Top of the World Sounds

Top of the World Sounds

La Jolla, San Diego

Sun, November 10, 2019 5:00 PM, PST

Capacity
8 of 40 spots still available
No COVID-19 restrictions
Drinking policy
Don't bring your own drinks
Toilet with a slash through it
No bathroom at this event
Wheelchair access
Wheelchair Accessible
Kids
Kid-friendly event

This is a groupmuse

A live concert in a living room, backyard, or another intimate space. They're casual and friendly, hosted by community members.

Host

Please join us for a chamber music concert with Peter Ko on the cello and Remi Ha on the piano.

"Peter Ko is a cellist based in San Diego. His musical projects and performances have taken him across the United States, into Mexico and Canada, and Europe, performing with world class players such as the Dover Quartet, Mark Fewer, Erik Carlson, Felix Fan, and more. Peter currently serves as principal solo cellist for the San Diego City Ballet Orchestra and the Pacific Lyric Association Opera. He is a DMA candidate at UCSD, studying under Charles Curtis, and earned his Masters of Music at the Memorial University of Newfoundland."

"Remi Ha is a San Diego-based pianist and a recent graduate of UCSD. She has participated in music festivals across the United States and has collaborated with musicians of all walks of life. She finds agency in an active exploration of an evolving definition of music. She looks to continue operating within the challenge of sound and values openness in music collaboration and application."

What's the music?

Peter Ko Cello
Remi Ha

“Three Centuries”

Ludwig van Beethoven - 12 Variations on Handel’s ‘See the conqu’ring hero comes’, WoO 45

J.S. Bach - Canon in Augmentation and Contrary Motion, from “The Art of the Fugue”

Anton Webern - Two Pieces

Alex Taylor - Four Little Pieces

-Short Intermission-

Ludwig van Beethoven - Cello Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 69

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About the Program:

1751, 1796, 1899, 2017.

These are the dates of verified composition or publication of the pieces that comprise the first half of our program. Over the course of nearly three centuries, we can look back and experience how radically Western art culture has transformed, through the lens of these four composers; Bach, Beethoven, Webern and Taylor. By no means does this selection reflect a comprehensive view of the Western musical canon; instead, it focuses on a very particular prism of musical influences that leads us to a facet of the present day.

In Beethoven’s time, Bach was largely a forgotten master of the past; Bach occupied the fringes of musical culture, with the complexities of his music considered undecipherable by society at large. For Beethoven, the discovery of Bach’s music was eye-opening and influential, pushing Beethoven to achieve a higher degree of complexity and craft than ever thought possible. Perhaps beyond aesthetics, Beethoven was also influenced by Bach’s pioneering nature, the defiance to push against the current of culture, to achieve one’s own vision.

Beethoven himself would achieve a status of myth, propelling the musical world into the lush nature of Romanticism. Constantly pushing for more expression, more intensity, more emotion, Romanticism would eventually reach its breaking point. Webern, at this critical juncture, would encapsulate that breaking point; the “Two Pieces” being its vessel, like entire Mahler symphonies condensed into the smallest dosage possible. What follows after is the chaos of the 20th century; the freedom of Expressionism, the formalism with Modernism, and many other musical trends. A century later, Alex Taylor writes his “Four Little Pieces” as a beautiful and evocative tribute to Webern.

1808

Beethoven’s third cello sonata, in A Major; the first cello sonata considered to have both parts equally balanced in role and purpose. Perhaps this was spurred about the waves of egalitarianism and democracy that was sweeping the continent at the time? The music also strikes an uncanny balance between Beethoven’s natures; the piece is clearly Romantic in many ways, but somehow still maintains the classical proportions of form that inform the Classical tradition. Music that is simultaneously looking back in history, and forward.

Despite all these differences, all these changes in aesthetic and thought, these pieces still share a crucial, common trait; that it is music, sounds to be listened to, written to evoke and inspire. We hope that you can join us for a fine Sunday afternoon as we share in this moment, as we listen and experience this music, together.

Location

Exact address sent to approved attendees via email.

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