Philip Glass has got a pick-up band of all stars ready for his inaugural Days and Nights Festival in Carmel Valley. Matt Haimovitz is on cello, Maria Bachmann, one of Glass's favorite interpreters takes one violin part and is joined by Tim Fain and David Harding (violin and viola). Jon Klibonoff holds down the piano parts in the non-Glass pieces. The first weekend features Glass' compositions paired with works by Franz Schubert and Dmitri Shostakovich. Personally, if forced to pick one, I'd opt for Saturday night at Hidden Valley, with Glass' String Quartet No. 5 paired with Schubert's evergreen Piano Trio in B-Flat, D. 898.
Haimovitz and Bachmann you may know. Klibonoff is a longtime chamber musician, a member of Trio Solisti and the Concordia Players in New York, and the recital partner of numerous great players (Yo Yo Ma, David Shifrin, Carol Wincenc). Fain and Harding are less famous, but both well-established, excellent players, with full careers. Ultimately, it's a tribute to Glass himself that he could pull together such firepower for a first-time chamber festival. Worth the drive.