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The KPAC Blog features classical music news, reviews, and analysis from South Texas and around the world.

Classical Music To Tango: The Weekend's Here!

From classical music to Tango, there's plenty of music this weekend. First, let's start with the Chamber Orchestra of San Antonio. Here's Mario Ochoa talking about the music they're playing.

"We have Philip Glass, who may be very recognizable to most of your listeners. We also have Javier Alvarez, and we'll be performing his Metro Chabacano. We also have Max Richter and we'll be doing his Four Seasons Re-composed. So each of these three composers had a knack for doing the complex and the very simple."

Ochoa also cites the concertmaster as soloist.

"His name is Francisco Fulana. He hails from Spain."

Carlos Izcaray conducts Saturday night at the Tobin's Carlos Alvarez. Also, Saturday night -- Azul Barrientos performs Tango!

"You mean Tango." (Barrientos says it in Spanish pronunciation, much like the hand drums called bongos)

"Right, right. I meant that!" I said as she laughed.  "So you've got some tango happening Saturday night, right?"

"Yes, we're back with tangos. We're doing a little tribute to some of the most representative artists of tango."

Barrientos will be backed by a well-known band of San Antonians.

"Aaron Prado, George Prado and Nina Rodriguez. And it's at the Esperanza Center downtown."

On Friday and Saturday nights at the Tobin, Gabriel Feltz guest conducts the San Antonio Symphony. He's never been here before but he has high words of praise.

"This is my first time in Texas ever, and my first time in San Antonio. I like it a lot."

The program for this weekend is a Russian program of Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky. But Feltz says that's not all.

"And in the middle we have this world class star violinist Sarah Chang playing the Bruch Violin Concerto. So it's just an honor to follow her."

It's a weekend full of music!

Jack Morgan can be reached at jack@tpr.org and on Twitter at @JackMorganii