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A weekend at The Athenaeum and The Symphony
Nobody composes better music about Spain than the French.
Robert Schumann
My weekend started on Friday, October 10, with a concert and lecture by pianist Daniel Beliavsky at The La Jolla Athenaeum. The concert included music by Dimitri Shostakovich, Frédéric Chopin, Alexander Scriabin, and Sergei Rachmaninoff.
The lecture, which took place both before and in between the pieces, took us on a journey across the centuries as Beliavksy deftly drew a variety of musical strings into a neat and tidy bow for each piece that he performed. This gave all of us in the audience a solid understanding upon which we could build our own experience of each piece.
Beliavsky concluded the concert with a thunderous performance of Shostakovich’s Prelude and Fugue No. 24, Op. 87. Before the performance, he vividly described the atmosphere of terror in which Shostakovich wrote the piece. The contextualization of the composition made this experience of the music even more poignant and devastating.
My weekend concluded on Sunday, October 12, with a concert by the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. As I looked at the program, one of the greatest lines in cinema history popped into my mind. I don’t know why.
The line is from the 1994 film Dumb and Dumber. As Lloyd poetically describes Aspen, Colorado, and his desire to go there, Harry responds with, “I don’t know, Lloyd, the French are assholes.” Truer words have never been spoken, but there is another thing about the French that is just as true: nobody composes better music about Spain than the French. From Maurice Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte, to Claude Debussy’s Iberia, to George Bizet’s Carmen, the French dominate music about Spain.
The concert started with Emmanuel Chabrier’s España — yet another French composition depicting Spain. This music is easy to love. It’s compact and to the point. It engages the audience immediately and never lets go. San Diego Symphony Orchestra music director Rafael Payare led an ideal performance of this perennial crowd-pleaser.
Video:
Chabrier : España
The next piece was a new piano concerto by Jimmy Lopez entitled Ephemerae. Javier Perianes was the soloist. The piece offered some spectacular sounds and was quite impressive in its orchestration.
The concert concluded with Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 2. I never realized before that I loved Schumann’s Second Symphony, but this performance made that clear. As the piece progressed, I realized that it contained just as much energy as the new composition I had just heard. The difference was that the musical energy in the Schumann was organized and marshalled in a manner that I could understand and respond to.
The third movement was astonishingly beautiful, and the treatment it received from Payare and the orchestra made it even moreso. And the finale movement stormed its way to the finish line with dotted rhythms, brass fanfares, and a string section that was sawing its instruments in half.
Video:
Schumann: Symphony No. 2
Here's something you might be interested in.
A weekend at The Athenaeum and The Symphony
Nobody composes better music about Spain than the French.
A weekend at The Athenaeum and The Symphony
Nobody composes better music about Spain than the French.
Robert Schumann
My weekend started on Friday, October 10, with a concert and lecture by pianist Daniel Beliavsky at The La Jolla Athenaeum. The concert included music by Dimitri Shostakovich, Frédéric Chopin, Alexander Scriabin, and Sergei Rachmaninoff.
The lecture, which took place both before and in between the pieces, took us on a journey across the centuries as Beliavksy deftly drew a variety of musical strings into a neat and tidy bow for each piece that he performed. This gave all of us in the audience a solid understanding upon which we could build our own experience of each piece.
Beliavsky concluded the concert with a thunderous performance of Shostakovich’s Prelude and Fugue No. 24, Op. 87. Before the performance, he vividly described the atmosphere of terror in which Shostakovich wrote the piece. The contextualization of the composition made this experience of the music even more poignant and devastating.
My weekend concluded on Sunday, October 12, with a concert by the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. As I looked at the program, one of the greatest lines in cinema history popped into my mind. I don’t know why.
The line is from the 1994 film Dumb and Dumber. As Lloyd poetically describes Aspen, Colorado, and his desire to go there, Harry responds with, “I don’t know, Lloyd, the French are assholes.” Truer words have never been spoken, but there is another thing about the French that is just as true: nobody composes better music about Spain than the French. From Maurice Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte, to Claude Debussy’s Iberia, to George Bizet’s Carmen, the French dominate music about Spain.
The concert started with Emmanuel Chabrier’s España — yet another French composition depicting Spain. This music is easy to love. It’s compact and to the point. It engages the audience immediately and never lets go. San Diego Symphony Orchestra music director Rafael Payare led an ideal performance of this perennial crowd-pleaser.
Video:
Chabrier : España
The next piece was a new piano concerto by Jimmy Lopez entitled Ephemerae. Javier Perianes was the soloist. The piece offered some spectacular sounds and was quite impressive in its orchestration.
The concert concluded with Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 2. I never realized before that I loved Schumann’s Second Symphony, but this performance made that clear. As the piece progressed, I realized that it contained just as much energy as the new composition I had just heard. The difference was that the musical energy in the Schumann was organized and marshalled in a manner that I could understand and respond to.
The third movement was astonishingly beautiful, and the treatment it received from Payare and the orchestra made it even moreso. And the finale movement stormed its way to the finish line with dotted rhythms, brass fanfares, and a string section that was sawing its instruments in half.
Video:
Schumann: Symphony No. 2