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| Charlene Baldridge Photo by Ken Howard |
I’ve been reading R. Buckminster Fuller, pondering the benefits of time off, writing an exceptionally challenging poem, and allowing classical music to wash over me, feeling inadequate to describe the entire experience.
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| Anne-Marie McDermott, curator Spotlight Series |
Mainly Mozart opened the 2016 Spotlight Series at the Auditorium at TSRI (The Scripps Research Institute) Friday, Jan. 9. It was a stunning event for two reasons: first, the artists’ playing, and second, announcement from the stage (and later noted in the program) that Executive Director Nancy Laturno Bojanic, who was present and made the concert’s introductory remarks, would leave Sunday on a three-month sabbatical made possible by The Fieldstone Foundation’s Clare Rose Sabbatical Grant, which is designed to give Southern California non-profit executive directors time to rest and rejuvenate. After 28 years at the helm, it’s about time for Bojanic.
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| Moretti |
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| Nuttall |
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| Costanza |
Dvoŕák was never at a loss for melody, even tossing in a whole new galaxy of tunes at the end of the quintet, as my friend pointed out, after having lavished them upon us earlier. It was the music lovers’ way to begin the New Year.
Art of Élan 2015-16 Season Continues
Tuesday night Art of Élan presented a program titled “Concentric Circles,” juxtaposing works by Aaron Jay Kernis, Dominick Argento, Louis Gruenberg, Nico Muhly and Arvo Pärt. Guest artists included the choral group Sacra/Profana (music director Krishan Oberoi), which sang Kernis’s “Effortless Love Flows” from Ecstatic Meditations and also, joined by harpist Julie Smith Phillips and cellists Yao Zhao, Chia-ling Chien and Xian Zhuo, Argento’s “Observing,” from Walden Pond.
Due to remodeling of the Hibben Gallery and others located upstairs, the concert was presented in the Rotunda, a lovely setting that nonetheless brings with it acoustical problems in that spoken and sung words were exceptionally diffuse and a choral blend was challenging to achieve. Fortunately, texts were displayed in the program. The setting also introduced subtle and not unwelcome instrumentation in the fall of water from the rotunda’s fountain.
Gruenberg’s fascinating, alternately plaintive and wild, Four Diversions for String Quartet was meticulously played by violinists Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu and Anna Skálova, and Chi-Yuan Chen, violist Chi-Yuan Chen and cellist Yao Zhao. Skálova then returned to play Muhly’s brief Honest Music for violin and pre-recorded audio.
The major piece of the evening was Pärt’s Tabula Rasa, performed in two movements, Ludus (games) and Silentium, by most impressively poised, indefatigable and unflappable solo violinists Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu and Anna Skálova, in collaboration with Ines Irawati on prepared piano, tutti violins Jing Yan, Yumi Cho, Igor Pandurski and Batya MacAdam-Somer, violas Chi-Yuan Chen and Jason Karlyn, cellists Yao Zhao and Chia-ling Chien, and double bass Susan Wulff. The overall effect was one of deep immersion leading to serenity. It was as if one were being prepared to accept serenity of death – that awesome and assuring.
Coming Attractions
The next SDMA Art of Élan program is scheduled at 7pm Tuesday March 29. Meanwhile, they return to North County’s Lux Institute in Encinitas at 6pm February 3. www.artofelan.org
Sacra/Profana has a concert of romantic music by contemporary composers coming up at two locations: the first at 7pm February 12 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, and the second at 7pm February 13 the Riford Library, La Jolla, in mid-February. http://sacraprofana.org
Mainly Mozart’s next Spotlight Series concert takes place at 6:30pm February 27 at the Auditorium at TSRI, featuring the Szymanowski Quartetand the Attacca Quartet in music of Mozart and Mendelssohn (the Octet!). The program is repeated the following evening at 5pm at the Rancho Santa Fe Garden Club. Info: www.mainlymozart.org
Announcement of Significance
Cleveland Institute of Music announces that it has named San Diego Symphony’s Music Director Jahja Ling Distinguished Principal Guest Artist. Mo. Ling will be in Cleveland in March and April, giving master classes, lectures and performances with the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra. Mo. Ling has had a 30-year relationship with the Cleveland Orchestra. Following the 2016-17 he will step down from his position with San Diego Symphony, which is currently conducting a search for his successor.