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2023 was an interesting year in classical music for San Diego. We saw a resurgence of the San Diego Opera. We saw delays in the renovations of The Jacobs Music Center at Copley Symphony Hall. However, it’s time now to review the best concert of the years that yours truly attended.

The San Diego Symphony gave two unbelievable concerts at The California Center for the Arts Escondido. They also gave great concerts at The Rady Shell but hearing the orchestra indoors was special. The indoor setting emphasized the sonic success that the orchestra is currently developing. Those concerts featured Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 conducted by San Diego Symphony Music Director Rafael Payare and Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 conducted by 22-year-old guest conductor Tarmo Peltokoski. Peltokoski has since signed an exclusive contract with classical heavy-weight Deutsche Grammophon.

San Diego Opera got back to glorious basics with their production of Tosca by Giacomo Puccini. The cast was composed of mature seasoned singers. The production was free of any post-modern gimmicks and the music-making between the pit and the stage was ideal. I’m hoping for more of the same in the 2024 productions of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.

In October the San Diego Opera presented another of 2023’s top concerts with a dynamic night of singing featuring Latonia Moore and J’Nai Bridges. The concert demonstrated the power and beauty of a trained human voice and all the technical and emotional qualities it can convey.

The San Diego Mainly Mozart Festival turned in two gems during their June 2023 Festival. The first was a chamber music version of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 which was performed at The Conrad in downtown La Jolla. This version of Mahler’s massive opus consisted of one player per part creating a far different texture to the music. I found myself enjoying this version more than the original. With so few players, each part had to be meticulously tuned and the all-star collection of principal players was up to the task.

If there was just one concert in 2023 that I wished everyone could have experienced it would have been Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. This was the concluding concert of the 2023 Mainly Mozart Festival. The concert was held at the Epstein Family Amphitheater on the campus of UC San Diego. Before the concert, Mainly Mozart Music Director shared a heartfelt vision of what Beethoven’s music can mean. If there is a Billy Graham of pre-concert comments, it is Michael Francis. The audience and players were moved by his words and the performance took off from there with some orchestra members wiping tears away at the conclusion. It is a rare and special moment when an orchestra shows its emotions.