MUSIC REVIEWS
SummerFest 2013 Opens with Sexy Tangos and Sardonic Waltzes
Even a long-running festival as successful as La Jolla SummerFest can use the occasional makeover. Embarking on its 28th season Friday (August 2) at Sherwood Auditorium, SummerFest Music Director Cho-Liang Lin kept
Read MoreRomero Returns with Ravel and Rachmaninoff
Igor Stravinsky dismissed his fellow composer Maurice Ravel as “the most perfect of Swiss clockmakers,” but pianist Gustavo Romero’s supple—sometimes ravishing—account of Ravel solo piano works in his recital easily dispelled that dismissive description.
Read MoreLa Jolla Celebrates Bastille Day, Hoping Revolutionary Ideas Won’t Catch On Locally
Like cheering at a St. Patrick’s Day parade or taking in fireworks and dragon dances at the lunar New Year, celebrating Bastille Day can seem downright patriotic in multicultural Southern California. A cadre of local musicians under the umbrella of Bodhi Tree Concerts put together an entertaining Bastille Day Cabaret Sunday (July 14) at La…
Read MoreComposer Bill Conti Conducts an Earnestly Patriotic Show
Talk about big expectations. July 4 was the first evening that Bill Conti conducted for San Diego Symphony’s Star Spangled Pops.
Read MoreMozart and Shostakovich Mark Atherton’s Mainly Mozart Farewell
David Atherton’s farewell concert as Music Director of the Mainly Mozart Festival Saturday offered high spirits, pristine music making, and a touch of valedictory symbolism. At age 69 the intrepid British conductor is stepping down from his festival post, at the top of his form, to give someone else a chance to interpret this repertory. The program included Mozart’s First Symphony in E-flat Major, K. 16, his Symphony No. 41 in C Major (“Jupiter”), K. 551, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto with Adam Neiman.
Read MoreMainly Mozart’s Army of Generals
Thursday at the Balboa Theatre, the Mainly Mozart festival orchestra under Music Director David Atherton’s precise baton flaunted its refined, buoyant sonority as well as its interpretive finesse and masterful unity of execution in a varied program of Mozart, Schubert, Fauré and Poulenc.
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