San Diego musical organizations share many things, including great artists, as evidenced Sunday, Jan. 18 at Copley Symphony Hall when San Diego Symphony brought its mini Beethoven festival to a close. Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, longtime favorite of Mainly Mozart artistic director David Atherton, played Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto for Orchestra and Piano in C Major, No. 1, Op. 15, under the baton of Symphony music director Jahja Ling. For McDermott, who keeps getting mellower like a fine wine, the concert also concluded a series of four, one at Qualcomm Hall. The relationship of symphony players and conductor to pianist was so complete that at times the orchestra seemed to emanate from the piano and vice versa. McDermott played Beethoven’s humongous first movement cadenza brilliantly, then brought an ethereal quality to the Largo and great joyousness to the Rondo, Allegro scherzando. Whoever rearranged the printed program did so with a stroke of genius. Symphony No. 4 in B-flat Major would have been anti-climatic had it followed the concerto. As it was, the program concluded with the “Leonore” Overture No. 3: many left rudely prior to its playing. God forbid the concert should last longer than the two hours stated in the program. Unfortunately the afternoon was also marred by strong perfume, annoying electronic devices, whistling hearing aids, a not-removed baseball cap and a close neighbor who snored loudly throughout the Largo; but as Atherton once said, that’s what Largos are for. Is it rude to poke the perpetrator in the ribs when he’s not your husband? The orchestra took up residence in the pit at San Diego Opera for five Civic Theatre performances of “Tosca,” then returns to Copley Symphony Hall Feb. 27 to March 1 for Jacobs’ Masterwork series performances of Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 with Yefim Bronfman. Also programmed is Mendelssohn’s “The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave) and Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings in E Major. For tickets and info, call (619) 235-0804 or visit www.sandiegosymphny.com. David Shifrin, clarinet, and Pei-Yao Wang, piano, kicked off Mainly Mozart’s 2009 Spotlight Series Jan. 16-17 at the Neurosciences Institute. Audiences were reminded of Shifrin’s genius, his gift of gab, his impeccable phrasing and the incredible sweetness of his tone. Also a Lincoln Center artist, Pei-Yao Wang was an able collaborator in all styles represented by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Brahms, Claude Debussy, Gioacchino Rossini and especially in the work by Francis Poulenc, whose Sonata for Clarinet and Piano was smooth and languid with fine threads of tone and characteristic, fun intervals for which the composer is known. It was a marvelous evening of music. Feb. 13 and 14, the Mainly Mozart Spotlight Series features James Ehnes, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola; and Julie Albers, cello in performance of Franz Schubert, Ernst Von Dohnanyi and Mozart. For tickets and information, visit www.mainlymozart.org or call (619) 239-0100.