ON the Beat | A Power of Two, at Hahn Hall

This edition of ON the Beat was originally emailed to subscribers on November 2, 2023. To receive Josef Woodard’s music newsletter in your inbox each Thursday, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

There’s a newish kid in town — in Santa Barbara’s classical music zone, that is — and it’s already shaping up as a healthy and virtuous member of that special cultural species. Now in its second season, the “Mariposa” series extends the Music Academy’s (MA) summertime roost into a miniature autumnal festival, bringing us established classical scene artists while also spotlighting MA alumna making good.

It’s no secret that MA’s fellows have been filtering into the international music orbit for decades, landing in prestigious orchestras, on opera stages, and other points of public focus.

Take, for a pertinent example, the popular piano duo known as Anderson & Roe, which dazzled a large Hahn Hall crowd last week with their ample deposits of both musicianship and showmanship. Pianist Elizabeth Joy Roe (partnered with Greg Anderson) is a proud alum from the summer of 2001, and she gushed with praise and fond memories about the Montecito-based institution from the stage, also relaying the story of the duo filming part of a Rite of Spring video on nearby Butterfly Beach.

The duo, now 20 years old, has made major inroads to celebrity status beyond the usual classical music perimeters. Among their accolades are mega-Billboard buzz, appearances on NPR, PBS, and MTV (yes, that MTV). As heard at Roe’s old stomping grounds, the pianists possess impeccable technical facility both individually and with a rare two-as-one telepathy as a pair, whether on separate Steinways or on piano four hands music. These tight-quartered interactions sometimes involved Twister-like arm crossovers. Clearly, they get along famously.

Anderson & Roe also have a clear crossover tendency in the programming department. At Hahn Hall, they had me at Mozart but lost me a bit at the Beatles. The duo brandished its remarkable musicality from the concert’s outset, taking on the iconic Mozart Sonata for Two Pianos, later demonstrating its misty mystical side with Ravel’s “Lever du jour” from Daphnis et Chloe. Their gifts as inventive and sometimes slightly subversive arrangers were on display through alternately raucous/ragtime and introspective takes on Mozart’s “Rondo ala Turk” and Gustav Holst’s “Neptune.”

Heeding the crossover muse, they took a hard right turn into the pop business of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” subjected to eight variations, and the Beatles moment, “Let it Be.” Setting aside the question of how Lennon-McCartney might relate to Mozart-Ravel on a program, their upbeat gospel-fired version ran counter to the benediction-like aura of Sir Paul’s original.

Come encore time, the duo gamely dove into virtuosic and theatrical antics on Bernstein’s “America,” replete with tiny dancer steps and musical chairs switcheroos, without skipping a beat. They then tightened the emotional focus knob for a satisfying dose of Astor Piazzolla’s “Libertango” to close an eventful evening rich with artful pyrotechnics and a few questions of context. Mariposa continues on Monday, November 6 at Hahn Hall, with clarinetist Andrew McGill — heard as a spotlighted artist in the summer MA fare — and, on Monday, November 20, with another illustrious alum, newly appointed New York Phil concertmaster Frank Huang.

---

Classical Music Event of the Week

Santa Barbara is accustomed to hosting some of the best, brightest, and most celebrated artists in the international classical music scene — more than any other genre. But somehow, a decade has passed since we last caught sight and sound of the great single-named violinist Midori. She last appeared at the Music Academy, and her performance was a high watermark of that season.

Midori returns to the 805 at The Granada Theatre on Wednesday, November 8, in conjunction with the Festival Lucerne Strings from the formidable Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, this time under the auspices of UCSB Arts & Lectures. On the program are a double-dose of Beethoven — including the glorious and underrated Symphony No. 7 — as well as Schumann, Robert Dubugnon, and a rare local landing of the unfairly under recognized French composer Arthur Honneger (part of the “Les Six” mildly wild bunch). Info here.

---

Party Plus, on Screen and on Stage

The thinking person’s party gospel according to Spencer Barnitz continues on its steady path. It is hard to imagine life in Santa Barbara without the sound of Spencer the Gardener to lighten the load and brighten one’s step. STG’s next stops: live and on the big screen in Ojai.

To update the ongoing story, documentary filmmaker Robert Redfield dove into the impressive Spencer Barnitz doc More Than Just a Party Band with diligence and energy, creating the finest film about a local musician sensation since forever. (Full disclosure: I briefly play the role of a wise pundit in the film and have known Barnitz since high school.)]

Through the film, we feel the beat and also gain a deeper appreciation of Barnitz’s storied and sometimes troubled life, but always with the pumping STG vitality as an undertow. Redfield was driven by a deadline (always a good way to get things done) in an attempt to screen the film during the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Although the film didn’t make it into the SBIFF, it has now screened before happy audiences at the New Vic and Alcazar theaters, and is an official part of the current Ojai Film Festival, screening on Monday, November 6, at 7 p.m.

Wait, there’s more: The band itself, in live and thriving flesh, will perform at Libbey Bowl tonight (Thursday, November 2), at 5:30. STG will essentially be the opening act for a screening of Ojai resident Diane Ladd’s new film Isle of Hope. It will be a good party, a good, good party.

---

To-Doings:

Next week marks the return of Silkroad Ensemble, at The Granada Theatre on Thursday, November 9, under the leadership of the mighty and category-defiant Rhianon Giddens, bringing out her new concept work “American Railroad.” (See story here).