The next Chamberfest recital by the Music Academy faculty, at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Lobero Theatre, will put the extraordinary talent of violinist Edward Dusinberre, first violinist of the Takács Quartet, to very good use.
The concert will begin with New York Counterpoint, a bravura piece for solo clarinet by renowned minimalist Steve Reich, performed, surely with precision and aplomb, by Richie Hawley. Then comes the Mozart String Quintet in C Minor, K. 406, played by Kathleen Winkler and Peter Salaff (violins), Donald McInnes and a student (violas), and Alan Stepansky (cello), and all’s right with the world.
Samuel Barber’s Summer Music for Winds, Opus 31 — which has been a staple of Music Academy summers, and every other summer music festival in the country, since it was composed in 1956 — brought to shimmering life by the artistry of Timothy Day (flute), David Weiss (oboe), Richie Hawley (clarinet), Benjamin Kamins (bassoon) and David Jolley (horn).
The concert concludes with two pieces featuring violinist Edward Dusinberre: the Chaconne from Bach’s Partita in D minor for Solo Violin, BWV 1004, and Brahms’s Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 in A Major, Opus 100 (Margaret McDonald, piano).
Reserved seats are $38. Call 805.963.0761
Dusinberre will join with his colleagues in the Takács Quartet — they are in residence now at the academy — for a visiting artist recital at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Lobero Theatre.
Their exemplary program will consist of Haydn’s String Quartet in G minor, Opus 74, No. 3 (“Rider”); Leos Janáĉek’s Quartet for Strings, No. 2, “Intimate Letters” (1928); and Schubert’s String Quartet No. 15 in G Major, D. 887.
If you have never heard the extraordinary quartet Janáĉek wrote in the last year of his life, you should avail yourself of this concert by a renowned ensemble to hear it. It is strikingly original and utterly accessible emotionally.
Reserved seats are $43. Call 805.963.0761.
At 2 p.m. Saturday in Hahn Hall, Lotfi Mansouri will direct the stage action; Warren Jones the music, in the performance of scenes from The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Der Rosenkavalier, Lucia Di Lammermoor and three other operas, as one of the academy’s most popular events takes the stage in “Opera Showcase.”
Reserved seats are $32. Call 805.969.8787 or fax 805.969.4037.
At last, if you want to know what German romanticism sounds like in its purest form, in the fresh exuberance of its first phase, then you be on hand at the Lobero on Saturday evening when Nicholas McGegan leads the Academy Festival Orchestra in a performance of Robert Schumann’s glorious Symphony No. 1 in B-flat Major (“Spring”). This is romantic enthusiasm proclaimed with irresistible lyricism under a cloudless sky. Also on the program will be Olivier Messiaen’s Un Sourire, Mozart’s ebullient Symphony No. 36 in C Major, K. 425 (“Linz”), and Jacques Ibert’s Hommage à Mozart.
Reserved seats are $45. Call 805.963.0761.
Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributor.
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