In Wednesday’s (10/30) San Diego Union-Tribune, James Chute writes, “It’s hard to imagine a better birthday present for Qualcomm co-founder and arts patron Irwin Jacobs than what the San Diego Symphony gave him Tuesday night in Carnegie Hall. And that’s not counting the rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ that pianist Lang Lang, conductor Jahja Ling and the symphony offered him from the stage or the reception celebrating his 80th birthday that followed the sold-out concert, the orchestra’s first in Carnegie Hall. Jacobs, with his wife, Joan, was instrumental in resurrecting the orchestra and then stabilizing it with the largest donation to a U.S. orchestra ($120 million) in history.… His, and San Diego’s, reward: a superb, even revelatory, performance by the ensemble on classical music’s biggest stage. It would be an understatement to say they rose to the occasion in a program of David Bruce’s ‘Night Parade,’ Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5. When the orchestra performed the world premiere of Bruce’s ‘Night Parade’ in Copley Symphony Hall to open the season, it was a bit of minimalist mush. When it offered the New York premiere Tuesday, ‘Night Parade’ was a swaggering, energizing orchestral showcase…. When the piece concluded, even before you could exhale, the audience was on its feet, cheering and applauding.”
Posted October 31, 2013
