Muzik3, La Jolla’s unpredictable and outré chamber music festival, came and went the weekend of April 14 and 15, playing to near capacity at The Other House, a comfortable hillside venue on the Fan family property.
Felix Fan, a renowned young cellist raised in San Diego, presented a wild and wacky and highly musical New York-based group that calls itself Polygraph Lounge. The musicians are keyboardist-thereminist Rob Schwimmer, multi-instrumentalist Mark Stewart and soprano Melissa Fathman. Both antic men sing and perform what could be called assemblage in what turned out to be a freeform afternoon Sunday. They played duels on hand-made instruments, taught the audience to play (and we did it well) a bit of plastic called the nose harp and generally surprised minds and ears with their clever pastiche of music and musical styles, ranging from Bollywood to classical and much that lies in between.
Opera lovers relished Schwimmer on theremin, performing the familiar soprano/mezzo duet from Leo Delibes’ “Lakme,” and renditions of the theme from “Bonanza” and “Peer Gynt,” which was simultaneously played in two keys. There were extended bits from “Moby Dick” and “The Nutcracker,” during which, I fear, Schwimmer and Stewart had more fun than the audience. One of their most clever pieces was “Car Alarm Dance,” written for ubiquitous warning device and Polygraph zaniness.
One would hope for Schwimmer’s return as a jazz composer-pianist. His CD is extraordinary. Meanwhile, Fan promises Muzik3 will return for a 10th anniversary celebration next year.
La Jolla Music Society presented maestro Paavo Jarvi and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Thursday, April 19 at Copley Symphony Hall. Violinist Leonidas Kavakos played Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D Minor, Opus 77, and the collaboration between Jarvi, the orchestra and soloist could not have been more thrilling or simpatico.
Following the interval, the orchestra played Hector Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique, Opus 14. Jarvi appeared to have a jolly good time with his players, exhorting, cajoling and producing breathtaking work filled with power, precision and finesse.
Individual players ” especially oboe Shea Scruggs and English horn Christopher Philpotts ” and sections shone, and the playing elicited such vociferous audience response that Jarvi and his considerable group played an encore to end a magnificent evening in the concert hall.
Saturday, April 28, 8 p.m., at Sherwood Auditorium, La Jolla Music Society presents Il Giardino Armonico, a group specializing in period instruments. Among the composers are Henry Purcell, Georg Telemann and Antonio Vivaldi.
Mark this on your calendar now: at 8 p.m. Thursday, May 24 at Copley Symphony Hall, La Jolla Music Society presents the acclaimed Philadelphia Orchestra with Christoph Eschenbach, conductor. They will play Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat Major for Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon and Horn, K. 2976, and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Opus 64.
For tickets, visit www.lajollamusicsociety.org or phone (858) 459-3728.
