Brothers Pluck Strings--One in Unison, Other Solo

When cellist Eric Kim returned to the San Diego Symphony last week to perform his half of the solo in Brahms’ Double Concerto, it was also a family reunion of sorts. Kim, who was the San Diego Symphony’s principal cellist last season, was joined in San Diego by his older brother, Benny, who played the violin solo in the Double Concerto performances. (Last season, the brothers had played the same concerto with the Denver Symphony under Sixten Ehrling.)

“I’ve never performed it with another cellist, and I don’t know if I would want to play it with anybody else,” said Benny, who pursues his solo musical career from Chicago. “Actually, I don’t know if I ever want to play it again,” he added humorously.

If there is any rivalry left between the Kim siblings--they effected perfect cordiality for their interview--it is well concealed. However, they have charted opposite professional paths. Eric took a principal chair with the Denver Symphony immediately after he completed his schooling, while Benny never considered anything but a career as a soloist.

“Maybe it’s just typical of the Juilliard mentality to have a maverick attitude, but all my teachers instilled in me the goal of being a solo artist,” said Benny Kim. “The idea of sitting in an orchestra and listening to one person tell me what to do is not my idea of being creative.”

Under some prodding from his brother, Benny allowed that he had gained some empathy for the orchestra player since he left Juilliard.

“Sometimes, after playing a solo concerto, I’ll sit in the back of the second violin section and play during the second half of the concert,” Benny conceded.

Eric Kim compared his workload at the Cincinnati Symphony, where he is principal cellist, with his year in San Diego.

“I consider this week a vacation,” said Eric Kim. “Since I started with the Cincinnati Symphony three months ago, I’ve not had a single break.”

Moving to Ohio’s “Queen City” (as Cincinnati natives call their town) not only forced the avid tennis player to take his sporting interests indoors. Cincinnati’s 52-week annual contract--contrasted with the local orchestra’s 37-week contract--has proved to be an unforgiving performance schedule.

“It’s more work in Cincinnati. When we’re not playing in town, we’re out doing area artist tours. We play in cities within a 100-mile radius of Cincinnati, which is a kind of community service. It means we sometimes play in gymnasiums, but we reach a lot of people. It’s what I believe a symphony orchestra should do.”

Of course, not all of Cincinnati’s touring ends up in a high school gym. In March, 1990, the orchestra and its music director, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, will give the orchestra’s annual Carnegie Hall concert, followed by a week of cities in Florida.

“Then in October, 1990, we’ll be playing four weeks of concerts in Japan,” Eric Kim added.

After spending a season in San Diego with an unending procession of guest conductors, Kim appreciates the continuity of Lopez-Cobos’ direction.

“As music director, he has a definite sound in mind he wants the orchestra to produce,” Eric Kim explained. He also noted that Lopez-Cobos gets solid results without threatening the players.

“He’s a great guy--I don’t even think of him as a conductor.”

When asked if he intended to remain in Cincinnati, Kim replied, “It’s too early to say. I’m getting tired of hopping around.” Kim spent single-year stints as principal cellist in Denver and in San Diego.

“Obviously, I’m hoping for one more big hop. But who knows when that will be?”

Toasting coffee. A performance of J. S. Bach’s jocular secular piece “The Coffee Cantata” will appropriately grace the annual coffee celebration Sunday at 7 p.m. in San Diego’s downtown Sushi Gallery. According to organizer Scott Paulson, an informal consortium of local coffeehouse owners will host this opening reception for the annual coffee-theme art show. Not surprisingly, coffee will be served. The Orpheus Ensemble, a local early-music group directed by Kathryn Evans, will give a free performance of Bach’s cantata on the subject of drinking coffee, a controversial practice in 18th-Century Europe.

The industrious Litton. American conductor Andrew Litton brings the Los Angeles Philharmonic to San Diego Civic Theatre on Saturday at 8 p.m. to open that orchestra’s local series. The principal conductor and artistic director of Britain’s Bournemouth Symphony (the only American to hold that post in the orchestra’s 95-year history) is no stranger to San Diego audiences. In March, 1988, Litton conducted the San Diego Symphony in a notable Mahler-Mozart program, and he has worked in the pit of San Diego Opera on more than one occasion. The program features Tchaikovsky’s infrequently played First Symphony, “Winter Dreams,” and pianist Malcom Frager will join Litton and the orchestra in Schumann’s Piano Concerto.

Mozart finds lodging. San Diego’s Mainly Mozart festival has landed a new title sponsor for the June, 1990, music series at the Old Globe Theatre. For last year’s inaugural season, San Diego’s Westgate Hotel put up the visiting musicians in style, but corporate advice from Utah vetoed repeating that good deed.

So festival maestro David Atherton and his crew persuaded the neighboring Kingston Hotel to do the honors. Since the Kingston Hotel already hosts the Bowery Theatre company in its adjacent Kingston Playhouse, working with the 10-day festival is not a surprising move for the recently renovated downtown hostelry. What is surprising, however, is that with this festival’s penchant for alliteration-- Mostly Mozart --Atherton has not lined up, say, the Marriott.