January 12, 2022
A flight of fancy inspired by the great outdoors, the music on this program evokes soaring larks, clucking hens, a mystical swan, and the wafting sounds of birdsong from the Bohemian countryside. California Symphony presents TAKE FLIGHT at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek on Saturday, Jan. 29 at 7:30pm and Sunday, Jan. 30…
December 21, 2021
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) The Lark Ascending (1914/1921) Nostalgic longing permeates The Lark Ascending. Not a cozy nostalgia that looks back to a rose-tinted past, but rather a spiritual fervor for an idyllic paradise, expressed as the song of a soaring skylark and, on the earth below, human life—a poignant metaphor for our collective yearning…
October 28, 2019
Haydn was the vastly accomplished composer of the era. 24 years younger, Mozart’s reputation was on the rise. Both were prolific, both admired each other’s work, and a close friendship soon ensued in 1780s Vienna. If only I could impress Mozart’s inimitable works on the soul of every friend of music, and the souls of…
October 17, 2019
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony No. 1 in E-flat Major, K. 16 (1764) A child prodigy of staggering talent, itty-bitty Wolfgang Mozart was trundled about Western Europe from ages 7 through 10 by his doting—and exploitative—father. The family arrived in London in April 1764, where eight-year-old Wolfgang formed a close bond with Johann Christian Bach,…
October 17, 2019
By California Symphony Music Director Donato Cabrera. In programming this concert with the California Symphony, there were a few ‘a-ha moments’ that I hoped to share with everyone, on stage and off. Because conductors and unadventurous and nervous marketing departments of most symphony orchestras have sadly codified the repertoire, you, the audience, rarely get to hear all of…
March 8, 2018
What additional treasures might exist had Mozart survived beyond 35? And what iconic works *wouldn’t* we have, if other great composers had died young like him? When I am… completely myself, entirely alone… or during the night when I cannot sleep, it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence and…
