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On Friday night, the Amelia Piano Trio provided a rich closing performance for the 2011-2012 season of the San Jose Chamber Music Society. At Le Petit Trianon, pianist Andrew Armstrong, violinist Anthea Kreston, and cellist Jason Duckles shared a beautiful concert consisting of early and late Beethoven, as well as dramatic work by Rachmaninoff.
San Jose Choral Project
The performance on Saturday evening at Holy Cross Church by the San Jose Choral Project can only be described in superlatives – transporting, sublime, transcendental.The program, entitled SOARING SPIRITS lasted little more than an hour. It was appropriately presented to create a profound meditative mood, which only deeply felt spiritual choral music from 6th century Gregorian chant to the present can do. As such it was performed with no intermission and with applause permitted only after specific groups of pieces. While engaging in every way, the effect on this listener, who purchased two tickets in advance and was exhausted after a day’s hard work in the garden (attending by myself because my wife was in Denver for the weekend), was spiritually rejuvenating. From the first piece, “I by Arvo Part, I” my spirit felt awakened and I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat throughout the entire program and afterwards, writing this review.
Antonio Lysy and the Capitol Ensemble
Te Amo, Argentina was described by its presenter, Chamber Music Monterey Bay, “as an exotic multi-media performance featuring classical music from the Latin Grammy Award-winning album Antonio Lysy at the Broad – Music from Argentina. From the Amerindian rhythms of the Andes Mountains, the city-street cafés of Buenos Aires, the rich music of Te Amo, Argentina—accented by Tango dance and photographic images of the diverse Argentine landscape—creates a pulsating and inspiring homage to Argentina.” Incidentally, this performance was a preview concert for the world premier at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica this coming weekend.
On a very warm Sunday afternoon, April 22, 2012, at Le Petit Trianon, San Jose, pianist Di Wu raised the temperature still further with playing that was often dazzling but also deafening. Displaying phenomenal technical ability with rapid and perfectly controlled fingerwork and shimmering octaves, she also relaxed at times and showed a delicacy and elegance of legato line and a musicianship that could have been more generously used.
Max Bragado-Darman
What a way to end a season! The Monterey Symphony rang down the 2011-2012 season’s curtain with a rousing performance of Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody No. 1. That this work is popular with audiences is easy to understand – it is a supremely effective piece, and it shows off an orchestra at its best. During the ecstatic applause and standing ovation at its conclusion, there were lots of orchestra members singled out by Director Max Bragado-Darman for special acclaim. Among them were Dawn Walker (flute), Erin Finkelstein (clarinet), Bennie Cottone (oboe), Christina Mock (Concertmaster) and a few others I couldn’t identify from my seat on the far right against the wall down front.
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