Phillip Glaser

Lang Lang

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HAYDN IN THE HOUSES: Milestone numbers-births and deaths-count for much in the business of classical music programming, as a way of lending some focus to the array of possibilities in terms of what to play when, out of several hundred years of music. So far, too little has been made of the 200th anniversary of the death of Franz Joseph Haydn, a hugely important composer who tends to be perennially underrated and underplayed. Haydn's long and productive career straddled and influenced the eras of Mozart and Beethoven, and Haydn is credited with virtually inventing the symphony and the string quartet (and producing a wildly fine body of 84 quartets). His music is a model of wit and invention, 200-plus years later.

Thankfully, Haydn has hunkered down at the Lobero Theatre this year, thanks to the Music Academy of the West's savory Tuesdays @ 8 series. The Tuesday soirees are always a good bet for music lovers come summertime in Santa Barbara, and this year's program offers an enticing scheme, anchored each week by one of Haydn's piano trios, surrounded by a diverse garden of more contemporary items. Last week, the program included music of Gyorgy Ligeti, and next Tuesday's menu includes Bela Bart³k and Dimitri Shostakovich, with subsequent Tuesday programs including music of Witold LutosÅ awski, Igor Stravinsky's L'Histoire du soldat, and Paul Hindemith's Kleine Kammermusik. Haydn's string-quartet treasure trove will be skillfully sampled by the Tak¡cs String Quartet (July 23 at the Lobero), blending three Haydn quartets with a Bart³k.

SANTA BARBARA SYMPHONY: In other Haydn-on-the-horizon news, the Santa Barbara Symphony recently unveiled its 2009-2010 season, and Haydn's Paukenmesse (Kettledrum Mass)-also known as Missa in tempore belli (Mass in Time of War)-is on the list for November's concert. Other highlights of the symphony's mostly meat-and-potatoes season include an encounter with the celebrity pianist Lang Lang, returning to the Granada after his impressive recital last year for an evening of Beethoven concertos. For those on the contemporary music watch, Osvaldo Golijov's Ausencia is on the March 2010 program, and April's flowers-before the big-boned crowd-wower that is "Rach 3" (i.e., Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3)- include Hindemith's Concert Music for Strings and Brass and Joseph Schwantner's new Chasing Light:, written for American orchestras and played by same across the land.

In some slightly ironic way, the relatively low profile of Haydn enhances his mystique. Those in the know know, and others come into the fold with delight. He hides very much in plain sight and sound.

TO-DOINGS: The Santa Barbara New Music Series, the monthly Thursday-night nontraditional tradition at Muddy Waters, forges ahead next week with faces/voices old and new. Longtime Venturan experimental trumpeter-electronic venture Jeff Kaiser, currently working on his PhD at UC San Diego and fresh off a gig at the N.Y.C. Vision Festival, joins L.A. bass guitarist Steuart Liebig for a set of sound, followed by L.A.-based saxist Alicia Mangan, who makes her first appearance here.

FLAG MATTERS: For the past few years, in the weeks leading up to July 4th, a behemoth, side-of-a-barn-sized American flag has consumed the back wall of the Lobero Theatre, causing double takes and unexpected soul searching in passersby tooling down Anacapa Street. Oddly-or not-this year's flag festooning brings with it an entirely different feeling than the past few years of the Bush regime. In the Obama years, still full of hope and a sense of quiet disbelief despite the world's looming problems, the flag looks brighter and more inspiring once again. Who woulda' thunk it?

That said, the annual 4th of July wingding in the Courthouse Sunken Gardens is one of those gooey, kitschy funfests, an Americana moment out here on the continental fringe. This year's model features the Santa Barbara Symphony under the baton of music director Nir Kabaretti, serving up Sousa, Morricone, and more. Bring an appetite for food and fun (BYOFF).

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