Accomplished Choir of Queen’s College, Oxford, Sings Rewarding Concert at All Souls’ Episcopal Church

The Choir of Queen’s College, Oxford, presented a substantial concert Friday, April 13, at All Souls’ Episcopal Church in Point Loma. The 21-voice ensemble started its California tour last week in the San Francisco Bay Area and will complete their California excursion Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles at St. James in-the-City Episcopal Church on Wilshire Blvd.

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Pianist Hélène Grimaud’s Astonishing Artistry

Of budding young piano virtuosos there is surely no shortage. The number of promising performers who understand how to program creatively, however, remains distressingly small. Hélène Grimaud’s stunning Thursday (Dec. 1) recital for the La Jolla Music Society could easily serve as a master class in insightful programming . . .

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A Spiritual Journey With Messiaen As Guide

Among the few pivotal works of chamber music from the first half of the last century, nothing touches Olivier Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time” for its combination of radical technique and sumptuous beauty. Written under grim conditions—in 1941 the composer was a prisoner-of-war in a German stalag near Dresden—it is nevertheless an audacious…

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