The final weekend of January presents riches in the realm of classical music that continue into February. Beloved pianist Cecil Lytle, former provost of the Thurgood Marshall School at University of California, San Diego (UCSD), plays a fascinating fund-raising recital; Mainly Mozart opens its Spotlight Series; and San Diego Opera runs with Modest Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov,” the first opera in its 2007 season. On Feb. 3, the Roby Lakatos Ensemble continues La Jolla Music Society’s (LJMS) Jazz Series and San Diego Symphony resumes the Jacobs’ Masterworks Series.
Lytle’s ‘Religioso/Diabolique’
Pianist Cecil Lytle performs a program titled “Religioso/Diabolique: Religious Piano Music from the East” at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 28, in the Faculty Club at UCSD. The concert benefits the Rebecca Elizabeth Lytle Scholarship, which supports and encourages first-year students enrolled at Thurgood Marshall College.
The extraordinary program comprises music by Russian mystic Alexander Scriabin, late-in-life Old Testament-titled works by Franz Liszt, and music by contemporary Estonian composer Arvo Part [umlaut over a], known for highly religious, other-worldly choral music.
Tickets are $40, of which $27 is tax deductible. For tickets and information, call (858) 534-0263 or e-mail [email protected].
Mainly Mozart
Judging from the looks of Eroica Trio’s new violinist Susie Park, it helps to be a babe.
Hailed as prodigiously talented by The Washington Post, Park permanently replaces Adela Pena, who left the trio due to a fatigue-related hand injury.
Park said, “Joining the Eroica Trio is my dream come true. There is incredible magic among us, and I feel so lucky to be making music with two such passionate and dynamic artists.”
Like the former trio, the new Eroica Trio ” violinist Park, pianist Erika Nickrenz and cellist Sara Sant’Ambrogio ” is absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. Fans look forward to hearing how they sound.
The opportunity presents itself when Eroica opens Mainly Mozart’s 2007 Spotlight Series Jan. 26-28. The all-Franz Schubert program, comprising the Piano Trio in B Flat and the Piano Trio in E Flat, is scheduled at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Jan. 26-27, at The Neurosciences Institute, 10640 John Jay Hopkins Drive, and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 28 at The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe, 5951 Linea Del Ciela, Rancho Santa Fe. Single tickets are $42, $42 and $50, respectively, and may be purchased at www.mainlymozart.org or (619) 239-0100.
Feb. 9-11 a string quartet comprising violinists Martin Chalifour and Jun Ching Lin, violist James Dunham and cellist Desmond Hoebig continues the Spotlight Series with chamber quartets by Franz Josef Haydn.
The original Mussorgsky ‘Boris’
Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto returns to San Diego Opera to sing the title role in Modest Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov,” under the baton of Russian conductor Valery Ryvkin as staged by Lotfi Mansouri. A great favorite with San Diego Opera audiences, Furlanetto recently sang Boris and Verdi’s King Philip at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre. The San Diego Opera production is performed in Mussorgsky’s original version and orchestration. For a preview of the magnificent Coronation Scene, go to www.sandiegoopera.com and click on the title. Performances ($27-$182) at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27; 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 30; 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 4 at The Civic Theatre, found at the intersection of B Street and Third Avenue downtown. For tickets and information, call (619) 533-7000.
Roby Lakatos Ensemble continues LJMS Jazz Series
La Jolla Music Society president and artistic director Christopher Beach waxes ecstatic about the prodigious talents of gypsy violinist Roby Lakatos, whom he discovered in Europe.
“He’s a seventh-generation Gypsy with the long hair, the striped vest and an ensemble,” Beach said. “I first heard him because [violinist] Maxim Vengerov, who I think is one of the greatest violinists alive, said, ‘I’m nothing. Every time I’m in Brussels, I go and hear Roby Lakatos.’
“Lakatos was a revelation “¦ he plays like Jascha Heifitz. But he plays the Brahms, the Khatchaturian Sabre Dance, the czardas, Hungarian Dances, that sort of thing, and then he plays jazz.”
The Roby Lakatos Ensemble continues the LJMS Jazz Series ($20-$50) at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3 at the Stephen and Mary Birch North Park Theatre, 2891 University Ave. For tickets and information, visit www.ljms.org or call (858) 459-3728.
Masterworks Series continues
San Diego Symphony Jacobs’ Masterworks Series continues Feb. 3, 9 and 11 (odd schedule due to “Boris Godunov”) with guest conductor David Lockington on the podium to lead the orchestra in Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 85 in B-flat Major (“La reine”), John Williams’ “Five Sacred Trees,” and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9 in E-flat Major. Copley Symphony Hall is located at Seventh and B streets downtown. For tickets ($20-$85), visit www.sandiegosymphony.com or call (619) 235-0804.
