MUSIC REVIEWS
Guest Conductor Michael Francis Brings His Panache to the San Diego Symphony
With numerous 20th-century and newer works played in the San Diego Symphony’s current “Hearing the Future” festival, I felt a sense of backsliding attending Michael Francis’s program of familiar standard repertory from the early 19th century Friday, January 18, at the San Diego Symphony.
Read MoreChamber Music on the Cutting Edge from Franz Joseph Haydn to Matthew Aucoin
“All music was new at one time,” quipped Matthew Aucoin Tuesday as he welcomed the audience to his “Hearing the Future” festival chamber music program in the Auditorium at TSRI. Following his festival theme, Aucoin chose pieces that were pivotal when they were written, displaying approaches that pointed to a musical future barely on the horizon.
Read MorePayare Celebrates Shostakovich and Britten in Second Festival Performance
Culinary comparisons may be approximate at best, but if Music Director Designate Rafael Payare’s Thursday San Diego Symphony program was a buffet of tantalizing appetizers, his Friday program (January 11) at Copley Symphony Hall was clearly the substantial main course.
Read MorePayare and Weilerstein Soar in Tchaikovsky in the San Diego Symphony’s Hearing the Future Festival
Brandishing his new title as Music Director Designate, Rafael Payare opened his weekend blitz of San Diego Symphony performances with a stunning concert Thursday at Copley Symphony Hall, the first performance on the orchestra’s month-long “Hearing the Future” festival.
Read More2018: A Year of Winning Musical Collaborations Across the City
In 2018, the key players of San Diego’s classical music scene struck gold by collaborating with each other. Enlisting some 10 musical organizations in its month-long “It’s About Time Time” festival in January, the San Diego Symphony set a high bar of cooperation for the coming year, but other organizations readily took up the challenge with rewarding results.
Read MoreSan Diego Pro Arte Voices’ Musically Rich Evening of Readings and Carols
Although most of the Christmas music performed during the holiday season was originally intended for church services, in these secular times music lovers tend to hear this repertory in concert settings. A felicitous compromise is the Service of Lessons and Carols, an English invention that simply alternates seasonal music and Biblical readings like a very…
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