Sunday’s segment of the Mainly Mozart Festival took place at the Sanctuary of the Arts, across the street from Coral Gables City Hall. It was our first time in the hall, a high-ceilinged, quietly elegant white space that once served, or perhaps still does, as a Christian Science worship hall.
The program, titled “Boyd Meets Girl,” featured the cellist Laura Metcalf and her husband, the guitarist Rupert Boyd, who quickly informed us that there is very little music written for guitar and cello. But, undaunted, they had found pieces and arrangements that worked: two by Brazilian composers, one by a Norwegian, four by Bach, Ravel’s Pavane, two by Lennon & McCartney, and a reworking of Shenandoah by Caroline Shaw that was beautifully haunting, including the part for guitar. It made for a lovely hour or so of listening. The only negative was the fact that the audience, which didn’t fill the hall, was made up almost entirely of seniors. With tickets starting at $35, the concert was not out of the range of people closer in age to the musicians.
