Strung Out

by Gerald Carpenter

CONCERTS ABOUND: We have quite a traffic jam
this week on the concert schedule, with five musical organizations
giving a total of seven concerts.

Camerata Pacifica will offer its April concerts
tomorrow (Apr. 7) at 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. in Victoria Hall Theater. On
the program are three modern works: Alfred
Schnittke’s “Stille Nacht” for Violin and Piano,
William Bolcom’s Quartet for Piano and
Strings, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Sonata
for Cello & Piano in D Minor, Opus 40. Those who cherish
the early seasons of the Camerata will be delighted to learn that
this concert marks the return of the stellar pianist Joanne
Pearce Martin as a guest artist, along with that Camerata
stalwart, violist Donald McInnes, violinist
Benny Kim, and cellist Eric
Kim.

The Shostakovich is one of this composer’s greatest, most
popular, and quintessential works. I have never heard the
“Stille Nacht,” but I have a Faust Cantata by
Schnittke that is very weird but wonderful.

For tickets and other information, call 884-8410.

CAMA will present its final Masterseries
concert — the group’s final concert of the 2005-2006 season — this
Friday (Apr. 7) at the Lobero. The spectacular pianist Olga
Kern will play two pieces by Felix
Mendelssohn — the Variations Serieuses, Opus 54
and the scherzo from A Midsummer Night’s Dream
(transcribed by Rachmaninov) — plus
Frédéric Chopin’s Sonata No. 2 in B-flat
Minor, Opus 35 (“Funeral March”), Sergei
Rachmaninov’s Morceaux de fantasie, Opus 3, and
Franz Liszt’s Réminiscences de Don Juan.
One may always applaud like hell and hope for an encore. For
tickets and information about CAMA call 966-4324; for tickets to
this concert, call 963-0761.

Gisèle Ben-Dor conducts the Santa
Barbara Symphony this weekend in the second of her final
three concert pairs with the orchestra. While it is hard to imagine
a program this side of Meatloaf’s Greatest Hits
that would not play to some strength of Ben-Dor’s, this one — she
has called it “All Strings Attached” — casts a very wide and
eclectic net that manages to remind us of how diverse her
accomplishments are, and how shining. Beginning at 8 p.m. Saturday
(Apr. 8) and 3 p.m. Sunday (Apr. 9), what we may still consider
Gisèle’s orchestra will perform Ottorino
Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances, Astor
Piazzolla’s Bandoneon Concerto (with Raul
Jaurena, bandoneon soloist), Gustav
Holst’s St. Paul Suite, and Peter
Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for String Orchestra, Opus
48. Respighi wrote three suites of these gorgeous
orchestrations of old dances (fans of Peter
Warlock’s Capriol Suite will love them, as will
practically everyone else); I don’t know which suite the Symphony
will play.

The concerts will take place at the Arlington. For tickets and
other information, call 898-9626; for just tickets, call
963-4408.

Clearly it is a good week for pianists, as UCSB Arts
& Lectures will present the sensational new young
pianist Yundi Li, in recital at 8 p.m. Tuesday,
April 11, at UCSB’s Campbell Hall. Li will play Wolfgang
Mozart’s Sonata No. 10 in C Major, K. 330;
Robert Schumann’s Carnaval, Opus 9;
Frédéric Chopin’s Andante spianato and Grande
polonaise brillante, Opus 22; concluding with Franz Liszt’s
Rhapsodie espagnole, S. 254. For tickets, call 893-3535,
or go online to www.artsandlectures.ucsb.edu.

This very full week concludes with a Santa Barbara Music
Club “Morning Concert,” at 11 a.m. Wednesday, April 12, in
the Faulkner Gallery of the downtown Public Library (40 E. Anapamu
St.). The program and performers are as follows: Étude in
A-flat Major, Opus 25, No. 1, and Étude in C Minor, Op.
25, No. 12, by Frédéric Chopin (Linda
Romillo, piano); Sonata No. 1 in F Major, Opus 8,
by Edvard Grieg (David Turner,
violin; Richard Berkman, piano); three of
Cleopatra’s arias from Julius Caesar by G. F.
Handel (Takako Wakita, soprano,
Andrew Saunders, cello, and John
Sonquist, piano); and Concertino by
Ernest Bloch (Suzanne Duffy,
flute, Tom Turner, viola, and John
Sonquist, piano). The concert is free, of course, but for
more information about the Music Club, call 683-0811, or visit the
Web site, www.sbmusicclub.org.