Enrico Chapela caricature, from the composer's web site
My latest review is of last Saturday's "Unstuck" program at Cabrillo. I referred to this festival the other week as the Cabrillo Festival of Middle-of-the-Road Contemporary Music, but maybe I just get to the wrong concerts: the Kronos program was obviously more challenging and experimental than the last several concerts I've heard there. But if you look back at what Cabrillo used to perform, whole swaths of contemporary and recent music are missing. I dunno, I wish they performed a broader range of styles, but it's also true that they're selling tickets, have a good donor base, and of course put on superb performances.
How should one respond to such general criticism? What specific swaths of contemporary and recent music are missing? What Cabrillo used to perform in the early years was lots of Mozart! The obvious change in the past 10 years is the increased focus on contemporary music. I do love how the occasional 10- or 20-year old piece seems really old-timey in the festival context.
ReplyDeleteI would like to hear a wider variety of contemporary music - or maybe I'd just like to hear more serialism.
ReplyDeleteYou clearly liked "Magnetar" much more than I did when I heard it in LA. Glad somebody did.
ReplyDeleteThought it was pretty good, though I'm not sure how memorable. This is a general issue with Cabrillo stuff, I'm afraid.
ReplyDelete