Mainly Mozart created a match made in heaven when it paired violinist Andres Cardenes and pianist Anton Nel a couple seasons ago.
Cardenes and Nel played three identical all-Mozart programs on the Spotlight Series Masters program at La Jolla’s Neurosciences Institute and The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe last weekend, Feb. 23 through 25.
Friday evening’s concert “” performance of five violin sonatas, K. 301, 305, 378, 454 and 481 ” was impeccable, an inspiring reminder that no matter how weary of his music one thinks one is, following the glut served up by numerous organizations during the Mozart Year (2006), there is no denying the composer’s endless supply of inventiveness, melody and embellished variations. His genius causes one to fall in love all over again, especially upon hearing a program so sublimely played.
Cardenes’ playing is so effortless, so sweet in tone, it seems as if the sound must be coming from elsewhere. Frequently one must scrutinize the bow engaging the strings for reassurance. Nel plays with similar ease, tossing off roulades with speed, brilliance and accuracy. He possesses great affinity for both the music and his collaborator. Especially in the Violin Sonata in E flat, K. 481, the pair played so graciously in the Molto allegro section and created an ensemble of unearthly beauty in the Adagio movement.
In addition, both are engaging human beings. After the interval, Nel apologized for confusing the audience by totally reshuffling the order of sonatas from that printed in the program. In closing, they played Fritz Kreisler’s arrangement of the Rondo from Mozart’s Serenade, K. 250, a piece that admittedly possesses all the “schmaltz” they had carefully omitted from the previous works.
The playing of this closing piece put one in mind of the style of Roby Lakatos, who was presented earlier in the year by La Jolla Music Society on their jazz series at the North Park Theatre. That evening was a glut of schmaltz. Perhaps Mainly Mozart will pair Cardenes and Nel again in some kind of mixed bag. That would be perfection.
This month, Mainly Mozart switches to Beethoven as interpreted by the great pianist John Lill, who will play four sonatas: “Moonlight,” “Waldstein,” “Appassionata,” and the no-nickname Sonata in F minor, Opus 54, at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 9 and 10, at The Neurosciences Institute; at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 11 at St. Elizabeth Seton, Carlsbad; and at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, March 11, at the Inn at Rancho Santa Fe. Visit www.mainlymozart.org or call (619) 239-0100 for information about concluding Spotlight Series concerts and this season’s Mainly Mozart Festival, which is scheduled at numerous venues, including the new Qualcomm Hall, June 6 through 24.