The Cabrillo Festival opens with its usual bang, behind the powerhouse Christopher Rouse whose vibrant, propulsive (and loud) music is made for opening festivals. Of its New York premiere, a few weeks ago, Steve Smith wrote in the New York Times: “The work’s infernal mechanics, pensive meditations, and juggernaut intensity are familiar turf. But the symphony also has a pinch of new swagger, and a bluesy grit that recalls Bernstein’s On the Waterfront music.”
If that’s not enough, there’s a new flute concerto by last year’s Pulitzer Prize winner, Kevin Puts, and Derek Bermel’s Dust Dances. True to form, Bermel manages to fuse two musical worlds – this time West African gyil music and classical orchestral music – and make a coherent whole. The joint will be jumping at this concert.