With the first two notes out of her made-for-singing mouth Aug. 11, soprano Dina Kuznetsova absolutely wowed SummerFest listeners. The first was mellow midrange springboard, and the second, a melting, high pianissimo.
In the original Czech, the Russian-American Kuznetsova sang seven of Antonin Dvorak’s “Ciganske Melodie (Gypsy Songs),” spanning 15 to 20 minutes.
As the voice grew warmer she continued to effect magic, and one wished for a full recital, by the end of which, no doubt, listeners would have been even more rapt than they were.
The rest of the “Gypsy Songs and Dances” program comprised music by Johannes Brahms and Bela Bartok.
Four hands, pianists Joseph Kalichstein and Andre-Michel Schub played some of Brahms’ Hungarian Dances, and then, joined by Steven Schick on timpani and Don Nichols on percussion, they performed Bartok’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. It was enjoyable and collegial in the extreme.
To cap the concert, violinist Ani Kavafian and cellist Gary Hoffman joined Schub in performance of Brahms’ lusciously fevered and fervent Piano Trio No. 3 in C Minor.
The chemistry was palpable. Quite obviously, they loved playing the music as much as we savored hearing it.
Sunday’s program (Aug. 13) brought together SummerFest’s former and present artistic leaders “” current music director/violinist Cho-Liang Lin; founding music director/violist Heiichiro Ohyama; former co-artistic director/cellist David Finckel; and former co-artistic director/pianist Wu Han “” in performances of the Andante movement of Brahms’ Piano Quartet in C Minor, Opus 60, surely one of chamber music’s most beautiful works.
To see these four great artists together playing so rhapsodically and embracing so warmly afterward was inspiration indeed. Listeners hoped the movement would never end, but when it did, they accorded the players a standing ovation that in one moment gave thanks for the past and looked to the future.
The program, which began with Shostakovich’s Three Violin Duets (Lin, violinist Bei Zhu, pianist Weiyin Chen) and Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor, Opus 67 (Kavafian, Hoffman, Parker), ended in a surfeit of melody with Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A Minor, Opus 50, played by Lin, Hoffman and Parker.
Readers may recall that when a microphone failed at the Aug. 3 inaugural concert of SummerFest 2006, Lin said, “A technical glitch is far better than a wardrobe malfunction.”
Between the Pezzo elegiaco and the Tema con variazioni movements (there are only two movements) an unforgettable SummerFest moment occurred. A loud noise similar to Velcro separation was heard as the musicians wiped their brows.
It was the pocket-level side seam of Hoffman’s trousers. He blushed, covered the seam with his white jacket, the audience tittered, the musicians giggled, and then Parker produced a red handkerchief and held it to Hoffman’s face to see which was the redder, causing more gales of laughter.
Light-hearted, yes, but all recovered in time to play the theme and variations, which end sadly, in a funereal dirge, the piano marching alone into the distance, reflecting in most satisfying way the end of Shostakovich’s elegiac Adagio earlier in the afternoon.
Such programming is brilliant and indeed deserves a standing ovation.
SummerFest concert schedule concludes as follows:
“¢ 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Birch North Park Theatre: jazz with Wayne Shorter
“¢ 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 18, MCASD Sherwood Auditorium: “An American in Paris” (music by Poulenc, Ravel, a Shorter world premiere, Faure), pianists Shai Wosner and Helen Huang; violinist Kyoko Takezawa; violist Paul Neubauer; cellists Felix Fan and Carter Brey; and the Imani Winds
“¢ 1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19, Sherwood: family activities followed by 2 p.m. Family Concert featuring world premiere of Bruce Adolphe’s “Zephronia” with Imani Winds
“¢ 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19, Sherwood: “Shakespeare at SummerFest” (music by Vivaldi, Bach, Monteverde) and the International Sejon Soloists
“¢ 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 20, Sherwood: “SummerFest 20th Anniversary Finale” (music of Elgar, Mozart and Tchaikovsky), violinist Lin; violist Neubauer; cellist Brey; International Sejong Soloists For information and tickets, visit www.lajollamusicsociety.org or call (858) 459-3728.