CLASSICAL MUSIC : The Picture-Perfect Place to Stage Chamber Concerts

In an effort to make the San Diego Museum of Art a more enticing destination, curator of education Barney Malesky has launched an ambitious program of monthly chamber concerts. Supported by a grant from the Masserini Charitable Trust, Malesky’s programming over the next year will include traditional chamber ensembles, jazz groups, and silent films accompanied by the San Diego Cine-Phonic Orchestra.

Malesky has booked the Arioso Wind Quintet for three concerts on the museum’s series, which to date is nameless. In their opening program April 29 in the museum’s second-floor Baroque Gallery, Arioso offered a selection of Baroque music and 20th-Century compositions inspired by Baroque models. Performing Jan Sweelinck’s Theme and Variations with Massimo Stanzioni’s

“David With Sword” hanging behind the oboist’s shoulder allowed listeners to contemplate the aesthetic connections between Sweelinck and Stanzioni, who were contemporaries. During Arioso’s spirited quintet version of Mozart’s Overture to “The Magic Flute,” it was possible to compare Mozart’s style with the Classicism of Simon Vouet’s “Aeneus and his Father Fleeing Troy,” another of the gallery’s paintings that framed the musicians.

Arioso’s next museum concert will be an all-American program at 7 p.m. May 17 in the Copley Auditorium. The ensemble will return to the Baroque Gallery on June 10 at 1 p.m. with a contemporary potpourri, including a composition by Arioso’s horn virtuoso John Lorge.

Other May musical offerings include a screening this Saturday at 7 p.m. of the 1926 silent film classic “The Phantom of the Opera” with the Cine-Phonic Orchestra; the Westwind Brass will play on May 20 at 1 p.m.

For the summer months, Malesky is planning a jazz series, including free early evening concerts in front of the museum’s main entrance.

More Previn promises. For the La Jolla Chamber Music Society’s SummerFest ‘89, Andre Previn was the popular annual festival’s conspicuous no-show. Apparently completely recovered from his tendinitis, the former music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic intents to do penance for slighting the La Jollans last year. He will grace three SummerFest ’90 (Aug. 17-28) concerts and will appear in several musical guises.

Conductor Previn will mount the podium Aug. 26 in UC San Diego’s Mandeville Auditorium to lead members of the San Diego Symphony in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, K. 364. On the Aug. 25 program in Sherwood Auditorium, Previn will star as SummerFest’s composer-in-residence, accompanying flutist Carol Wincenc in his “Peaches for Flute” and mezzo-soprano Christine Cairns in his “Six Songs on Poems by Philip Larkin.” On Aug. 27 in Sherwood Auditorium pianist Previn will provide the keyboard parts to Mozart’s Piano Quartets in G minor and E-flat Major.

SummerFest is not, however, just a PrevinFest. Pianist Emanuel Ax will make his festival debut in a pair of programs, the Aug. 17 opening concert and again Aug. 19. Other musicians making their first SummerFest appearance include cellist Carter Brey, pianist Andre Michel Schub, violinist Young Uck Kim, flutist Anne Diener Giles and newly appointed San Diego Symphony principal horn John Lorge. Returning artists include pianist David Golub, cellist Gary Hoffman, violist Cynthia Phelps, violinist Cho-Liang Lin, bassoonist Dennis Michel, and the Colorado String Quartet.

Six concerts will be given in Sherwood Auditorium, and both Sunday programs (Aug. 26) will occur in UCSD’s Mandeville Auditorium. Other traditional SummerFest features include the young people’s afternoon concert and ice cream social at Sherwood Auditorium (Aug. 19), open rehearsals, master classes, and a private concert in Rancho Santa Fe for festival supporters.

Relaxing under pressure. Four public seminars on the Alexander Technique will be offered by the music and drama departments of San Diego State University on Wednesday and Thursday. Marjorie Barstow, a student of F. Matthias Alexander, the founder of a method to eliminate habits that cause excess strain, tension and effort in performance, will teach the courses. The music department offers regular classes in the Alexander Technique, taught by Eileen Troberman, who apprenticed with Barstow. For information about Barstow’s offerings at SDSU, phone the music office (594-6031).

More winners. Mezzo-soprano Lisa Friedrichs won first prize ($3,000) in the vocal division in the annual Virginia Hawk Competition for aspiring young musicians in El Cajon on April 21. Soprano Diane Winterton placed second ($1,000). In the instrumental division, first-place winners ($1,000 each) were violinist Pengfei Xhou, pianist George Estrada and oboist Vicki Strong. Instrumentalists taking second prizes ($500 each) were violinist David Chan, pianist Arlene Hipolito, and bassoonist Michael Curtis. These winners were presented in concert May 6 at El Cajon’s Neighborhood Center.

That’s all, folks! Los Angeles theater organist Gaylord Carter will make his farewell appearance on the California Theatre’s mighty Wurlitzer on Sunday at 2 p.m. With the imminent demolition of the historic building, the local Theatre Organ Society has slated only three more programs, including the grand finale on June 24. Carter, who is remembered by old-timers for providing the opening and closing theme music to the 1930’s “Amos ‘n’ Andy” radio programs, will accompany two Harold Lloyd films, “Hot Water” (1924) and “For Heaven’s Sake” (1926).