Posts by Ken Herman
Willan West Festival Closes on A High Note at All Saints’ Episcopal Church
This year, with many other musical organizations across the continent, the San Diego Symphony has observed the centennial of Leonard Bernstein’s birth. But choral director Ruben Valenzuela has chosen 2018 to bring attention to the music of another composer, the Anglo-Canadian Healey Willan, who died 50 years ago, with his Willan West 2018 festival, which ended Saturday, November 17, 2018, with a liturgical celebration at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Hillcrest.
Read MorePianist Orli Shaham Thrills in Bernstein’s “The Age of Anxiety” with the San Diego Symphony
Continuing the San Diego Symphony’s laudable Leonard Bernstein year-long centennial salute, guest conductor Steven Sloane and the orchestra offered a rousing account of Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2, “The Age of Anxiety,” Friday, November 16, at the Jacobs Music Center’s Copley Symphony Hall.
Read MoreHausmann Quartet Explores the Galaxy with David Ludwig, Beethoven and Haydn
If you are puzzled to learn that the Hausmann Quartet’s November 11 Sunday program at the Maritime Museum of San Diego was planned around the outer space probes of Voyager 1 and 2, launched in 1977, you probably lack the imagination of the four clever Hausmann musicians. But you will discover the relationship of the three composers mentioned in the headline when you read the review.
Read MoreArt of Élan’s Glowing Mosaic of Music from Monteverdi to David Bruce
On Tuesday, November 6, Art of Élan offered an amazing concert in the atrium of the San Diego Museum of Art that spanned the madrigals of Claudio Monteverdi to a stunning instrumental quartet 2016 by David Bruce.
Read MoreA New Season Opens with Sacra/Profana Lite in Hillcrest
The San Diego choral ensemble Sacra/Profana launched its 10th season this past weekend with a pair of identical concerts, subtitled “A Retrospective Experience,” that touched on the successes of previous seasons and aspirations for the future.
Read MoreExcitement at the San Diego Symphony: Conrad Tao’s Electrifying Account of the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto and a Premiere by Javier Álvarez
Friends who know me well will quickly attest that they have never heard me exclaim, “I am dying to hear another performance of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto!” However, after hearing pianist Conrad Tao’s spectacular performance of this popular work with the San Diego Symphony, Friday, November 2, I have been completely converted.
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