Classical Corner: Dream Team of Winds

Camerata Pacifica kicks off the second half of Season 2 of its two-year “Why Beethoven?” project with a program wind program featuring flutist Jasmine Choi, oboists Nicholas Daniel and Claire Brazeau, clarinetist Jose Franch-Ballester and Pascal Archer, and bassoonists Judith Farmer and William Short, who no doubt are up to the task of tackling Beethoven’s relatively rarely heard Octet for Winds in E-flat Major, Op. 103, and Quintet for Oboe, Three Horns, & Bassoon, Hess 19,  along with Nielsen’s Wind Quintet, Op. 43, and Dvořák’s Serenade for Winds in D Minor, Op. 44. Get blown away at 7:30 pm on Friday, January 17, at Hahn Hall.

Also on Camerata’s calendar for this week: a free panel discussion on Beethoven’s influence and popularity in China at 7 pm Wednesday, January 22, at Karpeles Manuscript Library. A quartet of writers and scholars – Dr. Hao Huang, Derek Katz, Sheila Melvin, and Laurence Vittes – will dive deep into the topic in examining the volatility of the Chinese relationship to Beethoven over the years even as his music continues to be a central factor in Chinese engagement with Western culture, and wondering whether that’s still true in the West. Info at (805) 884-8410 or www.cameratapacifica.org.