Among more than 50 international artists who make music at La Jolla Music Society’s 20th anniversary SummerFest (Aug. 3-20), Jonathan Biss stands alone. He’s “played” in La Jolla before, but not in the usual sense.
When his mom and dad, violinist Miriam Fried and violist/violinist Paul Biss, performed at the inaugural SummerFest in 1986, young Biss was in the audience. His “playing” was done in the sand at the beach.
This year Biss, an internationally acclaimed pianist, plays for real at SummerFest.
“Before I was a pianist,” he said, “I was a ‘roadie.’ It was quite an exciting job for a 5-year-old. In the summer of 1986 I went to Austria, Israel, Boston and finally to La Jolla. It would be disingenuous for me to claim I could remember the concerts. What I do remember is the ocean. In Indiana, where I grew up, we had world-class musicians, but no oceans! There is a certain beautiful circle-completion about coming back to La Jolla ” 20 years on ” to play with family.”
Fried said that to return to SummerFest 20 years later is “kind of funny-nice. The first time I had to find a baby sitter, and now Jonathan is playing with me. Actually, Alisa Weilerstein was there at the same time with her parents [pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein and violinist Donald Weilerstein]. She was too young and they wouldn’t let her into the concert.”
Both Biss and Weilerstein, a cellist, play the opening concert of SummerFest 2006 at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 3 at Copley Symphony Hall. They perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in C Major with violinist Chee-Yun and members of the San Diego Symphony. Longtime SummerFest participant, conductor and pianist Jeffrey Kahane conducts Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat Major from the keyboard. Also programmed is a work commissioned by the Musical Arts Society of La Jolla in 1950, Bohuslav Martinu’s “La Jolla Sinfonietta.”
At 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 4, Biss, Weilerstein and Fried participate in all-Mozart program, “Encore! August 2, 1986” at Sherwood Auditorium. The three perform the Piano Trio in C Major and then Fried and Biss, frequent collaborators, play the Violin Sonata in G major. Other programmed works are the Clarinet Quintet in A Major and the String Quintet No. 6 in E-flat Major. Additional artists are clarinetist Lorin Levee, violinist Cho-Liang Lin, violist Cynthia Phelps, cellist Ben Hong, and the Orion String Quartet.
Now principal violist with the New York Philharmonic, Phelps made her SummerFest debut in 1989. Soon after music school graduation, she auditioned for SummerFest’s first artistic director, Heiichiro Ohyama, then principal viola in the Los Angeles Philharmonic, hoping to substitute in his section. He coached her for an audition with San Diego Symphony, she became principal and he invited her to SummerFest.
“SummerFest was one of my first summer professional engagements, so it will always hold a very special place in my heart,” Phelps said. “When [Heiichiro] invited me to come, it was a really big deal, a continued ascension in my career, which was just beginning to bloom a little bit.”
Piano music for two? Don’t miss the program Aug. 11, when Joseph Kalichstein and Andre-Michel Schub play selections from Johannes Brahms’ “Hungarian Dances” and Bartok’s Sonata for two pianos and percussion. Soprano Dina Kuznetsova sings selections from Antonin Dvorak’s Gypsy Songs, and violinist Akiko Suwanai, cellist Gary Hoffman and Schub play Brahms’ Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor, Opus 101.
Hoffman made his SummerFest debut in 1987. Reached at his home in Paris, he said, “La Jolla is a special place, and from the musical standpoint, SummerFest has always maintained the highest standards. To come and play and know that it’s going to be on a high level is of utmost importance.”
For a complete roster of artists, premieres, visiting composers, resident ensembles, and a schedule of concerts, free open rehearsals, free coaching workshops, free encounters and venues, visit www.lajollamusicsociety.org or call (858) 459-3728.