| CHAMBER MUSIC REVIEW The Greening of Sonoma July 20-21, 2002
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By Janos Gereben
ROHNERT PARK — What was Brahms thinking? The year was 1865 and he had this bizarre idea of the Horn Trio in E flat, an intricate, major piece requiring perfect balance from the horn with violin and piano. And, worse, Brahms wrote the piece a century before Richard Todd arrived on the scene. So where did he find a hornist willing and, especially, able to play ensemble with those quiet instruments?
It happened at Sonoma State University, Saturday night. Here, in the packed Evert B. Person Theater, three-year-old Green Music Festival produced its first chamber-music concert, a surprising, heartening musical event right off the starting gate, Santa Rosa seniors sitting shoulder to shoulder with very young, suspiciously well-behaved children. (Startled by this most unusual situation, I conducted a quick survey and found the quiet, attentive youngsters were, in fact, music students, there by choice.)
What filled the 475-seat auditorium with such audience? The New England Conservatory of Music's Borromeo String Quartet, performing Schubert's Quartettsatz in C minor, then — with festival music director and pianist extraordinaire Jeffrey Kahane — Shostakovich's Piano Quintet (1940), and finally, the Brahms, with Todd, Kahane and violinist Margaret Batjer.
It was an equal partnership of the three musicians from the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra: Kahane (its music director), with his bright, well-projected tone; Batjer (its concertmaster), providing a dark, straightforward, powerful sound; and Todd... splendid, and that's a fact. It does not "credibly" register when you watch and listen to Todd produce a flawless sound, a legato no brass instrument has business to provide, many colors, imitation of the oboe, organ, string instruments, the human voice. Far more important, the blending of the horn with the other two, far less outspoken instruments in such a way that there is true ensemble, that Brahms' music prevails over what otherwise might become a big virtuosity show. The Borromeo Quartet — first violinist Nicholas Kitchen (American); second violinist William Fedkenheure (Canadian), violist Mai Motobuchi (Japanese) and cellist Yeesun Kim (Korean), using the name of a Northern Italian region, of course — is a coup for Kahane and the young festival to get.
 The foursome plowed through the 10-minute Schubert miniature with infectious energy. They put their all into the capricious, moody, somewhat disjointed Shostakovich, a half-hour journey of surprises and discovery. Kahane, the pianist, performed very much as Kahane, the conductor, usually does, although sitting behind the string players. His brilliant piano part came through the quartet, guiding it, and at the same time the clean, sparkling notes appeared above the strings, giving them a kind of leading edge. For a few notes, there was "too much piano," but for the rest of the tough piece, nothing but balance and excellence. Although the audience behaved with propriety all evening long — meeting the challenge of an unusual concert presented without program notes — they burst into applause after the great good humor, the enormous energy of the Scherzo, and right they were. The roar that greeted the Brahms was, if anything, too restrained. Yes, to the "Lisbon Traviata," you may well add the "Rohnert Park Brahms Horn Trio." And then, to prove the concert was not a fluke, a different but equally grand presentation Sunday afternoon — sold out, that audience also peppered with those non-seniors. There was Brahms again, the Sextet in G Major, with a curious setup, placing star soloists Geraldine Walther and Alisa Weilerstein as second violist and cellist, respectively, with the Borromeo Quartet. San Francisco audiences are accustomed to Walther's self-effacing ways, always in service of the music, but listening to Weilerstein's equally dedicated performance was something of a surprise. The young cellist had gotten a bit carried away during her recent appearance in Davies Hall and elsewhere, but in the "Rohnert Park Brahms II," she contributed only a gorgeous tone and ensemble performance.
Weilerstein was even more impressive in the Ravel Trio in A minor, but wandering at times into passages whose intensity and volume spoke of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky more than of Ravel. She played with virtuosity and verve in an occasionally overheated performance, with Batjer and Kahane. The trio played as one, bringing out wonderful colors and delicate sonorities, but allowing briefly and overstatement, intensity and volume speaking of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky more than of Ravel. Kahane's approach to that remarkable white-key introduction to the Passacaille was both beautiful and nearly inaudible. Making up for the previous day's neglect in informing the audience — no program notes or even movements listed — Kitchen introduced the quartet's works, and turned out to be an informative, entertaining speaker. The Borromeo opened the Sunday concert with a straightforward, engrossing performance of the Haydn Quartet Op. 76, No. 2, the "Fifths." Kitchen, especially, is a joy to watch and hear; he is the heart and soul of this quartet of fine, still-youngish musicians.
(Janos Gereben, a regular contributor to www.sfcv.org, is arts editor of the Post Newspaper Group. His e-mail address is janos451@earthlink.net.) ©2002 Janos Gereben, all rights reserved |
