In terms of visitations from brilliant pianists, 2017 proved to be a notable year. Two nonpareil solo recitals—Jeremy Denk’s May recital at the La Jolla Presbyterian Church and Richard Goode’s November recital at the Irwin Jacobs Qualcomm Hall in Sorrento Valley—offered breathtaking technical and interpretive artistry. Each pianist anchored his recital in substantial works by J.S. Bach, and each traversed their instrument’s repertory into the 20th century with penetrating insight. These stellar American pianists were presented as part of the La Jolla Music Society’s highly respected piano series. The San Diego Symphony started the year featuring the accomplished Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan
Conventional Top 10 lists are for drones (not to mention people who can exercise at least some degree of self-control). So instead of that usual yearly exercise in comparing apples to oranges to rutabagas, here’s a look at 15 San Diego-area theater productions that stuck in the brain for a wide variety of reasons over the course of 2017: Best translation of history to herstory (Part 1) “An Iliad,” with Linda Libby as a forceful, funny and defiantly female Poet (a role usually played by a man) in New Village Arts’ lyrical staging of the gripping contemporary riff on Homer. Most imposing ode to tragedy “Hamlet,” in which a fallen king’s towering, golden suit of armor matched the ambition of ar
