Camerata Pacifica Begins The New Year With Beethoven, Mozart And Poulenc

Camerata Pacifica kicks off the new year with a continuation of its ambitious "Why Beethoven?" project with a performance of the composer's Septet in E-flat Major, Op. 20, Mozart's Quintet for Piano & Winds in E-flat Major, K. 452, and Poulenc's Sextet.

Beethoven's Septet in E-flat Major, Op. 20, for winds and string, was one of the composer's most popular works during its time, to the point of the composer's irritation as he thought it distracted from his other more deserving compositions. The Septet was premiered with his first symphony and is probably the last work composed before he noticed his impending deafness.

The program opens with a Mozart masterwork, his Quintet for Piano & Winds K. 452, also in E-flat Major. This beautiful quintet was the inspiration for Beethoven's Quintet in E-flat for Piano & Winds, Op. 16, performed by Camerata Pacifica in November 2018. This program also takes a look at a 20th century treatment of similar instrumentation with Poulenc's Sextet for Piano and Winds.

Performances take place Tuesday, January 8, 7:30 p.m. at The Huntington Library in San Marino; Thursday, January 10, 8 p.m. at Colburn School's Zipper Hall in Los Angeles; Friday, January 11, 7:30 p.m. at Hahn Hall in Santa Barbara; Sunday, January 13, 3 p.m. at the Museum of Ventura County in Ventura.

The impetus for Camerata Pacifica's "Why Beethoven?" project, which unfolds over the course of the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 seasons, is Beethoven's late string quartets, all of which will be performed by The Calder Quartet. The quartets, misunderstood and not well received in their time, today are universally acknowledged masterworks, now possessing almost mythological status.

Adrian Spence, Camerata Pacifica's Founder and Artistic Director, programmed the quartets in context and contrast with works from Beethoven's early and middle periods, works of contemporaries, and works of predecessors Mozart and Haydn. "Why Beethoven?" also features works by today's composers, opening the doors to explore the contemporary resonance of Beethoven's legacy.

Complementing the "Why Beethoven?" musical programs, Camerata Pacifica is presenting a series of in-depth panel discussions that begin in January 2019 and feature leading scholars including Jan Swafford, author of the acclaimed Beethoven biography, Anguish and Triumph; Derek Katz, musicologist at the University of California at Santa Barbara; Andrea Moore, Professor of Music at Smith College; Daniel Chua, Professor and Chair of Music at the University of Hong Kong; Michael P. Steinberg, Director of the Cogut Center for the Humanities and Professor of History and Music at Brown University; Lydia Goehr, Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University; and Richard O'Neill, Principal Violist for Camerata Pacifica. Please click here for more information about the panel discussions.

Subscriptions ($219-$522) and single tickets ($58) can be ordered online at http://cameratapacifica.org/season-tickets/order-tickets or by calling 805-884-8410.