Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Murray Perahia, piano & conductor
Beethoven: Quartet in E-flat Major (arranged for String Orchestra)
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor”
Principal Sponsor: Michael Towbes/The Towbes Foundation
Sponsor: Léni Fé Bland

Founded in 1959 by Sir Neville Marriner, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields has grown to encompass many different forms – from chamber group to symphony-sized orchestra and chorus. What endures is that the Academy players are drawn from the cream of musical talent, producing a richness of sound and virtuosic skill recognized the world over. Renowned for his subtle and deep-thinking interpretations of Beethoven and Bach, pianist Murray Perahia will lead the Academy and perform the solo part in Beethoven’s most searching and stirring piano concerto: No. 5 “Emperor.”

“Murray Perahia’s conducting is serious, sensitive and stylish. In other words, it bears a striking resemblance to his piano playing.”

–The Washington Post

Daniele Gatti

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Friday, January 30, 2004
Daniele Gatti, conductor
Silvia Chiesa, cello
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4 “Italian”
Saint-Saëns: Concerto for Cello & Orchestra No. 1
Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, op. 68
Sponsor: Herbert J. Kendall
Co-Sponsors: Bitsy Gordy/Becton Family Foundation
Robert & Sherry Gilson/Merrill Lynch Montecito

Founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1946 in a quest to bring the greatest music ever composed to every corner of the United Kingdom, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra continues to be rapturously received by critics and public in the UK and around the world. The RPO has become a byword for exceptional quality and versatility as the sheer diversity of its activities bears testament to this well-deserved reputation. Considered among the foremost conductors of his generation, Italian conductor Daniele Gatti has galvanized the music world with his dramatic and instinctive style. With fire and flair, Gatti has established his mastery of the orchestra and the opera stage alike, imbuing his interpretations with acute understanding and refined sensitivity.

“Gatti has trained the Royal Philharmonic to its peak.”

– The Daily Telegraph

Venice Baroque Orchestra
Saturday, February 7, 2004
Andrea Marcon, music director
(absent due to illness)
Giuliano Carmignola, violin
Vivaldi: Sinfonia in C Major from the opera “Il Giustino,” RV 717
Galuppi: Concerto a Quattro No. 2 in G Major
Marcello: Concerto No. 3 in B minor from “La Cetra”
Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in C Major, RV 177
Vivaldi: Sinfonia in C Major from the opera “Dorilla in Tempe”
Tartini: Concerto in A Major, D. 96
Locatelli: Concerto No. 1 from “L’arte del violino” in D Major
Co-Sponsors: Bertling & Clausen, LLC
The CAMA Fellows
The CAMA Women’s Board
Santa Barbara Bank & Trust

Founded in 1997 by some of the finest musicians in Italy, the Venice Baroque Orchestra is already recognized as one of Europe’s leading new ensembles devoted to period instrument performance. Led by the organist, harpsichordist, conductor and scholar Andrea Marcon, the orchestra has received wide critical acclaim. Equally adept on both modern and Baroque violin, Giuliano Carmignola has appeared to great acclaim as soloist with numerous European orchestras and conductors.

“…vibrant, visceral and overwhelmingly exciting Vivaldi.”

– Time Out NY

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Friday, February 20, 2004
Herbert Blomstedt, conductor
Beethoven: Symphony No. 4
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4
Underwritten by the Andrew H. Burnett Foundation

Returning to Santa Barbara for the first time in 21 years, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is widely considered the world’s greatest orchestra today and one of the finest orchestras of all time. The 115 top musicians who make up the Orchestra are each and every one a virtuoso on his or her own instrument. With its velvet strings, golden brass sound and the exceptional timbre of the woodwinds, sometimes described as “typically Dutch,” the RCO has won itself a special place in the hearts of orchestra enthusiasts. The nearly one thousand recordings that the RCO has to its credit have also helped contribute to this well-earned reputation. Of the nearly 120 concerts performed each year, about 30 take place on the world’s most important concert stages outside the Netherlands. Herbert Blomstedt, whose interpretations are lauded for a combination of depth and sincerity, has continually set new zeniths in his career in concert and on disc.

“The detail here is fabulous, and the vivid technicolour score blazes with sinister then supernatural life…”

– BBC Classical Review

Joshua Bell, violin
In Recital
with Simon Mulligan, piano
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
Schubert: Sonatina for Violin and Piano in G minor, D. 408 (Op. posth.
137/3)
Grieg: Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Piano in C minor, Op. 45
Ravel : Sonata for Violin and Piano (1927)
Tchaikovsky: Sérénade Mélancolique, Op. 26
Sarasate: Introduction & Tarantella, Op. 43
Sponsors: The Stephen Hahn Foundation, The Nichols Foundation/Kathleen Moseley

Joshua Bell, returning to Santa Barbara after his sold-out concert last season, has attained superstar status on and off the concert stage for his magnetic musical personality and pyrotechnic virtuosity. His recording of John Corigliano’s score for the film The Red Violin won an Academy Award in 1999 and in 2001 he won his first Grammy®. Joshua first came to national attention at age 14 when he made his highly acclaimed orchestral debut with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Now in his thirties, Joshua has performed with nearly every leading symphony orchestra and conductor.

“Joshua Bell has the gift of finding and communicating the emotional essence of everything he touches.”

– The Washington Post

Los Angeles Philharmonic
Saturday, April 24, 2004
Charles Dutoit, conductor
Gil Shaham, violin
Berlioz: Roman Carnival Overture
Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances, op. 45
Brahms: Violin Concerto in D Major, op. 77
Principal Sponsor: The Samuel B. & Margaret C. Mosher Foundation

A perennial favorite in Santa Barbara, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, led by famed Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit, closes CAMA’s 85th season performing its 254th CAMA concert since 1919! In his long tenure as chief conductor of the Montreal Symphony, Dutoit established the orchestra as one of the greatest in the world. American-Israeli violinist Gil Shaham, who will play the solo part in Brahms’s expansive Concerto, is internationally recognized as one of today’s most virtuosic and engaging classical artists.

“Gil Shaham revels in his dazzling, effortless, but completely unobtrusive virtuosity and radiates an infectious enjoyment of the music.”

– Strings Magazine

Prague Chamber Orchestra
with the Eroica Trio
Saturday, October 25, 2003
Beethoven: Coriolan Overture
Beethoven: Triple Concerto
Shostakovich: Chamber Symphony, op. 110a
Dvorák: Czech Suite
Principal Sponsor: Judith Lynn Hopkinson
Co-Sponsor: The CAMA Women’s Board

The Prague Chamber Orchestra, a long-time favorite of CAMA audiences, was founded in 1951 when players of the individual instrument sections of the Czechoslovak Radio Symphony Orchestra got together to start a small, tightly knit ensemble. It has always been the initiative of the players as performers of solo parts that makes the Prague Chamber Orchestra one of the finest large ensembles regularly performing without a conductor. The Eroica Trio, winner of the prestigious 1991 Naumburg Award, has electrified the world’s concert stages with their combination of technical virtuosity, vivid artistic interpretation and contagious exuberance in performance.

“The Eroica Trio plays chamber music for the concert hall. There is an edge of the seat intensity to every note they produce.”

– The New York Times

Matthias Goerne, baritone
with Alexander Schmalcz, piano
Sunday, March 21, 2004
Schubert: Schwanengesang
Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte
Principal Sponsor: Castagnola Family Foundation
Co-Sponsor: Dolores M. Hsu

In concert, opera, on recordings and most notably in recital, Matthias Goerne has received worldwide praise for his warm, fluid baritone and has been hailed as the world’s finest living interpreter of the German art song. In recent seasons, Mr. Goerne has performed at the Ravinia and Tanglewood festivals with pianists Christoph Eschenbach and Alfred Brendel. He has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra in Mahler songs for a week of subscription concerts, and on tour with Ricardo Chailly and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

“One of the greatest lieder-singers of the century”

– The Guardian

András Schiff, piano
Friday, May 7, 2004
J. S. Bach: Goldberg Variations
Sponsor: The Stephen Hahn Foundation
Co-Sponsor: Nancy & Kent Wood

Hungarian born András Schiff, returning to the Lobero by popular demand, has made an indelible mark in the sphere of piano performance with his technically perfect, incisive, yet relaxed and highly personal approaches to the classical repertoire. A specialist in the performance of Bach, he has given countless Bach recitals and conducted Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and other compositions, but is also an accomplished interpreter of Beethoven, Mozart and Schumann. Mr. Schiff was awarded the Bartók Prize in 1991 and the Claudio Arrau Memorial medal from the Robert Schumann Society in Düsseldorf in 1994. In March 1996, he received the highest Hungarian distinction, the Kossuth Prize.

“Every once in a while you leave a concert feeling something important has taken place… András Schiff’s piano recital was one of those occasions.”

– The Washington Post

Mitsuko Uchida, piano
Mark Steinberg, violin
Friday, May 21, 2004
All Mozart Program
Sonata in F Major, K377
Sonata in G, K379
Sonata in E-flat, K302
Sonata in A, K526
Co-Sponsor: Performing Arts Scholarship Foundation
Co-Sponsors: Carol L. Valentine,
Nancy & Kent Wood

Mitsuko Uchida's interpretations of a wide range of repertoire have gained her a formidable reputation as a pianist who brings intellectual acuity and musical insight to her performances. She is particularly noted for her interpretations of Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, but is also a dedicated performer of the music of Berg, Webern, Schoenberg, Debussy and Messiaen. First violinist of the Brentano Quartet, Mark Steinberg is an active chamber musician and recitalist. A faculty member of New York University, he was the recipient of the 1992 Lotos Foundation Award, which included a recital in Weill Hall, and was selected to give a 1993 recital in the Metropolitan Museum's Introductions series.

“Uchida is, simply, Uchida – an elegant, deeply musical interpreter who strikes an inspired balance of head and heart in everything she plays.”

– Chicago Tribune

Richard & John Contiguglia, duo-pianists

Richard & John Contiguglia, duo-pianists
In Recital
January 17, 2004, 8 pm
Lobero Theatre

Sponsor: The Adams Foundation

The American identical twins, Richard and John Contiguglia, are among the most acclaimed and versatile piano duos in the world today. More than 40 years since their highly acclaimed London debut in 1962, which the London Daily Telegraph described as setting “a new standard for this intimate form of music-making,” Richard and John are now the proprietors of their own recording company, Gemini CD Classics. Their first releases, Schubert Piano Duets: The Final Year and Live From The Holland Liszt Festival: Duos of Franz Liszt for One and Two Pianos, reflect their lifelong commitment to popularizing the great body of music for two pianists. The Liszt Society of Budapest, Hungary, in the first record competition in the society’s history, awarded the Contiguglias’ recording of the Beethoven-Liszt 9th Symphony, its grand prix. Their recital in Santa Barbara, California, in 2000, for the Music Academy of the West was selected by music critic, Greg Hettmansberger, as one of the best musical events of the year in his New Year’s Eve summation for the Santa Barbara News Press.

|CONTIGUGLIA BROTHERS WEBSITE.|