La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest continued its opening weekend, Aug. 3-4, with a second sold-out concert, this titled “Great Romantics.” The program, brilliantly plotted and performed, contained an anomaly, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Two Pieces for String Octet, Opus 11, which he wrote at age 18. What is Shostakovich doing on such a program?
The answer is simple: the residencies of the two-year-old Escher String Quartet, which performed Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Opus 13 at 6:30 p.m. as a prelude to the official program, and the more seasoned Shanghai String Quartet, which closed the evening with Robert Schumann’s Quintet in E-flat Major for Piano and Strings, Opus 44, were confluent.
So SummerFest music director Cho-Liang (Jimmy) Lin took advantage of the fact by programming Shostakovich’s 1924-’25 work, one of few in double quartet repertoire. It opened the evening. As expected, the piece, which consists of two contrasting and unrelated sections, is brilliantly iconoclastic, angular and rife with difficulty. If their performance of Mendelssohn were not evidence enough, the Shostakovich affirmed the Eschers’ (Adam Barnett-Hart and Wu Jie, violin; Pierre Lapointe, viola; and Andrew Janss, cello) place in the firmament of stellar quartets.
The recently named Quartet in Residence at the Caramoor Festival, they have been appointed, along with the Jupiter String Quartet, to the prestigious Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two program, which provides a two-year residency. Expect great things. Their Mendelssohn prelude showcased their extraordinary blend, Barnett-Hart’s sweetness of tone and an ability to make the difficult Allegro Moderato Scherzo seem easy.
Violinist Chee-Yun, cellist Alisa Wallerstein and pianist Cecile Licad were perfectly matched in their delivery of Mendelssohn’s dramatic, lyrical and melodic Trio No. 1 in D Minor for Violin, Cello and Piano, Opus 49. With their emotive faces, the women embody youthful exuberance and beauty, especially in the finale, Allegro assai appassionato.
Chee-Yun joined Barnett-Hart and Lapointe for a lovely reading of Antonin Dvorak’s utterly charming, thoroughly ravishing Terzetto in C Major for Two Violins and Viola, Opus 74.
The big guns ” The Shanghai (Weigang Li, Yi-Wen Jiang, violins; Honggang Li, viola; and Nicholas Tzavaras, cello) were joined by pianist Joseph Kalichstein in performance of the evening’s concluding work, Robert Schumann’s familiar Quintet in E-flat Major for Piano and Strings, Opus 44. The Quartet, which does not self-aggrandize in any way, is simply superb and masterful, juicy and thrilling yet unostentatious. As ever, Kalichstein was a supportive colleague indeed.
The coming week’s offerings are as follows:
“¢ “American Classics” featuring music by George Gershwin, Samuel Barber, and Aaron Copland performed by Shanghai String and Escher String Quartets, plus other guest artists, including soprano Sylvia McNair, who performs Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers/Stephen Sondheim and others, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 10, Birch North Park Theatre, 2891 University Ave., San Diego.
“¢ “A Schubertiad” all-Schubert program featuring Sonata in A Minor for cello and piano with Ralph Kirschbaum and Orion Weiss; and selected lieder for voice and piano, performed by soprano Heidi Grant Murphy and pianist Kevin Murphy; Auf dem Strom, performed by the Murphys and Richard Todd, horn; and Piano Quintet in A Major (“Die Forelle), performed by violinist David Chan, violist Cynthia Phelps, cellist Kirschbaum, bassist Hanulik and pianist Weiss, 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 12, Sherwood Auditorium, MCASD, 700 Prospect St., La Jolla.
For further SummerFest programming and tickets, concerts of Tuesday, Aug. 14 (all-Beethoven) and Wednesday, Aug. 15 (violinist Sarah Chang), plus information on free events, visit www.ljms.org or call (858) 459-3728.
