Classical Spotlight

Brahms Fest continues Saturday night at OLLU

Voices, piano, and dance all come together at the Brahms Festival this weekend with Opera Piccola's Gypsy Love.  Two sets of Gypsy songs and the New Lovesong Waltzes will be performed with a quartet of singers.

The Ballet Arts School will interpret these songs, with original choreography.  

Troy Peters has arranged and organized contemporary tunes for fundraiser

Saturday night Radius becomes much more than offices and a restaurant; the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio will transform the space to an orchestral club. "And the idea is that we just show up with an orchestra in various places, and we've memorized a song, we've worked out an arrangement together, and we sing and play songs that people aren't used to orchestral musicians perform," says Music Director Troy Peters.

Program has rarities from Chabrier and Ives

While this weekend's program is setup traditionally as an overture, concerto and symphony, the music is more than just everyday. "If anything is typical, it's the concerto that we're playing, the Lalo Symphonie Espagnole, which itself isn't typical, but it's the one where people might know the melodies," says Karen Kamensek.

The return of this former Houston Opera conductor to Texas also welcomes an American gem, Charles Ives' Symphony No. 2.

They have had over 14 million views on YouTube, John Malkovitch has appeared on stage and film with them, and Maestro Bernard Haitink loves them. Igudesman and Joo have been performing since they met in music school.

"We call ourselves more eclectic: many different styles that don't seem to fit together. Somehow fabulously do fit together, and at the same time, combined with theater and comedy, it's a special combination."

Tuesday, January 22, Joyce Yang will return to San Antonio for a piano recital. She has played with the San Antonio Symphony, collaborated with violinist Augustin Haedlich, but this time will be solo at Laurel Heights United Methodist Church. Her program has music by Beethoven, Chopin, Bartok, and Rachmaninoff.

"The Second Sonata is a great example of that passion on the verge of hysteria. It is unusual Rachmaninoff in many ways - it was edited several times, and can seem schizophrenic!"

Great popular music of America, from Broadway to Hollywood, is featured Saturday night in Kerrville.

Typically, the Symphony of the Hills plays Thursday evenings. Nine times out of ten, they are also playing standard repertory, from baroque to modern masterpieces, but for their first concert of 2013, Symphony Director Jay Dunahoo had a new idea.

"Let's just try some different kinds of music, do it early in the year, and hopefully attract some people who might not normally come to a Symphony of the Hills concert."

Jeff Garza solos with the symphony this weekend in Mozart's Fourth Horn Concerto

You often see Jeff Garza at the back of the orchestra, leading the San Antonio Symphony horn section, but this weekend, you'll have the chance to hear Jeff also shine in a concerto, out in front of the orchestra!

Kerrville, Boerne and San Antonio host Camerata SA concerts this weekend

Personal Expressions will feature Anastasia Storer and Matthew Zerweck, violins; Emily Freudigman, viola; and Ken Freudigman, cello. These Camerata San Antonio musicians play together in chamber music as well as at the San Antonio Symphony.