Garrett Harris goes crazy for Mainly Mozart

As an employee of the San Diego Mainly Mozart Festival, I’m not allowed to be as exuberant about the festival in these pages as I once was. It might appear as if I’m a propagandist which, at heart, I truly am when it comes to this festival.

As a brief preview of the upcoming festival, I shall quote some articles which I wrote before my official status at Mainly Mozart.

“...Because the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra is the greatest thing since sliced bread?

"Oh no. Sliced bread has nothing on this pantheon of musicians. This orchestra is the greatest thing since before sliced bread. I bet you’ve never heard of anything so great before. Sliced bread seems to be the standard against which all greatness is measured but I think that paradigm needs to be shifted over to the Festival Orchestra.

“Whereas vehicles unite to create a super robot (Voltron), musicians from across the country unite to form a super orchestra. The Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra: Defender of the Universe. If you’ve never been to hear the festival orchestra then you’re missing out on one of the greatest musical experiences available — anywhere. It has been said that during these two weeks this group of musicians could be counted among the best orchestras in the world.

“If there were ever a West-Side-Story-esque-a-la-Anchorman-news-fight orchestra death match, this group would cut you and maybe choke you out, in a very musical and artistic way. You might even thank them afterwards.”

“There is no way on God’s green earth that that performance of Prokofiev actually existed. I mean I was there in the Balboa Theater, but at the same time I was somewhere else on a Platonic plane of pure potential. Perhaps you’ve heard the idea that a chair is not a chair because of its temporary nature. What we call a chair is actually not a noun but a verb. So the universe or matter is “chairing”, a tree is “treeing” and a table is “tabling” etc. This concept has become a part of quantum physics, but Plato and his forms gave us an ancient access to this modern concept. On Saturday night there were no musicians or audience. The universe was simply Prokofiev-ing and that was brought on by the extraordinary ability of the musicians on the stage.”

I think that’s enough. You should be getting the point by now. The Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra is a “not to be missed” group of champion musicians.

This year’s orchestra includes the concertmaster of the LA PHIL, the concertmaster of the Israel Philharmonic, and concertmasters from Dallas, Rochester, St. Louis, Nashville, Canadian Opera Company, San Diego, and more.

The principal horn from the Cleveland Orchestra, a position deemed to be a top 10 horn seat in the world by the Slipped Disc music blog, is in the orchestra along with the principal horn from LA, and the National Symphony. The principal flute from Philadelphia and principal oboe from The Metropolitan Opera are in the band. I could go on.

This isn’t orchestral jingoism. It’s just the facts.

Headlining soloists such as Jeremy Denk, Conrad Tao, Anne-Marie McDermott, and Augustin Hadelich are scheduled to collaborate with the orchestra and music director Michael Francis.