“Then the orchestra, now beefed up with a large wind and brass contingent and plenty of strings, carried the rest of the day, starting with Carl Maria von Weber’s virtuosic Concertino in E-flat for clarinet, featuring another competition winner, Daniel Hernandez (pictured above), a student at Everett Alvarez High School in North Salinas. Khudyev’s orchestra sounded meaty and bold as it, like Hernandez, traversed its own formidable challenges. This is a single-movement work, composed over three days in 1811, in theme with variations form and a ten-minute performance time. It changes moods putting extra pressure on the soloist and Hernandez commanded it, all from memory. One very intimate solo passage was accompanied softly by violas only. The young artist aroused a tumultuous audience response.”
Monica Mendoza and Scott McClelland, Performing Arts Monterey Bay