Cactus Pear Concert Review

The MySanAntonia web site has a concert review of the Cactus Pear Music Festival:

The folks who run the Cactus Pear Music Festival take pride in doing things a little differently from the norm.

The contrarian path led to unusually poised accounts of two chamber works from Beethoven’s middle period and an uncommonly expressive performance of his late song cycle “An die ferne Geliebte,” Thursday night in the well-filled Laurel Heights United Methodist Church.

The trend in Beethoven performance practice in recent years has been to pump up the bold contrasts and violent ejaculations, and to push the tempo. That histrionic style is fully justified by Beethoven’s scores and what we know of his personality, but it can obscure other qualities in his music.

Read the Online Exclusive review: Concert Review: Cactus Pear bends Beethoven in bold direction