MUSIC REVIEWS
Vibrant, Probing Production of ‘All Is Calm–The Christmas Truce of 1914’ at the Balboa
With collaboration from Bodhi Tree Concerts and Sacra/Profana, San Diego Opera opened a powerful new production of Peter Rothstein’s choral opera “All Is Calm” Friday (December 7) at the Balboa Theatre.
Read MoreUC San Diego’s Amazing Revival of Luciano Berio’s ‘Circles’
At UC San Diego, Luciano Berio’s now classic avant-garde “Circles” from 1960 was magnificently performed on Thursday, November 29, 2018, in the university’s Experimental Theater at the Conrad Prebys Music Center.
Read MoreJohannes Debus Conducts the San Diego Symphony in Compelling Dvořák Sixth Symphony
With the San Diego Symphony’s dazzling performance of Antonín Dvořák’s Sixth Symphony at Friday’s concert, Dvořák lovers in Copley Symphony Hall were no doubt left swooning. Guest conductor Johannes Debus led an exuberant yet skillfully shaped account of the composer’s one mature symphony that stubbornly remains in the shadow of his mighty Eighth Symphony and beloved Ninth—the “New World.”
Read MoreWillan 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.
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