The Rady Shell provides apt setting for symphonic poem about briny deep.

The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park is gearing up for what appears to be a massive summer of concerts and events. In addition to the popular fare, which is standard for the summer, there are several classical offerings.

The month of May ends with two quite massive classical concerts. On Saturday and Sunday, May 21 and 22, San Diego Symphony music director Rafael Payare conducts a concert of Prokofiev, Ravel, and Debussy. Both concerts begin at 5:00 pm and I strongly recommend them, as the repertoire is fantastic.

The concerts begin with a piece by Esa Pekka Salonen, the current music director of The San Francisco Symphony, and is followed by Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1. This concerto is everything that I love about Prokofiev. It is melodic, sardonic, and energetic. Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe Suite No 2 comes after intermission. This suite from Ravel’s ballet includes the famous “daybreak” music. The final piece is none other than Claude Debussy’s invocation of the sea, La Mer. The Rady Shell provides an apt setting for a symphonic poem about the briny deep.

On Friday and Saturday, May 27 and 28, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 makes its Shell debut. The concerts are at 7:00 pm on Friday and 5:00 pm on Saturday. Opening for Beethoven is Edward Elgar’s beloved Cello Concerto with cellist Alisa Weilerstein. The Elgar is a signature piece for world-class cellists. Rafael Payare conducts. Beethoven’s Ninth is always an event but I am intrigued to hear how Payare represents Beethoven’s masterpiece.

The official opening of The Rady Shell Summer Season is on Friday, June 24, at 7:30 pm. The concert begins with Hector Berlioz’s Le corsaire Overture and continues with the West Coast premiere of Reinaldo Moya’s: Concerto for Piano, Strings and Percussion. The piece can be heard in its entirety on YouTube. I recommend listening to new music as much as possible before attending a concert. It is impossible to digest a new piece of music in just one sitting.

Closing the concert is Modest Mussorgsky’s monumental Pictures at an Exhibition as orchestrated by Maurice Ravel. This is the version that everyone knows and loves. The concluding section, “The Great Gate of Kiev” makes me wonder if any of The Shell food vendors will be offering “The Great Chicken of Kiev.”

June ends with Boyz II Men, The Music of Thelonious Monk, and Norah Jones. More information is available here.