Reviews

While most classical aficionados point to Mozart as the ultimate child prodigy, a persuasive case can be made for injecting French composer, organist, conductor and pianist Camille Saint-Saëns into the conversation. The Romantic-era composer displayed perfect pitch and was picking out melodies on the piano at age 3, played his first private recital at 5 and by 10 was performing Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto and Mozart's Piano Concerto in B Flat.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of that emergence, in 1896 Saint-Saëns premiered hisPiano Concerto #5 to high praise. This weekend, acclaimed Spanish pianist Josu de Solaun tackles the work fronting the Monterey Symphony for a third time.

The composition contains a searing third movement, with cascades of rapid-fire passages for both hands simultaneously. "The finale of the piece is so difficult that it's often used as a competition or an audition piece," Symphony Executive Director Nicola Samra says. "It should be a perfect foil for Josu's tremendous technical prowess."

"It's a travelogue in sound, the depiction of a sea voyage with the excitement and misfortunes of a journey," Solaun says. "Saint-Saëns wrote it between the Canary Islands and Egypt. It's Mediterranean music of great joie de vivre and exuberance."

Conductor Max Bragado-Darman met Solaun when he won the Jose Iturbi International Piano Competition in 2006. Two years later, Bragado-Darman auditioned him on the Rachmaninov Concerto No. 3, which Solaun performed with the orchestra in 2011.

Also at Sunset Center this week is the touring company from legendary comedy lab The Second City, Sunset's only annually recurring act.

There's more. At Sunset this weekend is Florida-based Black Violin, two violinists who straddle both classical and hip-hop – with equal success. If you've never heard of them, you aren't alone.

"They're pretty new on the scene," Sunset Center Executive Director Christine Sandin says. She heard about them from colleagues in the business as the duo gets more national buzz: "For our smaller local market it was quite a coup to have them come through at all. We're disappointed we don't have more tickets to offer."