ARTICLE: ‘British Invasion’ headed to La Jolla Music Society’s 2024 SummerFest, led by triple-threat Thomas Adès

The British are coming! The British are coming!

Sixty years after The Beatles led a sonic “British Invasion” of the United States in 1964, La Jolla Music Society will stage one of its own during the 2024 edition of its chamber-music-and-beyond SummerFest. This year’s 19-concert edition will open July 26 and run through Aug. 24.

While the lineup features such acclaimed non-Brits as cellist Alisa Weilerstein, pianist Conrad Tao, clarinetist Anthony McGill, violinist Augustin Hadelich and jazz harpist Brandee Younger, nearly 20 of this year’s performers will be coming here from England. They include oboist Nicholas Daniel, clarinetist Mark Simpson, violinist Jack Liebeck, guitarist Sean Shibe and the Grammy-nominated three-woman, five-man London vocal ensemble Voces8.

Credit for this upcoming aural takeover goes to acclaimed pianist Inon Barnatan, now in his sixth year as SummerFest’s globe-trotting music director. His theme for this year’s edition is “Inside Stories,” and one of those stories has a decidedly Anglo tone.

“I play in the U.K. a lot and there’s kind of a ‘British Invasion’ happening in the beginning of this year’s festival, with people we don’t get to hear very often,” said the Israeli-born Barnatan.

“Some of them do perform in America, but not all of them or in this capacity. These are people I play with, admire and want to bring to La Jolla to see how they interact with American audiences. And Thomas Adès is coming back this year, which I consider an absolute triumph.”

Make that a triple triumph.

The undisputed hit of last year’s SummerFest, Adès dazzled audiences here as a pianist, musical curator and composer-in-residence. He is returning in all three capacities this year, making him the first repeat composer-in-residence in the event’s history. He will also be featured as a conductor this year.

‘Love at first sight’

“I loved La Jolla and the festival at first sight, and when Inon invited me back for a second consecutive year I didn’t hesitate,” said Adès, via email from England.

Neither did Barnatan.

“Until now, I’ve had a different composer-in-residence every year,” Barnatan noted. “But Thomas’ 2023 residency was so successful and so musically compelling — and the audiences reacted so beautifully to him — that I thought: ‘There’s no way I will pass on an opportunity to do this again with him!’

“To show further respect to Thomas, this year we will feature him not only as a composer and pianist, but also as a conductor and a teacher — his only composition student, (Spain’s Francisco Coll), wrote a piece we are performing Aug. 1. And after having Thomas do our ‘Takeover at The Jai’ concert at last year’s SummerFest, this year we are having him do his ‘Takeover’ in the Baker-Baum Concert Hall.”

Adès will conduct SummerFest’s July 26 opening program at the Baker-Baum. The concert, part of the event’s Synergy Initiative, is billed as “A Deal with the Devil.” It will feature Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No. 1, S. 514, Tartini’s Sonata in G Minor for Violin and Continuo “The Devil’s Trill,” Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 in A Minor and Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale).

The Stravinsky piece will include an actor and two-dimensional paper puppets created by England’s The Paper Cinema, whose work combines puppetry, music and theater with video technology and film. Making its La Jolla debut, The Paper Cinema is likely the first act in SummerFest history that has also been featured at both the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland and the Glastonbury rock-music festival in England.

The Paper Cinema’s inclusion in SummerFest adds yet another dimension reflecting music director Barnatan’s ever-widening artistic focus — and his expanding coterie of new and repeat collaborators.

“Inon’s energy and musicianship attract such irresistible artists to the festival,” Adès said. “I’m delighted to become a returning member of the La Jolla family.”

That sense of community has been foundational for SummerFest since soon it debuted in La Jolla in 1986.

Festival musicians stay as guests in the homes of La Jolla Music Society supporters. The artists not only perform concerts together but also participate in free SummerFest workshops, educational programs and discussions. They also dine together after most concerts.

‘A welcoming spirit’

“Inon is very much a welcoming spirit and, in some ways, SummerFest feels like summer camp,” said Todd Schultz, La Jolla Music Society’s CEO. “Inon has a great international reach and is a very collaborative and very democratic artist. That makes him a really good partner to have for a chamber-music festival.”

Barnatan returns to SummerFest after a busy concert season as a solo artist. Last weekend Barnatan performed with the Detroit Symphony. This coming weekend, he’ll guest with the Cincinnati Symphony. In April, Barnatan will be in Japan for concerts in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.

This follows concerts earlier this year and last fall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Norwegian Opera and Ballet, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and renowned soprano Renée Fleming, with whom he performed in February at La Jolla Music Society’s Baker-Baum Concert Hall.

The personal connections Barnatan makes with other musicians through his international performances are invaluable. Ditto being able to hear gifted performers and composers abroad who may not yet be as well-known here as in their respective homelands.

“Inon performing around the world is a terrific advantage for us to expand the roster and range of artists we present at SummerFest from across the pond,” said Leah Rosenthal, the society’s veteran music director.

“A lot of artists don’t have the advantage Inon does of having a prolific career in the U.S. and overseas. He’s equally at home on stage here, in London, Hamburg and Tokyo. And that has given us the opportunity to invite artists who aren’t as frequently seen on the U.S. chamber-music scene.”

Speaking from his New York City home, Barnatan enthusiastically discussed the advantages of being a performer and festival curator who gets to fulfill both those roles simultaneously in La Jolla.

“Traveling around and meeting different people, both in America and abroad, is a great way to bring something different to SummerFest,” said the pianist, whose most recent album, “Rachmaninoff Reflections,” was released in November.

“When I started as SummerFest’s music director six years ago, I thought about what I wanted the festival to be, and I had two possible and attractive scenarios. One is to have this kind of small family of musicians that come back every year, which there is something wonderful about — a small tight-knit group that comes back every year. And, yes, there are people who come back to play at SummerFest most years.

“But it is also important to keep hearing new people, new musicians, new composers. One of the things I love most is the juxtaposition of old and new, both in terms of musicians and repertoire. And every year, I think I get better at understanding the San Diego community of music listeners, the Baker-Baum Concert Hall and my own ideas. So every year, I kind of stir all these things a little bit, take more risks and hope they pay off.”

Last year’s SummerFest provided a memorable example of Barnatan’s old-new approach. It opened with “Expect the Unexpected,” a concert for which none of the pieces or performers were disclosed prior to the performance, apart from conductor and violinist Alan Gilbert.

The closing night, “Finale: Serenades,” mixed landmark repertoire by Tchaikovsky and other storied composers with Barnatan’s newly arranged version of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” for five cellos and piano.

“ ‘Expect the Unexpected’ was a test of the idea: ‘Do you trust me’?” Barnatan said.

“Sometimes, the things you don’t expect are the most delightful, and that was the idea behind last year’s SummerFest theme. This year’s theme is different, but I have the same hope and goal — to mix the classic repertoire by the great composers with things that aren’t expected.”

Barnatan’s voice fairly danced with delight as he discussed this year’s lineup. He singled out, by name, nearly every performer and piece of repertoire that will be performed. His enthusiasm was equally palpable whether discussing Ravel and Rachmaninoff or newer works by Adès and tech-minded jazz pianist Dan Tepfer.

“This year’s theme is ‘Inside Stories,’ meaning the stories behind the music,” Barnatan said. “That provides us with another way to connect with music, to not just listen to music as something that is a passive experience, but to really get familiar with the story behind it. This holds true whether it’s an actual story or about the underlying things that make the music tick.

“It’s a big honor and treat to get all these musical friends together and hang out at SummerFest. It’s fantastic! One of the great things about a festival like this is that it draws so many great artists — because a lot of the SummerFest performers earn a fraction of what they usually earn the rest of the year.

“It’s a labor of love, where we get to be together, musically and socially. After most SummerFest concerts, we have receptions and dinners that the festival itself organizes for the musicians, partly because La Jolla restaurants close terribly early! And also, because part of the fun of the festivals is we get to interact with the audiences and then the musicians get to hang out together after the concerts.”

SummerFest 2024

Unless otherwise indicated below, all concerts are at 7:30 p.m. at The Baker-Baum Concert Hall in The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center in La Jolla. Some events take place in The JAI, the center’s smaller, 144-seat space.

July 26: Opening Night: Synergy: “A Deal with the Devil” — Liszt, Tartini, Paganini, and Stravinsky

July 27: “Danse Macabre” — Ysaÿe, Saint-Saëns, Butler, Adès, Ravel, and Schubert

July 28: “Passions and Storms” — Janáček, Adès, and Beethoven, 3 p.m.

July 31: “Midweek Masterworks: Amadeus” — Mozart, 7 p.m.

Aug. 1: Takeover @ The Baker-Baum with Thomas Adès: Coll, Adès, and De Falla, 7 p.m.

Aug, 2: “Baroque Fantasia” — Telemann, Purcell, Vivaldi, and Rebel

Aug. 3: “Resilience” — F. Mendelssohn, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Schulhoff, and Mendelssohn

Aug. 4: “Suite” — Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, J.S. Bach, and Piazzolla, 3 p.m.

Aug. 7: “Midweek Masterworks: Mozart & Pärt” — Arvo Pärt and Mozart, 7 p.m.

Aug. 8: Jazz @ The JAI: Brandee Younger Trio, 6 p.m. & 8:30 p.m., The JAI

Aug. 9: “Gratitude” — J.S. Bach, Beethoven, and various

Aug. 10: SummerFest Gala, 6 p.m.

Aug. 11: “In Loving Memory” — Ravel, Arensky, and Fauré, 3 p.m.

Aug. 14: “Midweek Masterworks: Notes on a Scandal” — Gesualdo, Debussy, and Franck, 7 p.m.

Aug. 15: Synergy: Jazz @ The JAI: Dan Tepfer, “Natural Machines,” 6 p.m. & 8:30 p.m., The JAI

Aug. 16: Synergy: “Counterpoint II,” West Coast premiere commissioned by La Jolla Music Society

Aug. 17: “California Dreamin’ ” — Rachmaninoff, Rósza, Esmail, Riley, Williams, and Adams

Aug. 21: “Midweek Masterworks: Instrumental Stories” — Bartók, M. Wiancko and Brahms, 7 p.m.

Aug. 23: “The Road to Victory” — Beethoven, Bridge, and Coleridge-Taylor

Aug. 24: SummerFest Finale: “A Song and Dance” — Schoenfield, Williams, Bernstein, and Dvořák

Artists, concerts, dates, venues, and ticket prices subject to change.

SummerFest subscriptions are available now. A complete subscription for all 17 concerts in The Baker-Baum Concert Hall is $1,413 per person for Section A seating and $1,249 for Section B seating. Premium package, which include all 17 concerts in the Baker-Baum shows, plus the two in the adjacent cabaret-styled venue The JAI, are $1,545 per person for Section A seating and $1,363 for Section B seating. Single tickets, partial subscription series, and compose-your-own packages will be available later in the spring.

Tickets and more information are available at the La Jolla Music Society box office at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center at 7600 Fay Ave. in La Jolla; by phone: (858) 459-3728; and online at TheConrad.org.