SummerFest affords magnificent opportunities to titillate one’s music listening and mental muscles, matching varied repertoire to a cadre of outstanding musicians that never fail to thrill and awe.
Although it portended the end of the festival, the week of Aug. 14 through 19 was such a time. Here’s a recap plus a preview of the final week’s concerts Thursday, Friday and Sunday.
Aug. 14, Beethoven II: Immortal Beloved
Composer Russell Steinberg ” using piano, recorded examples and a keen wit ” delivered a lecture on the middle period of Beethoven’s life, focusing on the chamber works to be performed, Sonata No. 3 in A Major for Cello and Piano, Opus 69 and Trio No. 6 in B-flat Major for Piano and Strings, Opus 97 (“Archduke”). In great voice and ebullient spirits, soprano Heidi Grant Murphy performed selections from the Scottish Songs for Voice and Piano Trio, Opus 108.
Pianist Andre Michel-Schub and cellist Gary Hoffman performed the Sonata, and Schub, violinist Joel Smirnoff and Ralph Kirshbaum delivered a thrilling performance of the Trio, which engendered an ovation.
Though from an earlier period in the composer’s life, the songs are truly delightful, humorous, melodic and refreshingly spirited. One cannot conceive a better performance. Set to a poem by Henry Carey, “Sally in Our Alley” was great fun. Accompanying Murphy were pianist Kevin Murphy (her husband), violinist Joan Kwuon and cellist Kirshbaum.
Aug. 15, An Evening with Sarah Chang
Radiant young violinist Sarah Chang captained this evening, perhaps the most captivating and certainly the most exciting of all the SummerFest programs so far. She and violist Paul Neubauer opened the program with a dazzling virtuoso display, Johann Halvorsen’s Passacaglia (Duo for Violin and Viola, after Handel).
The two-year-old Escher String Quartet “” Adam Barnett-Hart and Wu Jie, violin; Pierre Lapointe, viola; and Andrew Janss, cello “” continued to heat Sherwood Auditorium with a powerful, nuanced reading of Franz Schubert’s Quartet No. 14 in D Minor for Strings, D. 810 (“Death and the Maiden”).
The glory of the evening was Chang’s performance of Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons,” played in order, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Standing, prancing and making vital eye contact with colleagues of the moment, she led a magnificent ensemble of 12, including concertmaster Margaret Batjer of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, violist Scott Lee, cellist Felix Fan and harpsichordist Patricia Mabee. Chang is a gracious and assured artist and never imperious. The hall was bursting at the seams and horsehair flew.
Aug. 17, Premieres and Reprises at Birch Theatre
Contemporary music enthusiasts enjoyed personal appearances of composers Joan Tower and Marc Neikrug, whose works were premiered. Both have delicious senses of humor.
Reprised, Tower’s “Big Sky” displays an immense, expansive nature as played by pianist Andrew Russo, violinist Kwuon and cellist Fan. We also heard the world premiere of Tower’s accessible Trio La Jolla, performed by Schub, violinist Cho-Liang Lin and cellist Gary Hoffman. Neikrug’s works included the California premiere of his 2007 “Ritual,” scored for cello (Fan), percussion (David Cossin) and pianist Russo, aka Real Quiet. The smashing work has fascinating effects and chord progressions, creating a lovely dissonance. Rhythm is of the essence. Neikrug’s “Three Wine Pieces for Violin and Piano” was performed by Lin with the composer at the piano. This complex wine affords Lin a magnificent opportunity to showcase his beautiful stratospheric tone.
Aug. 18’s “Shakespeare through Song” highlighted just that and introduced a marvelous mezzo soprano in Kate Lindsey. A graduate of Indiana University, she is in her third season as a Lindemann Young Artist at the Metropolitan Opera. Expect great things from her.
Aug. 19’s “Rule, Britannia” was rife with beauty as well as wry, if inaudible, humor. William Walton’s Sonata in A Minor for Violin and Piano (Lin and Schub) impressed with its incredible sweetness and infinite variety. An incomparable group “” pianist Shai Wosner, violinists David Chan and Yoon Kwon, violist Neubauer and cellist Hoffman “” performed Edward Elgar’s glorious Piano Quintet in A Minor, a case of Death by Beauty. Sylvia McNair recited Dame Edith Sitwell’s “Façade” scored for chamber ensemble performing music by Walton.
Because of the instruments, the words were largely inaudible; no matter, they’re mainly nonsense, though amusing nonsense.
Next week
If not clutched in your hands already, you likely have a snowball’s chance in hell of scoring tickets for the 3 p.m. Aug. 26 performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos at Sherwood Auditorium. But the muse may be with you in obtaining ducats for Dancing at SummerFest at 7:30 Friday, Aug. 24 at Birch North Park Theatre. The program features dance by BodyVox and music by Louis Gruenberg, Charles Ives, Schubert and Bela Bartok mainly performed by the American String Quartet, Peter Winograd, Laurie Carney, Daniel Avshalomov and Wolfram Koessel.
For information and tickets, visit www.ljms.org or call (858) 459-3728.
