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Local News for a Global Village | www.VoiceSB.com
November 19, 2021
Santa Barbara Symphony
Guest conductor Nicholas McGegan makes Baroque with our modern orchestra
Photo by Steve Sherman
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Review by Daniel Kepl / VOICE
T HAS BEEN SAID, “To the victor, the spoils.” Englishman Nicholas McGegan, well known to Santa Barbara audiences for his several pilgrimages here over the decades to set the record straight about Baroque performance practice on modern instruments, jollied himself onto the Granada Theatre stage last weekend to conduct the Santa Barbara Symphony in a program of Baroque repertoire that clearly gave away his Sawbridgeworth prejudices. Assembling, as is his Puckish habit, a program that was both straightforward at one level, and entirely tongue-in-cheek, even subversive at another, McGegan sandwiched two perfectly lovely and politically innocent works - Telemann’s G Major Viola Concerto and Bach’s ineluctable Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, also in G Major, between a stylistic, culinary, and bravado-laced food fight. However subtle the messaging, McGegan’s delightfully devilish programming choices in this case read: We (the Pragmatic Allies Britain, The Dutch Republic, The Electorate of Hanover) won the War of Austrian Succession (Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle 1748) and you (France, Prussia, Bavaria) suck. Disarmingly chatty and fun - his cover for nefarious international political intrigue McGegan helped his Americans understand a bit about the whole Austrian Succession thing - as sexist as it gets, Maria Theresa’s right as a woman, to inherit her father’s Austrian crown is challenged. In the end, she wins.
Conductor Nicholas McGegan
Yes! Having lost that struggle (Maria Theresa became one of Europe’s great empresses) the French nevertheless celebrated victory (?) with music; Jean Philippe Rameau’s pastorale héroïque in three acts, Nais, from which McGegan selected eight dances for audience delectation. Bottom line, each of the dances, performed with period stylings and subtleties out the cook house window, made a case, however inadvertently, for French cultural
distance and decadence - something about “let them eat cake.” Certainly not to an Englishman’s taste for fanfare, trumpets, and timpani, McGegan sensed a kill, and went for the jugular, a deliberate, if subtle cultural diss from our English guest conductor? Of course, and damn fun to boot! McGegan gave his motives for mischief away at the beginning ablutions for the evening. Dickensian as The Mystery of Edwin Drood, the maestro assured us we would soon discover the difference between French temperament and English beer drinking. After a delightfully precious performance of the opening set of Versailles-influenced frills and fluff from Rameau, not counting the Telemann and Bach pieces that somewhat centered the evening (more in a bit) it was a delightful jolt to be thrust upon the banks of the Thames at the end of the concert, imagining George II’s celebration of the Aix-la-Chapelle treaty, Handel’s eponymous Music for the Royal Fireworks. Remembering that George II was Duke of Hanover before the big invite to become King of England, all was well that ended Germanic in those days. Thus, to stretch to its limit a tenuous musical metaphor, Telemann and Bach were, ah, bedfellows to the reigning king of England’s taste, thus perfect choices for maestro McGegan’s fiendishly subtle comingling of English and French temperaments in last weekend’s program. Santa Barbara Symphony’s Principal Viola, Erik Rynearson, gave Saturday night’s
audience a deliciously calm, organized, subtly colored, warm, and unromanticized (good) performance of the Telemann concerto, as straightforward and uncluttered as a German pastry - sweet with a touch of tart. Likewise, Santa Barbara Symphony musicians Jessica Guideri (violin), Jennifer Ohlson (flute) and Katherine Marsh (flute) offered assured, balanced (important here), and stylistically appropriate accommodation to the modern instrument/Baroque temperament compromises for such a performance. Making clear who was on the winning side of the War of Austrian Succession, Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks trounced, annihilated, and obliterated the French fluff of Rameau’s commission. Kudos, the superb trumpets (we’re talking several flavors and sizes) of the Santa Barbara Symphony, plaudits too, for the fabulous timpani bits - authentic to a tee, and Santa Barbara Symphony winds and strings for accomplishing the miracle of style, color, balance, and Baroque performance practice on modern instruments, maestro McGegan’s specialty. A wonderful evening of Baroque repertoire, fashioned around a historical event. Food for fun. Daniel Kepl has been writing music, theatre, and dance reviews or Santa Barbara publications since he was a teenager. His professional expertise is as an orchestra conductor. For more reviews by Daniel Kepl visit: www.performingartsreview.net
The Split Roll Initiative Is Back… per year. For properties between $4 million and $5 million, a formula is used to compute the additional tax. HAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES, An example would be a $4.5 million property would see right? It’s only been just over a year since an additional $27,000 per year in taxes. voters defeated Proposition 15 at the polls Again, this is not just for commercial properties. This and its proponents are back again with a would apply to all properties, with minor exceptions new idea to raise property taxes. Proposition 15, also such as commercial agriculture. That means a hefty referred to as the Split Roll Tax, was a proposition on the tax increase for a single-family home or an apartment 2020 ballot in California that sought to complex worth over $4 million. remove Proposition 13 tax protections from The authors of the bill are tying these tax commercial properties. This would require increases to increased property tax exemptions all commercial properties be reassessed as a way of making it more palatable for voters. every three years and property taxes The revenue from this split-roll property tax adjusted upward at that time. This would increase would go to fund increases in both have put a huge tax increase onto property the homeowners’ property tax exemption and owners and commercial tenants, as they are renters’ tax credit. The homeowners’ property often the ones that pay for property taxes. tax exemption would increase from $7,000 to In September, a new proposal submitted $200,000, increasing the property tax savings to California state officials seeks to place from $70 per year to a maximum of $2,000. a new version of Split Roll onto the 2022 Similarly, the nonrefundable renter’s tax credit ballot. Titled the “Housing Affordability Brian Johnson, will increase from $60 for individuals and $120 and Tax Cut Act of 2022” the bill seeks SBAOR President for joint filers to $1,000 or $2,000, respectively. to split the tax rolls differently this time The proponents have also included language around. Whereas last time the initiative’s backers sought that bars property owners from directly passing on the to single out commercial versus residential, this time increased taxes to any tenants. In reality, it will be very they seek to pit any property worth $4 million or more difficult to determine whether the increased taxes have vs those worth under $4 million. For properties valued at been passed on to the tenants. Property owners will $5 million or more, an additional 1.2 percent “surcharge” increase rents or other expenses or they will not be able each year would be added onto the regular property to afford to provide needed upgrades or repairs thus tax. For a $5 million home, apartment complex, or impacting tenants. Additionally, if you just bought a $4 commercial property that comes out to an extra $60,000 By Brian Johnson, Special to VOICE
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million home you are going to be paying a vastly larger amount on taxes than a property that was purchased a year ago for $3.9 million, but now might be actually worth over $4 million if it were sold today. Additionally, what about a home inherited by the children of an owner and reassessed at over $4 million. Previously, that new owner could keep the old tax basis of the property, but if this initiative passes, that new owner may not be able to afford the taxes on the home now and be forced to sell to someone wealthy enough to afford them. If the idea behind this is to make home ownership more affordable, it does not look as if it will achieve that goal. The initiative’s title sounds like it will make housing more affordable in California, but the bill does little to address the root causes of affordability, namely the lack of adequate supply of housing. This initiative still has to go through the process of raising enough signatures to qualify for the ballot for next year, so this will be monitored closely as it moves forward.
Brian Johnson is a California licensed real estate agent and the Managing Director of Radius Commercial Real Estate. Johnson handles all types of commercial real estate transactions but has a special focus on multifamily investments. He can be reached at 805-879-9631 or bjohnson@radiusgroup.com