As many readers know, La Jolla Music Society’s (LJMS) annual SummerFest celebrates its 20th anniversary this season.
Enlisting the services of San Diego Symphony and conductor-pianist Jeffrey Kahane, who made his SummerFest debut during the first season in 1986, artistic director Cho-Liang (“Jimmy”) Lin planned a grand program to open the festival on Aug. 3 at Copley Symphony Hall.
LJMS President and artistic director Christopher Beach and Lin came out to welcome the audience. Beach’s cordless mic-rophone refused to cooperate, so a lo-tech model with a cord was brought from the wings in time for Lin’s remarks, which he prefaced by saying, “A technical glitch is far better than a wardrobe malfunction.”
The music came off without a hitch. Conducting from the piano, Kahane played Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat Major, K. 482, filled with clarity and brilliance and prestidigitation as he gave upbeats with his left hand, simultaneously playing rippling roulades with the right. And he made it all sound so easy.
With Nick Grant performing duties as concertmaster, Keith Popejoy as principal horn and Calvin S. Price as principal trumpet, San Diego Symphony never sounded better, as Kahane elicited great subtlety from them.
Flautist Demarre McGill also deserves kudos. The woodwinds outdid themselves throughout the superlative and satisfying evening.
Bohuslav Martinu’s three-movement “Sinfonietta La Jolla,” commissioned in 1950 by LJMS’ forerunner, the Musical Arts Society of La Jolla, proved thoroughly delightful. It is by turns impressionistic, introspective, lusciously melodic and playful.
The extremely difficult and prominent piano part was played by Jonathan Biss, who first came to La Jolla with his parents, violinists Paul Biss and Miriam Fried, who were artists in the initial SummerFest. Jonathan was 5. Twenty years later, he is an authoritative artist in his own right, poised on the brink of a major international career.
Biss and the other two soloists in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in C Major, Opus 56 ” violinist Chee-Yun and cellist Alisa Weilerstein ” exemplify what Lin calls the “looking forward and looking back” qualities of SummerFest 2006. They, of course, are the “looking forward” part, and what delicious prospects for the future lie in their virtuosic hands.
Weilerstein, slightly younger than Biss, was also present at SummerFest 1986 with her participating parents, pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein and violinist Donald Weilerstein. Though she was too young to attend the concerts, she made her concert debut at age 4.
Korean-born, Juilliard-educated Chee-Yun is a decade older than her colleagues, though her fragile beauty makes her appear to be their age. The three youngsters were decked out gloriously, with the women in red and green and Biss in white jacket, black tie. They looked as great as they sounded, and that is saying a lot.
Musically, they are astonishing ” passionate and vibrant ” with Chee-Yun and Weilerstein as close and commingled as blood coursing through the vein of Beethoven’s magnificent music.
Biss makes one swoon over his pianism, seemingly effortless, silvery and profound.
Throughout the entire program, the audience was extremely attentive, seemingly rapt. Never have I heard such silence or such sound.Concerts continue through Aug. 20. There are many opportunities to attend, including free rehearsals and workshops in La Jolla.
For more information, visit www.lajollamusicsociety.org or call (858) 459-3728.