SummerFest’s impressive anniversary array of new and newly commissioned works kicked off Sunday, Aug. 6 at MCASD Mandeville Auditorium with the world premiere of Leon Kirchner’s String Quartet No. 4.
Looking hale and hearty, the composer, born Jan. 24, 1917 in Brooklyn, was present for the occasion.
Though the work is jointly commissioned by La Jolla Music Society (LJMS) for SummerFest, Orion String Quartet, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Santa Fe Chamber Music Society and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the premiere took place right here in La Jolla.
In residence at SummerFest, the Orion String Quartet ” violinist brothers Daniel Phillips and Todd Phillips, violist Steven Tenenbom, and cellist Timothy Eddy ” performed the exceptionally lovely work.
Written in one movement that lasts around 15 minutes, the String Quartet No. 4 is filled with searching, some kind of beauteous new romanticism; something that, when recorded, would cry to be added to one’s collection. In its quieter moments it is rife with urgency, rich textures and melodic beauty.
Monday night’s “Modern Composers at SummerFest: Mavericks and Movement Across the Pacific” would not have been possible at Sherwood Auditorium. The music required many instruments not of the usual kind.
Fortunately, it was performed at the Birch North Park Theatre. When the big black Yamaha (Bright Sheng’s “Three Fantasies for Violin and Piano,” a joint commission of La Jolla Music Society and the Library of Congress) and the American gamelan (Lou Harrison’s 1973 “Suite for Violin and American Gamelan”) were no longer needed, they were simply positioned on the orchestra lift and lowered into the pit. Otherwise, we could have been there all night.
As explained by master percussionists David Cossin and Steven Schick prior to the program, the gamelan originated in Bali. This particular gamelan ” atop and hanging inside brilliant red frames ” consists of metal tubes of differing lengths and pitches, piccolo size to humungous, attuned to one another and played by six percussionists, who vary mallets according to needed effect.
While elegant violinist Chee-Yun, ravishingly garbed in red, played the most ethereal melodies, the gamelan accompanied and, in one of the seven movements, soloed. San Diego Symphony artistic director Jahja Ling conducted the exquisite piece, which ranges from music-box qualities to a sonorous, processional conclusion.
Cossin and Schick played Steve Reich’s fascinating 1994 “Nagoya Marimbas.” Reich called it “a roadster piece. You take it out to see how it corners, and by the time you get used to it, it’s over.”
The program concluded with Tan Dun’s touching 1991 “Elegy: Snow in June,” which commemorates those who died at Tiananmen Square. UCSD professor Allyson Green set the piece on 12 dancers. Liam Clancy was the dance narrator. Not one unamplified word was missed. His text explicated the piece, setting it in both ancient and modern China. The work is scored for percussion and solo cello, poignantly played by Felix Fan.
More new music was heard Tuesday, Aug. 8 at Sherwood Auditorium in a program titled “Scandinavian Romance” that featured the West Coast premiere of Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg’s (b. 1958) untitled new work for cello and piano, co-commissioned by LJMS for SummerFest and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, where it had its world premiere July 30.
Along with ¦de Tartuffe, je crois” for string quartet and piano, and Etude, a solo piano work played by Lindberg, the Lindberg works performed on Tuesday spanned 20 years. Judging from these three works, one enjoys where Lindberg seems to be going, and anticipates hearing his larger works.
According to the impressive cellist Anssi Karttunen, Lindberg’s longtime colleague and interpreter, he and the composer were still tinkering with the appealing new piece in Santa Fe, prior to its premiere.
One especially admires the cello’s emergence from the dense world of the piano. Featured are a series of eerie double stops played on the nether side of the bridge, followed by a pleasant trip into tonality and rhythmic purity, and a quiet, poignant conclusion.
Critics have called Lindberg the young Jean Sibelius, a point underscored by the Orion String Quartet’s glorious playing of Sibelius’ String Quartet No. 2 in D Minor, Opus 56 (“Voces Intimae”) to conclude the program.
SummerFest continues through Aug. 20. For information, schedules and tickets, visit www.lajollamusicsociety.org or call (858) 459-3728.