Correction appended
The chamber music feast known as SummerFest is over, an annual ending that always brings a certain rich sadness.
At the close of each SummerFest, patrons declare they’ve experienced the best possible artists and the best possible programming, but this season that feels especially true. Listeners heard stunningly talented youngsters “” a plentiful crop of them “” and on more than the usual number of evenings, favorite artists such as cellist Gary Hoffman, violist Paul Neubauer and pianist Andre-Michel Schub were on the stage.
This season introduced a well-attended series at the Birch North Park Theatre, where ” what shall we call it? “” more adventuresome and “fun” fare was offered. Other innovations included the Wednesday “Evening with”¦” series, this year with violinist/artistic director Cho-Liang (“Jimmy”) Lin, violinist Sarah Chang and esteemed cellist Lynn Harrell, who graciously shared his evening with the smashing young Americans known as the Escher String Quartet and demonstrated powerfully how important an instrument the cello is. The program was both “seasoned” and spicy.
Among favorite SummerFest experiences was the Aug. 19 performance ” by pianist Shai Wosner, violinists David Chan and Yoon Kwon, violist Neubauer and cellist Hoffman ” of Sir Edward Elgar’s ecstatic Piano Quintet in A Minor. Some may disdain the work as overwrought.Others might describe the experience as “death by beauty.” It’s certainly a far cry from the formality of “Pomp and Circumstance.”
I was also impressed with young pianist Orion Weiss, who played so deliciously in Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Ghost” Sonata Aug. 18, along with Chan and Hoffman. At the “Beethoven III ” Apotheosis” performance Aug. 21, Weiss and Wosner teamed up for the composer’s piano four-hands transcription of the “Grosse Fuge,” Opus 133, originally the concluding movement of String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Opus 130. Then Beethoven’s publisher talked him out of it. An authentic manuscript was recently discovered, covered with Beethoven’s changes, all written in the master’s hand. It was sold at auction and given to The Juilliard School, where the two young pianists have been studying it assiduously.
Friday (Aug. 24) at Birch North Park Theatre marked the last of fun Fridays until next year. “Dancing at SummerFest” featured the Portland, Ore.-based BodyVox, performing to both live and recorded music. Co-artistic directors Jamey Hampton and Ashley Roland have a delicious sense of humor that pervades the nine-member troupe’s work. Particularly droll was the Hampton-choreographed “Islands in the Sky,” set to the Meditation from Massenet’s “Thais.” The wildly imaginative video piece creates visual artistry of numerous construction lifts, each with a dancer in its cage.
At the other end of the emotional spectrum, Hampton set “S.O.S” on “Nearer My God to Thee” and Jean Sibelius’s “Valse Triste.” The work commemorates the sinking of the Titanic and its affecting imagery evokes bodies tossed in the sea. Violinist Joanna Frankel and pianist Weyin Chen provided live accompaniment. The most stunning work of the evening, choreographed by company member Eric Skinner, was a pas de trapeze set on Brian Eno’s “X-Axis,” performed by Skinner and Daniel Kirk, both clad in red.
Throughout the evening, the American String Quartet “” violinists Peter Winograd and Laurie Carney, violist Daniel Avshalomov and cellist Wolfram Koessel “” performed Louis Gruenberg’s “Four Diversions for String Quartet,” Charles Ives’ Scherzo (No. 2, “Holding Your Own”) from “A Set of Short Pieces for String Quartet,” Franz Schubert’s “Quartettsatz in C Minor,” and most thrillingly Bela Bartok’s Quartet No. 4 for Strings.
The Aug. 26 performance of J.S. Bach’s complete Brandenburg Concertos completed SummerFest in grand style, again mixing seasoned and emerging artists. Consummate artist Anthony Newman provided stalwart support on harpsichord. Especially fetching was David Washburn’s piccolo trumpet performance in Concerto No. 2 in F Major. Other soloists included lovely playing of flutists Catherine Ransom Karoly and Demarre McGill (San Diego Symphony) in Concerto No. 4 in G Major. One of the program’s highlights was Concerto No. 6, a work written for the lower strings, featuring Neubauer and Scott Lee, solo violas, accompanied by Jonathan Karoly, Felix Fan and Marie Stephanie Janecek, cello; Nico Abondolo, bass; and Newman on harpsichord.
Buoyed by the glorious construction and performance of Concerto No. 3 in G Major, patrons and musicians assembled for farewells, sweets and champagne in Axline Court, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego.
La Jolla Music Society begins its 2007-’08 season Oct. 27 with a performance by the legendary Marian McPartland Trio on the NEA Jazz Series at Birch North Park Theatre. For complete programming, visit www.lajollamusicsociety.org or call (858) 459-3728 for a brochure.