MUSIC REVIEWS
Saturday Celebrations at the Carlsbad Music Festival
Spending a day at the Carlsbad Music Festival, August 24-26, 2018, reminds the followers of new music that there is no right way to do or to define contemporary music. Like visiting that ice cream emporium chain that advertises 33 flavors, at Carlsbad you are likely to discover a flavor you haven’t yet tried.
Read MoreThe Artistry of Emanuel Ax and Friends at La Jolla SummerFest
La Jolla SummerFest titled its Wednesday, August 22, concert “An Evening with Emanuel Ax.” But it was much better than that. It turned out to be an evening with Emanuel Ax and friends.
Read MoreSummerFest’s Glowing Concert of French Music from Gounod to Ravel
The La Jolla SummerFest concert on August 21 presented a beautifully performed program that captured that late Romantic flowering of French chamber music from Charles Gounod to Maurice Ravel.
Read MorePushing the Envelope: Enticing New Music at La Jolla SummerFest
Thursday, August 16, La Jolla SummerFest featured Marc-André Dalbavie’s stunning Quartet for Piano and Strings, a La Jolla Music Society commission premiered here in 2012, and paired it with Pierre Jalbert’s 2017 Piano Quintet, an equally impressive work which the La Jolla Music Society co-commissioned.
Read MoreA Sumptuous Banquet of Lin’s Favorites at La Jolla SummerFest
The August 14 SummerFest concert offered an embarrassment of riches, from the warmth and allure of Joaquin Turina’s “Escena Andaluza,” to Claude Debussy’s profound yet unsentimental Cello Sonata, to Lei Liang’s extravagantly exciting new “Vis-à-vis” for Pipa and Percussion, to Gustav Mahler’s transcendent Rückert-Lieder song cycle to Alberto Ginestera’s breathtaking String Quartet No. 1.
Read MoreOpera NEO’s gift of Early Mozart Splendor: ‘Idomeneo’
Opera NEO produced a musically sparkling although spare production Mozart’s early opera “Idomeneo” as part of this year’s Opera NEO Summer Opera Festival and Workshop at the outdoor Palisades Presbyterian Amphitheater in Allied Gardens
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