MUSIC REVIEWS
Hausmann Quartet Brings Haydn’s ‘Seven Last Words’ to an East Village Loft
In addition to the Hausmann Quartet’s multi-year traversal of all the Joseph Haydn string quartets, the intrepid San Diego ensemble has annually presented during the season prior to Easter the composer’s string quartet version of his profound orchestral work “The Seven Last Words of Christ.” This year, Hausmann gave their concert Sunday, April 14, in the Luce Loft down in San Diego’s East Village.
Read MoreJoshua Bell Scores with Bruch’s Violin Concerto at the San Diego Symphony
Either by chance or some mysterious plan, world-class violinists have decided to zero in on San Diego this April. Last week, Midori played a recital at The Conrad in La Jolla, and next week, Gil Shaham will flex his musical muscles at The Conrad. Sunday, Joshua Bell returned to the Jacobs Music Center in downtown San Diego to play Max Bruch’s First Violin Concerto with the San Diego Symphony under its Laureate Director, Jahja Ling.
Read MoreMidori and Thibaudet: A Dream Team Scores with Gallic Élan at The Conrad
For Midori’s decidedly Gallic recital on Friday (April 12) at the newly opened Baker-Baum Concert Hall in La Jolla, she wisely enlisted French pianist Jean-Ives Thibaudet as her collaborator. For sonatas by Claude Debussy, Gabriel Fauré, and Georges Enescu, this was a match made in heaven.
Read MoreMagnificent Jerusalem Quartet Opens Coming Home Festival in La Jolla’s Acoustically Miraculous Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center
After a star-studded Grand Opening Weekend to inaugurate The Conrad, the La Jolla Music Society’s glistening new performing arts center in downtown La Jolla, on Tuesday, April 9, the organization presented the Jerusalem Quartet in the first full concert of the organization’s lavish Coming Home Festival.
Read MoreHausmann Quartet Pairs Haydn’s ‘Emperor’ Quartet with Terry Riley
The Hausmann Quartet’s latest installment of its Haydn Voyages at the San Diego Maritime Museum on Sunday, March 31, offered a pair of Haydn String Quartets—including the beloved C Major “Emperor”—a plush work by Terry Riley called “G Song,” and three Armenian Folk Songs arranged for string quartet. I was quite taken by Riley’s “G…
Read MoreChristopher Adler’s Avant-garde Monody Follows Aeneas into the Underworld
Under the aegis of San Diego New Music, Colin McAllister and several musical colleagues followed in the footsteps of the 17th-century Florentine Camerata, presenting Christopher Adler’s “Aeneas in the Underworld,” a recounting of one of the stories from Virgil’s The Aeneid in a fashion that might have been recognized by the ancient Greeks, but using a contemporary musical idiom.
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