While still a conservatory student, the young American composer Samuel Barber wrote “Dover Beach,” a substantial piece for string quartet and baritone soloist, which became a calling card for a musical career that soared quickly. Friday’s La Jolla SummerFest 2012 concert of commissions and premières opened with Gabriel Kahane’s “Come On All You Ghosts,” another solo vocal work with string quartet accompaniment, which the 31-year-old composer completed last year. Given their first-glance similarities, these two pieces chart the great distance between today’s classical music ethos and that of 80 years ago. Barber chose the poetry of Matthew Arnold, the respected…

  If you were searching for a convincing demonstration of that overused adage “less is more,” I would suggest a jazz performance by the exquisite duo of Branford Marsalis and Eric Revis. SummerFest 2012 presented the renowned saxophonist and bassist Wednesday (Aug. 8) on the second half of a program that opened with three pleasant but inconsequential chamber music pieces that featured saxophone. Of course, Marsalis’ classical technique is so refined and fluent that any serious listener is charmed, perhaps even mesmerized, by his sinuous melodic turns. Indeed, he graced the tunes of four short pieces by Samuel Barber arranged…