LA JOLLA, Calfornia– The star of the first half of this year’s pared-down Summerfest of the La Jolla Music Society was indisputably, the Israeli-born director, pianist Inon Barnatan. He was featured in all the selections on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. His playing was consistently well-calibrated and balanced with his string collaborators and musically distinctive in its beautiful phrasing and dynamic shadings. His string colleagues were no less distinguished.
The first evening, this one without piano, opened with Charles Ives’ Unanswered Question and involved, remotely, many of the performers originally scheduled for this year’s festival. It actually proved very effective, as the five string players on the stage of the Baker Baum Concert Hall of the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center joined the screen of virtual string players in the sustained chords of the work. The lone trumpet, posing the question in a totally different tonality, was perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It lent a timeless quality to the musical query. A woodwind quartet, two flutes, oboe and clarinet, in an increased cacophone of sound, attempted several responses. But the question persisted, unresolved. This seemed a fitting analogy to our time, with the unanswered question, when will it be safe to congregate again for such concerts?
The second selection was Schubert’s String Quintet in C major. It was thrilling to hear two such fine cellists, side by side, Clive Greensmith and Alisa Weilerstein, along with the two excellent violinists, James Ehnes and Tessa Lark and violist, Yura Lee, tossing Schubert’s beguiling melodies back and forth and performing with the passion and precision of ensembles that have been playing together for years.
Saturday evening featured two transcriptions. The first, a piano trio reduction of Beethoven’s Second Symphony, arranged by the composer himself two years after he wrote the Symphony. It turned out to be very convincing in the capable hands of Barnatan, Tessa Lark, violin, and Clive Greensmith, cello, joining him. Beethoven’s startling dynamic changes were expertly executed. The last movement was filled with wild excitement.
The second work was Barnatan’s arrangement of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances. The composer himself had made an arrangement for two pianos, but Barnatan managed to successfully condense the material for one piano. The performance was convincing and brought forth the Russian qualities of this, the composer’s last major composition.
On Sunday’s concert, Alisa Weilerstein joined Barnatan for an impassioned rendition of Beethoven’s Cello Sonata in A major, the first cello sonata in which that instrument’s line is equal to that of the piano. In fact, it is the cello that opens the work. The concluding work was Mendelssohn’s Trio in D minor, one of the most beloved works in the repertoire.
Barnatan and cellist Weilerstein were joined by violinist James Ehnes. The threesome gave the work a virtuosic reading, with break-neck tempi and deep-felt fervor.
As Barnatan stated in the opening Encounter with La Music Director, Leah Rosenthal, he chose music that was comforting and familiar, although works like Suk’s Piano Quartet, scheduled for this Friday, has never been played in San Diego. The originally planned Summerfest program has been postponed in its entirety to 2021, and the musicians who are committed to those dates have been advanced a fourth of their salaries.
The attendance for the first three concerts of this reimagined Summerfest hovered around 320, not a capacity audience, were it to have been a live concert at the 513-seat Baker Baum Concert Hall of the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center. With tickets nominally priced at $15, it behooves chamber music lovers to support this scaled-down effort and enjoy the artistry of the seven wonderful musicians making up this summer’s Summerfest. The final three concerts are scheduled for Wednesday evening, Friday evening and Saturday evening. The Box Office can be reached at: 858-459-3728.
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Eileen Wingard, a retired violinist with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. She may be contacted via eileen.wingard@sdjewishworld.com