MUSIC REVIEWS
The Danish String Quartet Combines Exciting Repertory and Sublime Playing
Following their established pattern of visiting San Diego, the Danish String Quartet was overdue. But the sizzling concert by this accomplished young ensemble on Friday, February 8, in the Auditorium at TSRI, certainly made up for lost time.
Read MoreSan Diego Opera’s Thrilling ‘Rigoletto’
San Diego Opera opened a smart, vocally rich production Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” a classic gem of Grand Guignol theatrics Saturday, February 2, at San Diego Civic Theatre. Combining a large cast of stylish Verdian voices with Michael Cavanaugh’s sleek, tight direction, General Director David Bennett has clearly pleased everyone in the Civic Theatre audience . . .
Read MoreRenga Ensemble Presents a Bouquet of Seminal 20th-Century Works to Climax the ‘Hearing the Future’ Festival
Renga, a heady fusion of virtuoso instrumentalists from UC San Diego and the San Diego Symphony, offered a probing coda to the Symphony’s January festival “Hearing the Future” on Saturday, January 26, at the university’s Conrad Prebys Concert Hall.
Read MoreMatthew Aucoin and the San Diego Symphony Lift Up Music’s Future in Both Past and Present Modes
As the San Diego Symphony’s ambitious, engaging festival “Hearing the Future” takes its victory lap, Festival Curator Matthew Aucoin led the orchestra in an exuberant concert in Copley Symphony Hall Friday, January 25. His refreshing approach to program design completely ignored the traditional overture-concerto-symphony formula: each half of the concert offered seven shorter works or…
Read MoreGuest 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.
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