Virtually each of the eight weeks making up the Music Academy of the West summer season brings with it artists of international note. Last week, the starring attraction was the London Symphony Orchestra performing three concerts in a row and culminating with a “Community Concert” at the Santa Barbara Bowl.
This week, the orchestral component of the program scales down to a chamber orchestra performance at the Lobero Theatre on Saturday, July 20, but is bolstered by the presence of two world-class musical legends: pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, as soloist on Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major, and famed British composer-conductor-pianist Thomas Adès, who bedazzled the audience five years ago when he conducted the Academy Festival Orchestra (AFO) in his own riveting orchestral work Polaris. On this visit, Adès — who comes to town after an all-Adès concert in Los Angeles’ Dorothy Chandler Pavilion — will conduct his fascinating 1994 work Origin of the Harp, along with Stravinsky’s ever-popular Pulcinella.
Adès admitted that his “strongest connection to Santa Barbara is a personal one,” having to do with the presence of pianist-mentor Paul Berkowitz. Head of piano studies at UCSB, Berkowitz was a powerfully influential force on the young Adès, who studied with him at London’s Guildhall School of Music.