concert with the vocal ensemble New York Polyphony featured Gregory Brown’s radically conceived but sonically ingratiating “Missa Charles Darwin.” This impressive male quartet also offered Thomas Tallis’ “Mass for Four Voices” in an evening of tasteful virtuoso singing!
Read MoreLang Lang and Symphony Try Out Rachmaninoff for New York
Back in town playing the Sergei Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto with the San Diego Symphony at the Jacobs Music Center on Saturday (Oct. 26), Chinese superstar Lang Lang once again basked in the adulation of his fans. Music Director Jahja Ling conducted Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8 in G Major and two shorter Dvorak Slavonic Dances to round out the concert.
Read MoreAudra McDonald Soars at the Balboa
Tony and Grammy Awards winning vocalist Audra McDonald soared in her concert for the La Jolla Music Society Friday (Oct. 25) at the Balboa Theatre downtown. Her authority as an interpreter of musical theatre and her ability to captivate her audience were never in doubt as she explored the paths less taken in American stage music.
Read MoreSilk Road’s Gospel of Global Harmony
Musicians from the Silk Road Ensemble brought their infectious musicianship to La Jolla’s Sherwood Auditorium Sunday (Oct. 20), spreading their gospel of global harmony through virtuoso collaboration. The traditions and instruments of Japan, China, Persia, India, Spain and the British Isles intermingled with fascinating and sometimes astounding results.
Read MoreElvis Costello and Felix Mendelssohn Together at Last
Art of Élan, that plucky chamber music series run by Kate Hatmaker and Demarre McGill, opened its fall season at the San Diego Museum of Art on Tuesday (Oct. 15) with Felix Mendelssohn’s Second String Quartet in A Minor and selections from Elvis Costello’s “The Juliet Letters,” the British rock star’s 1993 opus for string quartet and vocalist.
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