Thomas Adès

With Mainly Mozart in the rearview mirror, all serious lovers of classical music now turn their eyes to The La Jolla Music Society and their SummerFest 2024. The LJMS presents concerts throughout the year but SummerFest is their signature event. The festival opens on Friday, July 26, and closes on Saturday, August 24. Music Director, Inon Barnatan has programmed 21 concerts over that four-week stretch. There are also 50 free “Learning and Engagement” events peppered throughout.

SummerFest is dripping with world-class artists from start to finish. This year, British composer and pianist Thomas Adès plays the role of composer-in-residence for SummerFest. Adès will perform as pianist and conductor and his compositions will be featured in several concerts. I find Adès’s musical style to be accessible and welcoming.

The list of artists is stunning. We need only look to the violinists who are appearing to witness the artistic cache of SummerFest. Augustin Hadelich performs on the opening concert and James Ehnes headlines the closing concert. In between, Stefan Jackiw plays on August 9 and 11.

There are a few concerts that I find intriguing, having browsed through the glossy SummerFest brochure. The first is the opening concert on Friday, July 26, with Hadelich. Music Director Inon Barnatan begins SummerFest with the Mephisto Waltz by Franz Liszt. Hadelich plays Niccolò Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 and then we get Igor Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale. The Stravinsky will include live puppetry and narration by Broadway star Danny Burstein. Thomas Adès will conduct.

The concert on Sunday, August 11, is intriguing because it includes a performance of Gabriel Faure’s Requiem. The chorus will be provided by VOCES8. Hearing this evergreen composition with eight professional singers is a unique and potentially rewarding opportunity.

The closing concert on Saturday, August 24, has one of my very favorite pieces of music. James Ehnes will perform The Lark Ascending  The SummerFest Chamber Orchestra. It simply does not get any better than that. This piece of music, with this violinist, in The Baker Baum Auditorium is going to be sublime.

For more information on SummerFest 2024, visit https://theconrad.org