Haydn Voyages: Dancing in the Orange Groves
The Hausmann Quartet and Maritime Museum of San Diego embark on their fifth season of “Haydn Voyages: Music at the Maritime,” a quarterly concert series performed aboard the 1898 steam ferryboat “Berkeley” docked in downtown San Diego. The curated selection of musical works performed by this accomplished young quartet set Haydn’s works alongside those of master composers from the contemporary era while stretching back to his musical ancestors. Enjoy performances on the city’s only floating concert hall and immerse yourself in the sounds of a string quartet and the San Diego Bay. Refreshments are available on the “Berkeley’s” upper deck bar starting at 3:00pm, as well as after each concert for a chance to mingle with performers and audience members. Performances include informative and entertaining commentary from musicologist Derek Katz.
The season opens with an evocative California adventure featuring a mix of music, pairing two Haydn masterpieces with works suggestive of our own time and place. Terry Riley’s “Good Medicine Dance” is the final segment of his epic “Salome Dances for Peace,” which updates the legend of “Salome” to today (or at least to 1987). Caroline Shaw’s “Valencia” is an ode to the common supermarket orange, but also in the composer’s words “a kind of celebration of awareness of the natural, unadorned food that is still available to us.”