Posts by Ken Herman
‘Angels in America’ Confronts the Politics of the Trump Terror
If you think that the timing of the current successful revivals of Tony Kushner’s award winning play “Angels in America: a Gay Fantasia on National Themes” in New York City and at the Berkeley Rep in the San Francisco Bay Area is accidental, then you have not been paying attention to either the playwright or to Washington politics.
Read MoreMainly Mozart 2018 Concludes with Majestic Mendelssohn and Heroic Haydn
Mainly Mozart’s final concert of the 2018 season featured the Festival Orchestra under the baton of Music Director Michael Francis in a program of Mozart, Haydn, and Mendelssohn.
Read MoreCellist Johannes Moser Thrills with Tchaikovsky “Variations on a Rococo Theme” at Mainly Mozart
If the most rewarding moments of a Mainly Mozart Festival concert can occur during the performance of music by other composers, Saturday’s (June 16) Mainly Mozart program made a great case for that possibility with Johannes Moser’s brilliant solo in Tchaikovsky’s “Variations on a Rococo Theme,” Op. 33, and Stravinsky’s sparkling “Dumbarton Oaks” Concerto.
Read MoreAvant-Garde and Traditional Cohabit Comfortably at La Jolla Symphony and Chorus Concert
Living up to its reputation as a citadel of the avant-garde, the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus under the direction of Steven Schick closed its 2017-18 season Sunday (June 10) with two substantial new works: Rand Steiger’s ”Template for Improvising Trumpeter and Orchestra” and Courtney Bryan’s “Yet Unheard,” as well as Gabriel Fauré’s endearing Requiem.
Read MorePianist Derek Paravicini Premieres Matthew King Concerto with Mainly Mozart Orchestra
Sunday’s Mainly Mozart concert under the baton of Music Director Michael Francis (June 10) featured the Festival Orchestra augmented by some 15 musicians from the Mainly Mozart Youth Orchestra, a Piano Concerto commissioned by Mainly Mozart, and a post intermission session in which guest pianist Derek Paravacini took themes and requests from the audience on which he improvised.
Read MoreMichael Francis and Anne-Marie McDermott Inspire Exotic Fare in Opening Mainly Mozart Festival Concert
Michael Francis opened the 30th installment of San Diego’s annual Mainly Mozart Festival Saturday, June 9, with an ebullient orchestra concert that started with with Jean-Féry Rebel’s harmonically startling, rarely performed Baroque dance suite “Les Élémens,” jumped to Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C Major, K. 415, featuring soloist Anne-Marie McDermott—that composer’s equally assertive attack on late 18th-century Viennese rococo elegance—and closed with Beethoven’s Second Symphony.
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